I was on the road listening to the BEATLES station on Sirius and FREE AS A BIRD began to play and I blurted out:
‘I always loved that song.’
‘That’s FREE AS A BIRD.’
I was embarrassed but after listening to Beatles songs during the trip, it fit right in, but the implication was that it wasn’t really a Beatles song because it was recorded long after John’s death.
Who cares when it was recorded?
FREE AS A BIRD was created for the ANTHOLOGY series on ABC Television along with REAL LOVE. I won’t get into the politics of ‘why’ but the pieces were based on demos John did and Yoko kept.
Some ‘purists’ maintain that since John wasn’t present at the time, it doesn’t count. The fact is that John wasn’t present on a handful of Beatles recordings and added a later track on some including CARRY THAT WEIGHT. The original recording of that song was done early in July of that year (I don’t remember what year) and Lennon added his track at the end of the month.
My point?
FREE AS A BIRD is a Beatles song.