SOLO SONG OF THE WEEK 004: I KNOW (I KNOW)
Sept 20, 2020 12:09:12 GMT -5
winstonoboogie and RockoRoll like this
Post by John S. Damm on Sept 20, 2020 12:09:12 GMT -5
The Solo Song of the week is John Lennon's 1973 ballad entitled "I Know(I Know)" off the Mind Games album.
While some have said this is another heartfelt song to Yoko, many including me view this as a heartfelt offering of a peace branch to Paul McCartney. The Beatles Bible writes:
"The curious repetition of the title in parentheses could have been simply one of Lennon’s whims, but it is possible that he was presenting a coded message – not for the first time – to his former bandmate Paul McCartney. Wings’ 1971 album Wild Life had featured the song Some People Never Know, in which McCartney lamented that some people fail to understand what it means to love. In this light, Lennon’s response saw the pair in agreement, in a marked contrast to their earlier song-based conflicts."
There is in the song's title and lyrics, in my mind at least, the clear reply to Paul's "Some People Never Know" but there is also the more poignant reference to Paul's Sgt. Pepper song "Getting Better" which would seem to have no tie-in to Yoko Ono or John's relationship with her.
Some fans have pointed out the similarity in the opening guitar riff to "I've Got A Feeling" which was a merging of a Paul song to a John song.
Continuing with the lyrics, I always felt the following was John's realization by 1973 that Allen Klein was no good and was in fact the problem between John and Paul:
"I know what's coming down
And I know where it's coming from
And I know and I'm sorry (yes I am)
But I never could speak my mind."
And of course on Ram's "Dear Boy," Paul rather bitterly spits out:
"I hope you never know, dear boy, how much you missed,
And even when you fall in love, dear boy,
It won't be half as good as this
I hope you never know how much you missed,
Dear boy, how much you missed, dear boy."
John very specifically seems to be replying to this in "I Know(I Know)" when he sings:
"I know what I was missing
But now my eyes can see
I put myself in your place
As you did for me."
And besides name checking "Getting Better," I believe John name-checks Paul's biggest song of all in a more loving way than on "How Do You Sleep" wherein John sings:
"Today I love you more than yesterday
Right now I love you more right now."
Of course that is followed by the aforementioned:
"And I know what's coming down
I can feel where it's coming from
And I know it's getting better (all the time)
As we share in each other's minds."
In any event, "I Know(I Know)" is a great song from John and in fact this appears on the upcoming new Lennon comp Gimme Some Truth so it is getting some love from Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon who both personally curated this new compilation of John's music.
While some have said this is another heartfelt song to Yoko, many including me view this as a heartfelt offering of a peace branch to Paul McCartney. The Beatles Bible writes:
"The curious repetition of the title in parentheses could have been simply one of Lennon’s whims, but it is possible that he was presenting a coded message – not for the first time – to his former bandmate Paul McCartney. Wings’ 1971 album Wild Life had featured the song Some People Never Know, in which McCartney lamented that some people fail to understand what it means to love. In this light, Lennon’s response saw the pair in agreement, in a marked contrast to their earlier song-based conflicts."
There is in the song's title and lyrics, in my mind at least, the clear reply to Paul's "Some People Never Know" but there is also the more poignant reference to Paul's Sgt. Pepper song "Getting Better" which would seem to have no tie-in to Yoko Ono or John's relationship with her.
Some fans have pointed out the similarity in the opening guitar riff to "I've Got A Feeling" which was a merging of a Paul song to a John song.
Continuing with the lyrics, I always felt the following was John's realization by 1973 that Allen Klein was no good and was in fact the problem between John and Paul:
"I know what's coming down
And I know where it's coming from
And I know and I'm sorry (yes I am)
But I never could speak my mind."
And of course on Ram's "Dear Boy," Paul rather bitterly spits out:
"I hope you never know, dear boy, how much you missed,
And even when you fall in love, dear boy,
It won't be half as good as this
I hope you never know how much you missed,
Dear boy, how much you missed, dear boy."
John very specifically seems to be replying to this in "I Know(I Know)" when he sings:
"I know what I was missing
But now my eyes can see
I put myself in your place
As you did for me."
And besides name checking "Getting Better," I believe John name-checks Paul's biggest song of all in a more loving way than on "How Do You Sleep" wherein John sings:
"Today I love you more than yesterday
Right now I love you more right now."
Of course that is followed by the aforementioned:
"And I know what's coming down
I can feel where it's coming from
And I know it's getting better (all the time)
As we share in each other's minds."
In any event, "I Know(I Know)" is a great song from John and in fact this appears on the upcoming new Lennon comp Gimme Some Truth so it is getting some love from Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon who both personally curated this new compilation of John's music.