Come Together

Come Together is a song by the English rock band The Beatles, appearing on the 1969 album Abbey Road

Lyrics
Here come old flat top

He come grooving up slowly

He got joo joo eyeball

He one holy roller

He got hair down to his knee

Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoe shine

He got toe jam football

He got monkey finger

He shoot Coca-Cola

He say I know you, you know me

One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come together, right now, over me

He bag production

He got walrus gumboot

He got Ono sideboard

He one spinal cracker

He got feet down below his knee

Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease

Come together, right now, over me

He roller coaster

He got early warning

He got muddy water

He one mojo filter

He say, "one and one and one is three"

Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see

Come together, right now, over me

Oh

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

Oh

Come together, yeah

Come together, yeah

History
Come Together, the lead song on The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, was conceived by John Lennon as a political rallying cry for the writer, psychologist and pro-drugs activist Timothy Leary. Come Together was composed for Timothy Leary’s campaign to stand against Ronald Reagan as governor of California. Leary and his wife Rosemary had traveled to Montreal for John and Yoko’s bed-in for peace, which took place on 1 June 1969. The Learys participated in the recording of Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance, and were both name-checked in the lyrics. The following day Lennon offered to help Leary’s campaign. His slogan was ‘Come together, join the party’. Lennon sent Leary a demo tape of song ideas. However, the campaign ended when Leary was imprisoned for cannabis possession, allowing Lennon to record the song with The Beatles.

Come Together was Lennon’s last politicized stance in The Beatles. Although much of it was shrouded in imagery, the song lampooned the hippy figureheads who would seek followers among the dropouts of society. Musically, Come Together took its cue from Chuck Berry’s 1956 song You Can’t Catch Me; both songs contain the lines “Here come old flat-top”. Lennon was later sued by Berry’s publisher Morris Levy. They settled out of court and Lennon agreed to record more songs owned by Levy. The result was his 1975 album Rock ‘N’ Roll, which contained Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen and You Can’t Catch Me, along with Lee Dorsey’s Ya Ya (also recorded with the 11-year-old Julian Lennon on drums for 1974’s Walls And Bridges).

A version of Come Together was included on The Beatles: Love. Its lengthy fade-out is augmented with elements from Dear Prudence. After the song, the “Can you take me back” snippet that followed Cry Baby Cry on The White Album can be heard.