Episode 49 – Beatles ’71 pt3

While the rift between Paul McCartney and his former bandmates grew wider by the day, the bond between John, George and Ringo seemed to only strengthen in the summer of 1971 against their common enemy. The RAM album was slow to gain momentum, though eventually found its footing at #1 on the UK charts, and “Beatle Ed” (as the other ex-Beatles privately dubbed him) had recently won the first round of litigation in his bid to free himself from the Beatles contract. The anger was palpable and tensions at their peak when Lennon was pushed over the edge by several antagonistic messages left for him within the RAM album itself by Paul. John was quick to pen a rebuttal in the form of the stinging How Do You Sleep, who enlisted George to play a brutal slide solo and lend his support to John against Paul. This track and several others were in development for Lennon’s new solo LP, a more commercial-sounding follow-up to the acclaimed but depressing Plastic Ono Band LP from the year prior. Ringo Starr, who was still basking in the glow of the #1 single It Don’t Come Easy, stay above the fray as best he could and spent his summer portraying a bloodthirsty bandit in a new spaghetti western movie titled Blind Man. While George, himself still riding high from his uber-successful solo releases, was busy participating in records from Badfinger and pal Ravi Shankar. While recording Ravi’s album, the sitar master expressed deep sadness toward the Bangladeshi refugee crisis which would set the gears into motion for George to hatch a plan to help...