Paul McCartney Punched a Photographer During His Worst Tantrum as a Beatle

Paul McCartney disappeared from public view in the waning days of The Beatles. The bassist,  once called an idiot by a musician who covered one of his songs, had long since proven his songwriting chops, but he felt lost as his band disintegrated. Yet the band was still technically together when Paul threw one of his worst tantrums as a Beatle in front of two journalists sent to find him.

Paul McCartney’s worst tantrum as a Beatle saw him punch a photographer and chase 2 journalists with his car

The release of Abbey Road in the early fall of 1969 happened just after John Lennon announced his intention to leave The Beatles. Paul fought to keep the band together throughout 1969, to no avail. The band officially called it quits in early 1970.

With no Beatles music to make and no prospects for the future at the time, the bassist retreated to High Park Farm, his rural estate in Scotland. Paul basically turned recluse, which did nothing to quiet the “Paul is dead” rumors circulating at the time. Two journalists from Life magazine tracked him down, snuck onto his High Park Farm, and knocked on the door. 

Dorothy Bacon and photographer Terence Spencer stood face-to-face with a furious Paul when he opened the door, as Spencer told Paul McCartney: A Life author Peter Ames Carlin.

“He was absolutely red in the face with fury. He had one look at me and hurled the slop bucket. The irony was that I definitely got a shot of that. And he missed me, but then he stepped forward and hit me across the shoulder. Now, I’d covered six wars and never been hit by anything or anyone until Paul McCartney punched me.”

Photographer Terence Spencer

Spencer, who had extensively photographed the Beatles earlier in the decade, and Bacon quickly retreated. Then Paul continued the confrontation by chasing them down in his Land Rover. Instead of Paul continuing his fit, he offered a mea culpa. He brought the pair back to his farmhouse, let Spencer take portrait photos of him and his family, and gave Bacon an interview. 

The Nov. 7, 1969, edition of Life featured Spencer’s photo of Paul, Linda McCartney, Heather McCartney (Linda’s daughter from a previous marriage), and Mary McCartney, their first child together, on the cover. Bacon’s article was the featured piece in the magazine. Life editors tasked Bacon and Spencer with getting to the bottom of the “Paul is dead rumors.” They did, but they had to endure Paul’s worst Beatles tantrum first.

Paul went to Scotland to break out of his post-Beatles funk more than once

Paul, who had been drinking heavily and doing little else when he retreated to Scotland in late 1969, broke out of his funk shortly after his outburst toward Bacon and Spencer. Linda prodded him to snap out of it. He wrote “The Lovely Linda,” a snippet of a country-folk song, as a thank you. The tune was Paul’s first love song of his post-Beatles career. It remained a snippet when he made it the lead song on his first solo album in 1970. 

Macca’s Scottish estate provided at least two other post-Beatles songs.

He penned “Junior’s Farm,” which he called a get-out-of-town song, up north in 1970 as the Fab Four fractured. It became a non-album single for Wings in 1974, though it later appeared on Wings Greatest and the expanded Venus and Mars reissue. Paul also wrote the standout Wings song “Jet” halfway up a mountain in Scotland.

Paul McCartney’s worst tantrum as a Beatle happened in front of two journalists as the band started fracturing in late 1969. Macca chased down the retreating reporters who surprised him at his Scottish farm in his car to offer an apology. They proved the rumor the bassist was dead wasn’t true, and he soon proved he had plenty left in the tank when he started writing solo songs on and near his farm.

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