I Me Mine

"I Me Mine"
Song by the Beatles from the album Let It Be
Released 8 May 1970
Recorded 3 January and 1 April 1970
Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre Folk blues,[1] hard rock[2]
Length 2:25
Label Apple
Writer George Harrison
Producer Phil Spector
Let It Be track listing

"I Me Mine" is a song by the Beatles, written and sung by George Harrison and released on their 1970 album Let It Be. I Me Mine is also the title of Harrison's autobiography. The song originated from the January 1969 Get Back/Let It Be sessions, and its lyrics serve as a comment from Harrison on the fractious situation within the band. The Beatles rehearsed the song at Twickenham Film Studios that same month and formally recorded it a year later. It was the last new track recorded by the band before their split in April 1970.

Composition

I Me Mine is the ego problem. There are two 'I's: the little 'i' when people say 'I am this'; and the big 'I' - is duality and ego. There is nothing that isn't part of the complete whole. When the little 'i' merges into the big 'I' then you are really smiling!
—George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology[3]

The set of pronouns which forms the song's title is a conventional way of referring to the ego in a Hindu context. For example, the Bhagavad Gita 2:71-72 can be translated as "They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of "I", "me" and "mine" to be united with the Lord. This is the supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death to immortality." Author Jonathan Gould claims that Harrison wrote "I Me Mine" "as a commentary on the selfishness" of his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney and considers it poignant that the song was only properly recorded because, during the group's filmed rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969, it had provided accompaniment to Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono dancing.[4] Gould writes that Harrison was particularly upset at Twickenham "that his fellow Beatles could complain about the amount of time they had to spend learning the arrangement for 'I Me Mine' and then turn around and submit to a laborious rehearsal of a song like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' which struck George as a paragon of pop inanity."[5] Gould contends further that, if "friends like Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton heard something worthwhile in material like [Harrison's] 'All Things Must Pass'" then only "sheer egotism could account for the air of complete indifference with which Lennon and McCartney first greeted" both that tune and "I Me Mine".[6]

After receiving his "eternal problem" inspiration when writing the song, Harrison played some chords to a 6/8 time signature. The melody was inspired by the incidental music for a BBC television program, Europa – The Titled and the Untitled, which aired on 7 January 1969. Harrison wrote "I Me Mine" that night and performed it for the other Beatles the following morning.[7]

Musical structure

The verses of this song are in the key of A minor but the chorus is in A major. This technique of parallel minor/major contrast is also present in Beatles' songs including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Savoy Truffle", "The Fool on the Hill", "Fixing a Hole", "Michelle", "Things We Said Today", "Do You Want to Know a Secret" and "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".[8] The song begins in 6/8 time on "All through the day" with a shift from the I minor (Am) chord to a IV (D7) which Dominic Pedler of Total Guitar magazine considers emphasises the Dorian mode.[9] The progression in 3/4 time beginning with an F melody note on "Now they're frightened of leaving it" against minor iv (Dm) chord (the ♭3rd emphasising in Pedler's view the Aeolian mode) shifts to an V7 (E7) on "comin' on strong", but here (at 0.27 secs) the hauntingly strong ♭9 (F natural) melody note results in the suitably "dark drama" of the very rare (in pop music) E7♭9 chord in the key of A minor.[10] The song is also notable for concluding on an ♭VI (Fmaj7) chord in A minor key.[11]

Recording

The Let It Be documentary film features a segment in which Harrison plays the song for Ringo Starr and describes it as "a heavy waltz". Harrison, Starr and McCartney are then seen performing the tune while a disinterested Lennon dances with Ono. Close to a year later, by which time Lennon had privately announced he was leaving the band, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg chose to include the "I Me Mine" segment in the film. The Beatles therefore had to record the song for inclusion on the Let It Be album. On 3 January 1970, Harrison, McCartney and Starr met at Abbey Road Studios to work on the track with George Martin.[12] Lennon was on holiday in Denmark, although it is not known whether he would have attended the session anyway.[12]

