John Lennon Love Songs/Hate Songs

Here's John Lennon's views on the hits and misses of the Beatles back catalogue, almost all quotes are from All We Are Saying (David Sheff) and Lennon Remembers (Jann Wenner) [reviews here].

HITS

Here There And Everywhere was a great one of [Paul's]. That's Paul's song completely, I believe. And one of my favourite songs of the Beatles

Something - I think that's about the best track on [Abbey Road] actually

For No One - Another of [Paul's] I really liked. One of my favourites of his. A nice piece of work.

Got To Get You Into My Life - I think that was one of [Paul's] best songs, too, because the lyrics are good

Things We Said Today - Good song

Fixing A Hole - That's Paul, again writing a good lyric

I'm Only Sleeping - One of my favourites

Fool On The Hill - Paul proving he can write lyrics if he's a good boy...shows he's capable of writing complete songs

I'm So Tired - One of my favourite tracks. I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well

Oh! Darling was a great one of Paul's ...If he'd had any sense he should have let me sing it.

Hey Jude is a damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that...It's one of [Paul's] masterpieces

All My Loving is Paul, I regret to say. Ha ha ha … Because it's a damn fine piece of work. But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.

Within You Without You - One of George's best songs. One of my favourites of his, too. He's clear on that song. His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent. He brought that sound together.

Come Together was a funky record - it's one of my favourite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favourite Lennon tracks, let's say that. It's funky, it's bluesy, and I'm singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record. You can dance to it. I'd buy it!

I like Across the Universe because it's one of the best lyrics I've written. In fact, it could be the best, I don't know … it's good poetry ... the ones I like are the ones that stand as words without melody … it's a poem, you know?

Happiness Is a Warm Gun - Oh, I like that, one of my best. I had forgotten about that. Oh, I love it. I think it's a beautiful song. I like all the different things that are happening in it.


MISSES

Run For Your Life I always hated. It was one of those I knocked off just to write a song, and it was phony.

And Your Bird Can Sing - Another horror. Another of my throwaways.

Birthday - A piece of garbage

Cry Baby Cry - Not me [Yes it was!]. A piece of rubbish

Honey Pie - I don't even want to think about that

Mean Mr Mustard - That's me, writing a piece of garbage

Sun King - That’s a piece of garbage I had around

Dig A Pony - Another piece of garbage

I'll Get You - That was Paul and me trying to write a song, and it didn't work out

Hold Me Tight - That was Paul's...It was a pretty poor song and I was never really interested in it

I Wanna Be Your Man - It was a throw-away. The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones. It shows how much importance we put on them. We weren't going to give them anything great, right?

Eight Days A Week was never a good song. We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song. It was [Paul's] initial effort, but I think we both worked on it. I'm not sure. But it was lousy anyway

It's Only Love is mine. I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song

Good Morning Good Morning is mine. It's a throwaway, a piece of garbage, I always thought.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer - I hate it. 'Cuz all I remember is the track – [Paul] made us do it a hundred million times. He did everything to make it into a single and it never was and it never could've been, but he put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the whole album.





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