Original subtitles

Um, okay. One, two, three, four.

♪ You'd think that people would've had enough of silly love songs ♪

♪ But I look around me, and I see it isn't so ♪

♪ Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs ♪

♪ And what's wrong with that? ♪♪

What's the most important thing that you value?

Just personal peace.

Can you develop that a little more fuller?

Not really.

Okay.

You know, we've just gone around, like, for an hour with nothing.

Yeah, I know.

But let's sort of move on now.

That's the-the only time that works, really, is on the last line.

Paul, forget the last line.

If I hear someone damning Paul McCartney,

I tend to agree with them.

So when everyone was saying I broke up the Beatles

and I was just overbearing and all of that,

I kind of bought into it.

I thought, "That's, you know, the kind of bastard I am."

It leaves you in this kind of no-man's-land.

But, um, the truth.

John had come in one day and said he was leaving the Beatles.

He said, "It's kind of exciting.

It's like telling someone you want a divorce."

But, uh, I was thinking, "What do I do now?"

Because it'd been my whole life, really.

You know, I've had growing up, going to school, and then becoming the Beatles.

It was a puzzle I had to kind of unravel.

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ All right ♪

♪ Are you gonna be in my dreams tonight? ♪

You can be big headed and say, "Yeah, we're gonna last ten years."

You know, we're lucky if we last three months.

The Beatles!

♪ Love you, love you...

We can't keep playing the same sort of music until we're 40.

Who knows? At 40, we may not know how to write songs anymore.

♪ And in the end ♪♪

It is 22 before the hour of 1:00.

There is something strange going on with the Beatles.

The fact that the Beatle Paul may be dead.

The past few weeks, the question "Is Paul McCartney dead?"

Has made headlines across the United States and around the world.

The Beatles are actually gathered around what looks like a grave.

On the back of the album, Paul has his back to us.

There was even one report that McCartney was killed three years ago

in an auto accident and a double put in his place.

Michael McGear, is your brother

Paul McCartney alive?

It's a hoax. It's a con.

You got nothing at all to base it on.

When was the last time you saw your brother?

The last time?

Yes.

It was his funeral, I think.

The Mull of Kintyre on the west coast of Scotland.

It's, uh, a Gaelic name for "end of land."

The biggest thing about the town, really, is, um,

people would just say, "Oh, yeah, the Beatle's in town.

He's up on the farm."

That's pretty good.

Get down, get down on the ground.

Well, I suppose 'cause you live here.

And don't try filming it, or you might get in some trouble.

I think what happened is I think I might have thrown a bucket at him,

and I think he took a picture.

I decided I'd better go after him.

And I say, "Look, what we'll do is we'll pose a photo for you

in return for the bucket-throwing photo."

'Cause I didn't want the sort of drama to be,

"There's where he is. He's throwing buckets."

Knowing Paul McCartney is a millionaire,

I could just imagine the sort of place he'd have.

But I was wrong.

Paul, his wife Linda and their two children

live in their little broken-down old farmhouse,

which even a poor farm laborer would think twice about accepting.

We got up there to escape, but I couldn't escape.

The Beatles had just finished, and that was my life.

I thought, "I'll never write another note of music ever."

I felt very depressed.

So I said, "Well, I'll have a wee dram of scotch.

Why not?

I might have another one.

I've got nowhere to go."

So this lasted a couple of months, and I got into drinking too much.

But I was very lucky because I had Linda.

London, weepy time down south.

The last bachelor Beatle was no longer a bachelor.

Paul McCartney married New Yorker Linda Eastman.

Paul's new stepdaughter Heather was among the advance guard

who battled away through the shrieking, sobbing press of devoted fans

who surged round the newlyweds as they made for their car.

Why are you girls crying?

Why are you crying?

Control yourself a minute and tell me how you feel about him getting married.

-Oh, I don't care. -Oh, I-I... I think it's-it's...

Oh, it's lovely.

Shouldn't you two be at school today?

-Yes. -Yes.

Mrs. McCartney, congratulations.

What does it feel like to have just married the...

probably one of the most eligible bachelors in the world

to the envy of all the, uh, ladies?

Well, it feels great to be married.

But it's funny, you think, oh, it's so easy just to...

they run off and live happily ever after.

Cinderella and the prince.

You know, it's not that easy.

He said, "I've got this farm. I know you won't like it."

But it was so beautiful up there.

Way at the end of nowhere.

Civilization dropped away.

It was quite a relief.

It was just as if we'd been plunked into this new life,

and we just had to figure it out.

♪ Hey diddle, I want you back ♪

♪ Diddle, I want you back...

I think I said, "Well, let's just go get lost.

Just get away and go back to the beginning."

We'd had a baby, Mary.

Linda had a five-year-old, so I adopted her,

and I started making music again.

♪ She can't be found, but love doesn't care ♪

♪ Doesn't care...

There was a lot of heartbreaking stuff going on,

but Mum was like,

"Look, let's just sing, create music, be together."

We have horses and sheep, and we plant our own vegetables.

We went vegetarian.

And it's the only place we go to where we can just stay very natural

in this unnatural world.

I'm not very good at fixing roofs, so I can't really relate.

He wanted to be grounded in an ordinary life

because being in the Beatles was free of any kind of grounding whatsoever.

I think they might think I'm gonna hot up the revolution.

You know, I want to cool it down.

We're selling it like soap, you know, and you've got to sell

and sell until the housewife thinks,

"Oh, uh, well, there's peace or war. That's the two products."

The Beatles had broken up, but pretty much nobody knew.

Our manager at the time said, "Well, don't tell anyone.

I'm gonna go to Capitol Records. I'm gonna improve your deal."

And we all kind of agreed we won't tell.

Even though John was getting off on it all.

The Beatles, it's a monument or a museum.

And one thing this age is about is no museums.

And the Beatles turned into a museum, so they have to be scrapped.

Is there not a more positive way of-of demonstrating

in favor of peace than sitting in bed?

John was starting to write his own stuff.

I was starting to write mine.

We were just growing apart, really.

So then I had to look inside myself

and look at my world and find something that wasn't the Beatles.

He had two great allies when he set off on his new musical career.

One, of course, was Linda, and the other was a blank sheet of paper.

♪ La, la, la, la, la, la, lovely Linda...

At the beginning of the album, there's a squeak of a door.

And that was our back door. I thought, "Well, that's cool."

It showed that we were at home.

So I had myself a 4-track machine,

and we just actually plugged the microphones right into the back.

And that would be track one.

Don't cry, little baby.

Don't cry.

Daddy's gonna play you a lullaby.

And then I'd put a guitar on that.

And then I'd put a bass on that.

So I just made up a lot of tracks like that.

I love to just make stuff up.

It keeps me free.

♪ That would be something ♪

♪ It really would be something ♪

♪ That would be something ♪

♪ to meet you in the falling rain, mama ♪

♪ Meet you in the falling rain...

He more or less invented lo-fi recording.

Alternative rock begins with McCartney, if you like.

Underneath that, what was he really doing?

Experimenting.

♪ Meet you in the falling rain, mama ♪

♪ Meet you in the falling rain ♪♪

Suddenly, it became an album.

It meant I hadn't given up.

The only way I've ever written is going off somewhere.

In the very early days, it was the toilet.

After that, I would just find a cupboard under the stairs

to, like, escape the world.

So you can have your most private thoughts.

Well, now, well, now.

You strum a chord, and then you kind of see where it leads you,

like breadcrumbs.

It's just memories.

Maybe regrets.

Or even the future.

You sometimes fictionalize the characters.

But obviously, in a way, it's always you.

If you've got some sort of problems, you work them out in the song.

It really is the ultimate therapy, I think.

I remember I was in Abbey Road one day.

Paul was in number two listening to the record,

so I popped my head in there.

And he sort of gestured, you know, come in,

and I stood there and I listened to this song.

I said, "Who have you got playing on that?"

And he said, "Oh, I did it all myself." And it's like, "What?"

♪ Maybe I'm amazed ♪

♪ at the way you love me all the time ♪

♪ Or maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you...

It's not that I have any doubts about loving you,

but conversation in my head, it's more intense.

