The Beatles’ troubled final moments

On April 10, 1970, the Beatles shocked the world by announcing their end. After eight years together, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr It is Paul McCartney would stop being the Liverpool Quartet due to “disagreements in personal, business and musical plans. But the main thing is that I feel better with my family”, he said Paul in season.

Despite the surprise for fans, those who lived the band’s day-to-day life didn’t see the situation that way. Ringo Starrconsidered a delicate person, admitted that he was “satisfied” with the separation.

It’s about time… Things don’t last long”, he said.

But anyone who thinks that the behind-the-scenes crises ended after the episode is mistaken. In the mid-1980s, a decade later, the ex-Beatles lived in a Cold Warmainly against Lennon.

George Harrison, for example, described his former colleague as “a piece of shit.” The guitarist, known for being normally quiet, continued on John: “He’s so negative about everything… He’s become so nasty.”

Long-time companion of Lennon, the diplomatic Paul McCartney was also harsh against his writing partner — and his wife Yoko Ono. “The way to get their friendship is to do everything the way they demand.”

“Doing anything else is like not getting their friendship. I know that if I absolutely lay down on the floor and just do everything as they say and laugh at all their jokes and don’t expect my jokes to be ridiculed… if I If you’re willing to do all this, then we can be friends”, criticized the couple.

The revelations were exposed in the book ‘All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words’a recently released work written by the band’s former advisor, Peter Brownand bestselling author Steven Gaines.

The book is based on interviews collected by Gaines between 1980 and 1981. At the time, he even scheduled a meeting with John Lennon, but the meeting never took place due to the murder of the ex-Beatle. The narrative also features accounts from the surviving Beatles, the musicians’ wives and lovers, business partners and other people linked to the Liverpool Quartet.

‘All You Need Is Love’ is a sequel to the 1983 biography ‘The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles’, where Gaines talks about the band’s meteoric rise and toxic breakup — including the use of amphetamines, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, heroin; and dalliances with prostitutes and groupies. Painting a troubled portrait of how fame ruined the biggest band in the world.

Troubled tours and intrigues

In the book, Ringo Starr gave details of the Beatles’ harrowing tour in Manila, capital of the Philippines, in 1966. At the time, the drummer said that the band was “spit on” and almost held hostage after refusing an invitation from the president Ferdinand Marcos and the first lady Imelda Marcos.

“So we get to the plane and there’s an announcement that our press officer, Tony Barrow, and [o roadie] As soon as Evans had to get off the plane,” which gave more disturbing details to the oft-told story. “We thought, now they’re pulling us out two by two to shoot us.”

By the time the Beatles finished the North American leg of their tour that year, they were falling apart. “We kept noticing that we were getting bigger and bigger, until we all realized we couldn’t go anywhere — you couldn’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio or TV without seeing each other,” he said. Harrison. “It became too much.”

The work also examines the iconic partnership between Lennon It is McCartney, which bore fruit such as ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘A Day In the Life’. Despite this, they fought an intense battle for control of Apple Records.

“Suddenly I had more shares in Northern Songs than anyone,” he admitted McCartney“and it was like, oops, sorry. John said, ‘You bastard, you’re buying it behind my back.'”

The former president of Apple Records, Ron Kassinsisted that the disagreement that eventually drowned the band could have been avoided if he “had presented [Lennon] with a bag of money every now and then.”

The money invested was too abstract for him,” he said. Kass about Lennon.

The relationship became even worse when the businessman Allen Klein was appointed to preside over the financial affairs of the Beatles. Paul I was one of the great opponents of Klein, whom he referred to as a “devil” who was later accused of stealing millions from the band. “The three of them wanted to do things, and I was always the fly in the ointment,” he claimed. McCartney.

The choice of Allenfor the majority, left Paul McCartney even more furious about the accession of Starr: “So I said, ‘Well, this is like fucking Julius Caesar, and I’m getting stabbed in the back.'”

Paul still accused Klein to conquer John when approaching his controversial wife Yoko Ono. “Klein saw the connection with Yoko and told Yoko he would do a lot for her,” he recalled. “And that’s basically what John and Yoko wanted: recognition for Yoko.”

It all became even more intense when the bassist was pressured to postpone the release of his debut solo album, ‘McCartney’, to make room for the band’s final release, ‘Let It Be’.

When Ringo Starr visited him in an attempt to make peace on behalf of the group, McCartney kicked out the drummer. “That was the worst moment with Ringo, and I felt sorry for him because it really brought him down.” A year later, on December 31, 1970, McCartney sued his bandmates.

Problematic relationships

The love life of Beatles it was as troubled as the band’s internal conflicts. As the book recalls, much is said about how Eric Clapton stole George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, while little is said about how much the guitarist is equally guilty of falling in love with his bandmate’s wife.

The first wife of Ringo Starr, MaureenStarkeyrecalled the scandalous persecution he suffered from Harrison in the 1970s. At the time, she and Ringo they had just received Harrison It is Boyd for dinner at home.

“I was cleaning the table,” he recalled Starkey. “[Harrison] picked up a guitar and started singing a song… and then he just turned to [Starr] and said, ‘I’m in love with your wife.’ I was completely stunned.” Asked if Harrison was mad about such a statement, she replied: “Jesus Christ, yes.”

Yoko Ono also defended herself against long-standing criticism and accusations that she was responsible for the band’s end. “Everything we did back then, anything that was wrong, was my responsibility,” he said. Onowho claimed that Harrison even blamed her for ‘putting’ Lennon on heroin.

Ono he joked about the time he attended a Beatles meeting with a room full of Jewish businessmen — and wore Arab attire. “They hated me anyway,” she reflected. “But yeah, that made it worse. Funny.”

Finally, Gaines points out that John Lennon “turned his wife into a weapon”, making her the bad cop of the stories. However, as the author explains, “John and Paul were already fed up with each other.”

I think we were growing apart,” McCartney acknowledged.

Although, Paul McCartney described as “pleasant” a phone call he had with John Lennon on Christmas Day 1979. “I read jokes about, ‘Oh, the Beatles sang ‘All You Need Is Love,’ but it didn’t work for them,'” he said. Lennon in a 1972 quote used as the book’s epigraph. “But nothing will ever break the love we have for each other.”