John had been snarky is his public comments, but Paul was the first to put bitchy comments into a song.
It was just one song, according to Paul: I was looking at my second solo album, Ram, the other day and I remember there was one tiny little reference to John in the whole thing. He'd been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit. In one song, I wrote, "Too many people preaching practices," I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn't anything else on it that was about them. Oh, there was "You took your lucky break and broke it in two." — Paul McCartney, Playboy, 1984 Piss off, cake. Like, a piece of cake becomes piss off cake, And it's nothing, it's so harmless really, just little digs. But the first line is about "too many people preaching practices." I felt John and Yoko were telling everyone what to do. And I felt we didn't need to be told what to do. The whole tenor of the Beatles thing had been, like, to each his own. Freedom. Suddenly it was "You should do this." It was just a bit the wagging finger, and I was pissed off with it. So that one got to be a thing about them. — Paul McCartney, Mojo, 2001
In the snippet he says "the only time we vaguely need something of that quality is for a single" IIRC. So he does not quite say it should have been a single - he still doesn`t like the song(s) - but if at all this type of music might have it`s merits popularity-wise for the single-market.
To be fair, when I take large doses of acid, I sometimes think I'm Rod Stewart... The "bigger than God" controversy Rod Stewart
I think it's well documented and discussed fairly extensively here that Paul had J&Y in mind with certain lyrics on Ram.
How about, “You Never Give Me Your Money.” It’s self-deprecating for sure, but it’s still bitchy and it hits John and the whole band as well. No matter how you slice it, Paul brought these matters out into the public first, which of course must have felt like a betrayal to his business partners and his musical partner. I’m not saying John was justified in his conduct, indeed I think the things Lennon said were far more caustic and insulting, but Paul went public first.
Prior to that and after the Ram songs debacle Paul played it cool and did not get John upset because he always wanted them to get back together.
That was about Klein, not the other Beatles. "This was me directly lambasting Allen Klein’s attitude to us: no money, just funny paper, all promises and it never works out. It’s basically a song about no faith in the person, that found its way into the medley on Abbey Road. John saw the humour in it." -Paul I'm not really sure how Paul went public first given no one knew that Too Many People was about John until John said it was about him. It would be like Paul claiming that John started it and citing the lyrics of Come Together as the evidence, because he believed that the lyrics were about him. The lyrics to Too Many People are opaque, they could be about anyone. How Do You Sleep or the numerous interviews in the '70/71 by John are not the case of that.
Did Paul ever say he wanted them to get back together? I feel like he was not very open to it in interviews that I’ve read
I can't vouch for his feeling at the time of Ram, but he did have a "Beatle reunion" clause in his Columbia contract, which began in 1979.
Yup. He was always against it in the '70's. The other three at times were positive about it, Paul was the one who never entertained the idea. In fairness he'd be crazy not to. The numbers that were being suggested in the late 70's were ridiculous. He also seemed open to writing with John again and working with Ringo and George. There is a difference between being open to something and actively wanting it and Paul does not seem to have wanted a Beatles reunion in the 70's.
Well, just prior to the Venus and Mars sessions, he did invite John to join him. but I grant that's not the same thing.
No, it is about Klein. You have to really, really stretch for it be a critique of the other Beatles. Which lyric of the song do you take as an obvious dig at John, George or Ringo?