I'm mixing in fear of being a grown-up.

♪ Baby, I'm a man, maybe I'm a lonely man ♪

♪ who's in the middle of something ♪

♪ that he doesn't really understand ♪

♪ Baby, I'm a man, and maybe you're the only woman ♪

♪ who could ever help me ♪

♪ Baby, won't you help me understand? ♪

♪ Ooh...

We were always gonna say Beatles haven't split up when we clearly have.

I just thought, "This is going on too long."

Is anybody coming to read this statement?

No, this is the only statement.

And then all hell broke loose.

♪ Oh, oh ♪

♪ Oh, oh ♪♪

Once upon a time, they called themselves the Beatles.

Today, Paul McCartney called it quits.

He says he's going to write songs by himself.

Historians may one day

view it as a landmark in the decline of the British Empire.

The Beatles are breaking up.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.

He called me in the afternoon of that day

and said, "I'm leaving the group, too."

I said, "Good," you know.

'Cause he was the one that wanted the Beatles most.

John was quite annoyed with me.

He wanted to be the one to say it.

So in my mind, I said, "Well, why didn't you?"

John broke up the Beatles, you know, but I got the rap.

And that's a bit of a weight to bear.

When you've been in the biggest group in the world,

what do you do after that?

You got to remember that we were just two little Liverpool lads going nowhere.

When we were children, we stood on the banks of the River Mersey

and said, "Dad, what's that?"

"That's over the water, boys."

And that meant that that was unobtainable.

♪ We're so sorry ♪

♪ Uncle Albert ♪

♪ We're so sorry if we caused you any pain ♪

♪ We're so sorry ♪

♪ Uncle Albert ♪

♪ But there's no one left at home ♪

♪ and I believe I'm gonna rain...

Having left Liverpool and having got a new life in London,

sometimes I felt a tiny regret at having left.

Wouldn't it be great to go back to the old days?

Uncle Albert on the table, drunk,

and my dad just sat around giving us pea sandwiches.

If we're lucky.

They probably can get where I am now.

It's an unfortunate reality, that distance.

♪ What's the use of worrying? ♪

♪ It never was worthwhile, so ♪

♪ pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag ♪

♪ and smile, smile, smile ♪♪

I was on my own for the first time.

Am I any good on my own?

I was in bed with Linda one night.

On the spur of the moment, I said,

"Well, if I form a new band, do you want to be in it?"

And she kind of, "Um, yeah."

It's as simple as that.

Okay, well, that's... we got two members.

♪ Hands across the water ♪

♪ Water ♪

♪ Hands across the sky ♪

But I'm a photographer. I don't play anything.

He said, "Well, here's middle C. You can play keyboard."

♪ Hands across the water ♪

♪ Water ♪

♪ Hands across the sky ♪♪

His first album, McCartney,

was a Paul McCartney album, and so people bought it.

But they couldn't get their heads around what Paul was trying to do.

There was a real air of disappointment.

Maybe he's not a major talent after all.

I thought, "Well, having done the simple album,

this time, let's treat it like a proper record."

Okay, then, let's see.

Let's see.

We'll take a few over here now, so...

♪ Gonna go, gonna go ♪

♪ Gonna tell everyone I know...

The new album, it really was celebrating ordinary life.

You know, heading out on your own, make a family.

♪ Living in a home in the heart of the country ♪♪

You took that, huh?

Yeah, I started screwing around a little bit.

Screwing around a little bit.

Yeah, I think you'd better play at us, then.

Sit down.

♪ Come on, little lady ♪

♪ Lady, let's eat at home...

I couldn't wait to get to work.

I just knew he was the best known musician on the planet.

But, well, this is not your typical session.

Since you've been married, Paul, um,

when did you first discover Linda could sing?

On the wedding night.

♪ Do you love me like you know you ought to do...

I liked her voice.

Her style was not operatic.

It was not blues.

♪ Or is this the only thing you want me for...

But that gives it a special sound.

It was more just singing.

♪ Sweet little lass you are ♪

♪ my long-haired lady ♪

Now, what I thought was, use that for the middle eighths, certainly.

Uh-huh. Maybe we should sing on top of that, double track, then.

Sing on top of that, both of us?

-Yeah. -Why not?

♪ Ah, sing your song ♪

♪ Love is long, love is long ♪

♪ Ah, when you're wrong ♪

♪ love is long, love is long...

Paul had been making music with the Beatles his whole life,

and now he's making music with somebody else.

♪ Love is long...

He was really happy.

We knew that something was troubling him, but he didn't bring it into work.

You know, the fairy tale was we make all this money,

we make all these lovely songs, and then we just split up, and that's it.

But it wasn't going that way.

All the contracts that the Beatles signed in '68

were based on the idea that the Beatles would never break up.

There was no way to extricate just one of them from the partnership.

Nobody likes to be hemmed in.

I think the worst thing about it, though,

basically John had hired a manager who I didn't like.

Allen Klein was classic New York, a lawyer but also a crook.

He would get a cut off the top,

and then he would take a cut off the bottom as well.

But from John Lennon's point of view, he loved Klein.

John said, "Maybe he's a bastard, but he's gonna be our bastard."

I saw through it.

The way things were going,

Allen Klein would just swallow up all the Beatles' fortune.

He is, um, obligated into Apple for a considerable number of years,

so, uh, his disassociating himself with me,

um, has really no effect.

I remember I had a very strange nightmare.

Allen Klein is a dentist, and I've got to have a tooth out.

And I wake up.

Hmm.

So I thought I had to fight it.

My brother-in-law, he and his dad were a huge help.

They said to sue them.

And I said, "Well, I'll sue Allen Klein, but I can't sue the Beatles.

These are my mates."

They're gonna hate me for it. The public's gonna hate me for it.

I'm gonna hate me for it.

But otherwise, I would never get out.

♪ Too many people going underground ♪

♪ Too many reaching for a piece of cake...

Good evening. Tonight, a musical surprise, as the Beatles topple.

The legal attempt by Paul McCartney

to dissolve the business partnership of the Beatles began today in London.

He says their accounts are in such poor shape,

nobody is sure where all the millions went.

♪ You took your lucky break and broke it in two...

Three of the singing Beatles put the fourth member of the quartet,

Paul McCartney, through a new kind of hard day's night today.

McCartney was depicted by his fellow Beatles

as arrogant, short-tempered and a spoiled child.

♪ Too many people preaching practices ♪

♪ Don't let 'em tell you what you wanna be...

Look, I know they're your in-laws and all...

Yeah, but I don't go with Klein.

From now on, the Eastmans handle all my work.

Oh, for Christ's sake, don't be an idiot, man.

We've got to stick together.

There was even a play, I think, in the West End.

And they sort of depicted Paul as being the one who broke up the Beatles.

We've got to stick together. Otherwise, we'll be eaten alive.

Forget the Eastmans. All's fair in love and business.

From now on, the Eastmans handle all my work!

-Christ... -No further comment!

The earth was swallowing everything up.

It was monumental, I think, for the world, the Beatles breaking up,

and especially for the world of the band members.

♪ Everybody had a good time ♪

♪ Everybody had a soft dream ♪

♪ Everybody saw the sunshine ♪

♪ Everybody had a hard year ♪♪

Surprise, surprise.

He was tough, my dad.

You know, I think Paul was tough, too.

He just has a gentle manner about him.

What did you think of Paul's album?

I thought Paul's was rubbish, you know.

I-I think he'll make a better one when he's frightened into it.

But I thought that first one was just a lot of...

I told you... light and crack.

♪ So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise...

In school, I was different. I was always different.

But most of the time, they were trying to beat me into being a fucking dentist.

And then the fucking fans started to beat me into being a fucking Beatle.

And the critics started to beat me into being Paul McCartney.

♪ Those freaks was right when they said ♪

♪ you was dead...

Paul thought he was the fucking Beatles, and he never fucking was.

Allen Klein was stirring it up something awful.

They had him spinning about Paul.

It was really heartbreaking.

It reminded me of Ivan the Terrible, you know, the movie.

