# Did The Beatles write down any of their lyrics or music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-beatles-write-down-any-of-their-lyrics-or-music/519864>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 3, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-beatles-write-down-any-of-their-lyrics-or-music/519864 "2009-12-03T16:31:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-beatles-write-down-any-of-their-lyrics-or-music/519864/21 "2009-12-07T01:47:41Z")

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> [@Lochdale](#):
>
> I always felt that George Martin has a massive influence on why the Beatles became, well the Beatles.

in the studio yes.

and i know this is about the music, but since you brought up massive influence; brian epstein had at least as much to do with the beatles success, particularly in the early days, than anyone ever involved with the band. he brought them from the cavern club to the ed sullivan show.

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**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-beatles-write-down-any-of-their-lyrics-or-music/519864/22 "2009-12-30T16:48:26Z")

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> [@Talon\_Karrde](#):
>
> I just read the book _Here, There, and Everywhere_ by Geoff Emerick, which is about his experiences with them as a studio engineer, and he talks a little about that stuff, more song finishing than song writing. He also says in that book that John Lennon had a terrible memory, so sometimes he’d have a lyrics sheet in front of him (but it didn’t help much because he also had horrible eyesight).

I just finished this book (thanks for the recommendation), which includes a few specific stories about music and lyrics that The Beatles wrote down. Paul was organized and “always” carried a notebook around with him, in which he methodically wrote down lyrics and chord changes. When John’s portion of “A Day in the Life” was recorded, it lacked a middle section; Paul went through his notebook and discovered a bit of an unfinished song written some time before that he felt might fit, and John liked his suggestion. In contrast to organized Paul, John was always searching for scraps of paper that he’d hurriedly scribbled ideas on. As mentioned, John nearly always used a lyric sheet when recording, which was often taped to a music stand in front of his mic. In planning the fade-out ending of “Good Morning, Good Morning,” John had written out a list of animal sounds that he wanted to hear in order at the end of the song (his list was in fact followed in the final version). And during the _Revolver_ sessions, instead of practicing songs ahead of time, John, Paul or George would come in to the studio with “scraps of paper” with lyrics or chord sequences on them, and within a day or two, the completed song would be recorded.

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