Paul McCartney - Too Many People

"Too Many People" is a song by Paul McCartney from his 1971 album Ram. It was dedicated to John Lennon a former member of The Beatles. The song is one of several instances of "musical sniping" among the four Beatles after the band broke up. Others include McCartney's "3 Legs," Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?," and George Harrison's "Wah-wah." The song's lyric has something to do with Lennon's lucky break.

That was your first mistake

You took your lucky break and broke it in two

Now what can be done for you?

You broke it in two
McCartney sings falsetto during the chorus. Hugh McCracken's guitar solo between the second chorus and third verse is played in one piece while his outro-solo is accompanied by a drum stick on the side of a floor tom.

This is the opening verse:

Too many people going underground

Too many reaching for a piece of cake

Too many people pulled and pushed around

Too many waiting for that lucky break
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Many_People"

Lyrics
Too Many People Going Underground
Too Many Reaching For A Piece Of Cake
Too Many People Pulled And Pushed Around
Too Many Waiting For That Lucky Break
That Was Your First Mistake
You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two
Now What Can Be Done For You
You Broke It In Two

Too Many People Sharing Party Lines
Too Many People Never Sleeping Late
Too Many People Paying Parking Fines
Too Many Hungry People Losing Weight

That Was Your First Mistake
You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two
Now What Can Be Done For You
You Broke It In Two

Too Many People Preaching Practices
Don't Let Them Tell You What You Wanna Be
Too Many People Holding Back, This Is
Crazy And Maybe It's Not Like Me

That Was Your Last Mistake
I Find My Love Awake And Waiting To Be
Now What Can Be Done For You
She's Waiting For Me

Category:

Music

Tags:

• ram
• paul
• mccartney
• too
• many
• people
• beatles
• lennon
• linda
• 1971

[reverseification]

Can you imagine that Paul wrote this song when the world population in 1971 was 3.7 billion people; near the end of 2011 the world population will reach 7 billion!!! The human race is taking away all the environment of the planet's species, using all the resources and at the same time producing waste which poisons our planet... Worst of it all?: I am one of them! (Please recycle)

[maxbatch70]

beatles, FOREVER, period!

[rollingstonesgirl99]

such a good song.....just sooo amazing.

paul is a genious :D

[75tm400]

RAM on 8 track. Good @ss times back then.

[maestrostring00]

yea this songs about john

[pronessnoob]

@reverseification

it's already passed 7 billion people, to this day.

[TheShapcal]

I read somewhere that the line "Now what can be done for you/She's waiting for me" is about Yoko ...supposedly she started following Paul around and then moved on to John because Paul wasn't interested ...and the whole art show story is bunk to save face ...don't know if it's true, but it would make a LOT of sense and would have made John insane with jealousy, enough that he could write a song as over-the-top angry and resentful as "How Do You Sleep?" ...makes me wonder what else happened!

[supermansakic]

Guys I hope you know this song has NOTHING to do with the amount of people in the world. Its about John Lennon meeting with Mccartney in 70' saying why he left the beatles- because he was sick of the publicity. Then when Mccartney says, "this was your first mistake" that part, is about mccartney telling lennon he was a fool for giving up his fame for nothing.

[NS9213]

Apparently 9 people don't think that this song is "a piece of cake"???

[grindlemeister]

@reverseification I agree with ya 100 percent. Seven billion people is a scary concept to think about. Funny enough, no one wants to talk about overpopulation anymore. It seems to be a taboo subject. Too many people indeed. WAY too many.