♪ The only thing you done was ♪

♪ "Yesterday" ♪

"The only thing you did was 'Yesterday'"

was apparently Allen Klein's suggestion.

But at the back of my mind, I was thinking,

"But all I ever did was 'Yesterday, ' 'Let It Be, '

'Long and Winding Road, ' 'Eleanor Rigby, ' 'Lady Madonna.'

-Fuck you, John." -♪ Tell me ♪

♪ how do you sleep?♪♪

How do I sleep at night?

Well, actually, quite well.

But, you know, you got to remember, I'd known John since he was a teenager.

And that's kind of what I loved about John.

He's a crazy son of a bitch.

He's a lovely, lovely, crazy guy.

First, hear this.

It's cool, it's groovy, it's number one, the Led Zeppelin.

The Led, uh, what?

The, uh, Led Zeppelin, but I'm afraid that you and other dads like you, Bob,

may never have heard of them.

But this British group has made musical history today.

Readers of the Melody Maker have voted them the top world group.

The significance is that the Beatles have held this title for eight years,

but now the Beatles are out.

Looking back to the early '70s, Paul was remarkably uncool.

He was conservative, he was lame, he was boring,

he was making music for housewives and grannies.

People are now interested in young musicians

rather than in, say, what Paul McCartney had for breakfast.

♪ Ram on ♪

♪ Give your heart to somebody ♪

♪ soon ♪

♪ right away ♪

♪ right away...

Why is it called Ram?

Ram, forward, press on.

I also, a lot of people know, I'm well into sheep, man.

Ram came out, and the press just panned it.

It's crazy.

People are saying that this record is a failure,

but Ram specifically wasn't trying to be a Beatles record,

and I think that's the charm of it.

Yeah, Ram is a masterpiece. I love it.

Oh, I don't know what I'm doing.

How can I ever do anything

that's anywhere near as good as the Beatles?

It's impossible.

And this, we're betting,

will make the top five this week.

It's by an English group called The Moody Blues.

And if it makes the grade,

we'll be bringing them back for a return appearance.

So here it is, the Shindig! Pick of the Week, "Go Now!"

♪ We've already said ♪

♪ goodbye ♪

I'd known Denny Laine from when he was with The Moody Blues.

♪ Since you got to go, oh, you'd better go now...

I used to go over to his place.

He loaned me a guitar once, and I kept it for a year.

You know, we were kind of friends in that way.

I rang him one day and said...

"Do you fancy getting a band together?"

Denny would play guitar, and I could play bass, obviously.

And as far as the drummer's concerned,

you know, you got to have a good engine behind you.

Paul called me and he says, "You know, I really miss my old band.

I'm thinking about putting a band together."

And I said, "Yeah, sure."

That's all it was.

♪ I don't want to see you go ♪

♪ but, darling, you'd better go now ♪♪

Driving up to Scotland, you stop at the farmer's house

and ask him which lane takes you up to Paul's place.

"Okay, laddie, you take the wee cuttings up..."

"Sure."

There it was in the middle of nowhere.

They were all sheep people.

You know Scotland.

You can't have anything but sheep up there,

the only thing that survive in the mountains.

He had a little studio that...

well, not a studio, it was like a barn,

which he called Rude Studio.

♪ - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

He said, "We're all gonna be a part of this.

What I make, you're gonna make."

He wanted us to be like...

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪♪

He wanted us to be known just like the Beatles were known.

I went, "Okay."

Paul was looking for a guitar player,

and Denny brought my name into the picture.

He says, "Do you want to join a band?"

I think I know guitar players would've chopped a finger off

to get that gig, you know?

I mean, he's not going to have a bunch of fools around him,

Paul McCartney, I can tell you.

♪ Well, I woke up this morning ♪

♪ Lucille was not in sight ♪

♪ I asked my friends about it, but all their lips were tight ♪

♪ Lucille ♪

♪ please come back where you belong ♪

♪ Well, I'm singing to you, baby ♪

♪ Please don't leave me alone ♪

Let's go once more.

Yeah.

I thought we should start like the Beatles started, from square one.

♪ Two, three ♪

So we went on the road.

When we leave here, we'll just pick up a map.

We'll say, "Where do you fancy today?"

-So who does the driving? -I did a bit.

We had the kids, the dogs, like kind of wandering troubadours.

♪ Oh, sweet darling ♪

♪ what a mess I'm in...

We turned up at Nottingham University was the first one.

The roadie normally went in, and he said, uh,

"We got Paul McCartney in a van outside, mate.

Do-do you want him playing lunchtime tomorrow?"

They said, "Get out of here. I got more serious things to do."

They-They'd come out in the van to sort of check.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have him."

Charge them 50 pence on the door just because you do.

You know, we ain't doing this for nothing. Yeah.

And then the great thing is we have this whacking great bag of 50 pees,

and it'd be like, have you ever seen Peter Sellers in Tom Thumb?

One for me and one for you.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

But it was amazing, 'cause I'd been in Apple and the Beatles,

and you'd never seen money.

So this was me going back to, like, the Cavern.

It was like there's a whole new life starting again.

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Now, now, now ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah-yeah...

In the meantime, we just learned how to be Wings.

There will come a day when we'll be at square a hundred.

After a private joust,

unannounced, appearing at some British universities,

Wings started a 26-venue European tour on Sunday night.

-Why start here? -We could get big gigs.

I mean, we've had offers to play at Madison Square Garden.

I think, as far as I'm concerned, see, I'm just some fella

who used to be in a group called the Beatles.

The Beatles split up, so quite naturally you look for something else.

And that's all I'm doing.

And it's a group called Wings, and we're having a great time

doing the kind of things the Beatles couldn't, never done.

From England, Wings!

♪ Who's that coming round that corner? ♪

♪ Who's that coming round that bend...

It's a particular kind of excitement.

A good audience is an incredible thing,

like a roomful of 4,000 lovers.

England, Wings!

Paul McCartney & Wings!

Paul McCartney & Wings!

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed...

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed ♪

We lived as a family.

I don't remember nannies.

They would pull out a drawer,

put a pillow in it, and that's where the baby slept.

We've got some mattresses up there, you know, so we can just cruise along.

Fantastic.

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed ♪

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed...

People thought we were totally crazy, but that was our way.

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed ♪

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ sleeping in a big barn bed ♪

♪ Keep on ♪

♪ woman ♪♪

It was, it was interesting seeing people in the street,

you know, who'd see the bus going by.

But it's almost like their eyes would be drawn like magnets to Paul's face.

It was quite odd.

So, there was one day when we stopped at a motorway services to go and have a pee,

and I said to him, uh, "Are you coming?"

And he said, "No, no. You know, I can't stand at a urinal,

you know, and have someone say, 'Oh, you're-you're here, ' you know.

'Hello, Paul.'"

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪♪

"I trained myself," he said, "when I was in the Beatles,

you know, for it not to be necessary."

You know, he wanted to engender this, uh, we're all mates and on the same plane,

you know, which, of course, we-we... we weren't at all.

The plants, still in pots, were produced in court today.

They were found by a local policeman

who'd gone to check the empty McCartney farm buildings.

He looked in the greenhouse and thought he recognized the cannabis.

Well, I'm glad to have got off like this, you know.

I'm glad it wasn't jail.

Did you think at one point it might have been?

I thought it might be, you know, but I would've been okay as long as I could

take my guitar in with me, you know, write a few new songs and stuff.

But, uh, I wasn't looking forward to it.

It was said in court that you had a considerable interest in horticulture.

Now, this might surprise some of your friends.

Uh, when did this start?

A couple of years ago, you know.

And wh-where have you been doing your gardening, et cetera?

At the farm, yeah.

My dad's a keen gardener, you know.

I think it's rubbed off.

It was said that those seeds had been sent to you.

How did you come to grow them?

Yeah, well, we got a load of seeds, you know, kind of in the post.

Uh, and we didn't know what they were, you know.

We kind of planted them all, and five of them came up like...

five of them came up illegal, you know.

As he left the court, McCartney, who'd been given two weeks to pay the fine,

said, "The judge is a great guy."

I... I'm very enthusiastic.

And so the initial enthusiasm is what gets things done.

