Rare Lennon interview who wrote what ? Lennon and McCartney

You have all seen the famous 1980 Playboy interview where John discussed who wrote what from Lennon and McCartney. What most of you have never seen is the following interview from the 1972 Hit Parader magazine. It would interesting to compare John's answers between 1980 and this 1972 interview.

 

Technical difficulties trying to transfer text now .....,.sorry

 

I have it...but it doesn't mention the song authors...perhaps this is not the entire interview.

JOHN LENNON




NEW YORK CITY, February, 1972

by Alan Smith

(HIT PARADER)


Hit Parader's Alan Smith caught up with John and Yoko for a chat during the promotion the new 'Imagine' LP. Topics include John and Yoko's recent film projects, the Beatles, as well as Paul's 'Ram' album. The exclusive interview was published in Hit Parader's February 1972 issue.


Q: "Isn't there room today for the Beatles as a living band? A contemporary band? You're surely now far more aware as people. Must it always now be for you that the Beatles made yesterday's music? Or is it that you're now too egocentric to be able to work together fully, even if you tried?"

JOHN: "We always were egocentric. But look, George is on half of my new album playing guitar. The only reason Ringo wasn't on it was because he was abroad, making his movie. So then the three of us would have been on, but then it wouldn't have been the Beatles. It would have been Plastic Ono because I would have the final say. There would be no decision making by George or Ringo, other than if I liked an idea I'd take it-- which is what happened with the Beatles-- but then it was more diplomatic."

"So yes, it's quite possible about the Beatles working as a unit, because I might play on George's or Ringo's if they wanted my style of playing. But imagine how we've flowered since then. George is suddenly the biggest seller of all of us. I think my music's improved a millionfold lyric-wise and everything. And Ringo's coming out and writing 'It Don't Come Easy' and now he's going to write the title song for this cowboy thing he's in, and he's playing a really tough guy and all that. It's really beautiful."

"The fact is, the Beatles have left school... and we have to get a job. That's made us work-- really work harder. I think we're much better than we ever were when we were together. Look at us today. I'd sooner have 'Ram,' John Lennon Plastic Ono Band, George's album, and Ringo's single and the movies than 'Let It Be' or 'Abbey Road.'"

YOKO: "If the four of them had gone on, then they would have suffocated each other."

Q: "Do you resent journalists talking about the past?"

JOHN: "No. I'm always doing it myself. It's only human. Something funny happened the other day-- I went into Apple and they said, 'Jesus, you look like a Beatle again!' And you know, just for a second I'd forgotten what a Beatle really was. It was because I'd just got back from New York and I hadn't been a Beatle at all. It's just been me and Yoko, and we've been doing all sorts of things."

Q: "Do either of you feel any pain of any kind, any problems, either physical or mental? Or are you totally cleansed of any hangups of the past?"

JOHN: "Oh no. I'm sure not. I just know myself better, that's all. I can handle myself better. That Janov thing-- the Primal Scream, and so on-- it does affect you because you recognize yourself in there. The difference between us and Janov, as Yoko puts it, is that the past we remember is the past we create now because of the necessity of the present. I wouldn't have missed it though. It was very good for me. I still 'prime' and it still works."

Q: "Tell me about your philosophy of life. Many of your comments have been construed as extreme left wing or communist."

JOHN: "They knock me for saying 'Power To The People' and say that no one section should have the power. Rubbish. The people aren't a section. The people means everyone."

"I think that everyone should own everything equally and that people should own part of the factories and they should have some say in who is the boss and who does what. Students should be able to select teachers."

"It may be like communism but I don't really know what real communism is. There is no real communism state in the world-- you must realize that Russia isn't. It's a facist state. The socialism I talk about is 'British socialism,' not where some daft Russian might do it or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we'd rather have a nice socialism here-- a British socialism."

Q: "Don't you both spend a great deal of your time filming yourselves, and having yourselves filmed?"

