Paul McCartney said the Beatles came to terms with Yoko Ono joining the band during their 1968 recording of “The White Album” at John Lennon’s urging “out of consideration” for him and because she “wasn’t very confrontational.” be.
“Things about Yoko being in the middle – literally in the middle of the recording session – that was something you had to deal with, and the idea was if John wanted that to happen, then it should happen. There’s no reason why not,” McCartney said on Wednesday’s episode of his podcast “McCartney: My Life in Lyrics.”
“Out of respect for John we would allow it and not make a fuss, but at the same time I don’t think any of us particularly liked it – it was an intrusion into the workplace,” he added.
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He called The White Album recordings a time of change fueled by Lennon’s intense relationship with Ono.
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Paul McCartney said John Lennon insisted that Yoko Ono attend the recording sessions for The White Album in 1968. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
“We were on the verge of the Beatles breaking up,” he said. “John and Yoko had gotten together and that certainly had an impact on the dynamic of the group.”
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He said that before Ono came to their studio, it was always just the four of them and a sound engineer named George Martin.
“We have always done it this way. So since we weren’t very confrontational, I think we just suppressed it and just moved on.”
McCartney said John Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono would “absolutely have an impact” on the Beatles’ dynamic. (SSPL/Getty Images)
The “Let it Be” lyricist reiterated: “That was our job, that’s what we did in life. We were the Beatles. That meant we were recording when we weren’t touring.”
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The 81-year-old said he learned his friendly attitude from his father, who he described as a “gentleman” and “polite”.
“We were encouraged to be good guys in our family. So when we were at a bus stop and there were women in line, my dad would stick out his hat and say, ‘Good morning,’ and he would encourage us to get up in our school hats,” he said.
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He added: “He was such a polite, gentlemanly guy, even though they were working class. I think my whole family was like that.”
Last week, Lennon’s ex May Pang, who he dated in the mid-1970s when he and Ono were briefly separated, said that he and McCartney almost got back together to write again in 1975.
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The Beatles at a 1963 recording session with George Martin. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“In January 1975, Paul and Linda (McCartney) said, ‘We’re going to New Orleans and making a new album’ (‘Venus and Mars’). So John says, ‘Oh, great, new.'” “Orleans has always loved it,” Pang told USA Today on Tuesday.
“A few days later he strums the guitar and asks, ‘What do you think if I wrote with Paul again?’ You talk about shock. The reference is like The Exorcist, the head turns back. And I said, “I think it would be great.”
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“Then he says, ‘Maybe we should go down.’ He really wanted to do this. I knew if I had brought him to New Orleans, it would have happened.”