But in my case, there's never anyone around saying, "No, that's a stupid idea.

You shouldn't do that."

So I blame everyone else.

♪ People call me a stick-in-the-mud ♪

♪ but it's certainly not true ♪

♪ Who could call me a stick-in-the-mud ♪

♪ when I polish my tonsils ♪

♪ put on my dancing shoes? ♪

♪ When I get that feeling at the end of my toes ♪

♪ gotta go in a trance ♪

♪ I get an itchy feeling at the end of my nose ♪

♪ Gotta sing, gotta dance...

In 1973, Paul made a TV special,

but some of it was just so bizarre.

♪ Don't stop...

He loved all that soppy shit.

Come on, give me a leg up.

Thanks, lad.

Sorry I've been so long. I had a bit of bother below stairs.

Like this Bruce McMouse thing from the live show.

And not cool, totally not cool.

Hey, you're a nice little fellow, aren't you?

Watch it, love.

The wife gets jealous.

♪ - Don't stop...

By '73, things had started to turn ugly, generally.

People were dying.

And there was a sense that

rock music was supposed to be the voice of revolt or revolution.

It wasn't just all about fun.

♪ Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't ♪

♪ don't, don't stop ♪♪

And I get that, you know.

But the thing is, not everyone can do that.

And not everyone wants to do that.

♪ Mary had a little lamb ♪

♪ Its fleece was white as snow ♪

"Mary Had a Little Fucking Lamb"? Are you nuts?

♪ And you could hear them singing ♪

♪ La-la, la-la...

Now, you talk about somebody that had a tough time

with "Mary Had a Little Lamb," it was Henry McCullough.

♪ La-la...

We were in, uh, dance studios trying to learn how to do

vaudeville dances and stuff, you know.

I'm a bloody guitar player.

Some people think it was a great thing for me

to be involved in right from the start.

But that wears off, you know.

Wings was a dud when it first came out.

Well, since the breakup,

I think John's come out with the best album with Imagine.

George, I really liked All Things Must Pass.

I think it surprised a lot of people.

I mean, Ringo's lovely.

He made an album called Beaucoups of Blues, which I really like.

McCartney's probably the most sort of talked about more than anyone else

because people have been really disappointed.

I'd rather hear Paul McCartney rather than Linda McCartney, you know.

Probably you, more than any other member of the band,

comes in for a lot of stick.

How-how do you react to this?

Well, I think it's getting better.

Who's Linda Eastman?

That's it. Who is it?

What is it?

Technically, she's supposed to be Paul's wife,

but she's his ruler, his guardian.

She says, he jumps.

Why? I don't know.

"She can't do this, she can't sing,

she can't play piano, she can't do anything."

"Oh, they're crazy, man.

What's he got his old lady in the band for?"

"Who the hell is this?"

People have an image of me that's so far away of what I am.

I almost don't mind.

I don't want people to know who I am anyway.

♪ Looking like a rag doll ♪

♪ Mama's little girl...

I was just a-a divorced lady living in New York with a child.

I was, like, a receptionist at Town & Country magazine

and just started taking pictures a bit for the fun of it.

And all of a sudden, I just started getting work.

I could see and feel so much looking through a lens,

because I forgot my insecurities.

I forgot myself.

That's how I know when to click.

And it was around that time I met Paul.

Now that you look at his photography and hers together,

even though they came from very different walks of life, they're very like-minded.

♪ Singing like a skylark...

Both of them, when they take a portrait,

it's really like they're looking at a friend.

♪ Picking up a mountain, yeah...

She was a-a complete individual.

He hadn't met anybody like that before.

The way I never was.

The way I never will be.

-Gorgeous. -Cheers to that.

What am I doing singing with Paul McCartney?

In a way, they're right. What am I doing?

There are a lot better singers.

Yeah, she wasn't a cookie-cutter example

of someone you put in a band.

What they, and she especially, had to go through,

like when they isolated her voice and ridiculed her, I mean, it breaks my heart.

You know, I know that there was pain there.

I know she hurt.

She wasn't, like, cold.

But I think that shows her bravery and her spirit.

That side to her boosted a side that he perhaps had lost.

♪ - Oh, my love ♪

♪ Oh, my love ♪

♪ Only my love ♪

♪ does it good to me ♪

That's why I'm there, really.

I'm not there 'cause I'm the greatest keyboard player.

I'm there 'cause we love each other.

She taught me a lot of things.

Anybody who bad-mouthed us

made us even more determined to prove them wrong.

Welcome back.

A week ago today, three of the original four Beatles,

John, George, Paul and Ringo,

finally parted company with their fast-talking American manager Allen Klein.

I don't want to go into the details of it.

Let's say that possibly Paul's suspicions were right.

The media and the fans wanted to choose sides, you know.

The reality is they were actually more similar than they were different.

Paul, uh, personally doesn't feel as though I-I insulted him or anything,

'cause I had dinner with him last week.

-He's quite happy... -They were friends, you know,

and they were swearing at each other...

If I can't, uh, if I can't, uh, have a fight with my best friend,

I don't know who I can have a fight with.

That was the kind of thing, you know.

You'd be in an argument with John, and it'd be getting a little bit heated,

and he would take his glasses and he'd just put them down,

and he says, "It's only me."

I'm still the guy that you loved in Liverpool.

"It's only me."

Young man right here, the first row.

I'd like to know if you've heard the new McCartney album,

and if so, how'd you like it?

-The Wings one? -Yeah.

Some of it's all right. I thought it was getting better,

some of it wasn't as good and some was better.

I think he's going in the right direction.

-You think he's getting it back? -I think he has to.

He's got it there somewhere.

I was looking around for somewhere exciting to record the next album.

I thought a good idea would be to get a list off EMI

of all the studios they had round the world.

It turned out they had a studio in Germany.

They had one in Rio, China.

They had one in Africa.

Fela was so cool.

I'd never heard anything like it in my life.

We just said, "Yeah, let's go to Africa."

Denny Laine and Linda were very up for the idea.

The night before we were due to go, the other guys,

they just rang up and said, "We're not coming.

We're leaving the band."

We really felt like it was a family thing.

But for years, we're living on a meager, meager retainer.

He wanted us to be like John, Paul, George and Ringo,

but it was really Paul McCartney and these other guys that played with him.

Half the band left within the same week, and he never asked why.

I didn't want to be part of it anymore because it wasn't really for real.

It was a dream.

That's what it was.

I wasn't on top of it.

You know, I wasn't in the accounts department

looking at what everyone was getting.

In my mind, it's, "Well, get better than me, then.

Write some great songs.

That's how you can solve your problem."

So after the initial reaction, it was just, like, anger.

I went into my "fuck you" mode.

"I'm gonna make the best record you've ever heard."

♪ Down in the jungle, living in a tent ♪

♪ you don't use money, you don't pay rent ♪

♪ You don't even know the time, but you don't mind...

We were kind of watching the landing with the pilot of the plane,

and there's this mist all over the jungle, you know,

saying, "Is that the airport over there?"

"No."

"I think that's it. Yeah, come on, that's it."

"Now, that's it a bit to the left, isn't it?"

We're all going, "Oh, what have we got ourselves into here?" you know.

♪ When your light is on the blink ♪

♪ you never think of worrying...

It was a bit of a shock.

I thought Lagos was going to be the rhythmic capital of Africa.

I had no research or anything. It just sounded good.

♪ What's the use of anything? ♪♪

And then we went down to the studios.

It wasn't at all like Abbey Road.

There was no drum booth.

The microphone supply was a cardboard box just full of old mics,

and there was a door at the back of the studio.

You open this door, and that was a pressing plant

where they pressed all the records.

There was like 50, 60 people stamping out records.

We were walking one night,

and people had warned us, said, "Don't walk through this area."

So I said, "Okay, don't you worry."

So a car pulls up.

Car doors fly open, and six guys jump out, and they're mugging us at knife point.

Linda is screaming, "Don't touch him! Don't touch him!

He's a musician!"

As if that's gonna help.

All my demos, all my recordings went.

We got back to the studio, and one of the guys in the studio said,

"You're lucky he didn't kill you."

