In My Life > Paul McCartney > Myths About The Beatles Breakup
Myths About The Beatles Breakup
In April 2000 a message was posted to Usenet with some interesting points about the Beatles breakup, notably that it was John who broke the group up, and Paul who announced it, rather than being Paul who left first.
From: rrhea@my-deja.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
Subject: The breakup: in defense of Paul McCartney
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 05:15:46 GMT
Paul did NOT break up the Beatles. Here are a few myths:
MYTH 1) Paul announced the breakup of the Beatles on April 10, 1970 (30 years ago today) to promote his solo album McCartney. (John Lennon was furious at him for this.)
TRUTH: The April 10 press release was intended to announce the release of his first solo album. At NO time does Paul say "the Beatles have broken up", or the "Beatles have split permanently." In fact, he says that he is "not done with the Beatles." He was clearly NOT using the Beatle breakup to promote his album.
MYTH 2) Paul announced the breakup on April 10, 1970. Before that, the Beatles had not broken up.
TRUTH: John Lennon broke up the Beatles on September 20, 1969, when he informed Paul that he wanted a "divorce". Paul announced the breakup on October 24, 1969, but the public was too stupified by the "Paul is Dead" hoax to notice:
MYTH 3) Paul broke up the Beatles because he refused to let Allen Klein manage the group.
TRUTH: Paul was just smarter than the others, and saw Klein's corruption from the start. Mick Jagger warned Paul that Klein could not be trusted, and he was right. After seeing millions of dollars of his monty go into the hands of others, (e.g. the deal where Brian Epstein's NEMS company got 25% of the Beatles royalties), Paul was unwilling to allow a strongman to take control of his money. Within a year after the 1970 "announcement", the other Beatles were suing Klein and removing him from any Beatle management duties.
MYTH 4) Paul's April 10 interview was pretty nasty. He didn't need to be this negative.
TRUTH: Well, maybe not, but in the days before the press release, he found out that John had given the Let It Be tapes over to Phil Spector, and that Spector had added a lavish orchestra to "The Long and Winding Road", without Paul's permission. He was understandably furious over what he considered (and many fans consider) the ruining of this song. He was also asked by Klein - through Ringo - to delay his solo album until Let It Be was released, another unnecessary meddling in his affairs. Paul had a justified reason to be angry.
From: usurpertom@aol.com (UsurperTom)
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
Subject: Re: Paul announced the breakup in October, 1969!
John, George, and Ringo would fire Allen Klein within a year of Paul's lawsuit and the business differences were resolved (albeit temporarily). The Beatles never reunited because John and George's personal relationship had deteriorated. In August 1971, John refused to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh because he demanded that George allow Yoko to perform with John. George stood his ground because Yoko's musicianship was not on par with the stars who performed at the concert. In 1974, John, Paul, George, and Ringo held business meetings in Los Angeles (April) and New York (December). The New York meeting took place after the last concert of George's U.S. tour. John was supposed to join George onstage at Madison Square Garden for the last show but the two of them got into a shouting match backstage. John and George were civil when they conducted a radio interview after the concert, but the tensions were not healed. Shortly afterwards, Paul, George, and Ringo were waiting at the Plaza Hotel for John to arrive to sign the agreement dissolving Apple when a courier delivered them balloons. George got pissed and called the Dakota. He told John, "Take off your fucking sunglasses." It is unknown if John and George ever saw each other again. They were on bad terms in 1980 when George's autobiography, "I Me Mine," came out. John felt that George didn't mention him enough in the book.