JOHN: "Why not? It's home movies. And the ultimate movie is a home movie. Luc Godard, or whatever his name is, is now making 8mm films. Home movies is where it's at. Poetry's done at home-- why shouldn't movies be the same way?"

"In our film 'Apotheosis' you see us for only two seconds. In 'Fly,' Yoko's film, she's not in it. In 'Rape' there was a Hungarian girl. In 'Erection,' the one I've just made about a hotel, it was done from still photographs over a year and a half. There's only a couple with us in-- so that whole thing is a lie."

YOKO: "If we were putting ourselves in films all the time-- so what. We do not pretend."

Q: "Yoko's art seems to me to exclude appreciation of the more established works of art, the Mona Lisa, and so on."

JOHN: "Not necessarily, but her art is the very opposite of making a saint out of the Mona Lisa or having it in a building where people could be living."

YOKO: "I'm not somebody who wants to burn the Mona Lisa-- that's the difference between some revolutionaries and me-- they think you have to burn the establishment. I'm just saying, make the Mona Lisa into something like a shirt. Change the value of it. It's like those four boys who got together to make the Beatles and without kidding anybody they changed the whole world. And that's beautiful. That's all I'm trying to do-- the only thing with the Beatles is that they changed it and then they stopped there-- they weren't going on being revolutionaries."

JOHN: "I never wanted the Beatles to be has-beens, I wanted to kill it while it was on top. Remember I said ten years ago, 'I'm not going to be singing She Loves You at thirty.' Although I expressed it that, by thirty, I guess I would have woken up a bit or changed my sights."

Q: "Are you now remotely interested in singles or chart success?"

JOHN: "Sure. I get all the musical papers and the daily papers. I get my world chart thing and Billboard, and the other one... Cashbox, and I mark off all the Apple records all 'round the world. The Beatles are blasting the world up. We've got records everywhere and two or three in every chart. I get a kick out of it because I'm getting through to all those people, and because I'm doing it on my own or with Yoko."

"And I like singles, and not LPs. I like the idea of saying everything in three minutes."

Q: "Did you listen to Paul McCartney's 'Ram' album?"

JOHN: "Of course I did. The first time I heard it I thought it was awful, and then the second time, ahem, I fixed the record player a bit and it sounded better. I enjoyed a couple like 'My Dog It's Got Three Legs' or something, and the intro to 'Uncle Albert.' I can't stand the second track from the... well I mean, it doesn't matter anyway. In general I think the other album he did was better in a way. At least there were some songs on it."

"I don't like all this dribblin' pop-opera-jazz. I like pop records that are pop records."

Q: "Is there a song on your album 'Imagine' that refers to Paul... lines about a pretty face and the sound of Muzak?"

JOHN: (smiling) "Er, there's a song which COULD be a statement about Paul. It could be interpreted that way. But then, it could be about an old chick I'd known."

Q: What do you think of your own album?"

JOHN: "It's the best thing I've ever done. This will show them. It's not a personal thing like the last album, but I've learned a lot and this is better in every way. It's lighter too-- I was feeling very happy. There's a guy called George Harrison on it and he does some mother of solos. George used to be with The Bubbles or somebody. Then there's a guy called Nicky Hopkins. Then there's Jim Gordon on drums, Alan White on drums, Jim Keltner on drums, and they're fantastic."

"Yoko's on whip, and that's very good. Whip and mirror, actually. Then we had John Barnham on a few things and King Curtis is on sax. The Flux Fiddlers are on violins."

"Eighty percent was recorded in Britain in seven days. I took them, re-mixed them, and took it to America like they used to do in the old days. It took me nine days to make this album, and ten to make the other before... so I'm getting faster."


Source: Original magazine issue

 

Thanks for sharing! It's always interesting to find period interviews. They give us a "this is how it was" perspective.

 

April 1972

​

t's common knowledge that Paul composed some songs alone and John composed some alone. The royalties might have be shared, but sometimes not the workload on a particular piece.

