Keith RichardsIt's The Beatles Week! Day 7: The Latter Years and The End
The strain and tensions and somewhat divisive reactions experienced during the middle years for sure came from the combined pressure of the write-record-tour schedule and the massive success & fame that didn't allow them to go unrecognized and free in their lives. Eliminating touring no doubt eased the pressure on the schedule, but it only created space that began to move them in different directions. The schism began to appear between Paul McCartney and John Lennon with the death of Brian Epstein in the summer of 1967.
With Brian's death there was no overseeing influence to bring them together and help them meld ideas into a common purpose. Paul immediately saw that someone needed to step into that role to hold the band together. He took that role himself. Immediately he brought the idea for Magical Mystery Tour, which turned out to be a flop and widely considered the band's first failure. Paul was upset because he felt he was the one to blame since it was his idea, and John was upset because he hadn't even been in on the formation of the idea of the followup to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
When they returned from India in 1968, John began to lose himself in Yoko's world and her avant-garde influences, which only further moved him away from the creative partnership he had with Paul. In this abdictation of his creative presence, Paul began to dominate the studio time. He’d bring in several songs and ask the group to go into the studio in a couple of days' time, leaving John essentially no time to write anything other than a couple of songs, which in turn would leave Paul unhappy. On top of this, Paul pushed for the A-side for his songs for any singles. John, frustrated with Paul's dominance, the constant maneuvering for album time AND A-sides, and his own disillusion over the whole group process, just internalized it all without expressing what he was feeling.
John and Paul were also moving in totally different directions musically: Paul in the vein of "sweeter" pop music, while John was moving into new territory with experimental and avant-garde compositions. Complicating the issue of sharing time on the albums was the fact that George Harrison's writing had really become much improved to the point where they could not fairly limit him to one or two songs per album. Sessions developed into Paul with a backing group, John with a backing group, and George with a backing group. Basically, they were all becoming individual musicians working together rather than being a collaborative team, and the combined energy of a unified group was gone.
John's on-the-fly assembly of the Plastic Ono Band to peform at the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival concert in September 1969, and the enthusiastic response they got, gave him the confidence that he could perform separately from The Beatles and succeed with his own music separately. This only solidified his decision to leave the band.
With Lennon's not-yet-publicly-announced departure after the Abbey Road sessions, George's increasing chafing at having his contributions discounted, and Ringo Starr's work on his own solo album, it was only a matter of who would publicly bolt first. This was a decision that tormented Paul all throughout the fall of 1969, and it was his first solo album that gave him the outlet to work through his decision and gave him the confidence that he could make it on his own.
The involvement of Phil Spector at Lennon's request in the production of Let It Be, particularly his addition of strings to Paul's
The Long and Winding Road, proved to be the inciting event. Even though Lennon had privately announced his intent to leave first, McCartney beat him to it publicly on 10 April 1970, initiating the dissolution of the group. (That Paul had beat him to it publicly irritated John immensely: in his eyes, it was a public relations coup that he had wanted for himself. It had always been a trait of John's to want to make every move and decision a PR event to attract attention.)The dissolution would not be easy. Paul wanted no part of Allen Klein, and wanted Klein to have no part of them. This effectively put Paul in a different camp from the other three Beatles, and forced him into a situation where to be rid of Klein and his obligations, he had to sue his best mates to formally dissolve the Beatles partnership and release himself. The inner turmoil over that course of action left him horridly conflicted during 1970 until he finally filed the suit on the final day of the year. The final dissolution was not formalized by the court until January 1975.
The thing about the breakup is this: it was completely ordinary. This kind of breakup - where the members fracture into individual artists because of the continual pace of write-record-tour compounded by growing apart in terms of interests - happens all the time. The frustrating thing about these guys is that they just would not work through their frustrations together, Lennon especially so. It was all venting and sarcasm and undermining each other. The bands that are able to work it out can usually find a way to survive. Even if they get to such an impasse, they know that what they need to do is split for a time and give each other creative space to work independently.
What I want to know is this: had we not lost John in December of 1980, might the 80s have seen a reunion? These guys truly loved each other. Even during the 70s, various combinations of the members continued to work together, and even John and Paul would talk every so often. In fact, the last time that John and Paul were together, they almost accepted Lorne Michaels' offer to come down to the Saturday Night Live studio and reunite on the show live. (Later saying they were too tired...but I bet there was a lot more to it than that, like, "How do we answer all the questions about what's next, then?")
