Getting Better songwriting progress

Original Story

"It was the first spring-like afternoon and Paul went walking his dog
Martha...
When John that day came round to compose a new song,
Paul suggested: "Let's write a song called =B4It's Getting
Better=B4".
So they started. Both played, sang, improvised and worked on it.
When finally the melody began to take shape, Paul said: "You have to
admit, it's getting better".
"Did you say: you have to admit, it's getting better?" Then John
sang that too.
This went on 'til 2 am.
Hunter Davies in The Beatles, The Authorised Biography, original 1968
version (my translation into English).

Later stories

"It was the first spring-like morning of that year...
That evening John came round. Paul suggested writing a song called
Getting Better. Now and again, they'd write whole songs individually
but mostly one of them had half a song and the other one would
finish it off. That's how it was with this one. Paul played what
he'd come up with to John and together they finished it off.
Hunter Davies in The Beatles

"Having prepared the music, McCartney invited his partner to his
house in St John's Wood to write the lyric with him...
Ian MacDonald in RITH

"By the time John arrived for a writing session, Paul had the music
to accompany the song title.
Barry Miles in MYFN

But then again

"Q: Paul often refers to the writing of "Getting Better" as a
particularly fond memory of working with John.
HD: "That was the one I was in on from the beginning, walking with
Paul on Primrose Hill the day he first came out with the idea. I went
home with him and he then worked on four bars of it and then John came
over. I can clearly remember sitting upstairs in the music room in
Paul's house on Cavendish and hearing him and John writing "Getting
Better," playing guitars and going "what rhymes with this?" and
"can we use this word?"
Hunter Davies in Indiana University School of Music interview, June
2002.

According to the original Davies description and this last interview,
Paul and John worked more or less 10 hours together, writing both the
music and the lyrics. It seems that there was collaboration almost from
the very beginning.

In Davies' later description Paul had half a song (the music?) and
together they finished it. The impression you get is a lot different.
'Afternoon' has turned into 'morning' and 'day' into
'evening'. This is strange.

A few years later in Macdonald's and Miles' books Paul "had
prepared the music" and "had the music to accompany the song
title".

What is this, John's contributions seem to diminish over the years?!

dahldude...

My 1985 edition (my original edition was lent out and never returned -
let that be a lesson) states:

Another afternoon it was first afternoon of spring-like spring and Paul
went for a walk with his dog Martha. John still hadn't arrived for the
latest work on Sergeant Pepper.

He pushed Martha into his Aston Martin and got in beside her and started
the car, but it wouldn't start. He gave it a few bangs, hoping that
would do it, then he gave up and got out of the Aston Martin and into
his black-windowed Mini Cooper. He revved up first time. His housekeeper
man opened the large black doors and he shot through, catching all the
fans by surprise. He was away before they realized he'd come out. He
drove to Primrose Hill, where he parked the car and left it without
locking it. He never locks his cars.

Martha ran around and the sun came out. Paul thought it was really
spring at last. "It's getting better" he said to himself. He meant the
weather, but the phrase made him smile because it was one of Jimmy
Nichols' phrases, one they used to mock all the time in Australia.

When Ringo was once ill and unable to play, Jimmy Nichols deputized for
him on part of their Australian tour. Every time one of them asked Jimmy
how he was getting on, if he was liking it and was he managing okay, all
he ever replied was "It's getting better."

That day at two o'clock, when John came around to write a new song, Paul
suggested: "Let's do a song called 'It's Getting Better.'" So they got
going, both playing. singing, improvising, and messing around. When the
tune at last was taking shape, Paul said, "You've got to admit it's
getting better."

"Did you say, 'You've got to admit it's getting better'?"

Then John sang that as well. So it went on till two in the morning.

ian...

A more careful reading of Miles:

{By the time John arrived for the writing session, Paul had the music
to accompany the song title. Paul doesn't remember the moment the
idea occurred.}

Miles is saying only that Paul hat the music for the "song title",
which would be: "it's getting better all the time", and that's four
bars at most.

So, there really is any disagreement between Hunter Davies and Miles.
The Ian MacDonald comment can be ignored -- he wasn't there.

People came to see Paul, some by appointment. They were left waiting
downstairs, reading, or were sent away. John and Paul stopped once for a
meal, a quick fry-up.