The history of John Lennon‘s temper is extensive. To say that he wasn’t the most pleasant person to be around would be an understatement. Given the years of suffering that his friends, partners, and bandmates endured at the hands of his rage. However, a specific Beatles song made his blood boil.
Lennon found it difficult to work with others. The musician’s apparent lack of interest in the songs of his fellow musicians is evident in the documentary Get Back. Prioritizing his recordings, Lennon was extremely protective of the process by which his songs were written and completed.
It appears that George Harrison took the brunt of it. Harrison’s contribution proved crucial in the end. It was so by producing iconic songs like “Here Comes The Sun,” “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and more. yet Lennon and McCartney are recognized as the band’s primary songwriters.
To achieve the perfect guitar tones for their 1965 album Rubber Soul, Lennon and Harrison collaborated closely. In particular, their cooperation was essential to “Norwegian Wood.” However, Lennon acknowledged that he became quite irate as they struggled to perfect the song.
John Lennon requested that Harrison include the sitar on the song when he began experimenting with it in the middle of the 1960s. But Lennon became increasingly agitated as they attempted to solve it.
I asked George if he could play this piece since he had just received the sitar. In Rolling Stone, Lennon said. We attempted numerous renditions of the song, but it was never quite right. I became very irate because it wasn’t sounding as I had intended.
John Lennon recalled, “They said, ‘Well just do it how you want to do it’. I said, ‘Well I just want to do it like this.'”
They released me, and I played the guitar loudly into the microphone while singing, and George played the sitar after that,” he continued. And I asked him if he could play the piece I’d written, you know, the dee diddley dee diddley dee bit. He hadn’t played the sitar much, so he wasn’t sure if he could play it yet, but he was eager to try, as he usually is, and he picked up the bit and dubbed it on after. We may have done it in parts.
Lennon acknowledged McCartney’s conceit by putting himself and McCartney above the guitarist in terms of ability and skill, saying, “Maybe it was hard for him sometimes, because Paul and I are such ego-maniacs, but that’s the game.”
