Few songs signify the end of a band like The Beatles’ classic ‘I, Me, Mine’. Not only is the track a moment that shows off George Harrison’s ever-growing songwriting prowess but also its delay in being included on their 1970 LP Let It Be signified that the Fab Four were only going one way.
The song arrived in the middle of one of the band’s worst periods, recording for Let It Be at their iconic Twickenham sessions, and saw Harrison take aim at the growing egos around him. In the isolated guitar of ‘I, Me, Mine’ you can hear every single note of Harrison’s displeasure.
Arguably the best song on Let It Be, Harrison by this stage of The Beatles’ career had not only found his style but he had cultivated it and crafted it to his own specification. He was not confined to any standard themes of writing pop songs and was instead a deeply personal and honest songwriter. The song title would later go on to title Harrison’s autobiography.
The track is perhaps most notable for being written alongside Bob Dylan’s tutelage after Harrison had spent some time with the folk singer before returning to The Beatles. Upon doing so Harrison offered up the song but was routinely ignored by the power couple of the group Lennon and McCartney.
Perhaps the most poignant reflection of these times is Harrison’s ‘I, Me, Mine’ a song which denounced the ego and favoured Hindu texts’ idea of universal consciousness. It’s a moment in time which signified that Harrison’s spiritual and physical worlds would always collide.
About the song, Harrison said in 1997: “I kept coming across the words I, me and mine in books about yoga and stuff … [about the difference between] the real you and the you that people mistake their identity to be … I, me and mine is all ego orientation. But it is something which is used all the time … “No one’s frightened of saying it, everyone’s playing it, coming on strong all the time. All through your life, I me mine.”
In the isolated guitar track for the song, you can almost feel every note of this sentiment. Harrison is direct and purposeful but his playing is unique and open, offering space for the light of the track and the rest of the music to pour in and flood the song with the kind of joy only The Beatles ever possessed.