Rattle Your Jewlery

Channeling some old feelings, are we?

JOHN AND PAUL

the beatles, january/1969

the beatles helping george harrison with the song "something":

george harrison: "what could it be, paul? it's like, i think of what attracted me at all"

john lennon: "just say whatever comes into your head: 'attracts me like a cauliflower' until you get the word, you know"

george harrison: "yeah but i have been through this one, like, for about six months"

john lennon: "you haven't had fifteen people joining in, though"

george harrison: "no, i mean, just that line... i couldn't thing of anything like a..."

john lennon: "(sings) 'something in the way she moves/attracts'... 'grabs' instead of 'attracts'"

george harrison: "but it's not as easy to say..."

john lennon: "(singing) 'grabs me like a southern honky-tonk...'"

george harrison & john lennon: "(singing) 'something in the way she moves/and like a la la la...'"

john lennon: "grabs me like a monkey on a tree"

george harrison & john lennon: "(singing) 'something in the way she moves/and all i having to do is think of her/something in the way she shows...'"

george harrison: "i don't like moths"

john lennon: "yeah"

paul mccartney: "it's a lovely image, a moth"

george harrison: "(singing) 'attracts me like a pomegranate...'. we could have that: 'attracts me like a pomegranate' (laughs)"

john lennon & paul mccartney: "(singing) 'something in the way she moves...'"

george harrison: "where's my drink, mal? (sings) 'attracts me like a mo-'. you see, there's the timing on there which is quite important"

george harrison & john lennon: "(singing) 'something in the way she moves/attracts me like a moth to granite...'"

george harrison: "pomegranate"

“As I continue to write my own songs, I’m still very conscious that I don’t have him around, but I still have him whispering in my ear after all these years. I’m often second-guessing what John would’ve thought - ‘this is too soppy’ - or what he would’ve said differently, so I sometimes change it. But that’s what being a songwriter is about; you have to be able to look over your own shoulder”

“ I have to do this by myself these days. And if anyone asks me what I was like to work with John, the truth was it was easier - much easier, because there were two minds at work. Mine would be doing this, his would be doing that, and the interplay was just miraculous. And that’s why people are still listening to the songs we wrote. They didn’t just go away like your average pop song. The climate that the two of us created in writing wasn’t a soppy pop song climate. We created an environment in which we might grow, try new things, maybe even learn a thing or two.”

“John is gone I can’t sit around sighing for the old days. I can’t sit around wishing he was still here. Not only can I not replace him, but I don’t need to, in some profound sense.”