To find out how much was written by who -- and even who wrote what -- early in 1972 Hit Parader magazine sat John Lennon down and went over the whole list of Lennon-McCartney material, that rich vein that changed the face of rock music almost overnight, going back to the first days of the Merseyliverpool Sound, up through Beatlemania to Sgt. Pepper and the break up.

Paul McCartney saw the list and came up with one correction. He said that John didn't write the music to "In My Life," just the words. Paul contends he worked out the melody on a mellotron in John's house.

LOVE ME DO: Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was about 16, or even earlier. I think I had something to do with the middle.

PS I LOVE YOU: Paul. But I think we helped him a bit. It was meant to be a Shirelles kind of song.

PLEASE PLEASE ME: I wrote all of this one--I was trying to do a Roy Orbison.

FROM ME TO YOU: Paul and me--we wrote this together in a van.

THANK YOU GIRL: Paul and me. This was just a silly song we knocked off.

SHE LOVES YOU: Both of us. We wrote it together on tour.

MISERY: Both of us. This was mainly mine though, I think.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET? Me. I wrote this for George.

I CALL YOUR NAME: Me. I started it when I was 15 and finished the middle eight years later, around "Help" or "Hard Day's Night" time.

I'LL BE ON MY WAY: Paul. This was early Paul.

BAD TO ME: Me. I wrote it for Billy J. Kramer.

IT WON'T BE LONG: Me. I wrote this on the second album. It was the song with the so-called Aeolian cadences, the same as in the Mahler symphony, at the end. I don't know what the hell it was about.

ALL MY LOVING: Paul. This was one of his first biggies.

LITTLE CHILD: Both of us. This was a knock-off between Paul and me for Ringo.

HOLD ME TIGHT: Both of us, but mainly Paul.

I WANNA BE YOUR MAN: Both of us, but mainly Paul.

I'LL KEEP YOU SATISFIED: Paul. This was for Billy J. Kramer.

LOVE OF THE LOVED: Paul. One of his very early songs, but I think he changed the words later for Cilla.

I'M IN LOVE: Me. I wrote it for the Fourmost.

HELLO LITTLE GIRL: Me. This was another very early song of mine recorded by the Fourmost.

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE: John and Paul, but mainly Paul.

FROM A WINDOW: Paul...must be Paul's. I can't really remember it.

LIKE DREAMERS DO: A very early one of Paul's.

AND I LOVE HER: Both of us. The first half was Paul's and the middle eight is mine.

I'LL BE BACK: Me. A nice tune though the middle is a bit tatty.

WORLD WITHOUT LOVE: Paul. An early one he wrote when he was about 16 or 17. I think he changed the words later for the record by Peter and Garfunkel or something.

ONE AND ONE IS TWO: Paul. That was a terrible one.

I FEEL FINE: Me. This was the first time feedback was used on a record. It's right at the beginning.

SHE'S A WOMAN: Paul. Though I helped with the middle, I think.

NO REPLY: Me. I remember Dick James coming to me after we did this one and saying, "You're getting much better now -- that was a complete story." Apparently before that he thought my songs tended to sort of, wander off.

I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN: Paul. A nice one--one of his early compositions.

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK: Both of us. I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for Help! because there was at one time the thought of calling the film,Eight Arms To Hold You or something. I think that's the story, I'm not sure.

IT'S ONLY LOVE: Me. That's one song I really hate of mine. Terrible lyric.

YESTERDAY: Paul. Wow, that was a good 'un.

DAY TRIPPER: Me. But I think Paul helped with the verse.

WE CAN WORK IT OUT: Paul but the middle was mine.

NORWEIGAN WOOD: Me but Paul helped me on the lyric.

MICHELLE: Both of us. I wrote the middle with him.

WHAT GOES ON: Me. A very early song of mine. Ringo and Paul wrote a new middle eight together when we recorded it.

IN MY LIFE: Me. I think I was trying to write about "Penny Lane" when I wrote it. It was about places I remembered. A nice song. Jose Feleciano did a nice version of it.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE: Me. Another one I never liked.

PAPERBACK WRITER: Paul. I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics. Yes, I did. But it was mainly Paul's tune.

