The song John Lennon said Paul McCartney had nothing to do with: “It was never a legal deal”
Come the end of the 1960s, The Beatles were getting ready to lift up their boot and leave one of the most impactful cultural footprints of all time. Within the tread grooves were masterclasses in songwriting, melodic experimentation and production innovation. Perhaps one of pop culture’s greatest tragedies is the hostility that came from the split of music’s greatest songwriting duo, Lennon and McCartney.
Bureaucracy, personal relationships, and a growing appetite to engage more actively in politics on Lennon’s behalf drove somewhat of a wedge between them. By the time the Get Back recording sessions took place, it was apparent that the next time they would step foot in a studio, it would probably be individually.
For Lennon, a future of artistic collaboration with his new life partner, Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, beckoned and, within it, the formation of John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band. It was a project that gave Lennon free reign to exercise political expression, something somewhat tempered in The Beatles discography despite attempts in The White Album and Rubber Soul.
But before the conclusion of The Beatles, Lennon and Yoko’s defiance activism would be funnelled into a song that’s since been credited to Paul McCartney. The couple staged two media events, which they termed “bed-ins” for world peace, inviting press, peace activists, and fans into their hotel room. After their first in Amsterdam, they decided to hold another in the USA in direct protest of their involvement in the Vietnam War.
When Lennon’s entry into the country was denied due to a drug conviction, the couple headed to neighbouring Canada and held their protest in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal so that the American press could still easily gain access and provide coverage for their protest.
When a journalist probed Lennon on the intentions of his protest, he simply replied, “Just give peace a chance,” and unknowingly gave birth to the title of his next song. And it was, in fact, his next song, as at short notice, Montreal studio engineer André Perry was called to the hotel, and Lennon ran through the song with his various guests, including poet Allen Ginsburg, singer Petula Clark, and psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary. ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was subsequently recorded in a single take, immediately becoming a protest anthem across the world.
But despite its well-publicised genesis, McCartney is credited as a fellow songwriter on the track. “I didn’t write it with Paul, but again, out of guilt, we always had that thing that our names would go on songs even if we didn’t write them,” Lennon told David Sheff.
Adding, “It was never a legal deal between Paul and me, just an agreement when we were 15 or 16 to put both our names on our songs. I’d put his name on ‘Give Peace A Chance’ though he had nothing to do with it. It was a silly thing to do, actually. It should have been Lennon-Ono.”
In the years during Lennon and Ono’s budding romance, his relationship with McCartney diminished, and the pair became increasingly distant. Yet what remained at the heart of their partnership was an unwavering loyalty and artistic commitment to one another. While Lennon may have regretted not putting Ono’s name on it, his fidelity to McCartney and the agreement they set out nearly 20 years prior was repaid by McCartney, who in later years added the song to his live set as part of a tribute to Lennon.
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