What happened when John Lennon and Paul McCartney each wrote a song about the same subject? One song was clearly better, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
In 1968, John, Paul, George, & Ringo decided to go to India to study with the Maharishi Yogi.
It was partially successful. The Beatles appreciated some of the teachings, but they were also ultimately disillusioned by some of the Yogi’s personal actions. Meanwhile, it was an unusual opportunity for The Beatles to slow down their pace of living. It gave them time for resting and songwriting.
At one point, John and Paul were each inspired to write a song about nature.
John’s song was titled “Child Of Nature”, and Paul’s was “Mother Nature’s Son”. Both artists recorded demos prior to the sessions for The White Album.
Here’s John’s demo::
You can hear that it’s a good melody, but it doesn’t really work with the lyrics about nature. It seems silted, like John’s trying too hard to make it all fit together. More workmanlike than inspired.
Here’s Paul’s demo:
Even though it’s a rough demo, it obviously has a better feel and flow. You can imagine the singer sitting in a field singing as he plays his guitar. It all works. “Mother Nature’s Son” made the cut for the album.
A year later, 1969, John Lennon briefly tried to rework “Child Of Nature” with a different title and lyrics during the Let It Be sessions, but to no avail. John didn’t give up. In 1971 the song became “Jealous Guy”. Here it is:
”Jealous Guy” is considered one of the best song’s on Lennon’s #1 album, Imagine.
And here’s the beautiful finished version of MCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son”:
John and Paul were great co-writers, but they were also competitive. In this case it was win-win.