Paul's supposedly "Massive Ego" | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I don’t think he’s that way at all.  I think he has insecurities that sometimes come out badly but frankly I thought Phil Collins sounded like a total idiot for taking what Paul said so seriously. I mean it wasn’t the first time they’d met, they’d met before and Phil’s asking him for an autograph on his book?  It was kind of a funny situation in and of itself and as it was explained, it sounded like teasing to me. Sounds to me more like Phil takes himself way too seriously.  If it was me, I would have laughed because hello, I’m asking someone I’ve met before, who is in my business of which I’ve had no small amount of success myself, for an autograph on a book, like some kiddie fanboy?  Honestly it sounds more to be like Paul was treating Phil like someone who had a better opinion of himself(Phil of Phil, not Phil of Paul) and could appreciate the kind of oddness of the situation. To tell the truth I’d probably have presented it that way to begin with “Mr McCartney, hey can I have your autograph please sir?” in a joking way.  

As for Paul’s voice?  Really, with all the rock singers out there, some even younger than Paul, who garble their way through performances?  They do it because either they need the money or hey, you know, they just like performing and people come to see them so why not?  IMO people who have a problem with Paul’s voice, it’s their problem. Not Paul’s.  It’s not a sign of megalomania to love what you do and to continue to do it.  It would be one thing if he was like “singer first” and the only thing he was known for was his voice, it was his claim to fame or something like that, like Pavarotti, but he’s not, he’s a songwriter first and foremost and a musician after that, the singing is just part of it.  People clearly still have a great time at his shows because they are good shows, even if his voice has aged.

As for that “deal” the deal John and Paul made was their names would switch out who was first and who came second.  There is even a letter somewhere from Brian Epstein, pre Spain trip, explaining this to someone either at the record company or the publisher, as I recall.  But John either went behind Paul’s back or Brian was buttering up John’s ego for his own gain because he had a thing for him and while they were on the Spain trip decided it would be “Lennon-McCartney” all the time and presented it to Paul as a fait accompli and Paul had to swallow it down for the good of group really, they were on the verge of taking over the world at that point. 🙂  Or didn’t you know the Please Please Me album ORIGINALLY had all the songs credited as McCartney-Lennon?  

If Paul had done that we’d be hearing about how awful he was, what a bad friend he was, what a backstabber he was, but hey it’s fine that John stabbed Paul in the back that way right?  As well while John was still alive, on the Wings Over America live album, Paul switched the credits around on the Beatles songs he put on the album, which were all written by him or mainly by him and John didn’t have a problem with it as I’m sure we would have heard if he had. He had no problem letting it be known he was pissed off at George because he didn’t feel George mentioned him enough in his I, Me, Mine book.

And Paul’s actually mentioned plenty of ways John helped him on songs.  People spent decades quite eager to give John all the credit so Paul’s extra sensitive to it.  Maybe if people hadn’t been such jerks for so long, it wouldn’t have affected Paul the way it did. Because it wasn’t something that used to bother him, not until John’s death suddenly became a way to take it out on Paul and belittle all his accomplishments.

Paul’s been critical of entire sections of his own career so I don’t know where you get that, just a couple years ago he said Wings were not “a good group” – he just tends to go back and forth on it because again, insecurity and insecurity can make people inconsistent in their opinions. 

I don’t think John was more humble, I think John was actually the “PR Beatle” far more than Paul, esp when the Beatles ended.  I think he was far more calculating in how he used the press and how he presented himself.  I’m not saying Paul wasn’t but I don’t think he went as far.