Lennon or McCartney? Can statistical analysis solve an authorship puzzle? An interesting article about using statistical analysis to determine authorship in cases where it isn’t clear. The methodology breaks down songwriting characteristics of the individuals and then applies those to co-authored songs to estimate who wrote them. I was surprised by the results. What songs would you like this tried on?
An interesting approach, but I think their baseline assumptions are wrong. There was considerable overlap between John & Paul's musical languages, and very often they were solidly influenced by each other, so I feel like the math is immediately muddy. "In My Life" is definitely a John song through-and-through, but so is "The Word," even though it might sound a bit more McCartneyesque according to the maths of it.
IIRC, 'In My Life' and 'Eleanor Rigby' were the only two Lennon & McCartney songs where the two guys later disagreed about authorship. Off the top of my head, Lennon claimed 100% authorship of 'In My Life' but McCartney said he helped quite a bit after Lennon showed him the lyrics. And, also off the top of my head, McCartney claimed 100% authorship for 'Eleanor Rigby' but Lennon said he helped some - a claim later disputed by others who were also in the room when some parts of that song were worked on (although in a David Frost interview from about 5 years ago I sort of recall McCartney describing himself and John going through the phonebook together to change 'Father McCartney' to 'Father McKenzie' so that contribution might have been what Lennon was remembering).
I did quite a bit of reasearch on this matter, and here is my opinion and support: The reason I trust John on this one, is that this song was very special to him, and not just for the lyrics. "There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n' roll. But of course, when I think of some of my own songs - In My Life, or some of the early stuff, This Boy - I was writing melody with the best of them." -David Sheff "All We Are Saying" (1980) John cites this song as the proof that he could "write melody with the best of them". And his recollection of writing it is VERY specific. "For In My Life, I had a complete set of lyrics after struggling with a journalistic vision of a trip from home to downtown on a bus naming every sight. It became In My Life, which is a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight musically. But all lyrics written, signed, sealed, and delivered. And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric. Inspired by Kenneth Alsopf [sic], the British journalist, and Bob Dylan." -David Sheff "All We Are Saying" (1980) "In My Life started out as a bus journey from my house on 250 [sic] Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning every place I could remember. And it was ridiculous. This is before even Penny Lane was written and I had Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, Tram Sheds - Tram Sheds are the depot just outside of Penny Lane - and it was the most boring sort of 'What I Did On My Holidays Bus Trip' song and it wasn't working at all. I cannot do this! I cannot do this! 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." -David Sheff "All We Are Saying" (1980) "I used to write upstairs where I had about ten Brunell tape recorders all linked up, I still have them. I'd mastered them over the period of a year or two - I could never make a rock 'n' roll record but I could make some far out stuff on it. I wrote it upstairs, that was one where I wrote the lyrics first and then sang it. That was usually the case with things like In My Life and [Across The] Universe and some of the ones that stand out a bit... I think on Norwegian Wood and In My Life Paul helped with the middle eight, to give credit where it's due." -Rolling Stone (1970) Paul is not very assured with his recollection: "I think my melody...I don't want to be categorical about this, but that's my recollection." "I arrived at John's house for a writing session and he had the very nice opening stanzas of the song. As many of our songs were, it was the first pangs of nostalgia for Liverpool... As I recall, he didn't have a tune to it, and my recollection, I think, is at variance with John's. I said, 'Well, you haven't got a tune, let me just go and work on it.' And I went down to the half-landing, where John had a Mellotron, and I sat there and put together a tune based in my mind on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles... I recall writing the whole melody. And it actually does sound very like me, if you analyse it. I was obviously working to lyrics. The melody's structure is very me. So my recollection is saying to John, 'Just go and have a cup of tea or something. Let me be with this for ten minutes on my own and I'll do it'... I tried to keep it melodic but a bit bluesy, with the minors and little harmonies, and then my recollection is going back up into the room and saying, 'Got it, great! Good tune, I think. What d'you think?' John said, 'Nice,' and we continued working with it from then, using that melody and filling out the rest of the verses... So it was John's original inspiration, I think my melody, I think my guitar riff. I don't want to be categorical about this, but that's my recollection... I find it very gratifying that out of everything we wrote, we only appear to disagree over two songs. Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Barry Miles One thing I noticed about the In My Life quotes. Look at this one closely: "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 suggests that Paul HEARD it, with lyrics complete when John introduced him to it. At least in John's mind, he introduced Paul to In My Life either by singing it or singing and playing it. Imagine this scenario: John has the lyrics completely written. He has the melody line written for the following: "There are places I remember, all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some are gone and some remain." (which sounds very Lennonesque to me) Either he has no melody after that, or one he doesn't like. THEN Paul's memory of it takes over. He tells John to give him 10 minutes with it at the Mellotron, and writes the melody for: "All these places had their moments. With lovers and friends, I still can recall. Some are dead and some are living. In my life I've loved them all." (which sounds very much like Paul to me) That would jive both stories very well. We will never know for sure, but I certainly think this is possible. That is a MAJOR contribution to the melody of the song by Paul. If Paul had done everything just as said, but John had played the tune for him, and Paul went down and knocked out the off-part (not actually a middle 8 - "All These places have their moments"), he may remember it as he did. Lennon cited this song as proof he could write melody, and the verse melody is beautiful to In My Life. John spoke as highly of this song as he did Walrus and SFF. That is where I am at from the evidence we have.
I think The Word is much more like Lennon than McCartney...it has that same unbroken circular arrangement like Nowhere Man in which sections are repeated over and over without being separated by any sort of "middle" except for the brief instrumental solo. Nowhere man goes much the very same way as does Help! save for the intro.
Great post, but one very crucial point was left out. John's original idea of a song that trekked through the Penny Lane area was later used by Paul for his own song. Paul took John's discarded idea and ran with it a year or so later. Maybe this is why Paul remembers "In My Life" as his. He could be mixing up writing the melody for his "Penny Lane" with Lennon's lyric that was sort of the original "Penny Lane."
One tiny problem with John's recollection: "In My Life" doesn't have a "middle eight." It has only verses. I suppose he's actually thinking of the melody of the latter half of the verse when giving Paul credit, but it's odd because he often spoke of the middle eight of other songs that actually have one.
I'm pretty sure from reading here, that when John stated the lyrics were complete before Paul's involvement, he meant the final version, which has no mention of Penny Lane. Also Paul wrote"Yesterday" about 5 months before "In my life" was written. For my money, the retrospective nature of "In my life" owes a lot more to "Yesterday" than "Penny Lane" does to the former. JMO, and I'm way more of a John fan than Paul..........
I agree with this completely. But even the last "Paul" line comes back to John's melody in this analysis. So I could see why both men could have different memories. Paul DID do work (in this theory), which he remembers, but it was such a small bit that John forgot.
The Beatles Bible's "In My Life" page has a copy of the original Lennon lyric, where the references to the Penny Lane trip are crossed out (link). There is almost no chance Paul worked on the song without seeing these lyrics, or hearing about them from Lennon. Also, it's doubtful that Paul would bring "Penny Lane" to the band without either him or Lennon mentioning that concept had originated in a J.L. song. Especially since Lennon helped with the lyric on "Penny Lane." As for "Yesterday," I've never seen anyone link that with "In My Life."
It is a Lennon song, it always was a Lennon song, and will forever be a Lennon song... I knew it the moment I heard it...
I'm not really linking Yesterday and In my life per say, but I think you know what I mean. I didn't know about the lyric sheet on the Beatles Bible though, nor did I know John contributed to the lyrics of Penny Lane. Either way Penny Lane was a place they were both plenty familiar with. Thinking of it now, I have ideas what might be Johns lyrical contributions......Which may also be available at the Beatles Bible. In the end Penny Lane is it's own thing, and you can't take anything away from Paul there. Nor would I take anything from John regarding subject matter similarities between In my life and Yesterday.
Could be, but then John also remembers Paul writing part of the music in In My Life. What's up for debate is the extent of that contribution really. But John didn't forget. He says Paul wrote the "middle eight".
