Two of Us (song)
"Two of Us" is a song by The Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney,[1] but it is credited to Lennon/McCartney. Lennon and McCartney sang the song as a duet. It was written for Linda Eastman, McCartney's soon to be wife. It sometimes sounds like it is addressing Lennon,[1] whose relationship with McCartney was tense at that time.
| "Two of Us" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles | ||||
| from Let It Be" | ||||
| Released | 8 May 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 31 January 1969 | |||
| Studio | Apple Studios | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 3:33 | |||
| Label | Apple | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon/McCartney | |||
| Producer(s) | Phil Spector | |||
| Let It Be track listing | ||||
| ||||
Production
Intro
At the beginning of the recording Lennon says,
"'I Dig a Pygmy', by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids... Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!"
The joke was mixed in by Phil Spector for the Let It Be album and also appeared in the Let It Be film, both released in 1970. "I Dig a Pygmy" is an obvious reference to Lennon's song "Dig a Pony" that follows in the album's track order. "The deaf aids" – a British term for hearing aids at the time – was also the nickname given to the Beatles' Vox amplifiers.[source?]
Composition
"Two of Us" was originally a hard rock song. In the Let It Be film, McCartney and Lennon sing the song "rocker" style into the same microphone. McCartney had never been satisfied with this style, which he said was "chunky." And so on 24 January, he and the band reworked it. Lennon had ideas about how the song might sound if Stevie Wonder performed it, and just before revisiting the song, the band had run through the Everly Brothers hit "Cathy's Clown". With these influences and a move from electric guitar to acoustic, the song transformed into the gentler, stripped-down version that fans know today. The Beatles performed a finished version of the song live at Apple Studios on 31 January 1969; this performance was included in both the Let it Be film and album.
The song was originally titled "On Our Way Home". In May 1969, McCartney produced a recording of the song using this title by the group Mortimer, a New York City trio that briefly recorded for Apple, but this recording was never released.[2]
Writing credit
In his 1980 interview with Playboy, when asked who wrote the song, Lennon said "mine",[3] but he may have been distracted at the time by a previous question about "Don't Let Me Down."
- Playboy: "Don't Let Me Down"?
- Lennon: That's me, singing about Yoko.
- Playboy: "Two of Us"?
- Lennon: Mine. By the way, Rod Stewart turned "Don't Let Me Down" into [sings] 'Maggie don't go-o-o.' That's one the publishers never noticed...[3]
In fact, in his 1972 interview with the Hit Parader, Lennon said that Two of Us was written by McCartney.
Personnel
- John Lennon – harmony vocal, acoustic guitar, and whistling.
- Paul McCartney – lead vocal, acoustic guitar and whistling.
- George Harrison – bass-line (played on electric guitar).
- Ringo Starr – drums
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 MacDonald 2003, p. 335.
- ↑ Dowdling 1989, p. 257.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sheff 2000, p. 204.
Other websites
- Dowlding, William J. (1989). Beatlesongs. Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN 0-671-68229-6.
- Erickson, Hal (2010). "Plot Synopsis of Two of Us". VH1. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
- MacDonald, Ian (2003). Revolution in the Head:The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Pimlico. ISBN 1-8441-3828-3.
- Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.