Filmmaker Morgan Neville’s latest work is Man on the Run, a documentary about Paul McCartney’s life in the 1970s from the break-up of The Beatles to John Lennon’s assassination and beyond.
Featuring a new interview with Macca himself, this raw and authentic new film follows the star through his ups and downs during a turbulent period in his life.
Early on in Man on the Run, McCartney claims it was Lennon who broke up the Beatles, but that “I took the wrap”.
Exiling himself to remote Scotland with his wife Linda, he admits he was “depressed” and didn’t think he’d ever write another song.
Of course, this wasn’t to be the case, as he formed his new band, Wings, which included his late first spouse, who received a lot of nasty backlash over her musical and vocal abilities.
Just prior to this, his self-titled solo album, 1970’s McCartney was met with an air of disappointment, while his and Linda’s only album as a spousal duo, Ram, was panned by critics. One track, called “Too Many People,” featured lyrical jabs at Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, including “too many people preaching practices.” In response, Lennon wrote How Do You Sleep? for his 1971 album Imagine, with lyrics contributed by former Beatles manager Allen Klein, who Macca couldn’t stand. He wrote the song following McCartney’s lawsuit that dissolved the Beatles as a legal partnership. And now in the new documentary, Macca reveals exactly how he felt about Lennon’s personal attacks back at him.
In Man on the Run, McCartney says: “‘The only thing you did was Yesterday’, was apparently Allen Klein’s suggestion. But in the back of my mind I thinking, ‘But all I ever did was Yesterday, Let It Be, Long and Winding Road, Eleanor Rigby, Lady Madonna. F*** you John! How do I sleep at night? Well actually quite well.’” Beatles fans will be pleased to know that later in the documentary, both Macca and archive interviews with Lennon share that they really did care for one another and only fought as brothers do. There’s even a particularly touching and heartbreaking memory shared by Stella McCartney of the moment her father found out Lennon had been killed in 1980.
A real treat for fans, Man on the Run is in cinemas for one day only this Thursday, and tickets can be purchased here. The new documentary will also be available to stream on Prime Video from February 27.
