Paul McCartney, who returned a few days ago with the new album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane”, explained the reasons why the Beatles never got together in the Seventies to record new music. After the group's official dissolution in 1970, the Fab Four continued to occasionally collaborate on their respective solo projects, but never returned to the studio as a full lineup. For years, rumors of a possible reunion fueled fans' expectations, until John Lennon's death in 1980, but the band's return never materialized. According to McCartney, it was probably right that the story stopped there. During a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, the conversation landed on the topic, while talking about the new solo song “Home To Us”, which marks the first real duet between McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Thinking back to the reasons that prevented the group from restarting, McCartney declared: “I think we knew we had finished our journey and that we all said: the circle has closed, it was fantastic. John had his life with Yoko by now, you certainly couldn't say to him: 'Would you mind going back and doing some more Beatles?'”. He then added: “I would never have asked him, I could see what he was doing, it was a different life. And I had mine too, with Linda, you know?”.
Speaking about the relationships maintained between the ex-Beatles in the years following the split, McCartney explained: “We would do things like: 'Would you play drums on this song for me?', 'Would you play bass here?', 'Would you sing this part?'. We would collaborate on little projects. So it was nice to finally be able to do something like that on this occasion.”
The statements come just days after another interview in which McCartney openly admitted that John Lennon was the member of the Beatles he most admired. “Well, there's only one left. At the moment I'd say Ringo,” he jokingly replied to Amelia Dimoldenberg during the program Chicken Shop Datesbefore specifying: “At the time of the Beatles I think we all looked up to John. He was a sort of leader, even if officially the group didn't have one. He was very witty and it was fantastic to have him in the band.” Also speaking on behalf of the other companions, he added: “I think all of us would have said that John was the leader of the group.”
With the new album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane“, McCartney seems to be going through a particularly reflective phase in his career. The album collects episodes and images linked to his formative years, with a retrospective look that focuses on decisive steps in the construction of his artistic identity. The songs portray Paul candidly, vulnerablely and deeply reflective, as he writes with rare candor about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, his parents' tenacity and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon, long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania. Alongside this autobiographical nucleus, new love songs find space, a sign of a writing that continues to move between intimate dimension and narrative vocation. With “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane”, McCartney therefore returns to coordinates already explored in the past, but with a more explicitly personal slant: a work that intertwines memory and present, and which presents itself as one of the most introspective chapters of his recent production.
In recent days McCartney has repeatedly looked back to the past, going so far as to define the Beatles as “the greatest band ever”.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
