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Song Of The Week - Dig A Pony

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nimrod:
John Lennon was the song's composer and singer but the song was credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was originally called "All I Want Is You". Lennon would later comment that he thought the song was "a piece of garbage," though he has shown similar scorn for many of his songs. It was written for his soon-to-be wife Yoko Ono, and featured a multitude of strange, seemingly nonsense phrases which were strung together in what Lennon refers to as a Bob Dylan style of lyric. The working title for the song, "All I want is you" was originally the title of another composition by Lennon for Yoko, from which the chorus was taken.

Early American copies of Let It Be mistitled this song as "I Dig A Pony."

The song was one of the songs on Let It Be that was recorded at the rooftop concert, with an assistant holding up Lennon's lyrics for him as a cue. It begins with a false start, with Ringo Starr yelling "Hold it!" to halt the other band members because he was blowing his nose and had only one drum stick in his hand. On the Anthology 3 version of this song, the first verse and the end of the song start off with Paul McCartney singing "All I want is..." This phrase appeared in every performance of the song but was cut from the final version by Phil Spector, and subsequently cut from the Let It Be... Naked version.

In rehearsals and takes, the last variation on "dig a pony" was "dog a boney," perhaps a reference to "This Old Man". This is the lyric that appears on Glyn Johns' assembly of Get Back. On the Anthology version, Lennon sang the spoonerism "bog a doney." During the rooftop concert, Lennon substituted what sounds like "rode a lorry," and this is the version that appears on both the Let It Be album and Let It Be... Naked.

Personnel
John Lennon – lead vocal, rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney – backing vocal, bass guitar
George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar
Ringo Starr – drums
Billy Preston – electric piano

Moogmodule:
I like this one although I wouldn't put in the top rank of songs. The words are a bit nonsensical but like a lot of Lennons weirder lyrics sound good with the music.  I think George's active guitar really gives the song some movement and oomph.

Klang:

I never cared for the lyrics, but I love the guitars. They save the song for me.

 :)

tkitna:
Meh

I can take it or leave it.  Its seriously such a ,mediocre song, that I could care less if I hear it or not.

Mr Mustard:
I've always been fairly ambivalent about this one myself but it does have a sort of warm camaraderie about it, played live as an impromptu jam on the Apple rooftop. I don't know why but I always think it's John shouting "Hold it!" at the false start, even though we all know it's Ringo. That's just part of its spontaneous charm; Paul fluffing his falsetto harmony and John moaning about the cold afford it little touches of humanity.

The lyrics are freeform nonsense of course ("You can syndicate every boat you row" indeed!??!) but John's vocal is great and I do like the guitar interplay between John and George. Nice to hear the four of them pulling together - on reflection, I probably like this one more than I'd realised.

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