Some kind of solitude is measured out in you

After only a couple of days of playing and talking, the satisfaction Paul felt while working with Denny and Hugh [McCracken] in New York was sufficiently bolstered that on June 25, he popped the question. “Paul sprung it on us,” Denny recalled. “He said, ‘This isn’t just a holiday. I miss my old band. Do you want to form a band?’” [...] Hugh had two young children from a previous marriage. Joining Paul’s band would mean moving to Britain, and not seeing his son and daughter grow up. He was enjoying jamming with this prospective new band. But after a couple of weeks, he realized that he could not resolve the tension between wanting to join the group and needing to be part of his children’s lives. On July 4, he told Paul he could not accept his offer. “Paul was very surprised, and upset,” Holly [Hugh's wife] said. “And Hugh felt awful. But they sat in the kitchen all night, talking, accompanied by a bottle of scotch. Then Hugh came back, and we left the next day. And Paul never spoke to him again.”