Come Together
Here come old flattop he come grooving 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-looking 'cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me
Come together, come together, come together, come together, yeah.
Commentary
I know you already did your song lyric theme, but I’ve got to propose you run this anyway.
This is my all time favorite obscure poem. What could they have had in mind? Maybe it’s a poem about a street person with a personality disorder who needs to come together. Maybe it’s a parody of John “he got Ono sideboard.” Maybe it’s just a stream of imagery.
One thing I love about it is the rhythm. Everyone over 30 has that rhythm somewhere in their brain cells. You can tell you have it if you try reading the thing aloud. Try saying “He say “One and one and one is three” without stretching and syncopating on “one.” The poem is also very heavy on trochees (stress-unstressed feet) like slowly, roller, football, cola, gumboot, cracker, warning, filter. Very often they’re used as a signal for indecisiveness, passivity, etcetera. cf, the “To be or not to be” soliloquey in Hamlet.
Maybe it’s about recognizing mentally distrurbed street people as not so different from you and me.
I’m not sure who wrote it. At this stage in their development, Lennon and McCartney pretty much wrote separately, though they continued to put both names on all songs. [It was Lennon, actually - ed.]
For a bio of the band, check out
http://beatles.sonicnet.com/artists/biography/969.jhtml
For a complete Beatles lyric archive, check out http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Limo/3518/
— Matt
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Michael & Christine Bailey · 6 June 2003
I believe this song was a huge slam on Paul. Some of those lyrics that point to Paul are: Here comes old flattop (Paul wore a flat top hairstyle in the pre-Beatles days. He also had a cheap old acoustic six string which are known as flat tops. He wear no shoeshine (Abbey Road - Paul has no shoes). He got monkey finger (a bass player usually has walking fingers that go all over the place.) He say “I know you, you know me” You say yes, I say no … John was very critical of Paul’s lyrics and deemed them banal. Got to be good-looking ‘cause he’s so hard to see Paul the cute one. Of course the other lines probably refer to personal events that only John could encript. This album was the Beatles’ last. Recorded after the disasterous and later released “Get Back.” John and Paul were pretty hostile to each other at this phase in their lives.
Patricia Beland · 9 May 2005
Come Together was actually written as a campaign song for Timothy Leary’s bid for Governor of California. Of course he didn’t win, he went to prison and later escaped to Alegeria.
Patricia Beland