Chapter 22: One (Is the Loneliest Number) (December 1970 - July 1971)

In Loving Memory of Denise Nickerson

The Original Violet Beauregarde

1957 - 2019

11 December 1970

George Harrison, 1970.

The announcement of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr parting ways with Paul McCartney to form a new group called the Ladders had sent shock waves across the rock and roll world. Why did the trio suddenly outright abandon Paul just as the Beatles were at a creative musical peak and about to star in a new movie? Was there something going on between the members that the public didn't know about? Would there ever be another Beatles album?

There were many more questions involved, but there was no simple answer to it.

JOHN LENNON: "If you've been around the others as long as we have, eventually you'll start to pick up on the small things. Paul was starting to go soft, George was becoming more spiritually outspoken, and I was becoming more politically outspoken. Ringo... was Ringo. Yet despite our different views in the political and religious world, George and I had been closer than we'd ever been following our trip to India. He was growing as a songwriter, but Paul was the only one who didn't see it. After we'd put out Back in Your Safely Beds, he ended up taking control of the band under Brian's [Epstein] orders and wanted things to go his way. That was pretty much why he and George got into a fight at the end of the Get Back sessions." (1975)

GEORGE HARRISON: "John and I both wanted to get our feelings out to the world on record, but we both knew that Paul would try to censor us. That's how Phil Spector took our planned solo albums and made them into the Shine On album we have today. If it hadn't been for that decision, we probably would never have carried on as a trio with Billy [Preston] and Klaus [Voormann] as our sidemen." (1980)

If anyone was more affected by this announcement than anyone else, it was James Paul McCartney himself. He'd had a difficult time processing the fact that after over a decade of performing in front of crowds big and small and recording music together in the studio, the other three Beatles had decided to abandon him and sort of reboot themselves as a different band altogether. The bombshell had greatly depressed Paul and he spent a week holed up in his Scottish farm.

Linda and Paul McCartney, 1971.

Right now, on the day that Shine On had been released in record stores, Paul McCartney was in New York to record a response to Shine On, and alongside his new wife Linda (née Eastman), he was backed by a new group of musicians; ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine, guitarist Hugh McCracken, and drummer Denny Seiwell. Paul's backing group were known in the studio as the Rude Boys.

PAUL McCARTNEY: "Our first session as the Rude Boys consisted of 'Another Day', which was to be released as a single for February, and 'Too Many People', a tune that I had written as a response to John and George. John had been doing a lot of political preaching at this point, as did George on the religious side of things. And there was George, of course, wanting his share of the cake." (1975)

It has been rumored amongst Beatles fans that "Too Many People", which opened McCartney's first solo album, was written as a response to Harrison's "Wah-Wah" and Lennon's "God", both of which were written as attacks against Paul and the Beatles as an entity. Whilst Harrison did indeed confirm that his own song was about Paul, Lennon's was more about denouncing the Beatles myth as a whole, although, "It may have been an attack on Paul," he admitted in an interview around the release of Shine On (1970).

Some of McCartney's material for the album had been written prior to 1970 such as "Every Night", "Junk", "Teddy Boy", and "The Back Seat of My Car", but other than "Too Many People", he had also written up newer songs like "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", a future single release, "Eat at Home" and "Heart of the Country". He had even brought back what many would call his masterpiece, "Maybe I'm Amazed", a piano ballad dedicated to Linda. Now that he was recording his first solo album after being dumped by his former bandmates, that song had a stronger meaning when he needed emotional support the most.

22 February 1971

The cover for Paul McCartney's debut solo single, "Another Day".

Paul McCartney's first ever solo release was the whimsy "Another Day", backed with the more raunchy "Oh Woman, Oh Why". The A-side was reminiscent of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", and drummer Denny Seiwell dubbed the single as "'Eleanor Rigby' in New York City", describing the misery an unnamed woman faces at work and at home in her life.

The single reached #3 in the United States and #2 in the United Kingdom, being kept off of the top spot by the Ladders' "My Sweet Lord", and was met with middling reviews from critics. New Musical Express wrote in its review, "[Another Day] is a whimsy, inoffensive mid-tempo number, but nothing spectacular. It brings the listener to mind of the Beatles' 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La'Da', which could be both a good and bad thing."

