Sir Paul McCartney has spoken to ClashMusic about his feud with fellow Beatle John Lennon.
Working nose to nose, the partnership between Paul McCartney and John Lennon became the most successful in the history of pop music. However after The Beatles split in 1970, the pair became involved in tit for tat comments.
Giving a series of controversial interviews, John Lennon slated McCartney’s solo efforts. The songwriter responded in kind, with the pair releasing tracks which were widely interpreted as being informed by the decline in their relationship.
Asked about the widely successful album ‘Band On The Run’ Paul McCartney reflected on the decline in their relationship. The track ‘Let Me Roll It’ is widely interpreted as being inspired by John Lennon, something the singer rejects.
“Well, no, there was other stuff that was more like that. ‘Let Me Roll It’ wasn’t to John, it was just in the style that we did with The Beatles that John was particularly known for” McCartney explained.
“It was really actually the use of the echo. It was one of those: ‘You’re not going to use echo just cos John used it?’ I don’t think so.”
“To tell you the truth, that was more (about) rolling a joint. That was the double meaning there: “let me roll it to you”. That was more at the back of mind than anything else. ‘Dear Friend’ (from 1971’s ‘Wild Life’), that was very much ‘let’s be friends’ to John.”
The actual song ‘Band On The Run’ allegedly contains a quote from George Harrison, which Paul McCartney explains is not the case. “I don’t remember that being a George line. I don’t know about that. But yeah, that certainly was to do with all of that. It was symbolic: “If we ever get out of here… All I need is a pint a day”. It was feeling like that, the whole thing.”
“Because we’d been…if you think about it, we’d started off as just kids really, who loved our music and wanted to earn a bob or two so we could get a guitar and get a nice car. It was very simple ambitions at first. But then, you know, as it went on it became business meetings and all of that, and eventually it was really not fun. You’d have to go into these meetings. So there was a feeling of ‘if we ever get out of here’, yeah. And I did.”
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