How Linda McCartney’s Wisdom Revitalized Paul McCartney Post-Beatles Breakup

In the wake of The Beatles’ disbandment, Paul McCartney found solace and support in his relationship with Linda McCartney. The dissolution of the iconic band was a significant blow to McCartney, compounded by the fact that tensions with his former bandmates had escalated. However, Linda’s guidance proved invaluable during this tumultuous period, helping him navigate the emotional aftermath.

The bassist said he felt depressed after The Beatles broke up

By 1970, The Beatles had officially parted ways, concluding a period fraught with personal conflicts among the members. For McCartney, this marked a profound crisis, leaving him with the feeling that his world had crumbled.

In the documentary Man on the Run, McCartney reflected on this time, saying, “The Beatles had been my whole existence. When we broke up, I feared I’d never compose another piece of music. I was terrified of facing adulthood.”

“I was very downcast,” he confessed. “I thought, ‘A little scotch won’t hurt. Maybe another. I have nowhere to be,’” he recalled. “This phase spanned a few months, leading to overindulgence. Thankfully, I had Linda by my side.”

“I felt very depressed. I thought, ‘I’ll have a wee drum of scotch. Why not? I might have another one. I’ve got no where to go,’” he said. “This lasted a couple of months. I got into drinking too much. But I was very lucky, because I had Linda.”

Paul McCartney shared how Linda McCartney helped him

During this time, Linda taught McCartney a mantra that helped him navigate his deep uncertainty. 

“In a situation like that you lost your job, you can get uptight very easily,” he said. “One of my favorite expressions of hers was, you’d be saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’d love to do so and so, but I can’t. I can’t,’ and she’d say, ‘It’s allowed.’”

He said this helped him visualize his future without the band.

“It’s like all the weight just went off. It’s allowed. Yeah, of course it is,” he said. “So those kind of things really impressed me and I think probably made me think a lot more was allowed than was.”

Paul McCartney spoke about the songs he wrote for Linda McCartney

McCartney penned multiple romantic songs about Linda, including “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “My Love,” which he described as the “definitive” song about their romance. He admitted he faced some ridicule because of the love songs. 

“[O]ver the years people have said, ‘Aw, he sings love songs, he writes love songs, he’s so soppy at times,’” he told Billboard. “I thought, Well, I know what they mean, but, people have been doing love songs forever. I like ’em, other people like ’em, and there’s a lot of people I love — I’m lucky enough to have that in my life. So the idea was that ‘you’ may call them silly, but what’s wrong with that?”

He wrote the song “Silly Love Songs” about this reaction to his work.

The song was, in a way, to answer people who just accuse me of being soppy. The nice payoff now is that a lot of the people I meet who are at the age where they’ve just got a couple of kids and have grown up a bit, settling down, they’ll say to me, “I thought you were really soppy for years, but I get it now! I see what you were doing!”