"Thanks a lot. Should we make a record?"

♪ Oh, no one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty-five ♪

♪ will ever do ♪

♪ She may be right, she may be fine ♪

♪ She may get love, but she won't get mine ♪

♪ 'cause I got you ♪

♪ Whoa, I ♪

♪ Whoa, I...

All we had was us.

We were in a strange land, strange place,

up against the odds in a way.

But it came together.

You have to let stuff go in life.

The guys weren't gonna come to Lagos.

I got angry, then I let it go.

When the demos got stolen, I got angry.

But then I had to let it go.

We had a phone call in the studio.

He had this idea.

Basically, a bunch of celebrities breaking out from a prison wall.

I felt it was a very personal idea.

Suddenly, he's made a breakthrough.

♪ Stuck inside these four walls ♪

♪ Sent inside forever ♪

♪ Never seeing no one...

A lot of people were kind of on the run round about those early '70s.

A lot of people who'd opted out of society.

Everyone was a desperado.

There's a lot of that.

And you really must stay very still for that one second, please.

♪ If I ever get out of here ♪

♪ thought of giving it all away ♪

♪ to a registered charity ♪

♪ All I need is a pint a day ♪

♪ If I ever get out of here ♪

♪ If we ever get out of here ♪

Ready? Freeze.

Denny, can you lift your head up a bit, please? Okay.

♪ Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash ♪

♪ as we fell into the sun ♪

♪ And the first one said to the second one there ♪

♪ "I hope you're having fun..."

He wanted to put the past behind you and to keep moving forward.

You know, again, a lot of people criticized Wings.

You know, that's just their take.

But it does force you to say,

"Well, okay, watch this."

♪ For the band on the run ♪

♪ Band on the run...

Paul McCartney's runaway album, now on Apple.

The Beatle with the greatest individual chart success

since their breakup has been Paul McCartney.

This album is much nicer than the previous ones.

This time, I don't care if people don't like it, 'cause I like it.

♪ Yeah, the band on the run...

It was made up, you know. It was like homemade Wings.

It was about trying to do something different,

trying to break loose of all the sort of traditions that you've grown up with.

It's about freedom.

Yeah, it was great. Thank you very much. It was really great.

You really look like you do in the pictures.

All right, fellas.

A lot of critics reckon that it wasn't until Band on the Run

that you actually sort of came of age, in fact, after your time in the Beatles.

-Would you agree with that? -Uh, no.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to present to you.

Miss Mary McCartney singing a song of her own choice.

Over to you, Mary. Opportunity knocks.

♪ Baa, baa, black sheep ♪

♪ have you any wool? ♪

♪ Yes, sir, yes, sir ♪

♪ three bags full...

We were all each other's own entertainment.

You know, we would do, like, face painting or...

I don't know. We were just...

It was sort of anything goes.

They both lost their mothers at a very young age.

That is why family was so important to them.

Because they realized it could go at any point.

♪ - Oh ♪

♪ When I get feverish high again ♪

♪ nobody's letting me by ♪

♪ I want someone who's holding my hand ♪

♪ in the nighttime ♪

♪ loving me right ♪

♪ Loving is all I need...

My mum died when I was 14.

It just hit me so hard.

I would tend to throw myself into work.

That's just my character, you know.

He can't keep still.

His mind's always on the go.

He's a workaholic.

People use that word.

I don't know. We don't work music, we play it.

So maybe I'm a playaholic.

♪ All of you ♪

♪ On and on in my hand ♪

♪ Nobody may understand ♪

♪ woman of mine ♪

♪ Oh, right on time ♪

♪ Oh, woman, you're mine ♪♪

Uh, would you excuse me for a moment?

As you can hear, the phone's ringing in the background.

I must answer.

Excuse, please.

Hello?

May I speak with Mrs. McCartney, please?

Oh, she's out at the moment.

Can I ring her later?

What time is it now?

It's just after 3.

Just after 3 o' the clock?

Yes. I'll ring back, then.

You do that. Alright cheerio.

We'd been waiting around till we had, you know,

enough songs for a big world tour.

And that was the prize.

So I put a new band together, Wings Mark II.

Right.

One, two.

One, two, three, four!

♪ Well, people gathered here tonight ♪

♪ I want you to listen to me...

I'd seen a guitar player who was a very young guy, kind of whiz kid.

This was Jimmy McCulloch.

And Geoff Britton, solid rock and roll drummer.

Musically, the band is great.

If you listen to One Hand Clapping,

it's the ballsiest thing he's ever recorded.

♪ And a commie with a Tommy gun ♪

♪ Soily, soily ♪

♪ Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it's oily ♪

♪ Yeah, soily, soily ♪

♪ Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it's oily ♪

♪ And you know he's right ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪♪

-No, it's the drum. -The drum...

It comes in...

The drum comes in one beat too early.

No, it doesn't. Comes in a bit too late.

Okay, let's just do another take of it.

-But that was good, though, innit? -Yeah.

Just do another take on it, I think.

But basically the ingredients were wrong.

He wants you all to be normal and equal.

You ain't normal and equal because he's the world superstar

and you're a dog face nobody.

That lineup didn't last very long, either.

The music always comes first, and if they don't fit into that world,

they got to go.

It's funny, the lineup of Wings.

We got rid of Henry McCullough, and we get in Jimmy McCulloch, spelled differently.

You got Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell.

We get rid of Geoff Britton, who's English,

and get in Joe English, who's American.

Well, hell, there you go.

It's just all too confusing.

But in a way, we invented Spinal Tap.

I always said to myself, you know, I'm the glorified sideman,

but it never felt like that.

It's more like a family.

Please introduce yourself into the camera, please.

Hello, everyone. I'm Joe English.

And I'm from Rochester, New York, in the good old U.S. of A.

I'm Joe English. I'm from Glasgow, Scotland.

My name is Joe English, and I was born in Liverpool.

My name is Joe English, and I was born in New York City.

And just to be different, my name is Denny Laine.

♪ Anytime ♪

♪ any day ♪

♪ you can hear the people say ♪

♪ that love is blind ♪

♪ Well, I don't know, but I say love is kind...

Whoa, beautiful.

Beautiful show.

Growing up in Liverpool, people didn't like bosses.

There's this thing. It's like a bit us against them.

I wanted for us all to feel equal,

but people are looking at Wings as my group.

So I just decided I'd try and be a good boss.

♪ That's what the man said ♪

Bring up stage right, 50%.

♪ So won't you listen to what the man said...

We'll only have to do it again when Paul gets here, so we might as well wait.

♪ The wonder of it all, baby ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah...

-You're what, 31 now? -Thirty-three.

Thirty-three, that's a bit old for rock and roll.

-Do you think you're past your peak? -It's ancient, ancient.

Well, I'll tell you what. You come to the show.

-Do you think you're past your peak? -And after the show... I don't, no.

I wouldn't be here if I thought I was.

But you come to see the show, and if you like the show,

you tell me if I'm over my peak after it, okay?

With the new...

with the new setting on the, uh, Rhodes.

Is that the normal, uh, volume and stuff there?

Should be turned full up on the bass and...

Okay, that's what it normally is, actually.

He was definitely anxious about how it was going to be received.

This was the first time with big crowds.

You could understand, he felt this great weight of responsibility.

Is this going to work?

It was a scary moment.

Why do I carve out these problems for myself?

Just before the tour, we went to Hawaii.

I think it was just a holiday or something.

And it was a strange house that we'd rented.

Don't Go Near the Water.

The swimming wasn't off a beach.

It was off, like, a sort of little cliff thing.

And then when I wanted to get out,

what you did, you waited for the wave to come in,

and it brought you high enough to get onto the top of the cliff.

Then the weather changed.

Well, this doesn't matter.

You know, I still know how to get in and out.

So I went in, as usual, on my own.

Swam around for a little bit.

I thought, "Right, get out now."

And I jumped up, but now the wave just sort of dumped me in the water.

Beatles in a performance all dressed in red carnations,

and Paul is wearing a black iris.

So I'm swimming around in white water now.

I'm getting a little bit tired. I see the next wave coming in.

It swells up, and I go, "Okay, let's go."

No, dumped.

