The Eastmans WERE NOT meddling, they were representing Paul’s interests as they were hired and contracted to do. McCartney, for all of his justifications and endless talk about Lennon being “nice” to him before his death, never really recovered from this. Business differences over money, royalties and managers took precedence over their friendship. I can’t help but think that if McCartney had reluctantly and anxiously agreed to sign with Allen Klein the others would have got cold feet and pulled out – they knew full well that Paul was the one with the business savvy, as Lennon later admitted. For McCartney to record his album in secret was so strange, as was that unfortunate self-interview. The others may have had their trials with Klein but they still ended up with plenty of dosh. With that dark mindset, not a good time for the Eastmans to meddle and helping him become the wealthiest man in show business didn’t do him any favours. I think in this instance McCartney was unreasonable although I understand he was also very depressed and unhappy. The contents of the letter left him furious, and Starr received the full brunt of his anger. McCartney might once have agreed with the logic behind the decision to postpone his album, but after months of acrimony he was in no mood for conciliatory agreements. McCartney had recorded his album in secret, under the pseudonym Billy Martin, choosing to keep the news from the press and his former bandmates for as long as possible. “I didn’t think it fair some office lad should take something like that round,” he reasoned.īy this time McCartney had long tired of arguing over Apple’s future, and the various parties were more likely to communicate by letter or through their managers rather than face-to-face interviews. However, Starr agreed to take it round in person. The letter was sealed in an envelope marked “From Us, To You”, and left at Apple’s reception for a messenger to deliver to McCartney’s home at 7 Cavendish Avenue. We’re sorry it turned out like this – it’s nothing personal. We thought you’d come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. Lennon and George Harrison then wrote to McCartney informing him of their decision.ĭear Paul, We thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs – and decided it’s stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also there’s Ringo’s and Hey Jude) – so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release date til June 4th (there’s a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). John Lennon wrote to EMI, saying: “We have arrived at the conclusion that it would not be in the best interests of this company for the record to be released on that date.” Since Let It Be was a group project with various multimedia elements, and McCartney was a relatively straightforward album release, the Beatles album took precedent. Let It Be had been brought forward by Allen Klein to coincide with the premiere of the film, and they knew that having two Beatles-related albums in quick succession would hurt sales. Apple was planning to release Let It Be on 24 April, and push back Paul McCartney’s debut album McCartney from 10 April to 4 June. Earlier on 31 March, Ringo Starr had given an interview to BBC Radio 2 in which he had insisted the group was likely to work together again once their solo projects were complete.Ī problem remained over release schedules. In interviews all four members spoke about reconvening for recordings, although it was generally acknowledged that they were taking a temporary break from each other. All the members were working on solo projects, and although they remained in the public eye, they were rarely seen as a group. Although stories about The Beatles’ split had been reported almost since they became famous, by early 1970 they had become hard to ignore.
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