John Lennon – “Come Together” Live

I Know You and You Know Me!

“Come Together” was written by John Lennon though the credit goes to Lennon–McCartney. It became the opening track for The Beatles’ eleventh studio album “Abbey Road.” It was released on October 6, 1969 in the US and October 31, 1969 in the UK. It was also the only song from the band that Lennon performed during his last full-length concert in Madison Square Garden in 1972.

The thing was created in the studio. It’s gobbledygook; Come Together was an expression that Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one. But I came up with this, Come Together, which would’ve been no good to him – you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?

—John Lennon

During the recording, Lennon did the vocals and rhythm guitar with McCartney on bass, Starr on drums and Harrison on lead guitar. However, there was a lawsuit filed for allegedly stealing the guitar riff to the song. It also won Best Engineered Recording during the Grammy Awards in 1969.

In the intro, Lennon says: “shoot me”, which is accompanied by his handclaps and McCartney’s heavy bass riff.

Though many other famous music artists did covers for this one (and those certainly topped the charts as well!), this remains to be a favorite version!