Help with the meaning of a song...

[WDWFREAK53]

I sing along to it...I like it...I don't have a clue what it means or is about.

The Beatles put out a song called "Come Together" (Aerosmith covered it also). What the heck does it all mean?

Here come old flat top
He come groovin' up slowly
He got joo joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come together
Right now
Over me

He bag production
He got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard
He one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease

Come together
Right now
Over me

He roller coaster
He got early warning
He got muddy water
He one mojo filter
He say one and one and one is three
Got to be good lookin' cause he's so hard to see

Come together
Over me


The only thing that I can come up with is that it's talking about a guy that is so dependent on drugs that he has fallen victim to it.

 

[tenchu]

You must also remember that the Beatles did endulge in the occasional misuse of chemical substances too...

:lookaroun

 

[Boo's Mom]

I've heard of this song! But I can't help you with its meaning :lol:




As did Aerosmith I think......... :lookaroun

 

[MKCP 1985]

I always supposed it meant the Beatles were pretty well stoned when they wrote it, and intended for the listeners to be in a like state. This was on the Sgt Peppers album, which included among other gems, the acid classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." - LSD, LSD, LSD.

But I could be wrong. **shrug**

It is still a good song, regardless.

 

[DisneyJill]

I sing along to it...I like it...I don't have a clue what it means or is about.

The Beatles put out a song called "Come Together" (Aerosmith covered it also). What the heck does it all mean?

Here come old flat top
He come groovin' up slowly
He got joo joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come together
Right now
Over me

He bag production
He got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard
He one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease

Come together
Right now
Over me

He roller coaster
He got early warning
He got muddy water
He one mojo filter
He say one and one and one is three
Got to be good lookin' cause he's so hard to see

Come together
Over me


The only thing that I can come up with is that it's talking about a guy that is so dependent on drugs that he has fallen victim to it.

Lot of extra time today? :lookaroun

 

[Wilt Dasney]

I believe it's all about U.S.-Soviet tensions at the height of the Cold War, except the third verse, which is clearly a reference to the Book of Revelation. Read it again.

 

[tenchu]

Or hows about they just liked writing a bit of gibberish?

Finding something that rhymes is a lot easier if it doesn't have to make sense.

 

[Mr Bill]

Please remember that they also wrote I am the Walrus, which was written specifically to mean absolutely nothing.

 

[Woody13]

The only thing that I can come up with is that it's talking about a guy that is so dependent on drugs that he has fallen victim to it.

Come Together started life as a campaign song for Dr. Timothy Leary (the acid guru) when he decided he was going to run as Governor of California against Ronald Reagan. Leary's slogan was "come together, join the party", the "come together" alluding to I Ching, the Chinese book of changes. John later re-wrote the song in its present form.

Two of the lines referring to Old Flat Top were taken from "You Can't Catch Me" by Chuck Berry, and John was later sued for plagiarism. The matter was settled when John promised to record 3 songs belonging to the publisher of "You Can't Catch Me".


Alongside references to blues singer Muddy Waters and Yoko's Ono's company "Bag Productions" there is the inevitable Walrus. "Spinal cracker" reportedly refers to a form of Japanese massage involving a wife (Yoko?) walking on her husband's spine! The song got banned by the BBC because the State-owned broadcasting corporation deemed that the mention of Coca-Cola was advertising and therefore could not be played on the BBC!

The same thing happened with "Lola" by the Kinks, but they actually changed the lyric to the more evocative "cherry cola".

That about all I can say about the song in this forum. Many other references in the song are not suitable to mention on a family site!:lookaroun

 

[tenchu]

Come Together started life as a campaign song for Dr. Timothy Leary (the acid guru) when he decided he was going to run as Governor of California against Ronald Reagan. Leary's slogan was "come together, join the party", the "come together" alluding to I Ching, the Chinese book of changes. John later re-wrote the song in its present form.

Two of the lines referring to Old Flat Top were taken from "You Can't Catch Me" by Chuck Berry, and John was later sued for plagiarism. The matter was settled when John promised to record 3 songs belonging to the publisher of "You Can't Catch Me".


Alongside references to blues singer Muddy Waters and Yoko's Ono's company "Bag Productions" there is the inevitable Walrus. "Spinal cracker" reportedly refers to a form of Japanese massage involving a wife (Yoko?) walking on her husband's spine! The song got banned by the BBC because the State-owned broadcasting corporation deemed that the mention of Coca-Cola was advertising and therefore could not be played on the BBC!

