The Lennon/McCartney song writing credit is, quite simply, the most famous in the world and over the 13 years they were together as collaborative musicians, they drifted in and out of true collaboration – from the early days of sitting in the front room of Paul’s house at 20 Forthlin Road to Paul’s rather more splendid home in Cavendish Avenue in London where this song was stitched together in such a way that would have made Mother Mary or Aunt Mimi proud, had it been an garment they were fixing with needle and thread!
We are all aware that their collaboration became more strained as time went on, which makes ‘I’ve got a feeling’ a particularly poignant song, because it was the final time that they truly collaborated over a Beatles song; at this stage, although Beatles fans around the world would not have known it, the fab four would be entering a new era.
Rather poignantly, the song was on the set list for their famous performance on the rooftop of their headquarters at 3 Savile Row. This was the last time the band would perform together, so, appropriate that they should include the very song over which they collaborated for the final time.
The song appeared on the ‘Let it be’ album, but in later years it was also part of ‘Anthology 3’ and ‘Let It Be…naked’ and it is a mix of two songs, both of which were half-finished – ‘I’ve got a feeling’ written by Paul and John’s ‘Everybody Had a Hard Year’.
You might think that putting two songs together would not be easy, but the more you listen to the song, the more you fail to see the join! The even more remarkable thing is that Paul and John were in very different places at the time, so their two parts were expressing very different emotions
At the time of writing Paul was about to marry Linda Eastman, so optimism and love was the essence of Paul’s contribution, while John had recently become divorced from Cynthia, was estranged from Julian, his then girlfriend, Yoko Ono, had suffered a miscarriage and he was dealing with a heroin addiction – the perfect chemistry for a disastrous merging of two incompatible songs; so how on earth could two such songs gel so well? The answer is simply the magic and creativity of the Lennon/McCartney partnership that is still so loved and appreciated throughout the world today
Yes, ‘I’ve got a feeling’ is a Beatles song (with a little help from their good friend Billy Preston on keyboard), but next time you listen to the song here is what I want you to do….close your eyes and picture the two of them together – the fun, the arguments, the banter, the fooling around, the inexplicable and, perhaps never to be repeated, understanding, the love. Picture them together, because, in terms of song-writing, it was the final time it happened.
Paul Beesley
Paul Beesley is a professional qualified Blue Badge Tour Guide for the Liverpool City Region, beginning his guiding career in the early 1980’s as a Beatles Guide. Paul is also a Broadcaster, presenting shows on BBC Radio Merseyside and he co-presents the Beatles podcast, Liddypod. He also chairs The Association of Liverpool Tour Guides.