‘Steel and Glass’ – John Lennon
The entire process of detangling The Beatles’ legal troubles isn’t something one should wish on their worst enemy. They had talked about the unifying love that brings people together, but as soon as Allen Klein was brought into the mix, the band had the kind of scoundrel who was more than willing to pull them apart if he could make a quick buck off of it. The non-McCartney members may have fallen for it for a while, but when John Lennon came to, he was out for blood with the man who split up his old mates.
Despite Klein having a hand in bad-mouthing Macca to Lennon, ‘Steel and Glass’ is one long swipe back at his old manager. By this point, Yoko had been put in charge of his finances, and coming after tearing into McCartney on ‘How Do You Sleep’, hearing Lennon use the same riff on this song is almost like he’s trying to take some of the anger out of his original tune and redirect it somewhere else.
That wasn’t even the last McCartney throwback on that album, with some of the riffs on the rest of the record sounding like something that could have come from Band on the Run. ‘The Nerk Twins’ may have grown apart over the years and were not ready to kiss and make up just yet, but they were more than willing to take aim at the person who put them in this whole mess to begin with.