Beatles ’73 pt6

It’s July of 1973 and two former Beatles are at the tops of both the album and singles charts in America. As Paul’s Red Rose Speedway and Live and Let Die duked it out with George’s Living in the Material World and Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), John Lennon is once again back in the studio working on his long-awaited solo follow-up to 1971’s Imagine LP. While Some Time In New York City may have, at one point, seemed like the bold new direction for John and Yoko, the couple’s troubled marriage and recent critical disappointments lead each to retreat to their own respective studio albums for a more polished, if more expected, set of creative efforts. While recording new music may have once again proved to be a healthy outlet for John’s frustrations, time in the studio was beginning to feel like hard work for the former Beatle, whose immigration troubles and mounting personal and professional hardships were taking an increasingly critical toll. McCartney, meanwhile, was enjoying the encore leg of his wildly successful Wings UK Tour - at last beginning to taste the levels of success he had once enjoyed as a Beatle. Toward the tail end of July, the triumphant Wings returned to the studio to begin sessions for a new album, but Paul’s lucky streak was about to run out...