Songs: “Too Many People” and “How Do You Sleep”
Albums: Ram (Paul McCartney solo) and Imagine (John Lennon solo)
Release Dates: May 1971 and September 1971
Relationships can be fragile at times. Even the closest ones. Live long enough and you’re bound to go through at least one major rift in a relationship with someone close to you. It does not matter how nice of a person you think you are, or how sincere; it happens. The rift could be related to a significant disagreement, or a misunderstanding, or a breach in what one of you considers confidential, or an apparent slight, or any number of other possibilities. These situations can be among the most difficult that we face in life. The memories linger, even if the two parties are able to make amends. Quite often, this repair job never happens though, and we are left with an open mental wound, despite our best efforts to cover it up.
The fact we’ve all been there is why we often find ourselves to be willing ears whenever someone close to us finds themselves in that sinking ship with someone else close to them. In other words, we can all relate to our close one’s struggle, seeing as it’s relatively easy to put ourselves in his/her shoes. The advice flows from there. The same goes (sans advice) when it comes to people whom we do not know personally who have made the news for this same sad reason (in many cases the reason for making the news is due to their rift manifesting into something worse). That “what would I do?” is always a stone’s throw away. It is part of our shared broken humanity.
The Rock world has had its share of public spats between bandmembers over the 70 years or so that it’s been a genre. Off the top of my head there’s Don vs Phil Everly, Paul Simon vs Art Garfunkel, Roger Waters vs David Gilmore, Brian Wilson vs Mike Love, Mick Jagger vs Keith Richards, Levon Helm vs Robbie Robertson, Pete Townshend vs Roger Daltrey, Ray vs Dave Davies, and John Fogerty vs the rest of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The most intriguing of them all for me, however, was Paul McCartney vs John Lennon, which played out primarily in the early 70s, immediately after the band broke up.
One big reason that the McCartney/Lennon feud is so interesting to me is that it was expressed in their music…and good music at that. Paul dedicated roughly half an album to the bout. John pretty much packed his wallop into one song. If only taking the release dates of the relevant music into account, one would have to conclude that Paul started it. But who knows what went on behind closed doors?
Before this past week, it had probably been about 20 years since I’d last listened to Ram; Paul McCartney’s second solo album on which his lyrical Lennon-bashing occurs. It’s one of those discs that I only have on vinyl, and with our turntable tucked away in the attic, it’s been slowly fading in the rearview mirror of my music memory. There was a time, however, when I really enjoyed Ram, and I was excited this week (after acquiring the cd) to see if I could get some of that synergistic spark back.
If you don’t tune in all that closely to the lyrics, Ram has a laid back, domestic, rural feel about it. It borders on sounding deceptively whimsical. This makes some sense seeing that, leading up to the recording, Paul and Linda McCartney had spent much of their time living on the remote Scottish peninsula of Kintyre, raising their young family (more, specifically the Mull of Kintyre, which is on the southern tip of the peninsula, jutting out into the North Channel of the Irish Sea). Beatles aficionados typically recognize the choice of this locale by the McCartney’s as an escape from reality. That conclusion becomes apparent when you watch footage of Paul McCartney during that period. He looks depressed. He’s grown a hermit-like beard. He comes across as a bit unmoored.
Who could blame him? Paul was confused and ostracized, not only from his ex-bandmates (who to at least some degree had ganged up on him), but also in the press, where he would get scathing reviews for his early solo efforts while John, George and Ringo were getting glowing reviews for theirs. He likely was going through a reevaluation, like anyone would who suddenly felt negatively signaled out after a long period of success and accolades (not that it’s entirely relevant to McCartney’s situation in the early 70s, but Bob Dylan’s song “Foot of Pride” does an amazing job of capturing such circumstances in song).
In the meantime, John Lennon was starting life anew in New York City, which included peace activism with Yoko Ono (see Fab Foundations # 10). Lennon was in a far better frame of mind than McCartney at the time. Yes, he too would see his own walls closing in a few years later; going on a year-long binder, dealing with endless deportation threats (including Nixonian FBI wiretapping), and fighting for his Green Card (some viewed all this as a comeuppance). But in the early 70s, Lennon was feeling his oats.
One of the biggest differences between Lennon and McCartney as individuals is made crystal clear in their songwriting styles, which goes all the way back to their earliest years together in a band. Lennon wrote a lot about himself, which could often be confessional (“I’m a Loser”, “Help”, “Norwegian Wood”, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, “Jealous Guy”, “I’m Losing You”, among others). McCartney wrote more from an observers’ view (“Eleanor Rigby”, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, “Fool on the Hill” or any number of his early love songs). In Lennon’s thinking, he himself let it all hang out while he viewed McCartney as covering up his true feelings, which Lennon believed had to have built up inside over time (if so, it all comes out on Ram). I’m sure many of us can put ourselves in John’s shoes (I’m one of them).
