Dec 22 2008
Sir Paul at it again?
A strange story has come out over the last few days. Sir Paul McCartney is now claiming that it was he and not John Lennon, who ‘politicized’ the Beatles and was the first member of the band to alert the others to the wrong of the Vietnam War. Now, the story gets even more interesting. McCartney claims he learned about the Vietnam War after a visit with Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher and peace activist. Seems Sir Paul popped in on Russell one day and had a chat about world affairs. During the course of the conversation, Russell alerted McCartney to the problems concerning U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Then, later on, Beatle Paul told his bandmates, including Lennon, about the true facts about Vietnam. So, according to McCartney’s account, it was he who was the original politically engaged Beatle.
The story is excerpted from an interview McCartney gave to an English journal called Prospect. Already, some critics are questioning McCartney’s account. Did he really meet with Russell, and then influence the rest of the group? Or is Sir Paul trying to do a little revisionist history, and putting himself over Lennon? It was Lennon, with such songs as Revolution and Give Peace a Chance, who has always been seen as the most overtly political of the Beatles, both during his time in the group, and after their breakup. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about this new revision to accepted Beatles’ history in the next few weeks, as people try to puzzle out Sir Paul’s story. Did he, or didn’t he? Time will tell.
