Original version recorded – January 3rd 1970
Ukulele version recorded – March 26th 2010
Stacie Rose – Vocals
David Barratt – Ukulele and everything else
photo by angelshots.com
Written by George Harrison
Produced by David Barratt at The Abattoir Of Good Taste, Brooklyn, NY
"I looked around and everything I could see was relative to my ego. You know, like ‘that’s my piece of paper,’ and ‘that’s my flannel,’ or ‘give it to me,’ or ‘I am.’ It drove me crackers– I hated everything about my ego
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001)
"The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender."
William Booth (10 April 1829 – 20 August 1912)
ABOUT THE SONG
"I Me Mine" from the “Let It Be” album is written and sung by George. He liked the title so much that he used it again for his scrapbook/autobiography in 1980.
The Beatles recording is a mix of two of my least favorite genres. “Maudlin Irish Wake Music” and “White Man Pub Rock Blues”.
Recorded at Twickenham Film Studios it was never intended to be released due to quality control reasons. The song was saved because director Michael Lindsay-Hogg included it on a rough edit of The Saddest Rock’n’Roll Documentary Of All Time.
I Me Mine is very close to being a post-Beatles recording. John had privately quit the group in September 1969 and was practicing “Not Being A Beatle” in Denmark.
Paul, George and Ringo (It doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?) entered Abbey Road on January 3rd 1970 to record a new version of the song. 16 takes later a one minute, thirty-four second version was deemed acceptable.
Harrison referenced Lennon’s absence at the beginning of take 15.
"You all will have read that Dave Dee is no longer with us. But Mickey and Tich and I would just like to carry on the good work that’s always gone down in number two.”
When Phil Spector was brought in to save the car crash that was the “Get Back” album he got out his usual bag of tricks i.e. oodles of orchestral overdubs, and re-edited it to squeeze out an extra 45 seconds or so.
The final "re-produced" version by Spector, was featured on the re-titled Let It Be album. A similar edit, without Spector’s overdubs, is available on Let It Be… Naked.
The music of I Me Mine is a little dull but the idea behind the song is not.
The Beatles Machine was collapsing under the weight of it’s own collective ego. The individuals in the band felt they were more important than the collective. That included George as well. Let us not forget that his first album after The Beatles break up was a triple album.
But despite his own war with his ego George tells us there is no “ME” only “WE”.
He may be right.
As I write this I am eating breakfast in a cafe in Barking, East London.
The whole experience was created by many people: farmers, butchers, cooks, drivers and many others collaborating with many materials, markets and systems. I, as the end user of the breakfast, am in direct contact with them. My experience is the result of their efforts and aspirations. At the same time I am integral to the fact that the breakfast is created. All the links in the chain that made this breakfast possible are inseparable.
Obviously it is not my breakfast.
In fact everything in society is a collaboration. Not only the physical things, but also the very thoughts within are based on the ideas, myths, experience, language and cultural habits of our ancestors, figures of history and contemporaries.
As stated by Musho in a previous post (link here),"ME" is a delusion in action. Protecting "ME" is a huge industry that controls us personally and politically. "ME" is a field fortified with selfishness and fear, and as it is cultivated we become addicted to anyone who can satisfy and glorify the delusion of "ME".
The idea of “WE” gets a bit of a bad rap in my home town of New York. “ME” or “control of self” is valued above everything. “WE” or “surrender of self” is looked down upon.
In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve over-valued the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.
There are however four areas, religion, art, sex, drugs, in which this kind of surrender believed to have value. These are areas where you stop being manipulators of your surroundings and become recipients.
– In religion, you stop being you and you start to become us.
– In art, the work you are creating is not by you put passes through you.
– With drugs, you go from being you to being part of everything.
– In sex, when it’s done right, the distinction of self and other disappear.
In lots of South American cultures, religion and drugs are very close.
In Hinduism, sex and religion are very close.
For a lucky few of us all four can be combined at will.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Genre-jumping pop genius Stacie Rose with David Barratt merged the various sections of I Me Mine into one rhythmic melange with her voice swooping and swirling like an osprey in flight across the track.
Stacie Rose is thrilled to have recorded one of her all-time favorite Beatle songs for this amazing project. The notion that this song illuminates and exposes our human lust/obsession with ego and in a sense renounces that, which can only bog us down seems particularly fitting, since she’s about to release her Alter-Ego Ep’s. (ENCHANTED RECORDS) The idea of life being more about “WE” than “ME” is appealing as Stacie continues an ongoing love affair with collaboration in music making.
With all Ego aside…here are the facts..
Rose has been hailed for her super-hooky, confessional songs that effortlessly, fuse pop, soul, country, & rock and stay in your head. Critics have compared her song-writing to the likes of Rosanne Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Suzanne Vega, and Aimee Mann and her pop sensibility to artists like, Sheryl Crow, Nelly Furtado, Dido and Avril Lavigne; but have praised her for a vocal & visceral sound all her own. Consistently noted as an “artist you should know about.”
Stacie knows that you are not alone.
You are not even you.
www.stacierose.com