I think that, given the right reasons, we might eventually have seen them reunite, even if it was after the 1980s. Don't believe me? Listen to the portions of the last interview Lennon ever gave (recorded about five hours before his death) contained in the final track on the remastered Milk and Honey. You can hear how open he was to any possibility. Maybe not a tour, but even for one show for the right purpose(s) given all the other charities and benefits that they all did? And perhaps in later years, if not initially, and given all the options of the digital era, perhaps some new material.
To be sure, he may have insisted on involvement of Yoko, since he refused even photos or interviews without her, so that may have been a sticking point. But on the other hand, she may have been OK just being there to the side as they did it.
Who knows? But it's nice to think about. When I look at the pictures of the last days of The Beatles, and listen to them talking past each other in the studio, and read the interviews they all did in the first years after, it's a bit heavy and depressing. So when I feel that way, I like to listen to the music from the early years and think about this final recorded statement of John's from that last interview: "In the 80s it's like we have a new chance."
Story of the Day:
My final story is the one of my earliest Beatles-related memory. When I was about five years old, I had one of those Disc-Go cases for storing 45rpm records. I had a whole bunch of them, mostly kiddie stuff leftover from pre-school days, and a few others that were "more mature" :D Anyway, I can distinctly remember my father giving me a copy of Hey Jude b/w Revolution because I used to love singing along with the "Nah, nah, nah, nah-nah-nah-nahh" part whenever I heard "Hey Jude." So he thought I'd love to own that song to play on the phonograph in my room. I thought the big green Apple logo was so cool: a full apple on one side and a half apple on the back! I got to know both of those songs so well since it was the 45 I played all the time - my first real record!
I also remember the day that I lost that 45. I used to love dancing around my room listening to the few 45s of "real songs" that I did have, and one afternoon I was doing just that, but this time I decided it would be fun to swing my belt around the room as I sung along. Then, forgetting that I had all of the 45s spread out on my bed...can you see where this is going? I decided I'd start whapping my belt full force on the bed to get a great percussive whacking sound to match the beat. Great...until I heard a "crack!" Yes, of course the one that I broke into three pieces with my stupid antics just had to be my favorite one of them all. I still feel the regret and despair that I felt once I realized what I had done and that it could not be fixed. I also still kick myself when I think what it might be worth now. Knowing how well I have kept all my vinyl over the years, had it survived it could be worth quite a bit (not that I'd sell it). A mint/near mint original 1968 pressing runs something like $400-500, though I suspect my copy was probably not an original pressing.
Selection of the Day:
Abbey Road's "The End" was almost my selection to wrap this tribute up (see below under "additional favorites") since it was the last proper track on the final album and has an appropriate title, but I couldn't help choosing this since it's not only the last track from last album *released* but also last song ever performed live. It is also one of the most confusing in terms of session history, takes, and available versions.
The single was released over a year before the album and is the only Beatles single so credit another artist: "The Beatles with Billy Preston." Billy had been brought in by George to play the electric Rhodes piano (which sounds so good on these songs) and also as a tactic to bring some heightened focus, similar to the way George invited in Eric Clapton for the White Album sessions, and it worked. The single version has a great false ending and reprise coda. It later appeared on the 1973 The Beatles 1967–1970 compilation.
In terms of album version, it is also by far the song for which I prefer the version on the original album over the version on Let It Be...Naked because I like that studio chatter at the beginning and John's final comment from the rooftop performance! Those extra pieces were spliced onto the best studio take of the song for the original album, but it is by now so integral that leaving it off for the ...Naked edition just sounds wrong.
I think that the rooftop performance of this song - which closes the show - is one of the most "metal" moments in the history of performances! They performed it three times, and during the third the police arrived because of noise complaints. After the police spoke to Mal Evans, he turned off the amplifiers...and George casually turned them back on so they could finish! McCartney ad-libbed, "You've been playing on the roofs again, and that's no good, and you know your Mummy doesn't like that...she gets angry...she's gonna have you arrested! Get back!" Check it out below!*
"I'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition!"
Additional Favorite Tracks:
For me, this period is easily the most fruitful for favorite tracks, and I am sure that is also true for other metal fans.
