McCartney On Beatles Politics

Beatles singer and all round musical legend Sir Paul McCartney has rolled back the years recently, claiming in a new interview that he was responsible for politicising The Beatles.

McCartney was talking to the journal Propect when he was asked about the Beatles politics. The band's main songwriters McCartney and John Lennon were both heavily involved in the British underground, but Lennon has been generally accepted as being the most political member.

However in the new interview McCartney takes credit for introducing politics into the Beatles. "We sort of stumbled into things," he said. "For instance, Vietnam. Just when we were getting to be well known, someone said to me: 'Bertrand Russell is living not far from here in Chelsea, why don't you go and see him?' and so I just took a taxi down there and knocked on the door."

"He was fabulous. He told me about the Vietnam war – most of us didn't know about it, it wasn't yet in the papers – and also that it was a very bad war. I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John (Lennon), about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was."

However these claims have raised eyebrows in some circles. In an interview with The Sunday Times legendary left wing activist Tariq Ali said "this is news to me. We never heard of Paul's views at the time. It was John Lennon who was concerned about the war. He never mentioned McCartney and I never thought of asking him to join us."