“As The Beatles‘ primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney stood on their own two feet, rejecting the crutch of legendary R&B covers. They established complementary yet complex individual songwriting identities.” Lennon appeared to prefer deeper, brooding compositions, whereas McCartney handled the twee, romantic side of life.
As the 1960s progressed, the duo expertly navigated the delicate line between pop consciousness and artistic growth. Rubber Soul revolutionized the band’s creative viewpoint in 1965, influenced by Bob Dylan’s contemporaneous success across the Atlantic. “This prepared the way for the psychedelic era. It is exemplified by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Magical Mystery Tour.”
Although psychedelic influences lingered in The Beatles’ later work, the final two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be, were more anthemic in style. “They gave the mantle to the prog-rockers as a final farewell. This left fans weeping to the music of McCartney-led songs like ‘Let It Be‘ and ‘The Long and Winding Road.'”
The Beatles’ “last ever single” ‘Now and Then‘ was released in 2023. To bookend the album, the song was backed with a fresh mix of the band’s debut single, ‘Love Me Do‘. Unbeknownst to many Beatles fans, the band had already done something similar in 1970 with Let It Be.
The Beatles’ final album finishes with the cheery classic ‘Get Back‘, but Lennon and McCartney took a step back in time a few tracks earlier. ‘One After 909‘ was one of John Lennon’s early attempts at songwriting, written when he was just 17. “The Beatles had planned to record the song in 1963 during the session for their third single, ‘From Me To You‘. However, they ran out of time after four unsatisfactory takes and abandoned it.” They chose to discover the track during the 1969 Let It Be Sessions.
“The ‘One After 909’, on the whatsit LP, I wrote when I was 17 or 18,” Lennon said in a 1970 Rolling Stone interview. “We always wrote separately, but we wrote together because we enjoyed it a lot sometimes. “They would say, ‘You’ll make an album together, knock off a few songs,’ treating it like a job.”
“It has great memories for me of John and I trying to write a bluesy freight-train song,” McCartney reflected in Many Years From Now. “There were several of those tunes at the time, such as ‘Midnight Special,’ ‘Freight Train,’ and ‘Rock Island Line’. So, this was the ‘One After 909’; she didn’t receive the 909, but the one after it!” It was a tribute to British Rail. No, we weren’t thinking British at the moment; it was more about the Super Chief of Omaha.”
“It was a number we didn’t use to do much, but it was one that we always liked doing, and we rediscovered it,” he said. “We puzzled why some unreleased songs; George Martin didn’t favor them, preferring others for release.” It is not a fantastic song, but it is a personal fave of mine.”
Lennon, who also authored ‘Revolution 9’ and ‘#9 Dream‘, was fascinated by the highest single digit from an early age. “I lived at 9 Newcastle Road.” I was born on October 9th, which is the ninth month. “It’s just a number that follows me about, but numerologically, I seem to be a number six, three, or something. But it’s all part of nine.”
Watch The Beatles play and discuss ‘One After 909‘ in an excerpt from The Beatles: Get Back below. You can also listen to one of the 1963 takes.
