Paul McCartney once said he felt that a part of him died when the Beatles broke up. So when his former songwriting partner, John Lennon, publicly panned Ram, one of McCartney’s first post-Beatles albums, their once formidable relationship turned sour.
Lennon called the 1971 album “awful” in a barbed attack. “I don’t like all this dribblin’ pop-opera jazz,” he added. “I like pop records that are pop records.”
Speaking to Judd Apatow at the LA screening of his new Man on the Run documentary, McCartney was asked what might have prompted the criticism and whether there was a wider narrative at play. He didn’t shy away from the question.
“I think maybe he expected more from me,” McCartney admits (via People). “He expected something different from me, and I wasn’t doing that. I was just doing ‘madcap.’”
For George Harrison, newfound freedom after the Beatles was a chance to show what the band — and more specifically the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership — had been missing. McCartney, meanwhile, was eager to explore territory beyond what he had covered during his time in the Fab Four.
“It is just one of those things,” he goes on. “I loved John and love him to this day; always will. It didn’t matter what he said or did, because I’d known him since I was 15, and so he was like this mad guy I knew, and I really looked up to him.”
“I always thought John was very cool, and I still do. But he could be a complete idiot over some things.”
Together and individually, the pair wrote some of the most iconic pop and rock songs ever committed to tape. But they didn’t always see eye to eye, and their post-Beatles careers made those differences increasingly apparent. Lennon’s annoyance with Ram, for example, may have been directed in part at “Too Many People,” which appeared to contain veiled digs at him. It didn’t take long for Lennon to begin piecing together the chords and lyrics of his rebuttal, which arrived that same year.
Things looked rocky between them in 1971. But speaking now, McCartney also feels there was a reason behind some of Lennon’s more difficult behavior.
“A lot of bad things happened to him,” he argues. “His father ran away from home when he was three or something. He never knew his dad until we got famous, and his dad came back and was working at the pub down the road near where John lived.”
“John’s mom, who we idolized, was a beautiful lady called Julia. He wrote a song called ‘Julia,’ a fantastic song. She got run over and killed outside the house… So he’s had to deal with all of that…. He had a lot of anguish.”
He never knew his dad until we got famous, and his dad came back and was working at the pub down the road near where John lived.”
— Paul McCartney
That history helps explain some of the light and shade in their relationship. Lennon’s lyrics often tackled politics and grittier subject matter, with his music reflecting those themes. McCartney, meanwhile, considers himself “lucky” by comparison. His songs were often brighter, more upbeat and, in his own words, “madcap.”
“I grew up pretty secure with [extended family], and I didn’t have any of the kind of troubles that John had until my mom died when I was about 14,” McCartney notes.
Elsewhere, Rubber Soul and the Lennon-McCartney partnership at its best are back in the spotlight after rare demo tapes from the era were released.
And Alex Lifeson has revealed how Sir Paul was influential in reuniting Rush. He was in no mood to argue with a Beatle.
