The biggest “hurt” John Lennon caused Paul McCartney
Of course, we like to remember the Lennon-McCartney partnership, and The Beatles as a whole, as rock and roll titans who shaped the lives of many of our now favourite artists as well as fans. They are undoubtedly two of the greatest musicians to have ever graced the earth, and even more than 40 years since John Lennon’s death they are still being hailed as geniuses, but on a personal level, their legacy wasn’t quite as smooth as sailing off into the sunset together.
At the point of The Beatles’ dissolution in 1970, indeed tensions could not have been higher between the pair. Through a series of well-documented spats, it’s fair to say the foundations of their musical empire were well and truly crumbling, and thus ensued a battle of wills – and words – over the subsequent years.
However impenetrably he had built his mask at the time, McCartney did later admit the sting of Lennon’s often poisonous tongue. He said: “When the Beatles had broken up and John was downing me a lot in public, that was probably the worst to take because I knew he [had] an opinion a lot of people listened to.”
This was a new experience for McCartney, he explained, as the sharpness of his best friend turned nemesis was more than a little blindsiding. “If it was just a critic saying, ‘Oh, McCartney’s stupid’, you know…” he defended against his few naysayers, “But when it was John saying, ‘All you ever did was ‘Yesterday’’, I mean… that’s hurtful.”
As with any good bit of fighting lore within the music industry, of course there were completely different versions of events depending on who you spoke to. Largely the feud had boiled over due to writing credits from their once esteemed partnership, with one often clamouring to claim ownership of any particular Beatles song over the other – but their stories changed just as much as the wind does. Take ‘In My Life’ for example, which Lennon declared was all him before Macca jumped in with a rebuttal… and that’s just one of many.
But aside from the writing credit wrath, Lennon’s comments also cut his former bandmate in much deeper ways. “It was hurtful,” he explained, “because I knew it would stick – like mud to the wall.” McCartney need not have worried for too long, though, because his subsequent seminal solo albums – McCartney and Ram, released in 1970 and 1971 respectively – only continued to further cement his legendary status, before going on to spearhead Wings.
With such acute sniping, it seemed to many that the Lennon-McCartney legend had been left in the dust – that is, until the surviving member of the duo finally broke cover. “It was a public hurt,” Macca conceded, “Actually, in private, I had made my peace with him before he died.” Although it’s fair to say that things probably weren’t the rosiest, at least the old pals weren’t at complete loggerheads until the end.
Does this remind anyone of another infamous double act? Oasis did always claim they were inspired by the Beatles, but maybe they took the story a little too far to heart. Even still, the Gallaghers are set to right the Liverpudlians’ wrong by getting back together – and on all fronts we can hear the faint ringing of Lennon’s own words, “War is over”.
