George Harrison I Me Mine Live
Scottie Marberry
"I Me Mine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. Written by George Harrison, it was the last new track the group recorded before their break-up in April 1970. The song originated from their January 1969 rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios when they were considering making a return to live performance. Written at a time of acrimony within the group, the lyrics lament humankind's propensity for self-centredness and serve as a comment on the discord that led to Harrison temporarily leaving the Beatles. The musical arrangement alternates between waltz-time verses and choruses played in the hard rock style.
The song reflects Harrison's absorption in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and their denouncement of ego in favour of universal consciousness. When Harrison presented "I Me Mine" at Twickenham, John Lennon showed little interest and instead waltzed with Yoko Ono while the other Beatles rehearsed the song. Footage of the couple dancing was included in the Let It Be documentary film. In January 1970, by which point Lennon had privately left the group, the three remaining members formally recorded the song at EMI Studios in London for the Let It Be album. When preparing the album for release, producer Phil Spector extended the track by repeating the chorus and second verse, in addition to adding orchestration and a female choir.
Among music critics, several writers have identified "I Me Mine" as a powerful final performance by the Beatles and an apt statement from Harrison. The song has been referenced by some religious scholars in their commentary on egoism. Harrison titled his 1980 autobiography I, Me, Mine after the track. The original recording, lasting just 1:34, appeared on the Beatles' 1996 outtakes compilation Anthology 3, introduced by a mock announcement from Harrison referring to Lennon's departure.
I kept coming across the words I, me and mine in books about yoga and stuff ... [about the difference between] the real you and the you that people mistake their identity to be ... I, me and mine is all ego orientation. But it is something which is used all the time ... "No one's frightened of saying it, everyone's playing it, coming on strong all the time. All through your life, I me mine."[1]
When discussing "I Me Mine", Harrison said he was addressing the "eternal problem" of egoism[23][24] and that his perspective was informed by his past experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD.[1][25] He said the concept was in keeping with Swami Vivekananda's teaching that an individual's goal in life was to realise their divine qualities by transcending ego concerns, which Harrison called "the little 'i'", and seeing themselves as part of "the big 'I'; i.e. OM, the complete whole, universal consciousness that is devoid of duality and ego".[23]
Author Jonathan Gould describes the song as a "commentary on the selfishness" of Lennon and McCartney,[26] while musicologist Walter Everett says that after Harrison had written "Not Guilty" in 1968 as a "defense against the tyranny of his songwriting comrades", "I Me Mine" was his "mocking complaint about their stifling egos".[22] In their study of the tapes from the Get Back project, authors Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt write that Lennon and McCartney regularly overlooked Harrison's compositions, even when his songs were "far better than their own".[7]
The verses of "I Me Mine" are in the key of A minor while the chorus is in A major.[27] This technique of parallel minor/major contrast is common in the Beatles' songwriting and had been employed by Harrison in his 1968 songs "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"[27] and "Savoy Truffle".[28][nb 2] Everett likens the melody of the verses to the European folk music typified by Mary Hopkin's debut single for the Beatles' Apple record label, "Those Were the Days".[22] He views this folk aspect as "well suited" to Harrison's use of the same "F-against-E7 sound" he first adopted in "I Want to Tell You".[22][nb 3] The composition originally included a flamenco-style instrumental passage[30] but Harrison subsequently replaced this section with a chorus repeating the line "I me-me mine".[31] In its final form, the structure comprises an intro, two combinations of verse and chorus, followed by a verse.[32] The verse and chorus are also differentiated by their time signature: the former is in 3
4 time while the latter is in 4
4.[32]
The set of pronouns that form the song's title are a conventional way of referring to the ego in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy.[37] The lyrics reference the Bhagavad Gita 2:71-72,[38] part of which advocates a life "devoid of any sense of mineness or egotism".[39][nb 4] According to spiritual biographer Gary Tillery, the song targets McCartney and Lennon "for being so fixated on their own interests" but also laments all of humankind's propensity for egocentricity.[8] The lyrics state that this self-centredness is constant and in all actions and desires.[41] Tillery says that the message is both ironic and tragic from a Hindu perspective, which contends that ego is merely an illusion; egocentricity is therefore akin to a single drop of water focusing on its own course at the expense of the ocean surrounding it.[8]
The rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios were filmed and recorded by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg with the intention that the documentary film would accompany a televised concert by the Beatles.[43][44] On the morning of 8 January, Harrison played "I Me Mine" to Ringo Starr while they waited for Lennon and McCartney to arrive. He introduced the song as a "heavy waltz"[22] and joked to Starr, with reference to McCartney's plans for the concert: "I don't care if you don't want it in your show."[45] Harrison said he might use the song in a musical he was planning to write with Apple press officer Derek Taylor about the company.[46]
Lennon made similarly derogatory remarks that day about McCartney's ballads "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road".[53] According to Gould, Harrison was particularly upset that his bandmates griped about the time spent learning "I Me Mine" yet then indulged in "a laborious rehearsal of a song like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' which struck George as a paragon of pop inanity".[54] On 10 January, Harrison walked out of the sessions, weary of what he considered to be McCartney's overbearing attitude[55] and Lennon's lack of engagement with the project.[2][56]
In October 1969, Lindsay-Hogg completed an edit of the documentary film,[57] which included footage of Harrison playing "I Me Mine" for Starr.[22][nb 6] Harrison, Starr and McCartney were then shown performing the song while Lennon danced with Ono.[22][58] Since the scenes were relatively prominent,[38][52] the Beatles had to record the song for inclusion on the accompanying soundtrack album, still titled Get Back but soon to become Let It Be.[59] On 3 January 1970, Harrison, McCartney and Starr met at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) to work on the track with producer George Martin.[60][61] Lennon did not attend the session; having privately left the band in September, he and Ono were on holiday in Denmark at the time.[57][62]
The group recorded 16 takes of the basic track, with Harrison on acoustic guitar and singing a guide vocal, McCartney on bass guitar, and Starr playing drums.[63] Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn describes the session as an efficient one in which the bandmates indulged in an instrumental jam after take 6 and also played a "delightful" cover of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue Got Married", sung by Harrison before beginning take 12.[63] At the start of take 15, Harrison delivered a mock press statement in which he made a joking reference to Lennon's absence[64] by recasting the four Beatles as members of the British pop group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.[63]
Aside from vocals, the overdubs on take 16 were two distorted electric lead guitars and a lead acoustic part,[65] all played by Harrison,[60] and McCartney's Hammond organ and electric piano.[57] The recorded track lasted 1 minute 34 seconds.[66][67] When engineer Glyn Johns compiled the proposed Get Back album, he retained the studio chatter that preceded take 16, as Harrison says, "All right. Are you ready, Ringo?" and Starr replies, "Ready, George!"[57] The pre-take 15 announcement, followed by take 16 of "I Me Mine",[68] was released on the Anthology 3 outtakes compilation in 1996.[57]
As with Johns' May 1969 version of Get Back, the Beatles rejected his January 1970 submission of the album.[69][70] Lennon and Harrison then asked American producer Phil Spector to rework Let It Be.[71][72][nb 7] Spector decided to extend the length of "I Me Mine" by repeating the rock-style chorus in the middle of the song and the second verse.[74] The extension was carried out on 23 March,[67] with Harrison present for much of the remixing session.[75] It was achieved by copying the tape from the 1:20 mark,[76] after the line "flowing more freely than wine", thereby adding a further 51 seconds to the running time.[74]
As the last of the three songs to be amended by Spector on 1 April, these additions to "I Me Mine" were the final overdubs on a Beatles track before the group's break-up.[84] The final version, as "re-produced" by Spector, was included on Let It Be.[66] A similar edit, without the orchestral overdubs but retaining the repeated portion, was made available on the Let It Be... Naked album in 2003.[85][86]
Let It Be was issued on 8 May 1970[87] with "I Me Mine" sequenced as the fourth track, between "Across the Universe" and "Dig It".[88] The release followed a month after McCartney's public announcement that he was leaving the Beatles, which had resulted in the group's break-up.[89][90] For Harrison, the break-up provided the impetus for starting work, with Spector as his co-producer, on the triple album All Things Must Pass, which included songs that had been overlooked by the Beatles.[91][92]
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