All You Need Is Love: A great huge ensemble of people in their lives at the time, with George Martin on the piano, and including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, David Mason, Graham Nash, Patti Boyd, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Maureen Starkey,and another dozen or so. My favorite part? Near the end when you hear someone (who?) singing amid all the final commotion, "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
Hey Jude: The first Beatles single released on Apple was also the first Beatles song that I ever liked and owned (see story above). Written out of Paul's concern for Julian Lennon as John & Cynthia were divorcing, it went on to become the Beatles' most successful single, topping the charts in 11 countries and selling more than eight million copies over the last 40 years. More great details on the story here!
Happiness Is a Warm Gun: America's obsession with guns donates the title to this graphically-imaginative story of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. I only recently learned what it means to "donate something to the National Trust!" No details here!
Helter Skelter: Notwithstanding the terrors that Charles Manson managed to draw from this, it's a great "sturm und drang" noisy track that John wanted to be intentionally so, to try and do something to match the noise of The Who.
It's All Too Much: This isn't the only song that I like from the Yellow Submarine songtrack, but "All You Need Is Love" actually appeared first over here in the States on Magical Mystery Tour, and I highlighted George's great Only a Northern Song as part of my "additional selections" on his highlight page yesterday. This other Harrison composition from the album, though, is easily the best on there. Recorded back before Sgt. Pepper's was even released, it was also supposed to appear on Magical Mystery Tour, but was yet another of George's tracks that got pushed back. Of course I instantly love it since it's well over six minutes long - quite unusual for The Beatles - and ulitmatley quite suitable for the Yellow Submarine film given its subject of LSD experiences!
Come Together: This song creeps along like a pimp on the strut in a zoot suit: John's staccato semi-nonsense vocals, that awesome swampy bass line, and the laid-back electric piano solo. The "coolest" Beatles track.
The great sixteen-minute "Abbey Road Medley" consisting of: You Never Give Me Your Money + Sun King¹ + Mean Mr. Mustard² + Polythene Pam + She Came in Through the Bathroom Window + Golden Slumbers + Carry That Weight + The End
Most of these are half-written songs started and recorded as demos during sessions for the White Album and Get Back/Let It Be. My favorite pieces in the medley and on the entire album are the last two. As the harmonized vocals of "Carry That Weight" well up, it's like I can hear them all coming together in one last great harmony before it all ended, and it's so poignant. Carrying that weight a long time? They had no idea...
"The End" is like The Beatles all taking one final bow together, recorded in - when else?! - August of 1969. First we get Ringo's only drum solo in the entire Beatles discography, followed by 18 bars of a guitar solo split evenly between Paul, George, and John, and then that last beautiful line of the last song³ of the last recorded Beatles album, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
What came from the sessions for Get Back - Paul's concept for a "live rehearsal and performance film" and so titled to signify getting back to roots, to honest rock, to unified purpose, to touring - can be a bit of a completist's headache. Despite what they were putting themselves through to do this project, it doesn't come through in the music, and apparently the sessions were not all as bad as everything that has been written (sensationalized) about them. They were certainly productive, with pieces of hundreds of songs being done, including nearly all the songs that eventually were done for Abbey Road and still others that ended up on solo albums.
Three of the songs were released as singles that are different from the version on Let It Be (though all of which appeared on early 70s compilations). Then in 2002 Paul oversaw a revisitation and remixing of the materials to release Let It Be...Naked, chiefly for the purpose of removing the production elements added by Phil Spector, especially on The Long and Winding Road, which was the final straw in the whole schism in the first place.
I can't recommend one over the other and actually think both are worth having. I definitely prefer the absence of the added strings on the studio tracks, and the second disc with the studio talk and insight into the recording process included with the ...Naked edition is quite interesting, too. But ...Naked edition strips out the dialogue between songs, which I really like. The track sequence on neither edition matches the film, which would logically dictate all of the songs from the rooftop performance to be last. Anyway, give a listen to both. Here are my other top selections from the album (in order from the ...Naked edition):
One after 909: John said in later years that he never liked this song, but I don't know why. I've always loved it. He and Paul wrote this way back in 1957, and they did actually record it in March of 1963 but weren't happy with it. That version showed up on the first disc of the Anthology discs. The version included on the original Let It Be is a live version from the rooftop performance and the one I prefer. The ...Naked edition is a remastered version from the original session tapes, but it sounds really good. All three are worth having!
