http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16571
It was 40 years ago today that the Beatles' 'utopia' officially fell apart
Matt Ristuccia
April 10, 2010
Exactly 40 years before this issue's official publication date, April
10, London's Daily Mirror fired around the world its April 10, 1970,
headline: "Paul leaves the Beatles." Media frenzy followed,
corroborating the news: "Beatle Paul McCartney confirmed today that
he has broken with the Beatles." Thus ended the most influential rock
band of all time, and with it their utopia.
As early as 1966, the Fab Four began serving up an
"all-you-need-is-love" utopia. "In the beginning, I misunderstood,"
John Lennon sang on Rubber Soul, "but now I've got it, the 'word' is
good; it's the word, love." Hmmmm. The utopia accelerated with the
success of the 1967 album Sergeant Pepper and the summer of "love"
that followed in its spell. Fueled by drugs, seemingly endless
injections of cash, and a gauzy belief in the inherent goodness of
man, the Beatles became as cartoonish as their garish counterparts in
the movie Yellow Submarine.
Lennon bought a deserted island off the coast of Ireland for a
psychedelic retreat. He never visited. McCartney boasted on the
Tonight Show that Apple, the Beatles' recently launched enterprise,
had a vision of underwriting needy artists with few questions asked:
The Beatles are "in the happy position of not needing any more
money, so if you come to me and say, 'I've had such and such a
dream,' I'll say to you: 'Go and do it.'" Checks were written, lots
of them. Within a year, Apple was nearly bankrupt.
Meanwhile, two Apple boutiques opened and soon closed, unable to turn
a profit. Rather than put everything on sale, the Beatles staged a
"good happening," a giveaway of over £10,000 of merchandise. A
semi-riot ensued, a "vulgar" scene in which, Ringo later lamented,
"people were coming with wheelbarrows." Yoko Ono, John's avant garde
replacement for his soon-to-be ex-wife, arrived beforehand and
greedily "filled vast garbage bags full of clothes." One wonders what
happened to the goodness of the human heart.
Utopias are only as lasting as their foundations, and in this case
the foundation was sand from the start. Sin, like a beach ball
beneath ocean waves, bobbled up constantly. "With our love we could
save the world," George sang, but without any recognition of sin, the
four couldn't save anyone. Nor could they save their music. "The
togetherness was gone," John acknowledged, "round about Sergeant
Pepper it was wearing off."
Wear off it did. The 1968 recording sessions for the White Album
featured infighting, jealousy, and kindergarten selfishness. John
insisted on bringing Yoko into the recording studio, previously a
Beatles-only sanctum, and placed her squarely within the creative
process itself. She "just moved in," George complained, a fact that
pushed Ringo out of his usual peacemaker role: "We were trying to be
cool and not mention it, but inside we were all feeling it and
talking in corners."
White Album sessions often saw the Beatles in different places
pursuing their own sounds and interests. Paul recorded "Blackbird"
with John and Yoko down the hall mixing tapes for "Revolution No. 9"
and George and Ringo across the Atlantic Ocean. The double-sided
album was less a result of the Beatles working together (they
couldn't!) than of the Beatles in parallel play. The synergy was
gone, and the reviewers knew it; The New York Times dismissed it as
"profound mediocrity."
A year later, before recording for Abbey Road began, John decided,
"I'm breaking the group up." Paul resisted with a combination of
heavy hand and cajoling vision. But his insistence on keeping the
Beatles alive lacked any utopia, particularly when he himself felt
threatened and cornered. His behavior had only a veneer of
camaraderie. "Something," considered "the best song on the album" by
Time, surprised Paul for its beauty, given that it was written by
George. It "came out of left field," Paul commented, at once praising
and belittling his fellow Beatle.
By the time Paul released his press statement in April 1970, the
Beatles as a group were already finished. Given that the announcement
came while the single "Let It Be" was topping the charts, some would
say that the Beatles went out with a bang. But the truth is, they
went out with a whimper. Their utopian vision and its blindness to
sin and the need for redemption slowly undid them. In the end, to
quote "Eleanor Rigby," "no one was saved." Not even the Beatles.
.
1 comments:
In 1970, I was a four year old Beatles fan. My mother told me that they "broke up." I didn't understand and thought it meant that someone was going to come to our house and take our Beatles record back.
In one of his last interviews, Kurt Vonnegut cited the Beatles as PROOF that individuals could really affect the world in a positive way.
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