So now I'm getting worried,

and I'm in this white water, feel like I'm in a washing machine.

But I just had to push through all that.

So I say to God, "Okay, Lord, I'll give it everything I've got.

Just dump me out."

♪ Come on, now ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, come on, baby ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Jet ♪

♪ Jet ♪

♪ Jet ♪

♪ I can almost remember their funny faces ♪

♪ that time you told them that you were gonna be marrying soon ♪

♪ And, Jet ♪

♪ I thought the only lonely place was on the moon ♪

♪ Jet, ooh ♪

♪ Jet, ooh ♪

♪ Ah, mater ♪

♪ I want Jet to always love me ♪

♪ Ah, mater ♪

♪ I want Jet to always love me ♪

♪ Ah, mater ♪

♪ Much later ♪

♪ Ooh, she said ♪

♪ Whoo, she said ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, Jet...

McCartney has just been told that a planned tour of Japan

had been canceled because of a conviction in Britain for possessing cannabis.

Hello, people of Japan.

This is Paul McCartney of Wings saying that, uh, we're very sorry

that we can't come to Japan to play our music to you this time.

But if the Minister of Justice says we can't come in, then we can't come in.

Thank you!

All right!

How important is it to you

to perform before a live audience in this way?

I mean, most people think of you as being a very rich man who presumably would have

no need at all to perform before a live audience ever again...

Well, I'll tell you.

Uh, we were in Nashville,

and have you ever heard of a guitar player called Jerry Reed?

And we were talking to him, and I was saying that I was gonna go on the road.

And he said, "Man, if I was Paul McCartney, I'd buy the road."

Australia and Europe

was really the grounding to get it great for America.

It was what we'd been building towards.

And, you know, we felt we'd finally arrived.

Second time round.

♪ Someone knocking at the door ♪

♪ Somebody ringing the bell ♪

♪ Someone's knocking at the door ♪

♪ Somebody's ringing the bell ♪

♪ Do me a favor ♪

♪ Open the door ♪

♪ and let 'em in ♪

♪ Ooh, yeah ♪

The response was Beatlemania.

♪ Someone's knocking at the door...

I think the moment he stepped onto that stage,

he felt, "You know what? I can do this.

I know what I'm doing.

I'm back."

♪ Let 'em in ♪

Paul McCartney is the only one of the four

to have survived the first part of the 1970s.

He's a fleshier, heavier Beatle these days.

Critically, his new groups haven't been acclaimed like the Beatles,

but there can be no doubt about their pulling power.

♪ Sister Suzy ♪

♪ Brother John ♪

♪ Martin Luther ♪

♪ Phil and Don, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Uncle Ernie ♪

♪ Auntie Jin ♪

♪ Open the door ♪

♪ Let 'em in ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah♪♪

Wrong airport?

-We'll go to the other airport. -No. No.

The limos and the police escort are there.

Rather than waiting for him to try and get the...

-Let's just get taxis. -Let's take taxis, man.

Let's get two taxis.

Hello, cabbages!

-Hello, cabbages! -Hello, Mary.

Not that!

Hello, cabbages!

And your kangaroo!

And don't boil yourself twice.

Did you get your lettuce?

Can I tell you something?

-Yeah, lettuce. -Oh, lettuce.

-I thought you said "letters." -Can I tell you something?

Yeah, I got, I got a whole head.

I like the shows a lot.

It's better than I thought it would be.

I'm not really one for being, quote, "on the road."

I'm more of a homebody.

She was, like, self-styled, and it was the coolest fucking look on earth.

On earth.

Which should I wear?

I'd like to see you wear that.

-I like that. With jeans. -With... with what skirt, though?

-Wear your jeans. -Wear your jeans.

And it was, I'm sorry, like, so ahead of its time.

There's people I know that their entire music career

isn't based on the Beatles and Wings, it was based on her.

And no cook and no driver.

I don't know how she did it.

Oh, man, that was such a groovy gig.

All right, all right, all right.

The McCartney show is getting two encore calls a night,

and the highlight to every concert is "Yesterday."

At one time in Wings tours, Paul refused to do any Beatles songs.

Now, with most of the legal troubles behind him,

McCartney was comfortable selecting Beatles tunes for the Wings show.

I'll tell you the truth. It was too painful.

It was too much of a kind of trauma.

It was like reliving a sort of weird dream, doing a Beatle tune.

I'll see if you remember this one. Okay.

♪ Once a jolly swagman... ♪

No.

It's not that one.

In America, there was a huge nostalgia industry.

How long have you been a Beatle fan?

How long have there been Beatles?

There were bizarre film projects and stage shows.

Fans started to organize Beatles conventions

where people could buy records and so on.

Even one-inch squares of a sheet

on which Ringo Starr slept are available.

Do you feel any kind of, uh, hesitation

about the fact that you will always,

in all probability, be identified as a former Beatle?

♪ When you were young ♪

♪ and your heart was an open book ♪

♪ you used to say, "Live and let live..."

There was a big thing about: Will the Beatles reunite?

Because that somehow got out as a rumor.

Of course now, with Paul, uh, playing at the Garden tonight and tomorrow night,

there seems to be a lot of speculation

that there's a chance maybe John would show up.

There has been a report recently

that you have said that you might get back with the Beatles.

There's been a lot of talk and rumors of the Beatles

getting back together again for one last concert.

If the Beatles ever got back together for one performance...

Are the Beatles gonna get back together again?

Is it likely to happen?

Are there any circumstances?

-Do you think that... -The Beatles.

-The Beatles... -The Beatles...

The Beatles...

What about the Beatles?

♪ Live and let die ♪

♪ Live and let die ♪

♪ Live and let die ♪

♪ Live and let die ♪

Paul McCartney's first concert

at Madison Square Garden in over 12 years

has been going on for more than two hours now,

and so far, no Beatle bulletins.

Will it happen tomorrow night?

We don't know, but we will be there to find out.

Promoters have been offering millions of dollars

if they just step onto the same stage for just one more concert.

A West Coast promoter has offered to pay the four

a cool $50 million for a reunion.

We're talking about a potential to the Beatles of up to $100 million.

Now the United Nations is involved.

Two hundred and fifty million dollars.

♪ What does it matter to ya? ♪

♪ When you got a job to do ♪

♪ you got to do it well ♪

♪ You gotta give the other fella hell ♪♪

Now here it is, as you can see,

a check made out to you, the Beatles,

for $3,000.

All you have to do is sing three Beatle tunes.

"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah."

That's $1,000 right there.

Me and Linda were over to John's apartment at the Dakota.

He said, "Oh, this is a big show over here, Saturday Night Live."

In my book, the Beatles are the best thing that ever happened to music.

It goes even deeper than that.

You're not just a musical group, you're a part of us.

We grew up with you.

We got kind of excited.

We just go down, we show up. Hey!

It's Saturday Night Live!

But it was like, why?

You know, I mean, it'd be great for them.

Would it be great for us?

We've come full circle, and now we're off on another journey.

So we just decided to just have another cup of tea and forget the whole idea.

Rolling.

The kind of thing we do at the sessions all the time, you know.

Just bring horses in.

A lot of bands take themselves quite seriously.

And we were like, "Eh, what the heck?

Yeah, we're musicians, but we're having fun."

Yeah.

Come on, see the folks.

What's wrong with that?

Well, should we do a little bit better one, Joe,

then go and have a listen to it?

It's that kind of, the-the groove, the sort of...

♪ Hey, I'm dancing and I'm bopping in the disc ♪

♪ And, oh, what fun ♪♪

You know, even through the kind of spacey sections.

Wh-Whoa, this is all happening.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

That's the tempo.

♪ You'd think that people would've had enough of silly love songs ♪

♪ But I look around me, and I see it isn't so ♪

♪ Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs ♪

♪ What's wrong with that? ♪

♪ I'd like to know ♪

♪ 'Cause here I go ♪

♪ again ♪

♪ I love you ♪

Sing it if you know it.

♪I...

We kind of proved ourselves, and the word spread that, like, this was a good show.

Never mind the Beatles.

Splashed across the cover of this week's Time magazine,

and the sound of his new band is sweeping the land

with a new sound for a new generation.

