Paul McCartney Thought the Rest of The Beatles Were ‘Very Square’ Compared to Him

By the mid-1960s, every Beatle but Paul McCartney had gotten married. They moved to estates in the suburbs of London and commuted into the city when they needed to work. While McCartney was in a long-term relationship, he hadn’t yet taken the next step. His relationship status, coupled with the fact that he still lived in the city, made McCartney feel much hipper than his bandmates. 

Paul McCartney felt he was hipper than his Beatles bandmates

John Lennon was the first Beatle to get married in 1962. Ringo Starr came next in 1965, followed closely by George Harrison in 1966. While Harrison and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, did not have children, both Lennon and Starr did. McCartney, though, had yet to tie the knot. He was in a long-term relationship with Jane Asher, and while he proposed, they ended their engagement in 1968. 

McCartney also remained in London while the rest of his bandmates moved to homes in the suburbs. The differences in their lifestyles made McCartney feel like his bandmates were much more “square” than him.

“All the other guys were married in the suburbs,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “They were very square in my mind.”

Paul McCartney claimed he pushed his Beatles bandmates to be less square

McCartney noted that living in the city kept his mind open to different political and artistic ideas. Asher’s brother owned a bookstore, and McCartney spent time digging through books that expanded his view of the world.

“I’m trying to cram everything in, all the things I’ve missed,” McCartney said. “People are saying things and painting things and writing things and composing things that are great, and I must know what people are doing.”

He explained that he was able to introduce new ideas to his bandmates. After meeting with Bertrand Russell, for example, McCartney made his bandmates aware of the Vietnam War, effectively politicizing The Beatles. 

“I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John [Lennon], about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was,” he told Prospect Magazine. “We started to investigate and American pals who were visiting London would be talking about being drafted. Then we went to America, and I remember our publicist — he was a fat, cigar-chomping guy, saying, ‘Whatever you do, don’t talk about Vietnam.’ Of course, that was the wrong thing to say to us. You don’t tell rebellious young men not to say something. So of course we talked about it the whole time and said it was a very bad war.”

John Lennon and George Harrison felt the same way about McCartney

While McCartney felt his married, suburban bandmates were square, they felt similarly about him. Lennon and Harrison had discovered LSD and felt McCartney needed to try it. They had convinced Starr, but McCartney pushed back more than the band’s drummer.

“We’d heard that you’re never the same,” McCartney said. “It alters your life and you never think the same again. John was rather excited by that prospect. I was rather frightened by that prospect … never get back home again. I was seen to sort of stall … because there was a lot of peer pressure.”

Lennon and Harrison felt that until McCartney tried LSD, they could have nothing in common with him.