he Beatles were driven forwards by the partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, two souls were often in sync, but could sometimes drive each other crazy. Take ‘Across The Universe’ – often lauded as one of the band’s finest moments, it’s beatific paean was given an arrangement that sparked John Lennon to call it “subconscious sabotage”.
The lyric itself is one of Lennon’s most beautiful. The opening phrase of “words spilling out into a paper cup” was sparked by unease in his marriage, the image itself coming to mind after an uncomfortable conversation with his first wife, Cynthia.
“I was lying next to my first wife in bed, you know, and I was irritated, and I was thinking. She must have been going on and on about something and she’d gone to sleep and I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream. I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song rather than an irritated song… [The words] were purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don’t own it you know; it came through like that.”
The song was first recorded at Abbey Road in 1968, with the high notes famously being sung by two fans retrieved from outside the studio gates. A hazy, wistful piece of music, it remained unreleased as The Beatles attempted to focus on the many songs they had penned during that year’s visit to India.
‘Across The Universe’ retained a special place in John Lennon’s imagination, however, and the Spike Milligan – a personal hero of the Beatles – visited the studio, they eagerly donated the recording to a benefit album for the World Wildlife Fund.
