Celebrating Sir Paul: Too Many People

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The celebration of the long and brilliant (for the most part) career of Paul McCartney continues in honor of his 84th birthday. Today the alphabetical list ends with a song that is the best salvo in a war of words between two former band mates. Too Many People (Paul & Linda) In the immediate aftermath of the Beatles’ breakup, the two former primary songwriting partners began sniping at each other in song. While Paul has rarely been one to put politics in a song (a notable exception being “Give Ireland Back to the Irish,” an early Wings song that, if it’s any shock to you, was banned by the BBC), John was turning into a political commentator. This was highlighted by his “honeymoon” with Yoko Ono in Amsterdam and Montreal, held as a public “bed-in for peace.” He even wrote a song about it, “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” Paul was not amused. He wrote this song, which actually was recorded tamer than he’d originally written: “too many reaching for a piece of cake” was originally “p*ss off cake” (you can hear Paul say that at the opening of the song), and “you took your lucky break and broke it in two” was “Yoko took your lucky break and broke it in two.” While this could also be seen as social commentary (“too many hungry people losing weight”), it’s definitely John’s deep-end dive into politics (“too many people preaching practices”) that had Paul’s ire. In response, John gave us “How Do You Sleep,” complete with a photo of him holding a pig in a similar fashion to Paul’s pose with the ram on the cover of this album. Lennon tried to later say the song was about himself; however, (a) he was never considered “the cute one,” (b) he had nothing to do with “Yesterday,” and (c) he took a slap at McCartney’s first solo song, “Another Day.” The two did make up eventually, which is comforting in light of Lennon’s senseless murder in 1980. But wow, what a great song we got out of Paul’s anger! Too Many People Written by Paul McCartney From Ram (Paul & Linda), 1971 I find my love awake: