John Lennon wrote this at the height of his feud with Paul McCartney after The Beatles broke up. Each line of the song is an attack on some aspect of McCartney's life or music at the time. For instance, the line "Everything you done was yesterday. Since you gone you're just another day" refers to Paul's song "Yesterday" with The Beatles and his first solo single "Another Day." John felt that Paul's greatest work was behind him.
When the Imagine album was originally released, it contained a postcard of John holding the ears of a large pig. This was making fun of Paul's 1971 album cover for Ram, released before Imagine, where Paul is pictured holding the horns of a ram. On the back of the Ram album, Paul included a picture of two beetles 'screwing,' or saying to John 'screw' you from one Beatle to another.
The feud between Lennon and McCartney originated after The Beatles manager Brian Epstein passed away. Paul wanted his new father-in-law to manage the group while the other Beatles wanted the notorious Allen Klein. Lennon and McCartney maintained a frosty relationship after the band broke up. By most accounts, McCartney contacted Lennon periodically, but was often rebuffed. The last time they saw each other was two years before Lennon's death when they shared dinner in New York. In a 2008 interview with The Times of London, McCartney said: "The answer to John was well - I was sleeping very well at the time. Before John died I got back a good relationship with him. That was very special. The arguments we had didn't matter. We were able to just take the piss about all those songs; they weren't that harsh. In fact, I have been thanked by Yoko and everyone else for saving the Beatles from Allen Klein. Everything comes round in the end."
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