I’m Down (Lennon/McCartney)
Quotes
“I’m not sure if John had any input on it, in fact I don’t think he did. I’m Down was my rock n’ roll shouter. I ended up doing it at Shea Stadium. It worked very well for those kind of places, it was a good stage song, and in as much as they are hard to write, I’m proud of it. Those kind of songs with hardly any melody, rock n’ roll songs, are much harder to write than ballads, because there’s nothing to them.” – Paul McCartney
“I could do Little Richard’s voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it’s like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it. You have to actually go outside yourself…A lot of people were fans of Little Richard so I used to sing his stuff but there came a point when I wanted one of my own, so I wrote I’m Down.” – Paul McCartney
“I was putting my foot on it and George couldn’t play for laughing. I was doing it for a laugh. The kids didn’t know what I was doing. Because I did the organ on I’m Down, I decided to play it on stage for the first time. I didn’t really know what to do, because I felt naked without a guitar, so I was doing all Jerry Lee – I was jumping about and I only played about two bars of it.” – John Lennon, on the performance of the song at Shea Stadium including playing with his elbows
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – lead vocal, bass
- John Lennon – backing vocal, rhythm guitar, Vox Continental organ
- George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, bongos
Release history
- Help! / I’m Down (single) (1965)
- Rock N’ Roll Music (1976)
- “Rarities” (1978)
- Past Masters (1988)
- Anthology 2 (1996) [take 1]
- Mono Masters (2009)
- Tomorrow Never Knows (2012)