How "Maybe I'm Amazed" brought Paul McCartney back to life

In the autumn months

In the autumn months of 1969, Paul McCartney died.

It had been a series of deaths, really. First up were the rumors, invented and spread by DJs and college students, that he had perished in a 1966, automobile accident and that the other Beatles were accomplices in the coverup. The Paul Is Dead hoax would be quelled after Life magazine dispatched a crew to Scotland to track down McCartney. The world breathed a sigh of relief after Life ran a November cover story under the banner headline "Paul Is Still with Us" and a glossy photo of the living, breathing Beatle with his young family.

But during that same period, he had also suffered a spiritual death of sorts with the Beatles' disbandment. For McCartney, the idea of no longer being in the group meant that his creative outlet had seemingly been extinguished. By his reasoning, the "overall feeling" during his downtrodden days in Scotland was that "it was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful, and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn't with the Beatles anymore, it became really very difficult."

Source:salon.com

of 1969, Paul McCartney died.

It had been a series of deaths, really. First up were the rumors, invented and spread by DJs and college students, that he had perished in a 1966, automobile accident and that the other Beatles were accomplices in the coverup. The Paul Is Dead hoax would be quelled after Life magazine dispatched a crew to Scotland to track down McCartney. The world breathed a sigh of relief after Life ran a November cover story under the banner headline "Paul Is Still with Us" and a glossy photo of the living, breathing Beatle with his young family.

But during that same period, he had also suffered a spiritual death of sorts with the Beatles' disbandment. For McCartney, the idea of no longer being in the group meant that his creative outlet had seemingly been extinguished. By his reasoning, the "overall feeling" during his downtrodden days in Scotland was that "it was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful, and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn't with the Beatles anymore, it became really very difficult."