Two of Us

The recent release of the Peter Jackson documentary Get Back has helped to dispel views that many of us have held for years about those infamous sessions in January of 1969.  The overall consensus that the Beatles were not collaborating very well during this period is now seen to be a simplistic and inaccurate assessment of what actually occurred.  For instance, Lennon added a song snippet he had that begins "Everybody had a..." as a nice counterpoint to McCartney's I've Got a Feeling, thereby creating one of their only truly co-authored compositions from the group's later years.  But nowhere during these sessions did John and Paul connect as in days of old as well as they did on McCartney's Two of Us.

It must also be noted that, while many people mistakenly believe that the song is about John and Paul, it is actually about Paul and his soon-to-be wife Linda Eastman.  Both Paul and Linda had detailed recollections about him pulling out a guitar and writing much of the song on one of their frequent rides to nowhere in the Fall of 1968.  Still, it is easy to see how the lyrics can be taken as references to Paul's long friendship with John.  

The song was rehearsed often at both Twickenham Film Studios in the early part of January and at the group's Apple Studios later in the month.  Once it was decided that both Paul and John would play the number on acoustic guitars, George opted to stick with his electric guitar instead of switching to a bass, but he now played what was essentially a bass line on the lower strings.

The crowning glory of the song, however, is the gorgeous blending of Paul and John's voices.  For me, this is oh-so-close to being their best duet, second only to their seamless performance on If I Fell.  Though Two of Us is Paul's composition, John is given the melody line while Paul sings a high harmony - that is, until the bridges, when Paul sings alone.  They had always been great fans of the Everly Brothers, and here they come closest to sounding like their idols, with Paul even calling out "Take it, Phil" on the released version available on Anthology 3.

This take from the Anthology series was recorded on January 24th, and you can hear several sloppy moments in it, plus a few elements seem to have not been completely worked out yet, such as Ringo leading into the bridges with a building beat on his snare drum.  Glyn Johns used another take from this date on his Get Back albums, and Ringo does do the drum part as we know it on this take.  But the official version was not recorded until January 31st, the day after the famed rooftop concert.  This opens the 1970 album Let it Be and was also used in 2003 on Let it Be...Naked.  Much of this performance also made it into the film Let it Be.

In Jackson's new documentary, we see the Beatles rehearsing Two of Us on multiple occasions, including one amusing attempt when, for no apparent reason, Paul and John sing the song through clenched teeth.  And, though I referred to the old myths surrounding these sessions as being overblown, this is the song which prompted the disagreement between Paul and George on January 6th about George's guitar playing.  Plus, you can clearly see George looking left out as John and Paul bond while working on the song on January 10th, shortly before his walking out at lunchtime and ultimately forcing an end to the Twickenham portion of the project.