The guy who didn't like musicals
By announcing the breakup, he launched his solo career in advance of "Let It Be," and nobody knew how it might disrupt the official Beatles' project. McCartney's announcement and release of his solo album effectively short-circuited the plan. Spector mixed the album, and a cut of the feature film was readied for summer. "Get Back" – which was renamed "Let it Be" – nonetheless moved forward. But this album was supposed to be band only – not embroidered with added strings and voices – and McCartney fumed when Spector added a female choir to his song "The Long and Winding Road." When "Get Back" was eventually revived, Lennon – behind McCartney's back – brought in American producer Phil Spector, best known for girl group hits like "Be My Baby," to salvage the project. But the whole venture was shelved as a new recording, "Abbey Road," took shape. In January 1969, the group had started a roots project tentatively titled "Get Back." It was supposed to be a back-to-the-basics recording without the artifice of studio trickery. Timing and sales concealed deeper arguments about creative control and the return to live touring. This public fracas had been bubbling under the band's cheery surface for years. "Jesus Christ! He gets all the credit for it! I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record…" "We were all hurt didn't tell us what he was going to do," Lennon later told Rolling Stone. "You're the f–king journalist, Connolly, not me," snorted Lennon. "Why didn't you write it when I told you in Canada at Christmas!" he exclaimed to Connolly, who reminded him that the conversation had been off the record. Now he lambasted Connolly for not leaking it sooner. He had let Connolly in on his secret about leaving the band at his Montreal Bed-In in December 1969, but asked him to keep it quiet. Lennon was dumbfounded and enraged by the news. When I interviewed Connolly in 2008, he told me about their conversation. Ray Connolly, a reporter at the Daily Mail, knew Lennon well enough to ring him up for comment. He wanted Apple to release this solo debut alongside the group's new album, "Let It Be," to dramatize the split.īy beating Lennon to the announcement, McCartney controlled the story and its timing, and undercut the other three's interest in keeping it under wraps as new product hit stores.
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In fact, Lennon behaved more and more like a solo artist, until McCartney countered with his own eponymous album.
#The guy who didn't like musicals tv#
11, 1970, he performed a new solo track, "Instant Karma," on the popular British TV show "Top of the Pops." Yoko Ono sat behind him, knitting while blindfolded by a sanitary napkin. Still, Lennon's departure seemed imminent: He had played the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Festival with his Plastic Ono Band in September 1969, and on Feb. The previous September, soon after the band released "Abbey Road," he had asked his bandmates for a "divorce." But the others convinced him not to go public to prevent disrupting some delicate contract negotiations.
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Lennon, who had been active outside the band for months, felt particularly betrayed. Without any press present, McCartney shouted Ringo off his front stoop. The others worried this could hurt sales and sent Ringo as a peacemaker to McCartney's London home to talk him down from releasing his solo album ahead of the band's "Let It Be" album and film, which were slated to come out in May. The Daily Mirror nonetheless framed its headline conclusively: "Paul Quits the Beatles."
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In it, McCartney is asked, "Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?"īut he didn't say whether the separation might prove permanent. Was McCartney's "announcement" official? His album appeared on April 17, and its press packet included a mock interview.
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The power struggles in the group had been mounting at least since their manager, Brian Epstein, died in August of 1967. Few at the time were aware of the underlying fissures.