"My Dark Hour" session

On this day, Paul McCartney was at Olympic Sound Studios with The Beatles, to mix the unreleased “Get Back” LP with engineer/producer Glyn Johns. The session ended on a sour note when business matters came to the fore.

The previous day, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had signed a contract officially appointing Allen Klein as Apple’s financial manager, granting him a 20% share of their earnings. They expected Paul McCartney to add his signature as well, but he refused. Tensions ran high, and the three other Beatles — along with Allen Klein, who was present — stormed out of the studio.

Left alone in the studio, Paul then crossed paths with American musician Steve Miller, who happened to be recording there at the time. The two struck up a spontaneous collaboration, with Paul ending up playing on Miller’s track “My Dark Hour.”

Things came to a head on 9 May 1969. The Beatles were booked in, for a Friday-night session with the producer Glyn Johns at Olympia Studios in Barnes, but instead of recording, the session turned into an acrimonious argument about business. Klein had told the others that he had to have his three-year management contract signed immediately because he was flying back to New York the next day and had to present it to the board of his corporation.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

There was a big argument and they all went, leaving me at the studio. Steve Miller happened to be around: ‘Hi, how you doing? Is the studio free?’ I said: ‘Well, it looks like it is now, mate.’ He said: ‘Mind if I use it?’ So I ended up drumming on a track of his that night. It was called My Dark Hour – a good track actually. He and I made it alone. I had to do something, thrash something, to get it out of my system.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Steve Miller happened to be there recording, late at night, and he just breezed in. ‘Hey, what’s happening, man? Can I use the studio?’ ‘Yeah!’ I said. ‘Can I drum for you? I just had a fucking unholy argument with the guys there.’ I explained it to him, took ten minutes to get it off my chest. So I did a track, he and I stayed that night and did a track of his called My Dark Hour. I thrashed everything out on the drums. There’s a surfeit of aggressive drum fills, that’s all I can say about that. We stayed up until late. I played bass, guitar and drums and sang backing vocals. It’s actually a pretty good track.

It was a very strange time in my life and I swear I got my first grey hairs that month. I saw them appearing. I looked in the mirror, I thought, I can see you. You’re all coming now. Welcome.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

Mum introduced me to a song [Paul McCartney] played drums on years ago, called “My Dark Hour”, by the Steve Miller Band. He’s credited as “Paul Ramon” and he does backing vocals, guitar, bass and drums. It was recorded in Olympic Studios in London towards the end of 1969, after an argument Dad had had with the others over Allen Klein becoming their manager. The others had gone off and he said Steve Miller walked in and asked if he wanted to play the drums on this track he was recording. I think the drumming on it is so good, but you can tell he’s letting out a lot of tension.

Mary McCartney – from Paul Weller in conversation with Mary McCartney: ‘We used to pinch a lot of Beatles songs’ | British GQ, June 4, 2021

I thought, ‘I’m just a little guy in this industry, but I have my own publishing, I own my own masters, but they have none of that. And now they are suggesting having Allen Klein who is basically like a thief-as-manager. He’s like an old-style music manager who is out to fleece the artist, so no wonder Paul is frustrated.

Paul told me that he just did not want to put his life and his work in Klein’s hands. It’s impossible to guess what he must have felt like, seeing that amazing body of work taken away.

Steve Miller – From “Paul McCartney Now And Then” by Tony Barrow and Robin Bextor, 2004

On “My Dark Hour,” Paul played drums, bass, guitar, and provided backing vocals, while Steve Miller handled lead vocals and the remaining instruments. Although Paul did not receive a composer credit, his contributions were acknowledged under the pseudonym Paul Ramon — a name he had previously used in 1960 during a tour of Scotland with The Silver Beetles.

Paul didn’t receive a composer credit, but his performance was attributed to Paul Ramon, the pseudonym he had used in 1960 while on a tour with The Silver Beetles in Scotland.

The track was released as a single in June 1969 and also appeared on the Steve Miller Band’s album “Brave New World“.

Paul and Steve Miller would reunite decades later to collaborate on Paul’s 1997 album “Flaming Pie”.

I told him about this song I was about to record, “My Dark Hour” for the Brave New World record. And he said, “Let’s do it”, and it just sort of happened. He’s on drums beating hell out of them and I’m on guitar, and then he plays bass and I’m on rhythm. We were popping tracks over and using the techniques that the Beatles had developed for multitracking. Seven hours later and it’s done, and he just sort of walks out of the door. But he did really beat hell out of those drums. […]

Paul was an awesome musical presence. He was, like, 10 feet tall with music and it was everything: folk, rock, music hall, choral, it was all there.

Steve Miller – From “Paul McCartney Now And Then” by Tony Barrow and Robin Bextor, 2004

Session activities

1. My Dark Hour

   Written by Steve Miller

   Recording

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Musicians

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