How Do You Sleep? Lyrics

John wrote and sang about the world, while Paul wrote and sang about individuals in that world. Paul's best five songs are way better than John's best five. At his worst, Paul could be commercial and amazingly corny. At his worst, John could be ridiculous and blasphemous. Anyway, I like Paul more.

Personally I love both artists work. Paul certainly had an easy listening quality to all his work, but often lacked a message to his music [some of his music had plenty of message, but not most]. It was always simple and enjoyable. johns music was often edgy and abstract and hard to listen to. However, john often had so much to say lyrically in his music. I think approxamately 25% of johns music was some of the very greatest music ever written... However about 25% of johns music was abrasive, harsh, and generally awful. How do you choose between such greatness. They were both utterly magnificent musically, and probably my favorite all time band. Incidentally, they wrote their music separately and alone... and then upon completion would show the other what they had done and allowed an openness to change things based on the others suggestion towards bettering the stuff. i.e. Paul wrote "I've Got To Admit It's Getting Better; It's Getting Better All The Time"... And John upon seeing this piece of music contributed the add in "IT CAN'T GET NO WORSE". This is a significant addition to the song, but don't worry... Paul did the same thing for john. To me the BEATLES and the song-writing team of LENNON/McCARTNEY is among the greatest of all time. Maybe they did have a bit of animosity towards each other which showed up sometimes in their solo work, but under animosity you've got to know that they loved, respected, and appreciated each other and how well their Beatles collaborations complemented each other. In fact, many years latter and after Johns untimely death, Paul wrote a piece of music to commemorated his friendship and love for Lennon... It's called "HERE TODAY". The song totally expresses Pauls LOVE for John and his SADNESS over Johns being gone. No Lie... Look it up and listen to the lyrics!

These few comments cut the normal banter
Everyone makes good points
The four horsemen ride
Unaware
Simply chosen
To deliver message

This song had to hurt Paul
You want to say Paul was the gay Beatle, fine
No argument
Man did a lot of good work
A lot of good work
And held the group together, besides, for the last, while wrestling egos. He knew he needed them and they needed him. That's how Paul showed his love.

Ringo sang, "George, Paul and my friend John."
Just the way he said it. It's got to hurt.

Larry Norman sang, "The Beatles said All You Need Is Love, and then they broke up." Could have said Give Peace a Chance. Same thing.

That hurts John and Yoko, too.

They were thoughtful unique. They changed the world. Four little bastards from Liverpool, mind you. Ringo hoped he could play cash into a barber shop. Johnny the overseer watches Stu die. George so unsure. Pauley going to John's house over and over to invent. They play together in Hamburg for eight hours a night, living in a shithole, getting together as a band. That's the way you do it. You play. You adventure. You engage. This is teenagers puking on fear. And it happens to be great. Not good. Not filler. Great. Their sharing created bonds that won't default.

Paul can take it, sure. John shouldn't have done it, no. I love George and Ringo, they are better than just about anything. But Paul and John, or John and Paul, whipped the pony ridden by George Martin flashing jester bells. You and anyone you know are different because of this seminal pushing and shoving.

John is not saying it sarcastic, or confrontational, except as a jibe, early in the song. God, who didn't think Paul could be pretentious? At the end, he's asking his best friend for ever and ever, the only other man in the universe who can possibly understand, "What's your method? How do YOU sleep at night? Because I can't either.I don't know what I've created."

Last story: Paul drops in unexpectedly on John in Manhattan. John prefers 'me' time, but how do you slam the door on Paul? They are watching Saturday Night Live. Guy says they will pay the Beatles $100 to come and play, tonight. Live. This is the mid-70's. Paul says, "Let's do it. It would be fun." He should have said funny, not fun. Like smoking refer with Bob Dylan, not going on picnic at Bishop's Gate. After all, that's what the Beatles were all about. Kids having fun. Be like children, for as long as you fucking can.

John is interested, but finally declines. They thought better of it, collectively.

To me, that's the day the music died.

no meanies to paul or john
paul and john were best friends, they were basically poking fun at each other. theyre aloud to do that after being so close for so many years. theyre just blowing off steam. duh!
paul did the same thing to john
so cool off people...
these guys were genious, they know what they were doing. people offending paul know nothing.
people offending john know nothing
the end.

