One and One and One is Three

One of my favorite Beatles' songs has always been Come Together, which kicks off Abbey Road, perhaps their best, as well as last, recorded album.

Its original concept was for a campaign song for Timothy Leary in his race against Ronald Reagan for governor of California. His theme was to be to 'come together over him" - with him being Timothy Leary and asked John to write a campaign song.I think Leary got thrown in jail or something - so that put an end to the race but John was left with the beginnings of a song.

Anyway, I never really knew what the song was about and figured it was just like random words but I was kind of just surfing the internet and came upon an article that, interestingly, argued that the song, written by John, was actually about the four beatles themselves.

There are four verses and each verse kind of describes someone in each vers but all four verses aren't necessarily about the same person. Does this argument hold any water?:

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

George.
The first part, Here come old flat top, is from a Chuck Berry song. (John actually got sued by the guy who owned the rights, not Chuck Berry, and as part of the settlement John agreed to release an album with a bunch of this guys songs he owned which is what led to the Rock and Roll album - which isn't that great, incidentally.) George's big song in the early days which was a Chuck Berry song, Roll Over Beethoven; He one holy Roller - George was, in fact, a holy roller in 1969 - Hare Krishna, meditating and whatnot; Hair down to his knees - his hair was mad long; Got to be a joker he just do what he please - he sort of did his own thing (ie - play the sitar and shit).

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

Ringo.
Wear no shoeshine - something along the lines of 'keeping it real' or not a fake person; monkey finger - he was left handed; 'coca cola' - I read that this was something about Ringo's, who was apparently a huge drinker, favorite drink - rum and coke; I know you.... again something along the lines of along the lines of them being friends; One thing I can tell you is you gotta be free - maybe he's saying "do your own thing" - Paul did apparently bitch him on the regular and tell him what, exactly, to play.

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

John.
This one seems to be the most obvious. Bag production - him and Yoko were doing that bagism shit where they'd do interviews while both in a paper bag; Walrus is pretty self-explanatory; Ono sideboard - Yoko; feel his disease - John was like a serious heroine addict at the time, he also was pretty open about being a fucked up person sometimes.

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

Paul.
Roller-coaster - I think "Helter Skelter" was what the British called a roller coaster at the time, early warning - OK, well this may be a stretch but a little backround: While this was the last album they recorded - it wasn't the last album they released. They had recorded Let it Be and it was apparently a terrible experience and they fought a lot. After that John was pretty much ready to bounce but they decided to not go out with a shit album and did Abbey Road - which was reportedly a pretty happy experience because they all sort of knew that was going to be the last one. Anyway, muddy water/mojo filter - I don't know, One and one and one is three - it was sort of three vs. one at the time b/c Paul wanted his wife's father to be their manager and the other three wanted Allen Klein, I think which caused big problems; He's got to be good-l00king - Paul was considered the 'cute' Beatle; 'cause he's so hard to see - maybe saying he's full of shit.

And, of course Come together over me - would be him saying, 'let's forget the shit for a while and do one last album'.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Here's a link: http://beatlesnumber9.com/together.html

Click here for a an animated video thing of the song: http://www.devilducky.com/media/16037/