Don't Bother Me

AUTHORSHIP Harrison (1.00)

HARRISON: "The first song that I wrote - as an exercise to see if I could write a song. I wrote it in a hotel in Bournemouth, England, where we were playing a summer season in 1963. I was sick in bed - maybe that's why it turned out to be 'Don't Bother Me.'
"I don't think it's a particularly good song, it mightn't even be a song at all, but at least it showed me that all I needed to do was keep on writing and then maybe eventually I would write something good." I Me Mine
Bill Harry, then editor of Mersey Beat, disagrees with Harrison's story. He said he pestered Harrison to write a song other than the instrumental, "Cry for a Shadow," and that finally Harrison did just to stop Harry from bothering him. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Beatles Illustrated Record : 3rd Revised Edition

HARRISON: "The first song I ever wrote was in Bournemouth when I was feeling a bit sick. In fact, I was in bed and the doctors were giving me some tonic and I thought I might as well write a song, so I wrote one, it was an awful song, called 'Don't Bother Me', which, I suppose, is how I felt at the time." The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

RECORDED
September 11 and 12, 1963, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, claves
LENNON: rhythm guitar, tambourine
HARRISON: lead guitar, vocal (double-tracked)
STARR: drums, bongos, loose-skinned Arabian bongo

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON, replying to Harrison's complaints of mistreatment of his songs, autumn 1969: "We put a lot of work in your songs, even down to 'Don't Bother Me'; we spent a lot of time doing all that and we grooved - I can remember the riff you were playing." John Lennon: One Day At A Time

HARRISON: "To write a song . . . even one like 'Don't Bother Me,' helps to get rid of some subconscious burden. Writing a song is like going to confession." I Me Mine