Friday, June 19, 2009

I Me Mine

Not known as one of the Beatles mega-hits, there are still interesting facts about "I Me Mine." This Harrison composition was based on a tune played by a marching band George heard while watching television. In the film Let It Be, he plays the song for Ringo, describing it as a "heavy waltz." Ringo, George, and McCartney perform the song impromptu while Lennon and Yoko Ono waltz around the studio. The song was not laid down in its present form until one year later, when the group was informed that its rehearsal of the song would be included in the film.

The song as recorded on January 3, 1970 at Abbey Road Studios, minus Lennon. When the Let It Be project was handed over to producer Phil Spector, he overdubbed an orchestra and choir.

Harrison plays acoustic and lead guitar and sings lead vocal. McCartney plays piano and does background vocal. Starr plays drums, with Billy Preston on organ.

Harrison later titled his semi-autobiography I Me Mine, which was an odd assortment of pictures, handwritten song lyrics, and anecdotal material about his songs and his life. In the "bio," he wrote that the song was about problems people have pushing aside their egos. More specifically, "I Me Mine" grew out of his experimentation with LSD, after which he viewed everything as "mine" (Harrison's). After immersing himself in transcendental meditation, however, which demands that one clear the mind and transcend the ego, he claimed that he discovered the eternal observer within his consciousness, the self that represents what would later be known in quantum physics as non-local intelligence (or the Oneness or Divine Mind, as it is called in various belief systems).

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