Following The Beatles’ 1970 breakup, Paul McCartney and John Lennon became embroiled in a bitter feud that saw the former bandmates and old friends trading insults in the press and writing negative songs about each other. On a new episode of the McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast, McCartney looks back at the feud while profiling his 1971 solo song “Too Many People,” which he wrote as a dig at Lennon and wife Yoko Ono’s penchant for fervently preaching their political views.
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“It was at a time when John was firing missiles at me,” McCartney recalled. “I don’t know what he hoped to gain, other than punching me in the face. And this kind of annoyed me. Obviously, I suddenly decided to turn my missiles on him.”
McCartney noted that before he wrote “Too Many People,” which appeared on his second post-Beatles album, Ram, he had tried to avoid responding to the harsh comments Lennon and his wife had been saying about him and the band.
“John would do it in some of the songs he was writing, some of the comments about how The Beatles did nothing … [how] The Beatles [were] crap,” McCartney recalled. “And you know … Yoko was saying, ‘Paul never did anything. All he did was book the studio.’”
McCartney noted that his annoyance at the insults eventually started to build.
“I’m having to read all this stuff, and on the one hand, I go, ‘Oh, f*** off, you f***ing idiot,” and that’s my main sentiment,” he said. “But on the other hand, it’s like, ‘Why would you say that? … What is it about me? Like you’re annoyed at me, or you’re jealous, or what is it?’”
Eventually, McCartney’s became mad enough that he decided to write “Too Many People” as a way of throwing back some criticism at Lennon and Ono.
The song includes the lyric “too many people preaching practices,” which McCartney said “was aimed at [John] and Yoko telling everyone what they ought to do.’” In another part of the song, McCartney sings, “You took your lucky break and broke it in two,” which he explained was intended to needle Lennon over his decision to split from The Beatles.
The podcast episode also delves into the circumstances surrounding the Fab Four’s breakup, including how it was Lennon who told his bandmates in 1969 of his intentions to leave the group, and the hiring of Allen Klein to take over his business affairs, which eventually led McCartney to sue the other Beatles members.
In addition, the presentation looks at the song that Lennon wrote in response to “Too Many People,” “How Do You Sleep?,” which belittles McCartney’s musical contributions via such lines as “The only thing you done was yesterday,” and “Since you’ve gone you’re just another day.”
McCartney remembered that he had to “work very hard to not take [the song] too seriously,” but admitted, “[I]n the back of my mind, I’m going, ‘Wait a minute. ‘All I ever did was yesterday,’ yeah, well, it’s funny. It’s a funny pun, but all I ever did was “Yesterday,” “Let It Be,” “Long and Winding Road,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Lady Madonna.” F*** you, John.’”
The feud between McCartney and Lennon did not last forever, and although the two never worked together on any major music projects again, McCartney explained in the podcast that he was grateful that they’d mended their rift before Lennon’s tragic death in 1980.
“[I]n the end, it was something I was very glad of when he got murdered, was that I had had some really good times with him before that happened,” he said. “It would have been the worst thing in the world for someone like me, had he just been killed and we still had [a] bad relationship … That would have been a big guilt trip for me.”
The McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast series is co-produced by iHeartPodcasts and the Pushkin audio-production company.
Two 12-episode seasons of the series are planned, with new episodes of the first season premiering in weekly installments. The first 11 episodes of the podcast can be heard now at iHeart.com, Pushkin.fm, and on various popular streaming services.
In addition, the entire first season of the series is available to subscribers to the Pushkin+ service.
