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Beatles had ever done. Rather than being concerned with working on a set of songs for a new album under George Martin’s production—their usual modus operandi—the Beatles were at the studios to be filmed rehearsing. The rehearsals were to provide only a short part of the future telecast; the bulk of it would be drawn from the as yet unplanned live concert.
    The 10 a.m. start time immediately gave way to an approximate start time of 11 a.m. for everyone. On the first day, Paul, choosing to use public transportation, was delayed and didn’t arrive until nearly 12:30 p.m. Right from the first day, there were several songs captured on film that would appear on the final
Let It Be
album and related singles. Such songs included John’s“Don’t Let Me Down,” composed by John sometime in 1968, and his “Dig a Pony,” which he referred to in a 1980 interview with
Playboy
magazine as “another piece of garbage.” There was also “I’ve Got a Feeling,” which was made up of part of a Lennon song entitled “Everybody Had A Hard Year,” begun in 1968, and a McCartney song that included its title. Also following this trend was Paul’s song “Two of Us,” which was then entitled “On Our Way Home,” and which was about Paul and Linda. It reflected their simple joy at hopping in a car, abandoning London for drives in the country and “riding nowhere.” The song also likely included a reference to Paul and John’s long relationship: the “chasing paper” allusion seems to correspond to the “funny papers” line from “Carry That Weight” that referred to all the legal paperwork and business dealings related to Apple. Alternately, it could simply refer to Paul and Linda’s love of sending postcards while on their country romps.
    The group performed many other songs on that first day, including some it had already recorded, covers of other artists’ songs, loose jams, and several songs that would appear on future Beatles recordings (
Abbey Road)
and on solo albums (
All Things Must Pass
and
Imagine).
There were quite a few performances, particularly of oldies, which consisted of only snatches of a song for under a minute, some even lasting for only a few seconds.Other songs of interest that the four performed in more complete versions included covers of “I Shall Be Released,” “Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo),” and songs previously done by Bob Dylan and the Band that were no doubt suggested at the session by Harrison.
    In the fall of 1968, George and his wife Pattie had ventured to Dylan’s home near Woodstock, flying there from Los Angeles after George finished Jackie Lomax’s album. It was during George’s time with Dylan that the two co-wrote “I’d Have You Anytime,” which would later appear on
All Things Must Pass.
    “Sun King,” which would appear on
Abbey Road,
was also given several fairly complete performances on the first day at Twickenham. “All Things Must Pass” was first introduced on that day as well. Harrison asked the Beatles to pretend they were the Band when performing the song. He raved about the vocal abilities of Levon Helm and Rick Danko, and also mentioned Ray Charles’s backing singers, the Raelets. He admitted he was inspired to write the song by Robbie Robertson’s compositional style, yet was also lyrically influenced by Timothy Leary’s psychedelic poems.
    On the second day, the Beatles attempted even more songs, far exceeding the previous day’s number of complete takes or more than mere snatches of music. There was Samuel Barber’s “Adagio For Strings,” played by Paul on piano, and “The Third Man Theme.” Therewere also two songs that George must have heard by Dylan and the Band during his stay in Woodstock: “Please Mrs. Henry” and “Ramblin’ Woman.” Such British hits as “Hippy, Hippy Shake” and “What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For (When They Don’t Mean What They Say!)” were also performed. The number of oldies the group