Here come old flattop 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 shoeshine 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




now...I've looked at these lyrics over and over...
I don't get ANY of the specifics. All I can gather is a sense of rebellion.

I feel stupid cuz it's one of my favorite Beatles songs but I don'tknow what it means. I feel ike a front runner...ya know?


can an old skooler walk me thru this and hip me to what they mean exactly, cuz I've tried and can't.
[Edited 3/3/07 22:39pm]

BobGeorge909 said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagism

Stax said:

THANK! you!...that explains some of it....maybe I should wikipidia the song...?

BobGeorge909 said:

Its nonsense that sounds good, like "a-wop-bop alubop-a-bop-bam-boom" or "shocka-locka"

but the groove and feel is sexual, I think

if you've got the beatles "love" album, listen to the enhanced backing of Lennon saying"come", over the guitar break (i think around 2:14)

He ain't talking about coming over to tea

personally, i think its about john lennon basically denouncing anything special about Jesus or the existence of God...basically saying "hey look, me and Jesus got a similar thing and, well, there's no real God, so just come together over whatever you want as long as you come together.

I thought it was about homosexual love.

The "Come together, right now/Over me" part of the song was part of a failed campaign slogan that John wrote for Tim Leary.

I have a book that goes into depth about every song the Beatles ever did. Here's what Lennon had to say about Come Together: "Come Together is me writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing...It's gobbledygook..."

Axchi696 said:

which chuck berry thing?

BobGeorge909 said:

"Here come old flat top" was nicked from a chuck berry tune or something.

In the book "I Am The Walrus", it claims that this song is about Paul being dead. many of the lyrics refer to this. The "Come Together over me" is a corpse in a coffin buried in the ground and the onlookers at the funeral looking down into the coffin. In the line "Here comes old flat top." was said to mean because of the rumour Paul was decapitated in a car accident, then it was a body with no head. Also the lyric 'he had hair down to his knee". The "he had" is in past tense. And "hair down to his knees' is believed to be from in many Eastern religions, they believe that after the body has died, the hair continues to grow. So the corpses body (Paul) hair continued to grow. In many picures of The Beatles, especially during Sgt Pepper and magical Mystery, they make reference to "the 3 Beatles". So in the lyric, "one and one and is three' is said to reference to Paul's death. Also the lyric, "Got to be good looking cause he's so hard to see." This refers again to Paul, who was always considered to be the "cute Beatle" and the "so hard to see" is again a reference to Paul's death.

dammme said:

ditto...paul is deffinately NOT dead...ask his ex-wife..she trying to get a dead man's money?

it's just meaningless phrases strewn together to brilliant effect.

NorthernLad said:

sadly I think this is true...

BobGeorge909 said:

i always thought it was just a bunch of dadaism, john riffing on a whole bunch of random things that were in his head and probably ad-libbing stuff that ended up as the official lyrics.

and, well, what the hell is "i am the walrus" about?!

Anx said:

I learned that it was a song put together to intentionally confuse critics/fans who read to much into his lyrics...I guess Come Together is a similar project.


btw edit: I had used the lyrics to walrus in a "lyrics to suit your mood" thred earlier today...lol...
[Edited 3/5/07 15:46pm]

BobGeorge909 said:

i think it's mainly stream of consciousness

though i think there's meaning in anything someone writes, even if it looks like babble. i just don't think there's one overriding theme or 'message' to this song, necessarily.

seatin´on corn flake again

Why did jacko choose to cover this? Apart from owning the publishing to it. weird as usual

BobGeorge909 said:

Well you could of course say that NO creation by someone is ever completely meaningless.

calldapplwondery83 said:

i agree with that. i think even the most seemingly random art has to draw upon some kind of personal experience, and those experiences get dragged up into the art for some kind of reason.

LittleSmedley said:

You Can't Catch Me

I think the song is full of silly psychedelic lines that simply sounded good, but in general it paints a portrait of a very kooky longhaired individual who was an amateur spiritul leader, speaking lines like "one thing I can tell you is you've got to be free. Come together!" but may have been insane.

I'm guessing it's partly about John himself (a combunation of Chuck Berry's flattop character and the dirty longhair) and nonsense jabberwocky.

LittleSmedley said:

Because it's his favourite Beatles song.

Listend to the song...GREAT Chuck Berry song. I can completely see how john took it and ran with it...and left enuff of the original behind so U know he stole it if U were a good berry fan...it's pretty obvious now!

NDRU said: