By the end of the Beatles‘ tenure, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were inseparable. Despite the band working on their final albums together, Ono was a fairly constant presence in the studio. That is, until the band recorded their send-off song, “The End”. Find out why Lennon didn’t want Ono in the studio for this particular session, below.
The Beatles Song That John Lennon Didn’t Want Yoko Ono to Watch in the Studio
Oh yeah, all right
Are you going to be in my dreams
Tonight?
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“The End” is sparse lyrically. The majority of the song is made up of impressive playing from each member on their respective instruments. The jam session feel to this song, brought Lennon back to his roots as a musician, according to engineer Geoff Emerick.
In fact, he felt so thrilled to be playing around in the studio with his bandmates that Lennon asked Ono to stay out of the room–which was against the norm at the time. From Emerick’s point of view, Lennon seemed to want a pure moment with the band before they fully fractured into pieces.
“Yoko was about to go into the studio with John–this was commonplace by now–and he actually told her, ‘No, not now. Let me just do this. It’ll just take a minute,’” Emerick once said of the recording session for “The End”. “That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys.”
“You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again,” he added. “One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling.”
You can feel that joy while listening to “The End.” It has got a visceral energy to it that is akin to a live performance. It’s everything that was great about the Beatles’ early, roots-music-inspired years.
It’s comforting to know that the foursome had this throw-back moment before they called it quits as a band. Though they ended up a far cry from how they began, it’s clear the passion for playing together wasn’t completely lost. Revisit “The End,” below.
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make
(Photo by Dennis Stone/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
More Behind The Song
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