They say a lot of people think, "Oh, well, you could never come back,

"you know, once you've been in the Beatles," but there's a lot of people

who don't even care that it's not the same as the Beatles.

And I'm basically one of them, or else I wouldn't have dared come.

McCartney has returned to the U.S. victorious,

and with a band that provides the popular music event of the year.

♪ Love doesn't come in a minute ♪

♪ Sometimes it doesn't come at all ♪

♪ I only know that when I'm in it ♪

♪ oh, it isn't silly ♪

♪ No, it isn't silly ♪

♪ Love isn't silly at all ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah...

There is a joy in having a band and playing live.

In a way, it's the payoff.

You've written it in a little cupboard somewhere,

you've rehearsed it, and if they like it, it's really special.

That's what we set out to do when we started Wings,

from square one to when it arrived at square a hundred.

I thought, "Yeah, it's the payoff."

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah♪♪

See you next time.

Right now I'm speaking to you from a backstage phone

at Madison Square Garden,

and sorry to say this week's hottest rumor will remain just that.

Just Paul McCartney & Wings,

and for everyone here tonight, that seemed to be plenty.

From Madison Square Garden, this is Bob O'Brien reporting.

Honest, I know him. I know him, honest.

It's all right! He's with the group! He's with the group!

Well, that wasn't bad.

It's the first time I ever saw a Beatle, you know, and it was really...

Since I was a kid, you know, I really wanted to do that,

and it was really great.

It's really a group now, compared to what the Beatles were.

It's Wings.

It's unbelievable.

I'm not so sure how much celebrity and fame and success

actually changes an individual.

I think the world around you changes.

But I think the person pretty much remains the same.

In Liverpool, the club which took the Cavern's name

now caters for new bands,

and the punks who go there don't revere Paul or the memory of the Fab Four.

We got, uh, a birthday card for John Lennon on his birthday.

-What, this year? -Yes. Oh, yes, October.

And what do you do with that?

Throw it in the bin.

When you are 17, 18,

it's very difficult to identify with people who are the older age group.

I know when I was 18, I thought 25 was like the end of the world, you know.

But now I'm past 35.

I don't kind of think in those terms anymore.

♪ Mull of Kintyre ♪

♪ Oh, mist rolling in from the sea ♪

♪ My desire ♪

♪ is always to be here ♪

♪ Oh, Mull of Kintyre...

I go out to Paul's house at breakfast...

and I said, "Is that an authentic Scottish song?"

And he said, "No, I just made it up."

He was iffy about it, but at the same time, knowing Paul,

if somebody says no, he'll want to do it more.

So we just looked around and came up with a lyric.

♪ Far have I traveled ♪

♪ and much have I seen...

Recorded it outside.

You couldn't get that sound anywhere else.

Then I thought, "Got to have bagpipes on it."

I would think that the bagpipes suggested themselves.

Come on.

So I got the local pipe-band to come up.

Paul said, "Just play what you feel."

He wants to hear what a pipe-band would sound like.

So we had a couple of McEwans and off we went.

Personally, I'm a fan of timelessness.

It transports you, and you're not in a scene,

and you're not in a year.

He makes timeless music.

Whereas, if you listen to a punk record, it does feel dated.

♪ The Mull of Kintyre ♪

♪ Mull of Kintyre ♪

♪ Oh, mist rolling in from the sea ♪

♪ My desire is always to be here ♪

♪ Oh, Mull of Kintyre ♪

♪ Mull of Kintyre ♪

♪ Oh, mist rolling in from the sea ♪

♪ My desire is always to be here ♪

♪ Oh, Mull of Kintyre ♪♪

You know, that night, I said, "Oh, it could be a hit, this one.

Aye. No, it could be, uh, definitely."

"Mull of Kintyre" is already the biggest-selling single record

in this country of all time.

He takes that risk, doesn't he, musically, you know?

Always.

He'll buck against the trend and... and have a go.

And there it is, you know, "The Mull of Kintyre."

And we're hearing it.

What we're doing this year, though,

is we're kind of taking it a little bit easier.

'Cause we're pregnant.

I'm pregnant, too, you know, and I've got, I've got to take it easy.

And looking back on it, you tend to forget the bad moments.

Joe got very homesick.

He just kind of came one day, he said, "I really want to go back to America."

So what can you say?

Jimmy didn't last much longer himself.

He died soon after that. It was, uh, an overdose.

He was always a little dangerous, Jimmy, you know.

And in the end, he was too dangerous for his own good.

I always felt it was probably the best lineup.

People may disagree, but I always felt comfortable with that band.

Wings from then on is just a version of.

It's not the real deal.

Same name, different vibe.

Just trying to get some words together.

You always made strenuous efforts to make it clear

that Wings wasn't just a backing group, didn't you?

That-that it was a complete band.

-Yeah. -Well, um, why?

I don't know.

I mean, I think I've been accused of treating people just like sidemen,

which I've never meant to do.

When Wings started, he felt the need for a band

because he came out of a band and that was, you know,

in his comfort zone.

I couldn't help thinking, "He can play everything.

You know, I mean, he doesn't need anybody else."

When I was working on Back to the Egg,

I didn't feel as though I was even particularly producing it.

I didn't know how stuff worked with Wings before.

It seemed a square peg in a round hole.

♪ Right on down at the bottom of the sea ♪

♪ Tell me, are you receiving me? ♪

♪ My name is Morse Moose, and I'm calling you ♪♪

Yeah, yeah!

Or something like that.

Paul McCartney's last LP, Back to the Egg, flopped.

Three million sit in a warehouse with no buyers in sight.

When I left school, I didn't want to get a job, so I joined a group.

Now it's turned out to be quite a job.

Nothing goes on forever.

That's the nature of the beast.

'Cause being in a band is totally different than being in a family.

Paul's kind of a people person.

He's good around people, and he likes people.

He's been able to weather the storm pretty well.

Linda was... she didn't like being in the limelight.

Some of us are very uncomfortable with it.

♪ Ooh, baby ♪

♪ you couldn't have done a worse thing to me ♪

♪ if you'd have taken an arrow and run it right through me, ooh...

I used to just take pictures and wander.

It's so complicated when you marry a Beatle.

She was getting tired.

You know, having four kids and the prospect of more touring,

I think, was, you know, wearing on her.

Now, we finish, uh, the week before Christmas

just in time to get a bit of shopping done.

Then we have one show on the 29th of December in London.

It's a charity show, a few days, a lot of different groups.

Okay, over here, there is a little creature has just appeared.

And this fella here is not John Lennon, as has been suggested.

♪ Ooh, baby ♪

♪ you wouldn't have found a more down hero...

That was the worst night of my playing life ever.

So there's no bottom coming off the bass.

The monitors were incredibly bad.

And I got breaking out in a sweat.

In no way I could control it. I just knew this was bad.

♪ Come on, get up, get underway ♪

♪ and bring your love...

And we said, "Well, you know, what else should we do?

Go around the world ten more times?"

Maybe we had enough of all this touring.

Let's face it, you know, I'd been doing it since I was like about 18 or something.

The enthusiasm, I think, had peaked.

♪ Whoa, whoa, oh, yeah ♪♪

So the strangest thing was we arranged to go to Japan.

Two, three, four.

You're playing an A with a B on the bottom.

Another strange thing is we hadn't really rehearsed enough.

Now, all the other tours, we rehearsed a lot.

You're singing the same...

I can't harmonize like that...

So you remember, on the record it's...

♪ With a little luck, with a little luck ♪

♪ With a little luck, a little luck, a little luck ♪

♪ With a little luck, with a little luck ♪

♪ With a little luck, a little luck, a little luck ♪

From the top.

And one, two, three, four.

I'd planned to sort of get there and then do some quick rehearsals and just hope.

But it was a, it was a bit of a nightmare.

I was sort of having dreams, thinking, "Where am I?

What song is it we're doing?

We don't know it."

I didn't know you're directing, love.

You know, I'm like thinking, "Oh, my God, what have I got myself into?"

When I was a kid, I sometimes would go on a train,

and I'd have a second-class ticket.

And if the train was empty, I'd sit in a first-class compartment.

And I always used to get caught.

Well, morning.

It was almost as if I wanted to get busted.

So, anyway, everyone said,

"Whatever you do, don't take any pot into Japan.

Seven years hard labor penalty."

But we were in New York, and, um...

we had this pot.

Wings have been scheduled to give 11 concerts.

Over 100,000 tickets have been sold.

I remember going through the airport,

and they were taking lots of pictures.

There were a lot of press around.

We were going through customs,

and they brought a case up, and they unzipped the case.

This was the last suitcase,

and the customs guy got this kind of quizzical expression.

Oh, this might be a problem.

I remember them looking at each other, going,

"Which one of us is gonna do this?"

"'Cause one of us needs to stay with the kids."

Oops.

Yeah.

I hadn't been in the room more than about 30 seconds

and the phone rang up, and it was Denny.

And he said, "Switch on your television."

I said, "Which channel?" He said, "It doesn't matter."

This afternoon, the Prosecutor's office

and Tokyo district court approved his detention.

Japan is particularly strict on drug taking,

coming down hard on Japanese caught with pot...

♪ Simply having a wonderful Christmastime ♪♪

Everywhere you looked, there were posters for the tour.

And the next morning, all the posters had gone.

In the morning, well-rested, he said, but worried about the children,

McCartney went off for another session with the drug investigators.

I still don't know what's happening or when he's getting out.

Everybody's heard but me.

Four nights in a Tokyo jail.

Still in a Tokyo jail, his sixth day.

This is his seventh night behind bars.

And for the singer and his wife,

Japanese justice seems to be working very, very slowly.

There are times in your life you just think, "Okay, you're an idiot."

And that's one of them. I was an idiot.

I was in a little cell on my own.

You know, I was Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.

First night, I didn't sleep.

Third night, I had a blinding headache all night.

Just not wanting to be in there.

I was being told I might be in there seven years.

We hadn't been separated at all since we'd been married.

I had visions of her and the kids just growing up outside Tokyo.

I used to really imagine the best possible thing I could imagine

would be sitting under my oak tree in my garden.

That was absolutely the height of bliss.

You don't cherish all of those moments unless they're taken away from you.

It was one of the points where I thought, "Wait a minute.

If I ever get out of here, do I really want to be doing what I'm doing?"

Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, was mobbed by fans

when he got out of jail in Tokyo today.

The Japanese prosecutor's office said he had suffered enough,

and instead of holding him for trial, they kicked him out of the country.

♪ You want a love to last forever ♪

♪ one that will never fade away ♪

♪ I wanna help you with your problem ♪

♪ Stick around, I say ♪

♪ Coming up ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Coming up...

Day 122. Paul McCartney without marijuana.

Hey, I bet it is... it's real hard to dance when you're not stoned.

Am I right?

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

You just put out a new album. It's a solo album.

♪ Coming up ♪

♪ I say ♪

♪ Coming up...

What's happened to Wings?

Will you be getting back together with them?

I should think so, yeah.

We're kind of talking about it and thinking about it.

♪ You want a better kind of future ♪

♪ one that everyone can share ♪

♪ You're not alone, we all could use it ♪

♪ Stick around, we're nearly there ♪

♪ Coming up ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Coming up...

It's hard to tell exactly what his state of mind was at the time,

but Paul was in the studio mixing that stuff

within a week of getting back from Japan.

♪ Coming up, yeah...

Part of McCartney II was history repeating itself.

McCartney I came about pretty rapidly

after his decision to finish with the Beatles.

♪ Coming up ♪♪

I would imagine he was questioning the whole situation at that point.

It was a liberation for me.

You don't have to be that Paul McCartney fellow that we expect all the time.

Is it true to say that-that

you don't really have any concrete ambitions now?

You don't think, "Well, I'd like to get into

a totally different field of writing."

-Maybe you'd like to write... -Yeah, I do.

I do. You know, I have a lot of ambitions.

Awkward thing is, whenever I do interviews, someone says that, you know,

-"What's left, Paul?" -Yeah, "What's next?" Yeah.

You know, "What's left?"

Well, I think...

Or the other one is, "Paul, if, just if..."

That's the other question.

Um, it's a little bit of an in-joke, that one.

I have this memory in New York, like, being a young kid

and us all going around to visit John and Yoko at the Dakota.

It was a good feeling.

It was like a family reunion.

He heard "Coming Up" on the radio, and he thought,

"Now I've got to come up with something," you know.

If you look through my dad's LP collection,

our copy of McCartney was played and quite worn, actually.

You can tell that they were listened to, as a fan.

It never surprised me because it was like,

can you be surprised by your brother, from age 15 on?

One of the great blessings in my life is that we made up.

It's-it's beautiful and it's sad at the same time.

You know, we'd loved each other all our lives.

Um...

We interrupt this program to bring you a News 4 special report.

Well, you heard the sad news a few moments ago

that former Beatle John Lennon has been murdered here in New York.

We have more details now for you.

He was shot and killed in front of his home

in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Police say...

I remember that moment.

I remember the phone ringing.

I remember some... the biggest reaction I'd ever seen...

and him leaving the kitchen and going outside.

That was, um, heartbreaking, like, truly heartbreaking.

What was your reaction to the death of, uh, John Lennon?

Or John Lennon's...

Uh, I was very shocked, you know. It's terrible news.

When did you... How did you find out about it?

I got a phone call this morning.

I always noticed the look in his eyes

and-and the tone of his voice

really felt like someone who was unable to process what was going on.

He just seemed almost, uh...

robotic.

Which I think some people took possibly as coldness, but I never took it as that.

'Cause I understood even then what it was like

when something that terrible happens.

Go on now, yeah.

Drag, isn't it?

-Okay, cheers. All right. Let's go. -Paul. Paul, a question.

-Thank you. Goodbye. -Go.

When the Beatles broke up, he had to grow up.

But in a way, I feel like my dad passing was probably the real growing up moment.

They had a once-in-a-millennium chemistry

that I don't think we're likely to see again.

I know.

But, um, time can take the edge off.

Paul McCartney is stepping up his own security.

This means his band Wings won't be touring.

It's led to one of its members,

Midland-born Denny Laine, to quit.

Come on, Charlie, let's take it to 'em.

How we doing...

There is no end.

It's just that we didn't go out on the road again or make another album.

But me, Paul and Linda were still intact.

♪ You are my sunshine ♪

♪ my only sunshine ♪

♪ You make me happy ♪

♪ when skies are gray ♪

♪ You'll never know, dear ♪

♪ how much I love you ♪

♪ So please don't take my sunshine away...

In Wings, we always thought we were failing

because we always matched everything to the Beatles.

The first person to rediscover it for me was my nephew.

He said, "Oh, you know the album I love?"

Thinking it might be Sgt. Pepper or something, he said, "Ram."

"You do?"

It was all just so pure and real.

Must have taken such strength to have chosen that way.

And I think you hear it in the music.

You know, those, I believe, for all of us, were probably the best years of our lives.

♪ So please don't take my sunshine ♪

♪ away ♪♪

As you get older, your ego gets more satisfied

and you realize you don't have to rely on people's praise all the time.

You start relying on, "Well, I'm not that bad.

Well, I'm not a mean person."

So you just start developing, I think, outward, then inward.

When we were up in Scotland, putting together this new life...

it was a question of having to grow up.

And what a good aim, to grow up.

I doubted whether it was possible to follow the Beatles.

But looking back on it now,

I think we made what seemed like an impossible dream come true.

That was the magic of it.

♪ You gave me something ♪

♪ I understand ♪

♪ You gave me loving ♪

♪ in the palm of my hand ♪

♪ I can't tell you how I feel ♪

♪ My heart is like a wheel ♪

♪ Let me roll it ♪

♪ Let me roll it to you ♪

♪ Let me roll it ♪

♪ Let me roll it to you ♪

♪ I can't tell you how I feel ♪

♪ My heart is like a wheel ♪

♪ Let me roll it ♪

♪ Let me roll it to you ♪

♪ Let me roll it ♪

♪ Let me roll it to you ♪♪