Throughout the history of The Beatles, Paul McCartney often found himself playing the role of the mediator. As tensions escalated in the band’s final years, especially during the Get Back sessions, McCartney was the one attempting to keep everything on track, ensuring that the music remained the band’s focus. However, his rational approach didn’t always extend to every song.
In Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary, McCartney’s role is unmistakably parental. While George Harrison storms off and John Lennon seems distant and disengaged, McCartney tirelessly works to hold the band together, pushing forward with the completion of Let It Be. He also tries to revive the group’s earlier, happier spirit by initiating jam sessions featuring their old hits.
Of the four Beatles, McCartney’s dedication to consistency stands out. It’s clear that, more often than not, he was willing to put personal disagreements aside for the sake of the band’s music. This contrasts with the absences of his bandmates. Lennon skipped out on 18 tracks, including several of Harrison’s songs and parts of the Abbey Road medley. Harrison, too, was absent from 12 tracks. Ringo was missing from 15. By comparison, McCartney only missed five songs, most of them being simple acoustic numbers like ‘Julia,’ which is a Lennon solo track.
However, there were a couple of notable occasions where McCartney’s temper got the better of him. One such instance was with ‘She Said, She Said,’ where he intentionally chose not to participate. In an interview with Barry Miles for Many Years From Now, McCartney explained that Lennon had largely completed the track on his own. McCartney, still upset over a fight, remembered saying, “I think George played bass,” recalling his refusal to play on the song in frustration.
Another track linked to McCartney’s mood was ‘Yer Blues.’ Though McCartney did record on this one, his mood during the process was far from pleasant. According to Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head, McCartney was “sulky” during the session. It was a tense time for the band, particularly after their stay in India and the subsequent fallout in the White Album sessions. With relations already strained, McCartney’s attitude fits the narrative of a band on the brink.
Despite this, McCartney later insisted that he did enjoy the song. He recalled in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview, “We were talking about this tightness, this packed-in-a-tin thing. So we got into a little cupboard – a closet full of microphone cables, with a drum kit, amps turned against the walls, and just one mic for John. We did ‘Yer Blues’ live, and it was really good.”