17 May 1971

Paul McCartney - Cherry Wine

Released: 17 May 1971

Recorded: 11 December 1970 - 1 March 1971

Producer: Paul McCartney

Track listing[1]

Side A

Too Many People
Three Legs
Every Night
That Would Be Something
Junk
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
Smile Away

Side B
Maybe I'm Amazed
Heart of the Country
Dear Boy
Eat at Home
Man We Was Lonely
Teddy Boy
The Back Seat of My Car

Although the Rude Boys performed on the album, Cherry Wine was solely credited to Paul McCartney upon release. The album topped the charts in the United Kingdom but stalled at #2 in the United States. Critical reception for Cherry Wine was mixed; some even speculated that the breakup of the Beatles had been orchestrated by the members in order to sell more records, but this has been consistently denied by the members. The more negative reviews criticized the lack of consistency with the music, stating that "too much Paul McCartney gets too fluffy and whimsy. He needed the other three Beatles to keep him restrained."

On the flip side, the more positive reviews pointed out the highlights: "Too Many People", whilst viewed as an attack on Paul's former bandmates, was a catchy album opener, making it clear right out of the gate that it was a response to the Ladders' Shine On. But after that, the McCartney of old is still present with tracks like "Every Night", "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", and especially "Maybe I'm Amazed". Even the most negative critics at the time saw it as the album's true highlight, and it received plenty of airplay despite McCartney not releasing it as a single - "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" was instead released as an American single in June, where it reached #1.

Each of the other ex-Beatles were asked for their thoughts on McCartney's solo debut, and their opinions ranged from indifferent to negative.

JOHN LENNON: "If Paul was trying to get a message across, then I don't think I got it. I liked maybe a few songs like 'Eat at Home' and 'Maybe [I'm] Amazed', but the whole thing's just rubbish Engelbert Humperdinck-like music. I don't think Shine On scared Paulie enough into making a half-decent album." (Lennon Remembers, 1971)

GEORGE HARRISON: "'Maybe I'm Amazed' and 'That Would Be Something' are great songs, but I don't care that much for the rest, except maybe 'Back Seat of My Car'. The only person he's got right now to tell him if a song is good or bad is Linda." (1971)

RINGO STARR: "It sounded like Paul hated all three of us when he wrote 'Three Legs'. The only good tune on it was 'Maybe I'm Amazed', but other than that, there's really nothing good on Cherry Wine. I think Paul's starting to go strange with his music." (1971)

11 June 1971

David Bowie - Man of Words

Released: 11 June 1971

Recorded: January - April 1971

Producer: Tony Visconti

Track listing[2]

Side A

Running Gun Blues
Savior Machine
Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed
After All

Side B
Janine
An Occasional Dream
She Shook Me Cold
God Knows I'm Good
The Supermen

The Rolling Stones' transfer from Decca to Apple was at first considered strange by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. "We've been competing with the Beatles for a decade," Jagger said in an interview, "and now all of a sudden, we're under the same house as they are." But then again, as he later added, "Since they've sort of fallen apart as a group, that means we get to take over their empire."

David Bowie also saw this move as an opportunity to put out the leftover material from Space Oddity and The Men Who Sold the World onto a solo album. This was considered a healthy move by the band members as their newest member was a songwriting genius. Shortly after the Rolling Stones were signed into Apple, Bowie entered the studio with producer Tony Visconti to record the leftover material.

The resulting album was Man of Words, Bowie's first solo album since 1967, as well as his first since joining the Rolling Stones. The album was a mixture of psychedelic folk music ("Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed") and hard blues rock ("She Shook Me Cold"), and it charted at #16 and #17 in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. Critical reception to the album was generally positive, although no singles were released off of the album.

June 30, 1971

The DVD cover for the 30th anniversary release of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, originally released 1971.

Despite the announcement of the split between the Beatles and Paul McCartney from seven months prior, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory had earned up to $5.5 million on opening weekend.[3] Critical reception for it was positive, with renowned film critic Roger Ebert calling it the best film of its sort since 1939's The Wizard of Oz. His future partner, Gene Siskel, however, was not so enthusiastic, calling the appearance of Wonka's factory a terrible letdown.

Still, many praised Ringo Starr's performance as Willy Wonka as well as his chemistry with Peter Ostrum's character Charlie Bucket. For Ostrum, it became his sole appearance on the big screen, having declined David Wolper's offer for a three-film contract, preferring instead to work as a veterinarian. Despite this, he and Starr kept close contact with each other, sometimes doing interviews together years after the release of Willy Wonka with the other former child actors.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains a family favorite to this day, especially with repeated television broadcasts for younger generations. Despite being made in the midst of growing conflict between the members, all four Beatles have spoken positively about working on the film.

