Washington, Sep 2 (ANI): Brit singer Sir Paul McCartney has in an exclusive interview spoken out about the final days of ‘The Beatles’, and insisted that the group became victims of their own success when businessman Allen Klein took over their financial affairs.
According to music magazine Mojo, McCartney said that he and his bandmates struggled to come to terms with all the business decisions they were suddenly forced to make as they were recording their final album ‘Abbey Road’.
The fight between them over cash and contracts really became a huge burden.
“We were musicians, we were kids from Liverpool, we’d gone to grammar schools, we’d done Hamburg – we kind of knew all that,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.
“But the idea that you were going to get this money and someone was going to take it off you…
“I think we all just thought, ‘You get the money, you put it in a bank, and it gradually gets bigger,’ and you say, ‘Thank you very much, and you live happily ever after.’ Then you suddenly get with accountants and they say, ‘No, you can’t just sit there’.
“Then there’s tax, and some business person is on a raid – it was a huge upheaval,” he said.
McCartney also admitted that the group’s business woes were poured into their new songs.
“George (Harrison) would write Piggies, and I knew exactly what he was talking about, and he wrote Taxman when we first found out about the tax system,” he said.
The rift between the group eventually led to a court battle before the band broke up, with many fans blaming Klein for contributing to the group’s split.
McCartney refused to be drawn into talking about Klein, but hinted that he still had not forgiven the businessman for things that would remain unspoken.
“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead,” he added.
Klein passed away in New York earlier this summer, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. (ANI)