When John Lennon met Yoko Ono in the mid-to-late 60s, he began to tackle many of his insecurities (which included his bizarre “Primal Scream” therapy) going all the way back to childhood. Yes, he had a difficult upbringing, which can explain this need to cleanse, but Paul McCartney’s youth was not a bed of roses. Far from it. He too lost his Mom at a young age and in many ways, he too would have to fend for himself. In McCartney’s thinking, he would not dwell on this negativity though, and so at times he must have viewed Lennon as walking a fine line in terms of sounding too egocentric. I’m sure many of us can put ourselves in Paul’s shoes (I’m one of them).
Paul McCartney’s Ram opens with “Too Many People” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y21aX98QHSc ). The very first words out of his mouth as the song ramps up are “Piss off”. The song then goes on to elucidate on that opening expletive by accusing Lennon of throwing it all away (the Beatles) for a niche lifestyle, playing protest music and “preaching practices” to a niche audience. “Now what can be done for you”, McCartney repeats throughout the song. The closing lyric appears to be making a claim that he (McCartney) has still got it, and now Lennon will have to witness this magic from afar. It’s a fantastic tune which includes some ominous lead guitar licks.
Other songs on the album hit at Lennon some more (and to a lesser degree George Harrison and Ringo Star), including “3 Legs” (“when I thought you was my friend; but you let me down; put my heart around the bend”), “Smile Away” (“I met a friend of mine and he did say ‘man, I can smell your breath a mile away’ ”), and “Dear Boy” (“I hope you never know, Dear Boy, how much you missed”). The song “Ram On” appears related to all this emotion too, sounding to me like a self-motivator to move on from the Beatles. It all adds up as an attempt to exorcise a plateful of pain…. that’s the feel I get anyways, while listening.
The first volley had been hurled with some pretty good music (which, I’m glad to say did reverberate for me this week). But as Paul McCartney was soon to find out, you really don’t want to get into a war of musical words with John Lennon.
For starters, Lennon does McCartney’s opening words “Piss off” on Ram one better, seeing as you don’t even have to listen to a single note off John’s Imagine album - released 4 months later - to get a sense that a return volley was in the cards. In this case it was literally a card insert, which shows John Lennon holding a pig by the ears (the album cover of Paul McCartney’s Ram shows him holding a ram by his horns, close to the ears). It’s a not-so-subtle hint of what was to come. Side note: McCartney also had an inner sleeve with images on it: One of them a photo of 2 beetles copulating…. insinuating perhaps that one “beetle” (or Beatle as the case may be) was screwing the other.
Lennon’s Imagine songs are primarily related to his aforementioned tendency for self-analysis (as well as his vision of utopia, exemplified in the title track, his protestations, and his love for Yoko Ono). But “Crippled Inside” gets in a few jabs (including the lines “you can hide your face behind a smile, but one thing you can’t hide is when your crippled inside”). And then comes the haymaker: “How Do You Sleep” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teD9t-lO_o0 ).
The song starts off in similar fashion to how the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with a string section warming up for a big show. And then the ominous music and vocals kick in. What follows are a series of lyrical lines that are a masterful combination of caustic and comedic, including:
- “Those freaks was right when they said you was dead” (referring to the “Paul is dead” rumors)
- “You live with straights who tell you, you was king”
- “The only thing you done was yesterday” (referring to Paul’s song “Yesterday” – which expresses true confessional emotion in Lennon’s mind. This line also insinuates that McCartney’s best days are behind him… a clever double entendre)
- And of course, the repeat chorus “how do you sleep at night”.
“A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years”
George Harrison guest stars to play a killer lead guitar for the bridge.
Game. Set. Match. The war of music pretty much came to an end with “How Do You Sleep”. Paul McCartney and John Lennon spent the rest of the decade in a state of civil truce. At least in public.
There are two sides to every spat. Ain’t it ever so humble when you can see the other side’s point-of-view and act accordingly. It may have been fun for the fans and critics to suck in the sing-along verbal barrage between Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but what it really came down to was that there was some genuine pain getting tossed around in “Too Many People” and “How Do You Sleep”. This speaks for any battle between those once close and now apart. The lesson learned is that we should all consider swallowing our pride in such circumstances. More often than not, we will find that old relationship ready and waiting for the healing process.
- Pete
p.s. In all my blog entries (~ 315 and counting) I don’t believe I’ve themed any of them on more than one song or album. That pattern had to end here.
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