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After The Beatles split up in 1970, John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney broke their friendship up, too.

The pair went from being the ultimate childhood buddies to being the ones bickering the most in the band and even filing lawsuits against one another.

One year after the split, McCartney started another band with his wife, Linda McCartney, called Paul McCartney and Wings.

Wild Life was their debut record and on it is a song that still makes McCartney choke up to this day.

With a title that already evokes an olive branch, ‘Dear Friend’ was McCartney’s way of saying enough is enough and this is a ceasefire.

Lend an ear:

Express has more about how the song made him “emotional”:

McCartney first explained how he “worked on his attitude” and wrote the track. He said: “Saying, in effect, let’s lay the guns down, let’s hang up our boxing gloves.”

He then revealed in his new book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present: “I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I just felt sad about the breakdown in our friendship, and this song kind of came flowing out.

‘Dear friend, what’s the time? / Is this really the borderline?’ Are we splitting up? Is this ‘you go your way; I’ll go mine?”

Sky News reported that via a Q&A featured on McCartney’s website, he added:

“I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs (remastering works-in-progress) in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’.

“Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true’. I’m trying to say to John: ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool’.

McCartney recalled how even though they had no contact after The Beatles broke up, “there were various things we needed to talk about,” which lead to them insulting each other on the phone.

Then, tragically in 1980 at the age of 40, Lennon was shot dead:

“And luckily we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him.

McCartney confirmed that they did “gradually” get over their nastiness towards each other, with McCartney ringing Lennon up for a cup of tea whenever he passed through New York at the time.

The song was McCartney reaching out, a “powerful [move] in some very simple way”.

Just over 50 years since the original album, a reissue of Wild Life as a limited edition half-speed mastered vinyl pressing will be released on February 4.

[sources:skynews&express]