Written at a time of acrimony within the group, the lyrics lament humankind's propensity for self-centredness and serve as a comment on the discord that led to Harrison temporarily leaving the Beatles.

In January 1970, by which point Lennon had privately left the group, the three remaining members formally recorded the song at EMI Studios in London for the Let It Be album.

When preparing the album for release, producer Phil Spector extended the track by repeating the chorus and second verse, in addition to adding orchestration and a female choir.

The original recording, lasting just 1:34, appeared on the Beatles' 1996 outtakes compilation Anthology 3, introduced by a mock announcement from Harrison referring to Lennon's departure.

[2] The melody was inspired by the incidental music on a BBC television programme he watched, Europa – The Titled and the Untitled,[19] played by an Austrian brass band.

[23] Author Jonathan Gould describes the song as a "commentary on the selfishness" of Lennon and McCartney,[26] while musicologist Walter Everett says that after Harrison had written "Not Guilty" in 1968 as a "defense against the tyranny of his songwriting comrades", "I Me Mine" was his "mocking complaint about their stifling egos".

[22] In their study of the tapes from the Get Back project, authors Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt write that Lennon and McCartney regularly overlooked Harrison's compositions, even when his songs were "far better than their own".

[28][nb 2] Everett likens the melody of the verses to the European folk music typified by Mary Hopkin's debut single for the Beatles' Apple record label, "Those Were the Days".

[22][nb 3] The composition originally included a flamenco-style instrumental passage[30] but Harrison subsequently replaced this section with a chorus repeating the line "I me-me mine".

[39][nb 4] According to spiritual biographer Gary Tillery, the song targets McCartney and Lennon "for being so fixated on their own interests" but also laments all of humankind's propensity for egocentricity.

[41] Tillery says that the message is both ironic and tragic from a Hindu perspective, which contends that ego is merely an illusion; egocentricity is therefore akin to a single drop of water focusing on its own course at the expense of the ocean surrounding it.

[53] According to Gould, Harrison was particularly upset that his bandmates griped about the time spent learning "I Me Mine" yet then indulged in "a laborious rehearsal of a song like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' which struck George as a paragon of pop inanity".

[63] At the start of take 15, Harrison delivered a mock press statement in which he made a joking reference to Lennon's absence[64] by recasting the four Beatles as members of the British pop group Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.

[66][80] Although Lewisohn states that the female choir hired by Spector for the session did not sing on "I Me Mine",[65] music critic Richie Unterberger lists their contribution among the song's Wall of Sound characteristics.

[81] To the consternation of the EMI engineers, Spector also insisted on hearing the tracks with full tape, plate and chamber echo in place – effects that were usually introduced during final mixing and proved difficult to add.

[88][89] For Harrison, the break-up provided the impetus for starting work, with Spector as his co-producer, on the triple album All Things Must Pass, which included songs that had been overlooked by the Beatles.

[92] Unaware of the events at Twickenham Films Studios in January 1969,[93] Nina Hibbin commented in the socialist newspaper Morning Star: "George Harrison, with his strong-boned face and shut-in expression, looks as if he could fit into any tough and isolated position – as a shepherd in Bulgaria or the manager of a suburban post office.

"[94] Music critic Tim Riley includes the scene where Harrison debuts "I Me Mine" for Starr among the documentary's "knockabout moments", but adds that the film's "emotional undertow is an impenetrable dance of egos", as demonstrated by Lennon and Ono waltzing to the song.

[95][nb 8] According to critic Garry Mulholland, the scene featuring Lennon and Ono waltzing, "in love, temporary oblivious to the band politics", provides "the only glimpse of pleasure" in the Twickenham-based portion of the film, which is otherwise "all about McCartney, holding court, talking in that phoney mid-Atlantic twang".

"[97][nb 9] Among contemporary reviews of the album, Alan Smith of the NME derided Let It Be as "a cheapskate epitaph" and a "sad and tatty end" to the band's career,[98][99] but he admired the "Russian-flavoured 'I Me Mine'" as "a strong ballad with a frantic centre".

[100] In Melody Maker, Richard Williams wrote: "'I Me Mine' has a great organ/guitar intro, meditative verses and a tempo switch in and out of the rocking chorus, which has guitar riffs one step away from Chuck Berry.

"[105] Dave Lewis of Classic Rock ranked "I Me Mine" at number 6 in his 2016 list of the ten songs that "highlight George Harrison's profound contribution to The Beatles".

[107] He says the song "juxtaposes a self-pitying Gallic waltz (complete with Piaf wobble) against a clamorous blues shuffle – suggesting that selfishness, personal or collective, subtle or crude, is always the same".

[60] In a 2003 review for Mojo, John Harris described Harrison's vocal as "frequently pitched just short of falsetto" and a "delight", and admired the string arrangement for "teas[ing] out the sense of camp" underlying the song.

[110] Less impressed, Tim Riley rues that Spector's orchestration and choir fail to explore the ironies behind the joyful rock 'n' roll chorus "mocking the hubris of the verses", as his additions instead "virtually drown them".

Riley concludes: "As unfettered rock 'n' roll with acoustic verses, Harrison's song answers greed with a crude groove; with Spector's ornaments, the track is a washout.

"[111] Let It Be is the sound of four grown men with shared histories and diverging futures trying to squeeze blood from stones ... "I Me Mine" famously stands as the last new Beatles song recorded before the group's split.

"[125] Author and academic Jeffery D. Long, an advocate for religious pluralism, credited Harrison, followed by the 1982 film Gandhi and the work of writer Fritjof Capra, as the influences that led him to study the Bhagavad Gita and embrace Hindu Dharma.

[126] Speaking at a TED Conference in June 2007, Tibetan Buddhist Robert Thurman referenced the song when he discussed the power of true empathy that accompanies the realisation that "you are the other being", adding: Somehow by that opening, you can see the deeper nature of life.