Only A Northern Song

Harrison

By John T. Marck

This is one of my favorite songs by George Harrison, that was originally intended to appear on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He wrote it as a dig at Northern Songs Ltd, the publishing company that handled all of Lennon and McCartney's songs, and later, Harrison's. Lennon and McCartney each owned 30% shares in Northern Songs, but Harrison and Starr had only 1.6%. Northern Songs looked at Harrison only as an occasional contract writer. In complaining about this arrangement, Harrison was saying in this song that it didn't matter what he wrote, because the bulk of the money was going to other people. The lyrics and music are great, making it one of the more unusual of all The Beatles recordings.

If you're listening to this song,

You may think the chords are going wrong

But they're not,

He just wrote it like that

When you're listening late at night,

You may think the bands are not quite right

But they are,

They just play it like that

It doesn't really matter what chords I play,

What words I say or time of day it is

As it's only a Northern Song

It doesn't really matter what clothes I wear,

Or how I fare or if my hair is brown

When it's only a Northern Song,

If you think the harmony,

Is a little dark and out of key

You're correct,

There's nobody there,

And I told you there's no one there

NOTE: All lyrics contained herein are © Copyright Northern Songs. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. The lyrics contained herein are for the sole use of educational reference for the readers of this article. All other uses are in violation of international copyright laws. This use for educational reference, falls under the "fair use" sections of U.S. copyright law. Copyright ©2000-2022 by John T. Marck. All Rights Reserved. This article and their accompanying pictures, photographs, and line art, may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author, or the registered copyright holders. Except as otherwise stated above, all information contained in this article, EXCEPT song titles, lyrics, and photographs © John T. Marck.