Paul McCartney has set the record straight on who instigated the break-up of The Beatles, claiming that it was actually John Lennon.
“I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny,” he tells interviewer John Wilson (per The Guardian). “This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue. I am not the person who instigated the split. Oh no, no, no. John walked into a room one day and said, ‘I am leaving the Beatles’. Is that instigating the split, or not?”
For years it was believed that McCartney was unilaterally behind the band disbanding after he answered a question from a journalist in 1970 with the claim that The Beatles no longer existed. However, in an upcoming episode of new BBC Radio 4 interview series This Cultural Life, he claims this isn’t the case.
So it came to a point that I (JOHN LENNON) had to say something. So I said, ‘The group’s over, I’m leaving.’ Allen was there, and he was saying, ‘Don’t tell.’ He didn’t want me to tell Paul even. But I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t stop it, it came out. And Paul and Allen said they were glad that I wasn’t going to announce it, like I was going to make an event out of it. I don’t know whether Paul said, ‘Don’t tell anybody,’ but he was damn pleased that I wasn’t. He said, ‘Oh well, that means nothing really happened if you’re not going to say anything.’ So that’s what happened.
“So I think what came about after that… the only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release Get Back by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release Anthology and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band.
“If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein.
“The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.
8 May 1969 John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr signed a business management contract with Allen Klein and his company ABKCO, but Paul McCartney refused to sign, continuing to let the Eastmans represent his interests.
After a few seconds, the receptionist stuck her head in the door. Paul McCartney was insistent; Klein would talk to him now — or never. The Beatle clearly knew he was being snubbed in front of a roomful of his employees. Klein shrugged. “I can’t talk to him now.” Paul McCartney kept his word. He never spoke to Allen Klein again.
"I just want the four of us to get together somewhere and sign a piece of paper saying it's all over and we want to divide the money four ways. No one else would be there, not even Linda or Yoko or Allen Klein. We'd just sign the paper and hand it to the business people and let them sort it out. That's all I want now, but John won't do it. Everybody thinks I am the agressor but I'm not, you know. I just want out."
We publish some parts of article McCartney released to MelodyMaker - to read full click here
"The Beatles never actually copped for all this money, everyone else did. I wouldn't care but you think we could have a new deal now. You'd think they'd release us. They've made a lot of money and we could shake hands and part company but now we can't. I'm being sued for a million pounds in New York by Northern Songs. It's so complicated."
"There was a bit of hype on the back of the (Let It Be) sleeve for the first time ever on a Beatles album. At the time, the Beatles were very strained with each other and it wasn't a happy time. It said it was a 'new-phase Beatles album' and there was nothing further from the truth. That was the last Beatles album and everybody knew it... (Allen) Klein had it re-produced because he said it didn't sound commercial enough."
"John's whole image now is very honest and open. He's alright, is John. I like his 'Imagine' album but I didn't like the others. 'Imagine' is what John is really like but there was too much political stuff on the other albums. You know, I only really listen to them to see if there's something I can pinch." (laughs)
"'How Do You Sleep'? I think it's silly. So what if I live with straights? I like straights. I have straight babies. It doesn't affect him. He says the only thing I did was 'Yesterday.' He knows that's wrong. (Paul motions to the studio below) I used to sit down there and play, and John would watch me from up here, and he'd really dig some of the stuff I played to him. He can't say all I did was 'Yesterday' because he knows and I know it's not true."