ELEANOR RIGBY: Both of us. I wrote a good lot of the lyrics, about 70 percent. Ray Charles did a great version of this. Fantastic.

HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE: Paul. This was a great one of his.

YELLOW SUBMARINE: Both of us. Paul wrote the catchy chorus. I helped with the blunderbuss bit.

SHE SAID, SHE SAID: I wrote it after meeting Peter Fonda who said he knew what it was like to be dead.

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE: Paul. But I think maybe I helped him with some of the lyric.

FOR NO ONE: Paul. Another of his I really liked.

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING: Me. Another horror.

DR. ROBERT: Me. I think Paul helped with the middle.

GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE: Paul. I think George and I helped with some of the lyric, I'm not sure.

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS: Me. This was my first psychedelic song.

PENNY LANE: Paul. I helped him with the lyric.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS: Paul. It was Paul's idea. I think I helped with some of the words. In fact, I did. Hunter Davies was there when we did it and mentioned it in the book. "What do you see when you turn out the light, I can't tell you but I know it's mine." That was mine.

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS: Me. And once again, folks, this was Julian's title. It was nothing to do with LSD. I think Paul helped with the last verse.

GETTING BETTER: Paul. I think I helped with some of the words in the middle.

SHE'S LEAVING HOME: Both of us. Paul had the basic theme. But all those lines like "We sacrificed most of our life...We gave her everything money could buy...Never a thought for ourselves"...Those were the things (Aunt) Mimi used to say. It was easy to write.

BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE: Me. I got some of the words off an old circus poster. I have it in the billiard room. The story that Henry the Horse meant heroin was rubbish.

WHEN I'M SIXTY FOUR: Paul. I think I helped Paul with some of the words, like "Vera, Chuck and Dave" and "Doing the garden, digging the weeds."

GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING: Me. A bit of a gobbledegook one, but nice words.

A DAY IN THE LIFE: Both of us. I wrote the bit up to "woke up fell out of bed" and I think Paul wrote "I'd love to turn you on." I got the idea from a news item in the British Daily Mail about 4000 holes in Blackburn.

BABY YOU'RE A RICH MAN: Both of us. In fact we just stuck two songs together for this one -- same as "A Day In The Life."

I AM THE WALRUS: Me -- I like that one. That was the time when I was putting Hare Krishna and all that down I hadn't taken it up then.

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR: Paul. I helped with some of the lyric.

HEY JUDE: Paul. That's his best song. It started off as a song about my son Julian because Paul was going to see him. Then he turned it into "Hey Jude." I always thought it was about me and Yoko but he said it was about him and his.

REVOLUTION: Me. I should never have put that in about Chairman Mao. I was just finishing off in the studio when I did that.

BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.: Paul. Maybe I helped a bit, but I don't think so.

HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: Me. That's another one I like. They all said it was about drugs but it was more about rock and roll than drugs. It's sort of a history of rock and roll. The title came from an American gun magazine. I don't know why people said it was about the needle in heroin. I've only seen somebody do something with a needle once and I don't like to see it at all.

ROCKY RACCOON: Paul. I might have helped with some of the words, I'm not sure.

WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD: Paul -- one of his best.

JULIA: Me. Yoko helped me with this one.

BIRTHDAY: Both of us. We wrote it in the studio.

EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT MY AND MY MONKEY: Me. Fats Domino did a great version of this one.

SEXIE SADIE: Me. That was about the Maharishi.

BECAUSE: Me. This is a terrible arrangement. A bit like Beethoven's Fifth backwards.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: Me. One of my best songs. Not one of the best recordings but I like the lyrics.

