The songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is one of the most successful collaborations in musical history. The partnership created more than 180 songs, mostly recorded by The Beatles. Other artists, including The Rolling Stones, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, The Fourmost, Cilla Black, Peter & Gordon, P.J. Proby, and Mary Hopkin, had success with the songs written by the Liverpool duo. Most songs were developed by one or the other, but some were true collaborations.
By the time The Beatles recorded their sixth album Rubber Soul, they were pivoting more to the folk sounds of Bob Dylan, and Lennon wanted to write a song about his life and where he came from, though the memories of the two songwriters differ a bit. Let’s look at the story behind “In My Life” by The Beatles.
There are places I’ll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone, and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead, and some are living
In my life, I’ve loved them all
Inspired by a Broadcaster
The British broadcaster and author Kenneth Allsop pressed The Beatles about adding elements of their childhood into their songs. McCartney would do this in “Penny Lane.” In 1980, Lennon told author David Sheff, “For ‘In My Life,’ I had a complete set of lyrics after struggling with a journalistic vision of a trip from home to downtown on a bus naming every sight. It became ‘In My Life,’ which is a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight musically. But all lyrics written, signed, sealed, and delivered. And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work. Up till then, it had all been sort of glib and throwaway. And that was the first time I consciously put my literary part of myself into the lyric. Inspired by Kenneth Allsop, the British journalist, and Bob Dylan.”
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Kenwood
Lennon was living in St George’s Hill in Weybridge, Surrey, England, at the time in a mansion known as Kenwood. In 1971, Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine, “I used to write upstairs, where I had about 10 Brunell tape recorders all linked up; I still have them. I’d mastered them over a period of a year or two. I could never make a rock ‘n’ roll record, but I could make some far-out stuff about it. I wrote it upstairs, that was one where I wrote the lyrics first and then sang it. That was usually the case with things like ‘In My Life.’”