John Lennon is the man, and faul mccartney is a fake ass musician that made it through a talented mans death, it this is why Lennon was so pissed. Paul or Faul fanatics used to be all over wings and whatnot which is a 70s crappy rendition of beatles music which he learned through the last 4 to 5 yrs. of being in the beatles. I mean come on ringo, george, and lennon recorded this song together, you really don't think this was because they were a 70s version of biggie and pac. why do u think lennon left the woman he loved right when that chicago disc jocky put the clues together finally in 69. He didnt want the people he loved get wrapped up in this british money machine freakshow. i mean THINK why would they start backmasking talking shit about paul and paul just taking it for 4 years. duh it isnt paul

-you can call me enlightened-

I think this whole John vs. Paul thing is ridiculous. They were both different artists and even when they together formed one of the greatest song writing partnerships in history, you could still clearly distinguish their styles from each other.
I don't like the idea of the feud between them, but at the same time it is sort of okay, because a fight like that could only really happen to people who really liked each other, as those two did.
The Beatles practically lived in each others Pierre Cardin suit pockets for ten years, so something was bound to happen eventually! They just grew apart, and blaming it on Yoko is stupid, even if she did help John grow a little. They may have split up, but they still loved each other, really, as the entire world still loved-loves- their music.
How do you sleep? is a fantastic song, and even though it does seem a little sad, it is in a way nice where it came from.

Watch the movie, "Paul Really is Dead". You'll find that John Lennon was being totally literal in the lyrics, "How Do You Sleep?" John was writing this song for the double that took Paul's place after Paul's fatal car crash on November 9, 1966. Watch the movie...

@Lou, two reviews below me, actually, Paul McCartney wrote a song in direct response to this one, called Silly Love Songs, in which Paul knocks at the fact that John was doing nothing but wasting time when he wrote love songs...
That's my interpretation of that song, yours could differ from mine, of course.

They both had the biggest egos in the world, and after everything they went through, it would be hard not to resent each other with heads as big as theirs. But I can't blame them for their egos, they were and are the most influential band of all time

"I can almost assure you John Lennon would have cared less about who was covering Paul's songs." Um, check your facts. It was Yoko who has said -- multiple times -- that John was upset that more people covered Paul's songs than John's. John was obsessed with Paul's success in the 70s, resentful that Paul's Beatles songs were bigger hits. I think Paul, to some degree, has always been obsessed with John, too. But this song -- How Do You Sleep? -- is John as a lousy human being. Mr. Peace and Love is actually advocating hating on a friend. Paul certainly has his faults, too, but Paul has NEVER publicly criticized John's music or musical skills, and Paul certainly could have done both. But Paul never stooped so low. His little digs in Too Many People never named John and could have been about anyone. And he never tried to diminish John as a musician as John repeatedly tried to do to Paul. It's really appalling behavior on John's part. The opposite of love is indifference. If John wasn't so obsessed and jealous of Paul, John wouldn't have continually attacked Paul publicly. You only hurt the ones you love.

The first comment on this page says that after decades of listening to the beatles he cannot argue with the suggestion that all Paul 'did' was yesterday. All I can say is you didn't listen very hard through those decades. I don't favour either John or Paul, they were equals and we see how mcuh they needed each other when we look at the majority of their pretty awful solo projects, but if you look (Really look!) at the beatles strongest years and their most seminal albums, Paul's contribution is at the very lest equal to John's To sum up, it is a stupid comment by somebody who clearly isn't a beatles fan!

Simply put, John is responding to innuendo by Paul that The Beatles may get back together if Yoko stops causing trouble. John is saying loudly and clearly: "The Beatles are over, done; no more Lennon-McCartney". And John's also saying that he really was The Beatles, since the only thing Paul did was "Yesterday". Its hard to argue with that after decades of listening to the music.

Honestly, I don't know if it actually matters what happened to The Beatles, and with all the various feuds they had. Some really great songs came out of it. It sounds terrible, but it's true. Arguing about the semantics of everything is pointless. Unless you actually were a Beatle, you will never know what all happened. When it comes down to it, fame messes with your head. Fame messes with anyone's head, and when you are god-like in other peoples eyes, things can't go well. I'm not going to put any blame on anyone. I just wish that it hadn't happened with The Beatles. I miss 'em...

Some of you were right this song is a rebuttal to Paul McCartney's "Too Many People" not a Jealousy thing, I can almost assure you John Lennon would have cared less about who was covering Paul's songs, "Too many people" was an obvious message to John, an insulting message at that, so this song was not just written to piss off Paul, it was written in order to respond to Paul's message, Go read up

John was jealous of Paul so get YOUR facts straight. If you knew anything, you would know that John constantly told that jap of his that he was jealous of Paul because of the fact that more artists covered Paul's songs and not his and that made John doubt himself.