A list of songs, according to Lennon, written by himself, about which he had no comment:

There's A Place; This Boy; All I've Got To Do; Not A Second Time; You Can't Do That; A Hard Day's Night; I Should Have Known Better; If I Fell; I'm Happy Just To Dance With You; Tell Me Why; Any Time At All; I'll Cry Instead; When I Get Home; I'm A Loser; I Don't Want To Spoil The Party; Ticket To Ride; Yes It Is; Help!; You've Got To Hide Your Love Away; You're Going To Lose That Girl; Nowhere Man; Girl; Rain; I'm Only Sleeping; Strawberry Fields Forever; Dear Prudence; Glass Onion; Bungalow Bill; I'm So Tired; Yer Blues; Cry Baby Cry; Goodnight; The Ballad Of John and Yoko; Come Together; I Want You (She's So Heavy); Mean Mr. Mustard; Polythene Pam; One After 909; Hey Bulldog; Don't Let Me Down; You Know My Name (Look Up The Number); Sun King; Dig A Pony; Dig It.

Songs which Lennon attributed directly to Paul McCartney, again offered with no comment:

I Saw Her Standing There; Tip Of My Tongue; I'll Keep You Satisfied; Nobody I Know; Things We Said Today; Don't Want To See You Again; I'm Down; The Night Before; Another Girl; Tell Me What You See; I've Just Seen A Face; That Means A Lot; You Won't See Me; I'm Looking Through You; Woman; Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band; Fixing A Hole; Lovely Rita; Hello Goodbye; Your Mother Should Know; Fool On The Hill; Step Inside Love; Oo Bla Di; Martha My Dear; Blackbird; I Will; Mother Nature's Son; Helter Skelter; Honey Pie; Lady Madonna; All Together Now; Get Back; Let It Be; Maxwell's Silver Hammer; Oh Darling; You Never Give Me Your Money; She Came In Through The Bathroom Window; Golden Slumbers; Carry That Weight; The End; Her Majesty; Two Of Us; The Long and Winding Road.

Songs attributed jointly to McCartney and himself by Lennon and offered again with no comment.

I'll Get You; I Want To Hold Your Hand; Baby's In Black; Every Little Thing; What You're Doing; Drive My Car; The Word; I've Got A Feeling.

 

I have this interview, and have added the following information I gathered:

John's answer to Paul's claim of writing the music to In My Life:

“But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Now Paul helped write the middle-eight melody. The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it. In In My Life, his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself.”

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

*Paul also claims he wrote Eleanor Rigby alone (I think in Many Years From Now), while John claims to have written 70% of the lyrics in the Melody Maker Interview.

Quote from George about John complaining about being snubbed in his autobiography "I, Me, Mine", that mentions contributions made that are not credited.

"He [John] was annoyed 'cos I didn't say that he'd written one line of this song 'Taxman'. But I also didn't say how I wrote two lines of 'Come Together' or three lines of 'Eleanor Rigby', you know, I wasn't getting into any of that. I think, in the balance, I would have had more things to be niggled with him about than he would have had with me!"

 

This is the first time i see any info on what Ringo contributed to What Goes On.

 

I remember that interview when it first came out.

 

Regarding Eleonor Rigby Paul did not dispute John's claim of 70% of the lyrics here, I wonder why he changed his mind after John died in the Many Years From Now book?

 

I would have to go with Paul with regards to In My Life, seeing as John confirms most of what Paul said. John wrote the words as a long, rambling journey story that mentioned Penny Lane, and then edited them into the final lyrics at a later date. Paul visited John, saw the final lyrics whilst waiting for John (who I think was high?), and then took them over to the piano, and wrote music for them. How could John have written the main melody when he hadn't even played the song to Paul when Paul first saw the finished lyrics and wrote the 'harmonies and middle eight'?

Regarding Eleanor Rigby; John's childhood friend Pete Shotton was there when Paul showed it to the others, and confirmed that John did not contribute anywhere near 70% of the lyrics, if any at all. In fact it was Ringo and George who came up with a couple of lines each, not John, so John was wrong in this case.

I also think that Paul and George deserved a lot of credit for their contributions to Don't Let Me Down, and Paul deserved a mention for his wonderful mellotron intro on Strawberry Fields and his fantastic tape loops on Tomorrow Never Knows.

 

He probably didn't want to get into too much of a public argument over who wrote what. The fact that John's friend back's Paul's view speaks volumes IMO.