March - July 1971

John Lennon, 1971.

Whilst John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had intended to go their separate ways following the release of Shine On, the surprise success of the triple album as well as the release of Paul McCartney's "Another Day" single had inspired the other three ex-Beatles to regroup and record another album. The first song presented was "It Don't Come Easy", a track written by Starr during the sessions for Shine On.

RINGO STARR: "The initial sessions for what became Imagine went by very smoothly; we really felt like a group again sans Paul. It even got to the point that John and George even contributed lyrics to the other's songs such as 'What is Life' and 'Gimme Some Truth'." (1997)

The second Ladders album was recorded at Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios at Tittenhurst Park. Other songs presented to the sessions included "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)", "Jealous Guy", "Power to the People", "Art of Dying", and the new album's centerpiece, what many consider to be John Lennon's best song, "Imagine". Once again, Phil Spector was at the producer's seat, and instead of alternating between lo-fi music and Wall of Sound production like on Shine On, Imagine would have Spector's famous Wall of Sound production throughout.

Refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971.

Whilst work on the Ladders' Imagine was going on, Lennon was working on his wife Yoko Ono's second album, Fly, and Harrison was making plans with his mentor Ravi Shankar to arrange a benefit concert to support the people struggling for survival in the Bangladesh Liberation War. East Pakistan had been struggling to become a separate state from Bangladesh, leading to many atrocities both from politics and the military, and the country had recently endured a devastation from the Bhola cyclone in November. At least seven million refugees had escaped to India by March when torrential rains and floods threatened a humanitarian disaster.

For the final recording sessions and mixing of Imagine, the Ladders were headed to New York City. Lennon and Ono were looking for the latter's daughter Kyoko; it was the midst of a custody battle with Yoko's ex-husband Tony Cox, who brought Kyoko to America two years previously to keep Lennon from influencing her. The other reason for being in America was simply to live there. "If I'd lived in Roman times," Lennon explained, "I'd have lived in Rome. Where else? Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself." (1971)

Harrison and Shankar were also in America; in their case, it was in Los Angeles recording the soundtrack to Raga, a documentary film about Shankar's life and music. In between all of this, Harrison was producing Badfinger's fourth album Straight Up.

George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, 1971.

If money was going to be raised to support the millions of Bengali refugees, it would need several big artists to make it happen. With the assistance of Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Lord Beeching, some of Apple's best artists were chosen to perform at the Concert for Bangladesh, to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York on August 1. Ravi Shankar would take part in the two shows, and soon, Badfinger, David Bowie, Cream, Elton John, James Taylor, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young all agreed to partake. But the biggest artist Harrison wanted in both shows was Bob Dylan, who had not performed live since the Isle of Wight two years previous. Although initially reluctant, Dylan eventually agreed to participate.

In the studio, the Ladders recorded Harrison's new composition "Bangla Desh", quickly planned to be released as a double A-side single with "Imagine". Both songs would make their debut at the Concert for Bangladesh along with Starr's "It Don't Come Easy". Like both the title track and "It Don't Come Easy", "Bangla Desh" was included on Imagine, albeit as a last-minute inclusion.

BRIAN EPSTEIN: "We were treading uncharted territory at the time. I had to contact UNICEF and quickly learned that we would have to be register George's as being a benefit concert. We even had to bring out a live album and produce a film under Apple without profit. It took a lot of convincing to EMI, Capitol and Warner Brothers in order to make it happen. And we only had six months to arrange this concert in the first place! It was all very hectic, but looking back, I think it was all worth it. Apart from my hair thinning." (1985)

Footnotes

1. Tracks are sourced from McCartney and Ram.
2. Tracks are sourced from David Bowie/Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold the World.
3. In OTL, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory had earned $2.1 million on opening weekend. With the Beatles' involvement, it may have earned more than double.

Author's Comments

Now we're going deeper into 1971, as well as dipping our toes into political territory. We're just about to build up to the Concert for Bangladesh, which will be the main focus of the next chapter. Actually, the entire chapter will focus completely on the concert, as well as be the first to focus on one specific date. I'll tell you right now; this could be the greatest concert ever imagined. Pre-Live Aid, that is.