I Me Mine

"I Me Mine"
Cover of the original Hansen Publishing sheet music for the song
Song by the Beatles
from the album Let It Be
Published	Harrisongs
Released	8 May 1970
Recorded	3 January and 1 April 1970 Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre	Folk blues,hard rock
Length	2:25
Label	Apple
Songwriter(s)	George Harrison
Producer(s)	Phil Spector

"I Me Mine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. Written by George Harrison, it was the last new track recorded by the band before their split in April 1970. The song originated from the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in January 1969, and its lyrics serve as a comment from Harrison on the fractious situation within the group at that time. The song's musical mood alternates between waltz-time verses, during which Harrison laments the ego problems afflicting the Beatles, and choruses played in the hard rock style.

The Beatles rehearsed "I Me Mine" at Twickenham Studios in January 1969. A year later, by which point John Lennon had privately left the group, the three remaining members formally recorded it at EMI's Abbey Road Studios. When preparing the Let It Be album for release in 1970, producer Phil Spector extended the track by repeating the song's chorus and second verse, in addition to adding lush orchestration. The original version of the track, at just 1:34 in duration and without the orchestral overdubs, appeared on the Beatles' 1996 outtakes compilation Anthology 3, introduced by a mock announcement from Harrison referring to Lennon's departure. Harrison titled his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, after the song.

The set of pronouns which forms the song's title is a conventional way of referring to the ego in a Hindu context. For example, the Bhagavad Gita 2:71-72 can be translated as "They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of 'I', 'me' and 'mine' to be united with the Lord. This is the supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death to immortality." Author Jonathan Gould claims that Harrison wrote "I Me Mine" "as a commentary on the selfishness" of his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney and considers it poignant that the song was only properly recorded because, during the group's filmed rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios in January 1969, it had provided accompaniment to Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono dancing. Gould writes that Harrison was particularly upset at Twickenham "that his fellow Beatles could complain about the amount of time they had to spend learning the arrangement for 'I Me Mine' and then turn around and submit to a laborious rehearsal of a song like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' which struck George as a paragon of pop inanity." Gould contends further that, if "friends like Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton heard something worthwhile in material like [Harrison's] 'All Things Must Pass'" then only "sheer egotism could account for the air of complete indifference with which Lennon and McCartney first greeted" both that tune and "I Me Mine".