Why did the Beatles break up?

However surprising the Beatles’ break up may have been for their time’s fans, it was the most expectable result of all the conflicts that they were going through. Years of creative discussions, and fights about their albums, reached a critical point during the recording sessions of “The Beatles”, when Ringo Starr stormed out of the studio. Luckily for us fans, they worked out the problem and got Starr back into the band. After that episode, the tensions between the Beatles seemed to calm down for a while, but that was only temporal. Two years after, Paul McCartney announced the band’s break-up, shocking their fans, who didn’t know what happened with them.

But, what was what really happened between them? Why did they, who were like the best friends of the world, part from each other? There are several reasons that explain how and why this horrible thing happened.

First of all, we can list the relation between Paul McCartney and the other Beatles. The other Beatles used to refer to him as “bossy”, but it was becaused he truly loved The Beatles. In Rolling Stone’s article: “Why the Beatles broke-up”, Mikal Gilmore, states that McCartney was the only one that would have never left the band, and he never stopped loving the band, even after the break-up. After the separation of the band, it was due to the legal actions he took, that the Beatles didn’t lose their rights to their music.

As a second point, we mustn’t forget each Beatles’ desire of moving on and doing some stuff by themselves. After all, being in the most successful band in the whole world was probably very stressing, especially in creative issues. During their last years together, every one of them was able to step aside and do some work on their own. John Lennon performed in alternative rock festivals with Yoko Ono and George Harrison and Starr also walked away in different times. Apparently, the only Beatle who couldn’t think of quitting the band was McCartney (ironically, his solo career was certainly the most successful of them all). Anyway, even if the Beatles began as a unit, they grew up very different from each other, Harrison mysticism, Lennon’s activism, Starr’s interest in acting and McCartney’s painting and writing, were leading them into different roads.

Besides the weakening relationship between all the members of the band, the relationship between the main songwriters of the band, Lennon and McCartney, was also slowly growing stale. Lennon’s interests were on more experimental and conceptual subjects, when McCartney had more interest in trying new musical styles, rather than new recording techniques and conceptual songs. During the recording of “The Beatles”, Lennon insisted on including into the track list the highly modern “Revolution 9”, an experimental musical collage, done with the collaboration of Yoko Ono. McCartney didn’t agree on Lennon’s idea, he said that Lennon was sabotaging the band. Finally, they reach an agreement and the song appeared in the album.

We can’t forget the importance of Yoko Ono in the Beatles’ break-up. Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife described the band as a unity that nobody could infiltrate. Yoko Ono managed to get into their recording sessions, which had never been allowed to any other of the Beatles’ wives. Being a conceptual artist, she was consulted by John Lennon about the songs and the aesthetics of the albums. Of course, the rest of the band didn’t like her intromission in the band’s affairs. This situation obviously led to many fights between the members of the band, and growing tension.

Another factor usually listed as one of the things that led the Beatles to their break-up is the death in 1967 of their manager, Brian Epstein, while the Beatles were in Bangor. He was his manager since 1963, and he was a good friend to them. He used to mediate between them whenever there was a conflict between them, and his absence was felt during the band’s arguments. Besides that, they were faced to a stress they hadn’t met until then, because Epstein was the one in charge of the “business stuff”, and McCartney tried to took over part of his work, which was seen by the other Beatles as if he was more interested on pursuing a solo career rather than helping the band just for the sake of helping.

All these factors summed up into a big conflict between the Beatles. After many fights and the recording of their last two albums (“Abbey Road” and “Let it be”) and the famous roof top concert in the Apple building, John Lennon left the band, and later, McCartney himself announced the band’s break-up,  in an interview in November, 1969.

After the break-up, Lennon and McCartney never worked together, but Harrison and Starr, did. However, Harrison and Starr did work together in several concerts and albums. After Lennon’s death, the rest of the band showed their respects to the widow and for George Harrison first death anniversary, McCartney and Starr played in the “Concert for George”.

The Beatles played their innovative and creative songs for almost ten years. They changed how music was created, played and listened to. Their break-up was a huge shock for their fans all over the world, and it marked the end of a golden age in Rock and Roll music.