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.

Changes and Growing Up

The Beatles released twelve studio albums in their short career. Those albums show how the Beatles changed during the years. I normally divide these albums in three stages and one transitional album. 

•  The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years 
• “Rubber Soul” 
• Psychedelic Stage
• Mature Years

First of all, with the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Years” I refer to the earliest stage in their career. In the first years, the Beatles sang youthful songs, with catchy lyrics and tunes. Such as the song “I wanna hold your hand”, the first single they released on the States. In the song we can see a love song between a young boy and a girl. The boy seems to be confessing his love to the girls, and makes a very simple (and sweet) request: to hold the girl’s hand. Is funny to think that this rather naïve request, is what attracts us to the song. The naivety of the boy, and the sweetness of the song’s tone, had made this song one of the most popular love songs ever.

Oh yeh, I'll tell you something,
I think you'll understand,
Then I'll say that something,
I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand.
Oh please say to me
You'll let me be your man,
And please say to me,
You'll let me hold your hand,
Now let me hold your hand,
I wanna hold your hand.

(Iwanna hold your hand, 1963)

Even though this period can be seen as their most traditional stage, the Beatles were highly innovative for their time. In the late fifties, the first rock stars appeared in the U. S and expanded all over the world. But those musicians didn’t write the songs they played and normally presented themselves with a band that didn’t had much importance. The Beatles managed to change that. For example, they swapped lead vocals, played their own instruments and wrote their own songs. They also were proud of their origins, and had no problem saying that they were from Liverpool and that their families were working class. As British youth was hungry for someone they could identify with, the Beatles were perfect for this, and became very popular between them. In these years, they crossed the Atlantic and began “the British invasion” in the States.

“Rubber Soul” deserves being a stage on its own. In this album we can see the changes going on between “Help” and “Revolver”. In the song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, the first notes have a marked eastern influence, and the lyrics show a more” grown-up” relationship, very different from the playful view of love in their early albums.  In “Nowhere Man” they criticize how people refuse to see reality and to have their own opinions and views on what was going on.  The “Nowhere Man” doesn’t care for anybody and lives just for himself. This song is one of the earliest songs in which the Beatles criticize social issues.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

(Rubber Soul, 1965)

The “Psychedelic Stage” showed drugs use and new theme in the lyrics. This stage coincides with the birth of the Hippie movement in the US. The ideals of this movement were adopted by the Beatles, leading them to write “All you need is Love”, a hymn to universal love and peace. The song also talks about letting materialism go, and focusing your life in love. This was highly provocative for their time, when talking about forgetting about material possessions and saying that they were not important, could be seen as a sign of communism and “anti-Americanism”.  These years’ albums also feature very surrealistic images, which are believed to be hallucinations, for example, the first verses of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes 

(Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967)

Is said that the inspiration for this song came from an hallucination provoked by LSD as many of the songs of the album and the surreal images (not just in the video, but in the lyrics) and the music lead us into a dreamy world, that well could be a drug induced hallucination. 

The Beatles’ “Mature Years” are the albums that came after their spiritual trip to India in 1968. They returned early from the trip because they felt disappointed about their guru, the Maharishi. Despite the bad experience in India, the Beatles returned home with lots of inspiration for writing new songs. In these albums, the Beatles did quite a lot of experimentation with different styles and tunes. Furthermore, the themes in the lyrics showed the Beatles dealing with adulthood issues and the challenges of growing up. For example the song “Two of us”, in which they reflect on how their life as changed through the years, and how that changes had echoed in their views on love. Their loved ones are portrayed as life companions, rather than being a possession as they saw them in their first albums (Eg. “You can’t do that”).

You and I have memories
longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

Two of us wearing raincoats,
standing solo in the sun.
You and me chasing paper,
getting nowhere, on our way back home.

We're on our way home.
We're on our way home.
We're going home.

(Let It Be, 1970)

They were no longer the young boys from Liverpool that rocked the whole world; their interests had changed, as well as their view of the world, and all that changes are reflected on their lyrics. The changes in their point of view also included their political views; they were influenced by the Hippie Movement and its ideals of love and peace towards the whole world. 

But, although their message to the public was all a about love and peace, the conflicts within themselves were reaching a critical point. The presence of Yoko Ono during their recording sessions, the feeling of Ringo Starr of being left behind and the creative discussions between Lennon/McCartney were just some of the issues that eventually led the band to their Break-up. 

In the Beatles musical and lyrical evolution is reflected how they grew up during those years. Seeing and listening to how they change through the years, can help us relating to them, because we also change a lot during our lives. In a certain way, the Beatles musical evolution can echo how we grow up.

Just for fun!

It's just a funny video I found online.