The legendary rock band the Beatles spent the better part of three years breaking up in the late 1960s, and even longer than that hashing out who did what and why. And by the spring of 1970, there was little more than a tangled set of business relationships keeping the group together. Each of the Beatles was pursuing his musical interests outside of the band, and there were no plans in place to record together as a group. But as far as the public knew, this was just a temporary state of affairs. That all changed on April 10, 1970, when an ambiguous Paul McCartney \u201cself-interview\u201d was seized upon by the international media as an official announcement of a Beatles breakup.<\/p>\n
The occasion for the statements Paul released to the press that day was the upcoming release of his debut solo album, McCartney. In a Q&A format in which he was both the interviewer and the interviewee, Paul first asked and answered a number of straightforward questions involving the recording equipment he used on the album, which instruments he played and who designed the artwork for the cover. Then he got to the tough ones:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Q: “Is this album a rest away from the Beatles or the start of a solo career?\u201d<\/p>\n
PAUL: \u201cTime will tell. Being a solo album means it\u2019s \u2018the start of a solo career\u2026and not being done with the Beatles means it\u2019s just a rest. So it\u2019s both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: \u201cIs your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones?\u201d<\/p>\n
PAUL: \u201cPersonal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: \u201cDo you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again?\u201d<\/p>\n
PAUL: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing in Paul\u2019s answers constituted a definitive statement about the Beatles\u2019 future, but his remarks were nevertheless reported in the press under headlines like \u201cMcCartney Breaks Off With Beatles\u201d and \u201cThe Beatles sing their swan song.\u201d And whatever his intent at the time, Paul\u2019s statements drove a further wedge between himself and his bandmates. In the May 14, 1970, issue of Rolling Stone, John Lennon lashed out at Paul in a way he\u2019d never done publicly: \u201cHe can\u2019t have his own way, so he\u2019s causing chaos,\u201d John said. \u201cI put out four albums last year, and I didn\u2019t say a f***ing word about quitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
By year\u2019s end, Paul would file suit to dissolve the Beatles\u2019 business partnership, a formal process that would eventually make official the unofficial breakup he announced on this day in 1970.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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