The same thing happened with "Lola" by the Kinks, but they actually changed the lyric to the more evocative "cherry cola".

That about all I can say about the song in this forum. Many other references in the song are not suitable to mention on a family site!:lookaroun

I read that website too. :lookaroun

(All my information is second hand you know. :lookaroun )

 

[Woody13]

I read that website too. :lookaroun

(All my information is second hand you know. :lookaroun )

It's a capsulization of opinion based upon the various Beatles "experts" including Bruce Spizer, Mark Lewisohn, Bill Harry and Allen Rouse. They all tell slightly different versions but are in general agreement on the main points.

There has been so much written about the Beatles and their music that it is often very difficult to sift through the material and arrive at an objective conclusion. I've seen a lot of wild speculation about the Beatles and I tend to discount most stories unless there is sufficient evidence with good backup to substantiate the claims.

Of course, all of my information is second, third or forth hand. I have never met any of the Beatles. :wave:

 

[mickhyperion]

I've always interpreted the song as a laundry list of derogatory things which were being said about hippies during this time and in particular John himself. A lot of the lines could be interpreted as examples of "judging a book by it's cover." "Come together, right now, over me" was most likely written as a campaign slogan of sorts for Timothy Leary and seems to say forget all of the hateful namecalling and come together in peace. "Tune in, turn on, and drop out."

This is just my interpretation though.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

Thanks Woody!!! That's exactly the type of thing I was looking for! I had a feeling it was chock full-o things!

 

[mickhyperion]

Come Together & Do You Want to Know a Secret?

Not to beat a dead horse here. And not that Woody hasn't done a very thorough job of explaining a lot of the history and meaning behind this song, but I felt inspired to dig a little for some more information about it. I love music trivia, especially about The Beatles, and I have several books about them (as does Woody apparently).

My previous interpretation posted above was just that: my own interpretation. But here are some additional facts about the song.

I tracked down a quote from John Lennon in a book of Playboy Interviews conducted shortly before his death.

' "Come Together" is me – writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing. I left the line in "Here comes old flat-top." It is nothing like the Chuck Berry song, but they took me to court because I had admitted the influence once years ago. I could have changed it to "Here comes old iron face," but the song remains independent of Chuck Berry or anybody else on earth.

The thing was created in the studio. It's gobbledy-gook; "Come Together" was an expression that Tim 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 I 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?

Leary attacked me years later, saying I ripped him off. I didn't rip him off. It's just that it turned into "Come Together." What am I going to do, give it to him? It was a funky record – it's one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favorite 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'll buy it! [Laughs]'

(The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono–The Final Testament. Interviews by David Sheff. Edited by G. Barry Golson. Playboy Press/Berkley Books, 1981.)

I also found an interesting quote made by Timothy Leary in another book:

'Although the new version was certainly a musical and lyrical improvement on my campaign song, I was a bit miffed that Lennon had passed me over this way... When I sent a mild protest to John, he replied with typical Lennon charm and wit that he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned. So he sold it to someone else.'

(A Hard Day's Write. Steve Turner. Carlton Book Limited/Harper Collins, 1994.)

As if that weren't enough, I recalled another lyric at the start of the song which WDWFreak didn't include above. If you listen closely during the intro of the song, Lennon whispers very clearly "Shoot me" three times which, given the manner in which he died, sounds strangely prophetic and ominous today. But just so this wouldn't get called out as another Beatles myth along the lines of all the "Paul is dead" boloney, I tracked down a quote from the Lewisohn book, The Beatles Recording Sessions to confirm this.

Freed too from the restrictions of a guitar, John was able to sing while simultaneously clapping his hands (again, later applied with tape echo) immediately after each time he sang the line 'Shoot me!'

(The Beatles Recording Sessions–The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962-1970. Mark Lewisohn. Harmony Books, 1988.)

Ok, enough about "Come Together." But I have to include one more fascinating tidbit I came across while trying to find the other info.

Also from the Playboy Interviews, Lennon speaks about the song "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" from The Beatles first album, Please Please Me:

'My mother... She used to do this little tune when I was just a one- or two-year old... The tune was from the Disney movie–[singing] "Want to know a secret? Promise not to tell. You are standing by a wishing well."

So, I had this sort of thing in my head and I wrote it and just gave it to George to sing.'

Hopefully you've found this helpful and as fascinating as I have.

 

[Woody13]

Thanks mickhyperion, that's good information. :wave: