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Exclusive Macca Interview!

9:30 AM GMT 24/08/2010

Paul McCartney has revealed how Beatles drummer Ringo Starr delivered him a letter in March 1970, co-signed by George Harrison and John Lennon, asking him to postpone the release of his solo debut album so it wouldn't clash with the scheduled emergence of climactic Beatle release, Let It Be.

Into an atmosphere of mounting mistrust between the still technically united Beatles, Ringo's missive dropped like an H-bomb.

"I told him top eff off," Macca reveals to MOJO's Tom Doyle, as he sketches out his state of mind at the fag end of The Beatles' reign, belaboured by anxiety attacks, heavy drinking and marijuana sessions. "He seems to be going strange," said Ringo at the time. "Everyone was completely treating me like dirt," says McCartney today.

In an exclusive interview, McCartney explains how he emerged from 1970's Beatle miasma to embark on a solo career - honoured with an extensive reissue campaign this autumn. "I took to the booze," says McCartney. "I was trying to recover in whatever way I could."

Taking us back in time to the spare room at his Cavendish Avenue flat, he revisits the pioneering lo-fi recordings of his debut solo record, McCartney, and the sequestered Scottish genesis of Ram, culminating in the hairy tale of Wings 1973 album Band On The Run, recorded in Lagos, Nigeria.

Flying across the jungle at the beginning of the latter adventure, the singer recalls a hot debate concerning the exact position of the landing strip. "One [pilot] looked to the other and said, 'Is that it down there?" I'm going, Oh my God, they must know."

Unsurprisingly, Macca sums up the nub of his post-Beatle career thus: "Hey, I survived."

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Read the full interview in the latest MOJO. Featuring free, cover-mounted CD, Let It Be Revisited, with The Beatles' album covered track-by-track by contemporary artists including Phosphorescent, Besnard Lakes and Amorphous Androgynous, it is on sale now.

A limited-run Vinyl Edition, with an exclusive Collectors' cover of the mag and 12" vinyl gatefold version of Let It Be Revisited, is available at WH Smith, HMV and selected record shops in the UK, and from Barnes & Noble and Borders in the US

Or order one online here. Act quickly to avoid disappointment!

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 9:30 AM GMT 24/08/2010

Related MOJO content:

Beatles , Paul McCartney

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  • what about Wild Life? why is that album never talked about?

    Posted by Graeme at 2:13 PM GMT 27/08/2010 Report Abuse

    Reply to this post

  • I hope he reissues Wild Life. Lots of good stuff on that one.

    Posted by Arne at 2:13 PM GMT 29/08/2010 Report Abuse

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  • The current thought.

    To live in
    the country
    appears in my
    mind like a
    delicate thought
    near a narrow
    profile: there's
    a light in the
    meadow, and
    a luminous care...

    Francesco Sinibaldi

    Posted by Francesco Sinibaldi at 4:50 PM GMT 30/08/2010 Report Abuse

    Reply to this post

  • I love this ! So glad Paul's solo stuff is getting attention :D

    Posted by Lauraa at 12:50 AM GMT 03/10/2010 Report Abuse

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  • RE: Graeme
    Because it is embarassingly bad. Mumbo? Bip Bop? Wild Life? Rough, dated and awful. I'm not going to lie, I like, Love is Strange, especially the intro, and Tomorrow is a great tune, but it's a d+ album at best.

    Posted by Brian at 7:22 PM GMT 08/10/2010 Report Abuse

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