How Do You Sleep chords by John Lennon

"How Do You Sleep?" is a song from John Lennon's 1971 album Imagine, in which he attacks his former The Beatles songwriting partner and close friend Paul McCartney. The song features a slide guitar part played by George Harrison. According to the How Do You Sleep Songfacts, the feud between Lennon and McCartney originated after The Beatles manager Brian Epstein passed away. Paul wanted his new father-in-law to manage the group while the other Beatles wanted the notorious Allen Klein. Lennon and McCartney maintained a frosty relationship after the band broke up. The song's lyrics refer to the Paul is dead hoax ("Those freaks was right when they said you was dead"). The song begins with the words, "So Sergeant Pepper took you by surprise", referring to the landmark album that the Beatles made. Preceding this first line are ambient sounds evocative of those heard at the beginning of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. The lyrics "The only thing you done was yesterday/And since you've gone you're just another day" are direct shots at Paul McCartney as well, the first lyric being a reference to the Beatles' 1965 song "Yesterday", McCartney's most popular song and technically the first Beatles' "solo" track because no other Beatle was involved in the recording. The second lyric could be considered a reference to McCartney's hit single "Another Day", released earlier in 1971. Although Lennon receives the sole credit as the song's author, multiple reports indicate that Ono as well as Allen Klein, John's manager, also contributed lyrics. In addition to George Harrison on slide guitar, the song featured Lennon on piano and vocals, Klaus Voormann on bass, Alan White on drums, acoustic guitar played by Ted Turner, Rod Linton, and Andy Davis, as well as additional piano parts by Nicky Hopkins and John Tout (Hopkins likely contributing electric piano, as he had done previously on the Beatles "Revolution"). Lennon felt attacked by McCartney, who later admitted that lines in the song "Too Many People" on the album Ram were intended as digs at Lennon (Lennon thought that other songs on the album, such as "3 Legs," contained similar attacks). Ringo Starr visited the studio during the recording of the song and was reportedly upset, saying: "That's enough, John." Lennon and McCartney later reconciled. A demo version of the song appears on John Lennon Anthology, released in 1998. In the DVD special documentary on RAM Paul McCartney said that on hearing "How Do You Sleep?", a song from John Lennon's album Imagine, considered writing a song "Very Well, Thank You." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.