McCartney wrote this song about his travel adventures with his then-girlfriend,
Linda Eastman, whom he married in March 1969. As the Beatles were breaking up, it took on new meaning as a gesture of affection to Lennon. The song was originally titled "On Our Way Home".
Ian MacDonald suggested that the lyrics (e.g.: "you and I have memories/longer than the road that stretches out ahead" or "you and me chasing paper/getting nowhere") sounded like McCartney was probably addressing Lennon and contractual troubles. "
You Never Give Me Your Money", a McCartney composition on
Abbey Road, also refers to the Beatles' contract with
Allen Klein as "funny paper". The song is also an ode to one of Lennon and McCartney's influences, the harmonies of
the Everly Brothers. An early performance of the song, in a guitar-driven rock style, can be seen in the
Let It Be film and later in the documentary series
The Beatles: Get Back. Unsatisfied with this style, which McCartney described as "chunky", the band reworked the song around acoustic guitars. The Beatles performed a finished version of the song live at
Apple Studios on 31 January 1969; this performance was included in both the
Let It Be film and album. The clip was also broadcast on
The Ed Sullivan Show on 1 March 1970 as the final appearance by the Beatles on the program. In between several takes of the song on 24 January 1969, the band spontaneously started playing a hammed-up version of traditional Liverpudlian song "
Maggie Mae". The 38-second song would also end up on the
Let It Be album, but is omitted in
Let It Be... Naked. A version of
Two of Us from that day is released on
Anthology 3. In May 1969, McCartney produced a recording of the song using this title by the group Mortimer, a New York City trio that briefly recorded for Apple, but this recording was never released. On the
Let It Be album, producer
Phil Spector added, as a spoken introduction to the song, a remark by Lennon, who says: "'I Dig A Pygmy' by
Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf-Aids! Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats!" This intro was removed in the
Let It Be... Naked version, but it can still be found in the
Get Back documentary. ==Personnel==