The lyrics of come together were originally written for a campaign song for Timothy Leary. This American politician was running against Reagan for the job of governor of California and had met John and Yoko during one of their 'bed ins'. Whilst here John was working on give peace a chance, which Leary; a song that Leary played a part in. John wanted to return the favour and asked Leary if there was anything that he could do for him. At the time Leary had a slogan for his campaign 'Come together, join the party'. John Lennon got to work on coming up with a tune that could be used as part of leary's political campaigns.

Leary like the tape that John made and used it for his campaign. Lennon returned to the studio and worked further on Come together and turned it into a full song that was used as the opener for Abbey Road; as the song and slogan made used of the phrase Come together (from I ching) it could easily be used for both purposes. Although the lyrics were John's, perhaps the best thing about the come together song is Paul McCartney's great bass line.

Unfortunately Lennon had not told Leary about his plans to turn Come together into a full song and Leary protested as he felt that he had full rights to it. John simply replied that Leary was merely a customer who had a right to use the song.

A lot of the lyrics to come together are nonsensical and borrowed from other songs; one of which , old flat top, was taken from a Chuck Berry song. This resulted in the Beatles being sued, the dispute was settled by John Lennon agreeing to recorded three songs for berry's musical publishers. This was not the only legal problem that Come together came in for; as come together references Coca Cola it was banned from being played by the BBC as they were very strict on advertising at those times. This may perhaps account somewhat for why come together did not get to the top of the charts in the UK but did in the USA.

On the come together song John Lennon does the lead vocals and plays lead guitar together with George.

Individual Beatles role on Come together

John Lennon: Lead Vocals, Lead guitar, Electric piano

Paul McCartney: Harmony Vocals, Bass guitar

George Harrison: Lead guitar

Ringo Starr: Drums, Maraccas

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