" How Do You Sleep? " is a song by British rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 Imagine album. The song made angry and pungent comments aimed at former bandmates and Beatles songwriter Paul McCartney. Lennon wrote the song in response to what he regarded as a personal slights by McCartney on his last album Ram . The song includes a slide guitar solo that was played by George Harrison and produced jointly by Phil Spector.
Video How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon song)
Composition and lyrics
John Lennon writes "How Do You Sleep?" after the successful success of Paul McCartney at London's High Court to dissolve the Beatles as a legal partnership. This ruling has followed the publication of Lennon's pollution statement about The Beatles in an interview in December 1970 with Rolling Stone magazine, and McCartney and his wife, Linda, took full-page ads in the music press, where, ridicule against Lennon and Yoko Ono, they were shown wearing a clown costume and wrapped in a bag. After releasing McCartney's album Ram in May 1971, Lennon was attacked by McCartney, who later admitted that the phrase in the song "Too Many People" was intended as an excavation at Lennon. Lennon thinks that the other songs on the album, such as "3 Legs", contain similar attacks.
Lyrics "How Do You Sleep?" referring to the rumors "Paul is dead" ("The strange people are right when they say you're dead"). The song begins with the line "So Sgt. Pepper surprised you", referring to the legendary album of The Beatles in 1967. Preceding this first line is the ambient sound of people who sounded early in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album.
The lyrics "The only thing you did was yesterday/And since you left you just one more day" directed at McCartney, the first lyrics became the reference for the 1965 song The Beatles "Yesterday". The second lyrics are a reference to McCartney's hit single "Another Day", released in February 1971. Lennon originally wrote the lyrics "You might pinch that bitch", as a reference to many times McCartney has made claims that he's not convinced. if he's "nicked" "Yesterday", after asking Lennon, Harrison, George Martin, and others if they've heard the melody before. Although Lennon received the only post for "How Do You Sleep?", A contemporary account by Felix Dennis from OZ magazine showed that Ono, as well as Allen Klein, manager of Lennon, also contributed the lyrics.
Maps How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon song)
Recording
Lennon notes "How Do You Sleep?" during the session for her Imagine album. This song has a section of slide guitar that was played by George Harrison. In addition to Lennon on rhythm and vocal guitars, the track also includes contributions from Klaus Voormann on bass, Alan White to drums, acoustic guitars played by Ted Turner, Rod Linton and Andy Davis, and additional pianos by Nicky Hopkins and John Tout. Though he has joined Lennon, Ringo Starr and Klein, against McCartney, in a recent lawsuit, Harrison recalls that the period was one of "very strange, intense feelings" among all the former Beatles, and he was initially wary of the invitation Lennon. to play on the new album. Given this, Harrison added, he was relieved that Lennon "publicly glad I came".
Like all the tracks in Imagine , some outtakes of "How Do You Sleep?" became available on pirated albums and in the documentary about Lennon. A run-through of a song in the 2000 movie Gimme Some Truth includes what writer Chip Madinger and Mark Easter describe as "John's Request to Paul", as Lennon faces the camera and sings: "How do you sleep, yes vagina? "Starr visited the studio during the recording of the song and reportedly annoyed, saying:" Enough, John. " The last mixed version as released on the album is mono rather than stereo, unlike all other songs.
Reception and aftermath
In the contemporary review Imagine , Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone highlights "How Do You Sleep?" between the three albums "really worthy, effective musical figures" but found it "horrible and untenable" as a song that "wasted his character, family and Paul's career". Gerson concludes: "The motive for 'Sleep' is confusing, partly a traditional bohemian humiliation for the bourgeoisie, in part it is the souring of John's long-term competitive relationship with Paul." Writing in NME , Alan Smith says of the song: "Musically, it's amazing - open, big, strong, rumbling, dramatic - but this is a song to remember because of the lyrics..." McCartney, Smith identifies the verse "The sound you make is muzak in my ear.You must have learned something for years." In Melody Maker , Roy Hollingworth praised Imagine as the best work Lennon has ever done and described "How Do You Sleep?" as "horrible slash in McCartney... slow funk with Commanche or maybe a string of Sioux flavors".
As soon as the album was released, Lennon said that the song "is the answer to Ram " but adds: "There really is not a feud between me and Paul.It's all nice, clean fun no doubt there will be answer to 'Sleep' on the next album, but I did not feel at all like that.The song works as a whole and unrelated song to Paul It started to write in 1969, and the phrase 'So Sergeant Pepper Took You By Surprise... 'was written about two years before something happened.Always there is a musical difference between me and Paul - it did not just happen last year, always has a lot in common, and we're still doing it.The thing that makes The Beatles is the fact that I can do my rock 'n roll, and Paul can do beautiful things... But almost a week goes by when I do not see, and/or hear from any of them. "
Lennon softened his stance in the mid-1970s and said that he had written a song about himself. He stated in 1980: "I use my hatred of Paul... to create a song... not a horrible horrible grudge... I use my hatred and withdraw from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep' I do not really go with those thoughts in my head all the time.
The Magnificent Bastards, a side project of Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland, recorded a cover version in 1995 for the tribute album Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. Replicants, featuring members of Failure and Tools, covered the song on their self-titled debut.
Personnel
- John LennonÃ, - vocals, guitar
- George Harrison - slide guitar
- Nicky Hopkins - Wurlitzer electric piano
- John Tout - piano
- Ted Turner - acoustic guitar
- Rod Linton - acoustic guitar
- Andy Davis - acoustic guitar
- Klaus Voormann - bass
- Alan White - drum
- The Flux Fiddlers - string
References
External links
- Lyrics of this song in MetroLyrics
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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