Welshman changed the Beatles, says McCartney
Dec 15 2008 by Darren Devine, Western Mail
JOHN LENNON has long been credited with giving the Beatles their firebrand political edge through such classics as Revolution and Give Peace A Chance.
But in a challenge to the prevailing view, Sir Paul McCartney has now thanked a renowned Welsh philosopher for changing the band’s musical direction in a move that forever altered the history of pop.
The songwriting legend says his eyes were opened to the tumultuous political scene of the late 1960s following a meeting with Monmouthshire-born Bertrand Russell.
Speaking of the band’s eventual change of direction from loveable mop-tops to rock revolutionaries, McCartney said: “We sort of stumbled into things.
“For instance, Vietnam. Just when we were getting to be well known, someone said to me: ‘Bertrand Russell is living not far from here in Chelsea, why don’t you go and see him?’ and so I just took a taxi down there and knocked on the door.
“He was fabulous. He told me about the Vietnam war — most of us didn’t know about it, it wasn’t yet in the papers — and also that it was a very bad war.
“I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John, about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was.”
McCartney’s interview with intellectual journal Prospect magazine, to be published this week, has already sparked controversy for suggesting it was himself rather than Lennon who politicised the band, as a direct result of his meeting with Russell.
The philosopher, from Trellech, near Monmouth, is one of the 20th century’s most revered philosophers, who went to jail for his pacifism during World War I.
Before his death in 1970 aged 97 he was also a supporter of free-trade and a vocal critic of imperialism, Hitler and the Soviet Union.
His seminal work A History of Western Philosophy and writings on humanitarianism and freedom of thought saw him win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.
McCartney also detailed how the band had spoken out against Vietnam during a tour of the US, and that the “political megaphone” has since been passed on to the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof.
He adds: “People often say to me, ‘Do you think music can change the world?’ and I do, on a lot of levels, and one of those levels is just the fact that famous musicians are listened to.
“Perhaps in terms of responsibility we did sow some seeds for people who came after. People like [Bob] Geldof, Bono, people who have the (political) megaphone now.”
However Alan Clayson, who has written separate biographies of all four Beatles, took issue with McCartney’s claims.
Much of the band’s later political work like Revolution was written by Lennon – and though Give Peace A Chance was credited to Lennon/McCartney, it was widely seen as essentially a solo effort from John.
Mr Clayson said: “I think Sir Paul is rewriting history, now that Lennon is gone.”
Steven Howard, lead singer with Liverpool tribute act the Mersey Beatles, said the band’s members had a massive influence on each other and Paul’s claims may have some credence.
But he said the first political song was penned by neither Lennon nor McCartney, but George Harrison.
The guitarist’s Taxman was an attack on the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s introduction of a 95% tax bracket for the nation’s biggest earners.
Mr Howard, from Liverpool, said: “All four of them, because they were so close and spent so much time together, did have an influence on each other.
“And Lennon may not have written Revolution as a solo artist, but because he had the power of the Beatles he was able to do it.
“I think what McCartney’s probably getting at is that he was an enabler – he was the first to have conversations and meetings with people.”
But Howard said after the band split in 1970 Lennon’s output became more intensely political than his former collaborator’s, though McCartney did pen Give Ireland Back to the Irish in 1972.
Mr Howard added: “What McCartney did was make his little statements and then go and make some pop records to sell and that was his thing.
“Whereas Lennon in the early ’70s got really politicised and just became a voice for groups like Power to the People.
“He was even writing records for people who had been jailed unfairly.”