These two one-word answers by Paul McCartney, reported by the Daily Mirror newspaper on April 10th, 1970, cut deep into the heart of every Beatles fan around the world.
McCartney didn’t say it directly. He didn’t have to. Everyone knew what it meant, and the Mirror’s headline summed it up: “Paul quits The Beatles”. The band that defined a generation more than any other and changed music forever was no more.
Of course, thankfully, we know that wasn’t quite the end of the story. After a few years of legal battles and bad blood, particularly between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Beatles more or less made up. Lennon and McCartney were on good terms at the time Lennon was tragically murdered in 1980.
And after his death, the other Beatles even managed to get together and turn three of his demo recordings into new singles by the band. Most recently, ‘Now and Then’, which became the band’s 18th UK number one single late last year.
But what was behind Paul McCartney’s decision to leave the band? Why did it end how it did that April, with the press release that shocked the world?
So, was Yoko Ono to blame?
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John Lennon’s second wife, Yoko Ono, is often targeted with accusations that she broke up with The Beatles. When asked about Ono, her influence and work with Lennon in his press release, McCartney said he loved and respected Lennon but that it didn’t really give him “any pleasure”.
There was a much-publicised antipathy towards Ono from McCartney’s side while The Beatles were recording their final three albums. Lennon confirmed as much in a 1970 interview with Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone.
Lennon included Ono in virtually every studio session during the recording of the group’s last three albums. She even appeared on the songs ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ and ‘Revolution 9’. McCartney seemed to resent her inclusion in what had previously been a closed shop, with recording sessions strictly limited to just the four Beatles and producer George Martin, along with occasional session or guest musicians.
But it’s unfair to pin the blame for McCartney quitting The Beatles on Yoko Ono. They still managed to record three albums with her present, and Lennon explained how tensions had already begun developing within the band during the making of 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Club Band – before his relationship with Ono even began. George Harrison had minimal involvement in the album, and Lennon felt slighted by McCartney taking control of its direction.
It was the increase in these tensions between the band members, of which Ono was at most a secondary cause, that ultimately led to its dissolution. Lennon had practically left the band by September 1969, and McCartney’s announcement the following April was the natural next step.
As Ono herself said in a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, “It’s very difficult for four artists who are so brilliant and talented to be together and do everything together.” The tension brought about by The Beatles’ togetherness produced sparks of artistic genius for almost a decade, but it was bound to combust eventually. With or without Ono.
What about Allen Klein?
McCartney’s press release doesn’t mince words when it comes to the last manager of The Beatles, music mogul Allen Klein.
When asked if Klein was involved in his debut solo album, McCartney replied, “Not if I can help it.” After being pushed on what his relationship with Klein was like, the newly-former Beatle pulled no punches: “It isn’t. I am not in contact with him, and he does not represent me in ANY way.”
The other Beatles had brought in Klein, renowned for his uncompromising negotiation tactics, to get them a better deal with their record deal and publishing company. From the very beginning, McCartney resented Klein’s bullying demeanour, micromanaging of the group, and control over their business decisions.
His preference for their new manager had been businessman Max Eastman, the father of his wife Linda. And so, he also felt unheard when the rest of the group went with Klein instead.
The final nail in the coffin of McCartney’s business relationship with Klein was the manager’s decision to hand over the tapes of aborted Beatles album Get Back to music producer Phil Spector. In McCartney’s eyes, Spector ruined what the band had recorded by overproducing what would become the album Let It Be, adding bombastic orchestral and choral overdubs on many of the tracks.
McCartney fought to have Let It Be barred from release, but came up against Klein, who convinced the rest of the group to put it out in the form Spector had determined. In this way, Klein was certainly responsible for the timing of McCartney’s press release announcing he was quitting The Beatles.
Let It Be was due to come out on May 8th, 1970. So by announcing his departure from the band on April 10th, and then releasing his debut album a week later, McCartney felt he was beating Klein to the punch.
McCartney’s own reasons
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When asked directly about his reasons for leaving The Beatles in his press release, McCartney elucidates them straightforwardly and succinctly. “Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family.”
By 1970, The Beatles, and especially the songwriting duo Lennon and McCartney, had grown apart in their personal lives, musical tastes and collaborative endeavours. The mess of managing their business Apple Corp, particularly with the interference of Klein, had emphasised the growing distance between them.
McCartney also had his own reasons for choosing the date and manner of his departure from the group, though. And it wasn’t just about undermining the release of a version of Let It Be that he hadn’t agreed to.
He was about to embark on a solo career entirely independent from the other Beatles members. In being the first member to announce to the world that he was leaving, he was maximising a promotional opportunity for his new career and his debut solo album, McCartney.
This move seemed to work commercially. McCartney reached the top five in the charts of 10 countries, including the number one spot in the United States.
However, the album was poorly received by music critics for the most part. It served as a reminder to many of just what they would be missing in the coming years, with the fab four no longer collaborating artistically to create works of greatness that not even their own members could come close to matching individually.
