Time to Put Record Straight, Says McCartney

[AKA]

Time to Put Record Straight, Says McCartney

By Michelle Green
Reuters

LONDON - Former Beatle Paul McCartney hit back at critics on Saturday, saying a decision to reverse the traditional "Lennon-McCartney" songwriting credit on his new album was not a slur on his band mate but a chance to "put the record straight."

In an interview with Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper, 60-year-old McCartney said he was simply "letting people know that the songs I sing today are my own."

And he added that he had no doubts that fellow Beatle John Lennon -- killed by a lone gunman on his New York doorstep 23 years ago -- would understand the decision.

"The bottom line is I know what I wrote and so did John," McCartney told the paper.

"I'm doing nothing wrong. There was an agreement between (us) that if we ever wanted to, we could switch the Lennon and McCartney thing."

And he dismissed claims from die-hard Beatles fans that he was tarnishing the legend of Lennon.

"It has come out like I'm trying to dance on John's grave which is a pity because I am his biggest fan," he said.

"I'm the guy who knew him best...I'd hate people to think I'm trying to do him down."

McCartney's decision to switch the credits sparked a high-profile dispute with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono in December last year.

Ono was reported to be considering legal action over the matter, which she said contravened a 40-year agreement.

Her spokesman Elliot Mintz told Reuters that Ono had repeatedly rejected McCartney's requests to reverse the credits on the grounds that a "deal is a deal."

But McCartney, who has long complained that Lennon, for instance, had no input in the hit "Yesterday," wants the songs fairly labeled.

"I personally don't see any harm in John's songs such as 'Strawberry Fields' and 'Help!' being labeled Lennon and McCartney and my songs such as 'Let It Be' and 'Eleanor Rigby' being labeled McCartney and Lennon," he said last year.

Speaking to the Mirror, he reiterated that point: "I wasn't being big headed. I just asked that for once in 30 years, my name could be switched as a reward."

McCartney is currently in the middle of a 16 country, sell-out world tour, due in Britain on Saturday.

The tour grossed $70 million in America, breaking box-office records in 21 cities, won Billboard's Tour of the Year and has made the former Beatle the highest-earning celebrity on earth.

[Penny Lane]

I see no reason to disbelieve what he says. I have read a lot about the Beatles and what he is saying goes right along with the stuff I have read. I have a lot of respect for Paul.

[AKA]

Yeah, I agree with him 100% on this credits thing. The traditionalist in me likes the ring to "Lennon/McCartney," but my heart says Paul's name should go first for the songs John had little or no input on. Right now, all Paul is interested in is maintaining his legacy, and rightfully so. Besides, it's not like he's trying to take John's name off of these songs.

And nobody ever brings up the fact that Paul "swapped" the credits on Beatles songs for his "Wings Over America" album in 1976. At that time, John was very much alive and had absolutely no problem with it. Yoko's only interested in swelling the legacy of her dead husband's already great catalog of songs. John would have no problem with the credit-swapping, and would probably have encouraged it.

[Pitooey]

Why did it bother McCartney now? After Lennon is dead to do this?

I can understand about the McCartney/ Lennon thing. But, why did he wait so many years?

He should've done this when Lennon was alive. That's all...

[Pitooey]

Another thing is.........

His name "IS" on the credits........ The music does say McCartney wrote it as in Lennon/McCartney. I just think that at 60 Paul is acting like

I just feel if McCartney really wrote the songs (like Yesterday) He should've fought for his name to appear 1st at the time that Lennon was alive. That's all.......... Maybe his new wifeypoo is pushing him to do this. I wonder...

Anyway I knew Paul was a genius all along. All us Beatle fans knew this....... We all knew he wrote alot of the music.....

[laceyinthesky]

If he wants to put his name first on his songs, fine. They weren't as good as John's anyway, in my opinion.

[Ian]

I see Paul's point, but still the Lennon/McCartney ring is better, and it was alphabetical.

As Lacey said, John's songs were superior anyway.

[AKA]

It was McCartney/Lennon first, though (see "Please Please Me"), then Brian and John coerced Paul to switch it to Lennon/McCartney.

This is from a September, 2001 interview with Reader's Digest.

RD: Is it true that you’re looking to alter the writing credits on some of the songs that you wrote as a Beatle so your name appears before John’s?
McCartney: No, not really. In actual fact what happened was we were making the Anthology. And because of an old—it’s not actually an official agreement—but because of the way things worked out, we always used to call things Lennon/McCartney. I went to a meeting once with Brian [Epstein] and John, who got there before me, and they said, "We think it would be a good idea to call it Lennon/McCartney."
I said, "Oh yeah? Wait a minute, I think McCartney/Lennon sounds good."
We had a little, sort of tussle about that. And they said, "Well, look. Let’s call it Lennon/McCartney for now, but we can change it any time we want to." So I said, "Okay." I bought that. I mean, it’s alphabetical, it sounds better. So obviously now it does. It’s like Rodgers and Hammerstein—Hammerstein and Rodgers doesn’t sound right.
But at the time of the Anthology, I was going through a bit of a tough period with Linda, and the song "Yesterday" was in the Anthology. Instead of Lennon/McCartney, someone proposed putting in the full names, so that all the songs would be by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
So with "Yesterday," with that particular one, I thought, "Wouldn’t it be nice after all these years if we just change it and put ‘Yesterday’ by Paul McCartney and John Lennon?"
And I know John always said he had nothing to do with that song. In fact, a pianist used to play it whenever he came into a certain restaurant: "Da, da, da" [hums the first few chords of "Yesterday] and he’d go, "Oh, no! It’s not even mine!" So, you know, I thought John would be okay with that.
But what happened is we got into a sticky little moment ‘cause I rang Yoko and said, "Just on this one occasion could I have this as a favor? I’m not going through a great time in my life and I’d like it."
And she first said "Yeah," but then she rang back and said, "No." And I thought, "You weren’t there when I wrote it." But the power had passed to her. And I thought, "You know, that’s not very nice." So it actually is one of the reasons that we’re not the greatest of friends. We’re not enemies. We’re friends—sort of.
Actually Linda then rang her up and said, "You know, this would mean a lot to Paul." And she turned Linda down too. She said she was sorry but that they would never change it.
So it’s become a little bit of a bone of contention. And then later I thought, "It should be changed on all of my songs—‘Fool On The Hill,’ ‘Hey Jude,’ ‘Let It Be’—they should all say, only when both names are used in full, those are my songs, those are John’s."
I don’t see what’s wrong with that.
But it’s been refused, so I got off it and I thought I was cool with it and I calmed down and it was all right and it was all going great until I happened to go to Vienna. It was late at night, and I was having a drink in a bar with Heather and the piano player had just finished. And I saw the piano player’s fake book, so I grabbed it, and I’m going through it and it’s like, "Fly Me to the Moon," "Moon River," "Hey Jude." And he hadn’t had room at the top of the page, so it read, "Hey Jude," by John Lennon. He didn’t have room for my name. I thought, "Oh, God, now this is exactly what I’m worried about."
It just worries me because it’s my reputation. People now thing it’s a major bone of contention with me, like I’m worried about John overshadowing me. I’m not. I love John dearly. I think he would have done it. But it’s one of these things that happens in life and I’m—he said twitching—I’m okay with it now. But if you’re reading this, Yoko, there’s still time.
You know, we actually did a list of who wrote which songs with Barry Miles’s book, Many Years From Now, and John’s Playboy interview.

[Pitooey]

AKA......

McCartney wrote some great songs but so did Lennon.........

Let's see what comes of this.......