Episode 42 – Beatles ’70 pt3

With the release of the McCartney album in April of 1970, Paul McCartney brought to light what had been his reality for nearly a year: The Beatles were no more. He and wife Linda were an instant target for angry fans and angry press for being the messenger of this awful news that up to this point was merely speculation and rumor on the part of the public. Many, including John Lennon, saw Paul’s move as a strategy to sell the aforementioned solo album, but if that WAS the case, it was a bizarre album to go out on such a limb for. The McCartney LP is a homemade piece of rock and roll experimentation with moments of Beatle-esq sound that baffled most upon first listen. Songs like Maybe I’m Amazed and Every Night could have handily been Beatles cuts, while oddball instrumentals like Valentine Day, Kreen Akrore and Hot As Sun more evoked former bandmate Lennon’s “Unfinished Music” series (albeit with a slightly more commercial ring to it). And like Lennon before him, McCartney’s proclamation came mere weeks before the debut of the long-defunct Let it Be LP and film which at last saw its release on May 8th. If fans were baffled by “Singalong Junk”, they were certainly equally baffled by the rough-n-tumble new Beatles LP, where the slick studio soundscapes listeners were accustomed to were replaced by impromptu jams and after-the-fact production trickery by producer (or should we say salvager) Phil Spector. This was a rough time for all four now-former Beatles, a moniker which even know rings as sadly as it did in the springtime of 1970...