The song John Lennon used to claim Paul McCartney stole his music: “You probably pinched that bitch anyway”
Break-ups are almost always acrimonious in nature, but the demise of The Beatles in 1970 made even the most vicious of break-ups look like a walk in the park. After spending years cooped up together at the heart of a global pop phenomenon, dealing with riots, Beatlemania, and the musical debates which come to virtually every band at one point or another, the Fab Four had had enough. However, in the wake of the break-up, Paul McCartney and John Lennon used their respective solo careers to air some dirty laundry.
After forging perhaps the most successful songwriting partnership of all time as teenagers in Liverpool, Lennon and McCartney crafted a plethora of truly iconic, groundbreaking songs over the course of The Beatles’ time together. Nevertheless, the pair often butted heads over musical differences, with Lennon usually favouring more experimental efforts, while McCartney had a penchant for love songs and incorporating influences like music hall into the band’s work.
By the time the band came to record Abbey Road, these musical differences, along with all the trappings of being in a world-famous pop band, had caused tensions between Lennon and McCartney to reach unbearable levels. So, in 1970, Macca announced his departure from the band, and The Beatles came to an informal end. The arguments, on the other hand, seemed to continue for many more months.
McCartney fired the first shot, penning the track ‘Too Many People’ in 1970. Including not-so-subtle digs at his former songwriting partner, including “Too many people preaching practices” and “You took your lucky break and broke it in two”, the song was certainly barbed, but it is difficult to view it as particularly vicious. Still, it is about as vicious as you can imagine the fresh-faced Paul McCartney ever being.
Lennon’s response seemed to adopt a tactic of scorched earth, directed entirely at McCartney, overtly attacking his contributions to The Beatles, and putting every hip-hop ‘diss track’ to shame. ‘How Do You Sleep?’, released on Imagine, was described by Lennon himself as “nasty”, explaining, “I was using my resentment towards Paul to create a song.”
One of the main lyrics which is often extracted from ‘How Do You Sleep?’ is the line, “The only thing you done was yesterday, and since you’ve gone you’re just another day.” Lennon attacks Macca’s contributions to The Beatles in that line, suggesting the songwriter’s best work is in the past, and his only major song for the Fab Four was ‘Yesterday’. However, the original draft of Lennon’s lyrics took this criticism one step further.
Reportedly, that line about ‘Yesterday’ was originally followed by, “You probably pinched that bitch anyway,” seemingly accusing McCartney of plagiarism. This scrapped inclusion fit in well with the rest of the sweary ramblings Lennon cut from the track, including the apparent original line, “How do you sleep, you cunt?” The sessions for the track were so vicious and personal that Ringo Starr, who was present in the studio, asked Lennon to tone it down a little.
For his part, McCartney didn’t respond to ‘How Do You Sleep?’, though he was upset by the track. “I didn’t want to get into a slanging match,” the former Beatle once shared. “I had the option of going for equal time and doing all the interviews or deciding not to take up the gauntlet. And I remember consciously thinking, ‘No, I really mustn’t.’” Luckily, the relationship between Lennon and McCartney cooled down tenfold in the following few years, and the pair managed to reconcile their long-lasting friendship.
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