My Dark Hour

“My Dark Hour” is a song by Steve Miller Band, recorded and released in 1969 with the contribution of Paul McCartney. It was recorded in a late-night session on May 9, 1969, after an acrimonious argument between Paul, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr over signing a contract appointing Allen Klein as The Beatles’ financial manager. John, George, and Ringo walked out, while Paul remained at Olympic Studios and encountered Steve Miller.

Paul recorded drums, bass, guitar and backing vocals, while Steve Miller sang and performed all the other instruments. 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 of Scotland with The Silver Beetles.

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

Paul would work again with Steve Miller for his 1997 album “Flaming Pie”.

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 hadn’t seen Steve Miller since one night at Olympic Studios in 1969, when there was an unfortunate business meeting and a Beatles session broke down. On the spur of the moment Steve and I had got together and by about three or four in the morning we’d done ‘My Dark Hour’ together, which he released on his next album. I played it recently to my son James, who’s interested in finding out what his Dad did back then, and he liked it. He even liked my drumming, although it’s a little bit heavy on the tom-toms. So that reminded me of Steve, I called him up, we got our friendship going again, I told him I had a song and reckoned we could do it well together and he invited me out to his studio in Idaho.

Paul McCartney – From interview in Club Sandwich N°82, Summer 1997

Lyrics

Variations

• A Stereo version • From "My Dark Hour / Song For Our Ancestors"
• A2012 2012 remaster • From "Brave New World (2012 remaster)"
• A2018 2018 • From "Brave New World (2018 remaster)"

Officially appears on

Going further

• http://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/09/paul-mccartney-plays-drums-steve-miller-my-dark-hour/