The group recorded 16 takes of the song, the last of which was deemed satisfactory. Before take 15, Harrison delivered a mock press statement in which he made a joking reference to Lennon's absence and the British pop group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich: "You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us. But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that's always gone down in number two [EMI Studio 2]."[13] The statement, followed by take 16 of "I Me Mine", was released on the Anthology 3 compilation in 1996. The song lasted just over 1 minute 30 seconds, until Phil Spector – who had been invited by Lennon and Harrison to complete the Let It Be album – extended the length by copying the rock-styled chorus in the middle of the song, and repeating it at the end of the track. Spector also overdubbed a string and brass accompaniment. The final version, as "re-produced" by Spector, was featured on Let It Be. A similar edit, without Spector's overdubs but retaining the repeated section, was made available on the Let It Be... Naked album in 2003.

Although the sessions for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "The End" in August 1969 were the last where all four Beatles were present in the recording studio, "I Me Mine" was the last new song recorded by the Beatles (albeit without Lennon) until sessions for the band's Anthology project in 1994. It was not their final recording session, however, since McCartney, Harrison and Starr continued to carry out various overdubs on the Let It Be tracks.

Release

Let It Be was issued on 8 May 1970 with "I Me Mine" sequenced as the fourth track.[14] The release followed a month after McCartney's public announcement that he was leaving the Beatles, which had resulted in the group's break-up.[15] Among reviews of the album, Alan Smith derided the release as "a cheapskate epitaph" and a "sad and tatty end" to the band's career,[16] but he admired "George's Russian-flavoured 'I Me Mine'" as "a strong ballad with a frantic centre".[17] In Melody Maker, Richard Williams[18] wrote: "'I Me Mine' has a great organ/guitar intro, meditative verses and a tempo switch in and out of the rocking chorus, which has guitar riffs one step away from Chuck Berry. George put a lot of strength into this."[19]

The song is playable in the video game The Beatles: Rock Band. Spector's work was removed for the game's version.[20]

Cover versions

Personnel

Personnel per Ian MacDonald[21]

References

  1. ↑ Pollack, Alan (1993). "I Me Mine". Alan W.Pollack.
  2. ↑ Andrew Hickey (2010). The Beatles in Mono. Lulu.com. p. 110. ISBN 1-4461-8489-7.
  3. ↑ The Beatles 2000, p. 319.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Gould. Can't Buy Me Love, The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus. 2007 ISBN 978-0-7499-2988-6 p 598.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Gould. Can't Buy Me Love, The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus. 2007 ISBN 978-0-7499-2988-6 p 536.
  6. ↑ Jonathan Gould. Can't Buy Me Love, The Beatles, Britain and America. Piatkus. 2007 ISBN 978-0-7499-2988-6 p 534–535.
  7. ↑ Sulpy and Schweighardt 1999, p. 114.
  8. ↑ Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  9. ↑ Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  10. ↑ Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  11. ↑ Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Beatles Bible 2009.
  13. ↑ Lewisohn 1988, p. 195.
  14. ↑ Castleman and Podrazik 1976, p. 89.
  15. ↑ Badman 2001, pp. 4, 8.
  16. ↑ Doggett 2011, p. 137.
  17. ↑ Smith, Alan (9 May 1970). "The Beatles: Let It Be (Apple)". NME. p. 2. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
  18. ↑ Badman 2001, p. 8.
  19. ↑ Sutherland, Steve (ed.) (2003). NME Originals: Lennon. London: IPC Ignite!. p. 75.
  20. ↑ Rock Band - The Beatles - I, Me, Mine Expert Guitar 100% FC on YouTube
  21. ↑ MacDonald 2005, p. 367.

Sources

  • Badman, Keith (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-8307-6.
  • The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
  • Castleman, Harry; Podrazik, Walter J. (1976). All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-25680-8.
  • Doggett, Peter (2011). You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup. New York, NY: It Books. ISBN 978-0-06-177418-8.
  • "The Hall of Fame: I Me Mine". Genesis Publications. 2007. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
  • "I Me Mine". The Beatles Bible. 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  • Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York, NY: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
  • MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (2nd revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
  • Sulpy, Doug; Schweighardt, Ray (1999). Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles' Let It Be Disaster. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-19981-3.

External links