In 1969, Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin had a hit with the Paul McCartney penned “Goodbye” (credited to Lennon/McCartney). The track reached #13 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #2 in the UK Singles Chart, where the Beatles’ single “Get Back” kept it from #1.
Hopkin was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles’ Apple record label. Her 1968 single “Those Were The Days”, produced by Paul McCartney, was a Top 10 hit single in both the UK and the U.S. Her debut album, Postcard, released in February 1969, was also produced by McCartney.
“Goodbye” has never been officially released by the Beatles, although there is a demo version performed by McCartney that appears on some of the Beatles’ bootlegs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t included on the Anthology CD sets. In Paul’s version, he sings it from a female perspective, using “him” instead of “her” when singing “calls me to his side” and “I must go to his side.”
While having dinner together in 1973, Dustin Hoffman inspired Paul McCartney to write “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)”. Hoffman had asked McCartney how he came up with ideas for writing songs. Paul replied that he didn’t know, “You just sort do it, kind of pick them out of the air”. Dustin asked him if he could “write one now.” Paul agreed to try. So, Hoffman grabbed his copy of Time magazine that had an article about the recent death of artist Pablo Picasso. He told Paul the story about Picasso’s death and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” McCartney had a guitar with him and immediately began composing the song on the spot, much to Dustin’s amazement.
Later, Paul McCartney recorded “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)” for inclusion on the Band On The Run album, released in late 1973.
Below, listen to an audio clip of Paul McCartney and Dustin Hoffman talking about the song’s birth. Also, there’s a couple of brief snippets of the song mixed in.
Click the Play button to listen:
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The most obvious answer is “I Am the Walrus”, but “Come Together” and “Glass Onion” also contain the word “walrus” in their lyrics. In “Come Together”, it’s mentioned in the line “he got walrus gumboot”.
In “Glass Onion”, “walrus” is mentioned twice in this verse:
I told you about the walrus and me, man
You know that we’re as close as can be, man
Well here’s another clue for you all
The walrus was Paul
All three of these songs were chiefly written by John Lennon. Incidentally, on his 1970 solo album ‘Plastic Ono Band’, the song “God” contains the line “I was the walrus, but now I’m John.”
John Lennon was in the one-time English supergroup The Dirty Mac for The Rolling Stones’ TV special “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus”, recorded on December 11, 1968. Since becoming a Beatle, this was the first time that John had performed in public in any group other than The Beatles. He came up with the name The Dirty Mac as a play on “Fleetwood Mac”. In addition to Lennon on vocals and rhythm guitar, the band consisted of Eric Clapton (from Cream) on lead guitar, Mitch Mitchell (from The Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums, and Keith Richards (from The Rolling Stones) on bass. The band performed the Lennon-written “Yer Blues” from the then recently released Beatles’ ‘White Album’. They also backed up Yoko Ono and violinist Ivry Gitlis on a song titled “Whole Lotta Yoko”.
John and Yoko’s Plastic Ono Band, formed in 1969, also included Eric Clapton as an occasional member.
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus album and home video of the event wouldn’t be released until 1996. The DVD was issued in 2004.
