“I exhibited all the classic symptoms of the unemployed, the redundant man,” Paul McCartney recalled in his authorized biography Many Years from Now. “And justifiably so because I was being screwed by my mates. So, I didn’t shave for quite a while. I didn’t get up. Mornings weren’t for getting up. I might get up and stay on the bed a bit and not know where to go, and get back into bed. Then if I did get up, I’d have a drink. Straight out of bed… I felt I’d outlived my usefulness. This was the overall feeling: that it was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn't with the Beatles any more it became really very difficult.”

This episode takes a deep dive into a dark period for the man who’d always been most in love with being a Beatle—covering the years 1969 to 1973 when he was battling his former bandmates, his critics, even his fans… as well as himself: an artistic force of nature at an existential crossroads; a master maneuverer, sometimes outmaneuvered. It’s the revealing story of a complex character and helping to peel back the layers are two experts on the subject: Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, co-authors of the soon-to-be-published ‘McCartney Legacy – Vol. 1: Beyond the Beatles, 1969-1973’.

https://www.mccartneylegacy.co.uk

The music: