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Only a Northern SongThe Beatles

Released: January 17, 1969

Songwriter: George Harrison

Producer: George Martin

[Verse 1]
If you're listening to this song
You may think the chords are going wrong
But they're not
We just wrote it like that

[Verse 2]
When you're listening late at night
You may think the band are not quite right
But they are
They just play it like that

[Chorus 1]
It doesn't really matter what chords I play
What words I say or time of day it is
As it's only a Northern song

[Instrumental Break]

[Chorus 2]
It doesn't really matter what clothes I wear
Or how I fare or if my hair is brown
When it's only a Northern song

[Verse 3]
If you think the harmony
Is a little dark and out of key
You're correct
There's nobody there
And I told you there's no one there

The Beatles

The Beatles are arguably the most famous, critically-acclaimed, and successful rock band of all time—certainly the preeminent group of the 20th century. They started out as four teenagers playing grimy basement clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, but they progressed to become world-beating rock stars who are still influential to this day.

John Lennon first formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen in March 1957. A fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined shortly thereafter, eventually inviting his friend George Harrison to audition for the band. After finally impressing John with his guitar skills, George was asked to join—but this juncture would be short-lived as John’s departure to college signaled the other quarrymen to go their separate ways.

By 1960, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison had re-branded from ‘Johnny & the Moondogs’ to ‘The Silver Beetles’ at the behest of their new bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. The name would eventually evolve into ‘The Silver Beatles’ by July of that year, before settling on ‘The Beatles’ come August—just in time for their trip to Hamburg with new drummer, Pete Best. Though club residencies in Germany would prove fundamental to the group’s progress as a whole, the tour turned out to be a blessing and a curse, following the deportation of a then-seventeen-year-old George Harrison, and the eventual tragic death of Stuart Sutcliffe.

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