Come Together

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For other uses, see Come Together (disambiguation).

"Come Together" is a song by the rock band The Beatles. It was written mainly by John Lennon; Paul McCartney slowed it down and wrote the bass-riff, among other things. This song was the lead-off track on The Beatles' September 1969 album Abbey Road. One month later it also appeared as one of the sides of the group's twenty-first single (it was a double A-side, the other side being George Harrison's "Something") in the UK, their twenty-sixth in the US.

Origin

The song's history began with Lennon writing a song for Timothy Leary's failed gubernatorial campaign in California against Ronald Reagan, one which promptly ended when Leary was arrested for possession of marijuana. It was transformed by Lennon into a track with digs at McCartney and Harrison interspersed alongside tales of his Bagism movement with wife Yoko Ono. It was the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Chuck Berry's music publisher, Morris Levy, due to the fact that one line in "Come Together" closely resembled a line of Berry's You Can't Catch Me: (i.e. The Beatles' "Here come ol' flattop, he come groovin' up slowly" vs. Berry's "Here come up flattop, he was groovin' up with me"). After settling out of court, Lennon promised to record other songs owned by Levy, all of which were released on Lennon's 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. Perhaps the song refers to the late eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Lines such as "hair down to his knees" and "shoot coca-cola" parallel the billionaire's behavior at the time this song was written. The line "Got to be good lookin cause he's so hard to see" could refer to the billionaire's reclusiveness. Another, possibly apocryphal story is that John Lennon grew frustrated at the tendency of music critics to read heavily into and interpret his lyrics, and wrote nonsensical lyrics simply to spite them. The same story is also said to be the origin of "I Am The Walrus."

Lennon played rhythm guitar in addition to singing the vocal. Each exclamation of 'shoot' one hears during the opening bass line is actually 'shoot me', although 'shoot' is immediately followed by a handclap which drowns out the word 'me'. McCartney played bass and the electric piano (estimated as "southern" by John), Harrison lead guitar, and Ringo Starr drums and maracas. It was produced by George Martin and recorded at the end of July 1969 at Abbey Road Studios.

Rolling Stone ranked "Come Together" at #202 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Covers

Aerosmith version

American hard rock band Aerosmith did one of the first and most successful cover versions of "Come Together". It was recorded in 1978 and appeared in the movie and on the soundtrack to the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which the band also appeared in. The single was an immediate success, reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100, following on the heels of a string of Top 40 hits for the band in the mid-1970s. However it would be the last Top 40 hit for the band for nearly a decade.

A rare live demo of the song was also released just months after on Aerosmith's live album Live! Bootleg. The song was also featured on Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, the band's mammoth-selling single-disc compilation released in 1980. The song has also surfaced on a number of Aerosmith compilations and live albums since then, as well as on the soundtrack for the film Armageddon.

The Aerosmith version is still frequently heard on mainstream and album rock radio stations, and many rock fans regard it as equaling, if not bettering, the Beatles version. "Come Together" is still occasionally performed in concert by Aerosmith, as well.

Other Notable Covers

The song has since become one of the most covered songs of all time:

• Marilyn Manson Also covered the song while touring, never released.
• Tina Turner covered the song for the 1976 ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.
• Do As Infinity performed a live cover of a metal version of the song at Japan during a Beatles celebration event.
• Michael Jackson also covered "Come Together" and it is featured on his album HIStory.
• Axl Rose and Bruce Springsteen later played "Come Together" before his induction into the rock n' roll hall of fame in 1994.
• Soundgarden covered the song on the "Hands All Over" single, giving it a very grunge sound.
• Michael Ruff covered "Come Together" in a very funky way on the album Michael Ruff Band in 1992.
• Robin Williams and Bobby McFerrin recorded a unique cover version in which McFerrin performs the characteristic bass and guitar intro with his voice alone and Williams sings.
• Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller played with Paul McCartney on a version of the song for the 1995 HELP charity record.
• The Lynne Arriale Trio recorded a jazz version of the song, which was the title track of their album Come Together
• Sugababes covered the song as a B-Side for their single, "Ugly".
• There is also an instrumental version by Marcus Miller on his album Tales.
• The Korean hip-hop group Roo-Ra performed a breakbeat cover of the song.
• Elton John covered the song as a tribute to Lennon during his One Night Only: The Greatest Hits concert.
• Victoria Beckham and Damon Dash sampled the song as an intro to one of Dash's mixtapes.
• Enrique Bunbury made a cover of the song and published it in his 1997 single "Planeta Sur".
• Craig David, performed a live version on Top of The Pops 2 in 2003.
• Chairmen of the Board covered the song and is on one of their first LPs.
• Spiralmouth, a rock a cappella act, recorded an all-vocal cover on their eponymous album.
• Toxic Audio covered the song on their album Captive Audience.