 

Also in "Many Years From Now" Paul seems to attribute Every Little Thing mainly to himself, which was the biggest surprise for me of all the described songs in the book. I always took it for granted that it was John's song as his voice is more prominent in the verse, which some claim is co-sung by the two (which I believe) and others take it as double-tracked John. In the chorus Paul sings lead though.

Here's the McCartney quote:
Every Little Thing, like most of the stuff I did, was my attempt at the next single. I remember playing it for Brian backstage somewhere. He had assembled a few people. It was one of those meetings - 'Oh, we have to do some recordings, who's got what?' and we played a few at Brian. We didn't often check things with Brian, in fact I just remember it in connection with this because I thought it was very catchy. I played it amongst a few songs; it was something I thought was quite good but it became an album filler rather than the great almighty single. It didn't have quite what was required.

 

Bottom line regardless of who wrote 95% of the song or 3 lines ....it was magic when they worked together!

 

I could not agree more. They each contributed a large amount to the other's songs, in a way that no-one else could.

Also, as Paul has said, it is pretty amazing that they only disagreed on 2 songs out of hundreds of co-writes.

 

Really interesting, thanks for posting.

 

That's the story I've always believed too. Most of us have probably seen the same photo of John with this poster on the wall behind him. We've also seen close-ups of the actual poster. Case closed, right? Well, before Paul played this song at Candlestick Park in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, he distinctly described how We wrote this one from an old circus poster. I had not previously heard that McCartney was involved.

 

Yes considering all the drugs

 

Paul was visiting John when they decided to create a song out of the poster. Paul did say that it was at John's instigation, but it does seem like a genuine co-write, but because John had the idea, he sang on it. I think that Paul did say that it was 60/40 to John.

 

Paul sings the song on tour recently

 

George was a big fan of the song, and I am sure that he commented on how it was one of Paul's best songs.

 

Wow!
I recall reading most of all this... fantastic.
Thanks, enjoyed it very much!

 

I have to disagree here. John is saying in the quote that he had the lyrics completely finished, and he had the verse melodies completed. Paul joined him to write the melody for the middle eight, and also came up with the harmony vocals. I lean to John's story on this one.

“But then I laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about the places I remember. Now Paul helped write the middle-eight melody. The whole lyrics were already written before Paul had even heard it. In In My Life, his contribution melodically was the harmony and the middle eight itself.”

This song was one of John's favorites, and not some throwaway, which further makes me trust his recollection of it. Also, the detail he provides.

I lean to Paul on Eleanor Rigby.

 

The thing is Paul is not psychic. Are we really meant to believe that Paul turned up at John's house, saw the lyrics, took them to a piano, wrote the music for the Middle-Eight and the harmony parts, all without ever actually hearing John's main melody first? Are we meant to believe that they magically slotted together afterwards?

John and Paul both confirm that Paul did what he often did on that day, by turning up at John's house to write, and starting on his own, because John was asleep. All he had to work with was a lyric sheet, without musical notations on it, just the final lyrics. From this we are meant to believe that he wrote the Middle-Eight and the harmony parts, without hearing John's melody until afterwards, because John was not even awake when Paul started working on the song.

This just does not add up IMO, and I am more likely to agree with Paul, who wasn't high at the time, than John, who has a proven track record of getting things completely wrong as shown by his Eleanor Rigby comments, which were contradicted by his friend, Pete.

 

Uh, Paul's comments about writing "Eleanor Rigby" alone are contradicted by John, George and Pete Shotton.

 

An imagined scenerios where both of their stories work:

-John writes the lyrics and verse melody.

-Paul shows up to work, sees the lyrics and starts writing some music while John is sleeping.

-John wakes up and comes in. Paul says, "Hey John, I wrote some music to these lyrics." John says, "Oh, no, no, no. I've already got a bit for that. Listen to it."

-Paul hears what John has written so far and adds the middle eight and works on the harmony.

Just because Paul remembers that he worked on the music while John was sleeping does not mean they USED what Paul wrote.