Don't Let Me Down: The biggest reason that I prefer the ...Naked edition is that this song is included. Spector just decided to not include it on the original Let It Be, so it was only released as the B-side for the "Get Back" single (although it also showed up on the Hey Jude compilation). That was an absolutely terrible decision on the part of Spector because this is a fantastic song that deserves much more attention. I still do not have the original B-side version in my collection, because the version included on the ...Naked edition is a splice of the two versions done during the rooftop performance. So the original version of this song is the rarity that I am still pursuing!
Across the Universe: I almost hesitate to include this because it wasn't even recorded during the sessions for this project! It actually was recorded during the February 1968 sessions to record a single for when they were away in India. This one lost out to Paul's Lady Madonna but did appear on a charity album for the World Wildlife Fund (!) However, it's one of my favorite Lennon songs of all, and I very much like the ...Naked edition because that one is done at the proper speed and lacks all the added instrumentation.
Let It Be: The last real single (but see below) even though it was written in January 1969. No mistaking that this is born from Paul's despondency over the fraying of the group. This one is a split decision. I like George's solo from the original edition better, but like verse 2 on the ...Naked edition better because you can actually hear Paul's piano, rather than being buried under the over-produced drum sound on the original.
The whole bizzare confusion over the recording and release of the final two albums is best summed up by Ringo in the Anthology book, "It goes to show how quirky the world is - that the next to last album comes out as the last album, and the last album came out before it."
The Anthology cuts:
I recommend giving the Anthology discs as listen. There's nothing there that is critical, but some interesting live cuts, early demos, alternate versions, and performances from television. Of the three, I actually like Anthology Vol. 3 the best.
Free as a Bird: From Anthology Vol. 1, this was billed as "the first new Beatles single in 25 years" as a means of rasising the level of interest in the entire Anthology project even further. Paul, George, and Ringo added parts to a discarded song fragment that John had been working on at home in the latter half of 1977.
Real Love: From Anthology Vol. 2, it's another cassette recording of John's to which the others added parts. Definitely can hear the influence of Jeff Lynne's production.
Not Guilty: Appropriately in my case, we end this list with one last George Harrison song, which was written during the tense sessions for the White Album as a means of dealing with the very dour moods and reflecting his feeling that he was being marginalized and just wanted to get on wih making more great music together.
This Day in Beatles History: August 9, 1966 - In the wake of angry protests in the United States, UK fans petition the band not to go on their U.S. tour, fearing for their safety. Less than three weeks later, on August 29th, they play their final gig at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, which also turns out to be their last concert ever. The Apple rooftop performance on Savile Road on January 30, 1969 would be the only other time The Beatles ever offered another (limited) public performance.
Bonus Material: Saving my best for last, my favorite of all the Beatles-related pieces is The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook the World. If you get just one thing about The Beatles, make it this (although you'll have to buy it used). This is the full collection of several special issues and editions put together by the staff of MOJO. You can open it to any page, and then find yourself engrossed in it for an hour. Detailed story after story organized chronologically, with deep album reviews and a day-by-day timeline running down the left- and right-hand side of the pages.
My most wanted piece of Beatles output, though, is for Let It Be to finally be made available on DVD! This is shamefully overdue and I don't know why this wasn't undertaken as part of the Anthology project. I think there was some project underway around 2002 to release this, which was part of the reason for doing the ...Naked edition of the album, but I don't know why that was never completed. It's been over five years now. I know a lot of it is sensitive, but surely the remaining members have an appropriate sense of perspective by now, and the demand has got to be massive. Think of the draw it would create if they did a full proper mastering and released it in theaters? Especially here in the States where we didn't get it? You can see the rooftop concert in three parts below, but this just isn't the same.
\m/ (`°_°´) \m/
¹In A Hard Day's Write, George explains that the music for "Sun King" had its origination with Fleetwood Mac's
Albatross. A very cool source of inspiration!²THere used to be a bar on High Street near the campus of Ohio State that we used to go to when we road-tripped there as undergrads in the late 80s that was called "Mean Mr. Mustard's" Maybe it's still there - I haven't been there since probably 1990. The final line of the song has a link to the Hard Day's Night film: can you make the connection?
³"Her Majesty" was supposed to be between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" but Paul wanted it edited out. Rather than allowing it to be destroyed, the recording engineer just spliced it onto the end of the tape, and Paul decided later that he liked it there as a sort of album afterthought. He did have a crush on the young Elizabeth when he was a boy. Why does that not surprise me?
*Rooftop concert:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
