When is it time to call it quits? It was 50 years ago this month that the world learned that the Beatles had broken up. Paul McCartney released a solo album that included a press release that said the Beatles were basically over and done with. Ever since, scholars and fans have tried to assign blame for the break up. In the 1970s into the 1980s, everyone blamed Paul. But the consensus has changed. Most people now pin the blame on John.
What we've learned is that the Beatles held a band meeting right after they completed their final album, Abbey Road. It was September 1969. The Beatles were wondering what to do next. Paul thought they should return to the road and become a touring band again. But Lennon and George Harrison nixed that idea. Touring was a pain in the ass.
Paul really wanted to keep things moving. John had had enough. He told the band he wanted a divorce, like the one he'd had with Cynthia, the nice Liverpool girl that John had married before the Beatles became famous. He left Cynthia for Yoko Ono. When Paul came up with touring ideas, John said, "I think you're daft." He then announced he was leaving the band.
There was a problem, though. The Beatles' new manager, Allen Klein, reminded the band that they were about to sign a new contract with EMI Records, and that their higher royalty rate would be jeopardized if the Beatles announced the breakup. Klein was right. He was a bulldog accountant if there ever was one, and he ended up driving a wedge between the band because Paul did not want Klein to take charge. But you don't jeopardize a new contract. And besides, the others thought John was going through one of his phases. John had been acting out lately, and his drug problem was affecting his judgment and his productivity. At around this time, he actually told the Beatles entourage that he believed he was Jesus Christ and he wanted to tell the world. As it was, John actually looked like Jesus Christ at the time, with the long hair and beard and all. But, no, he was not Jesus Christ, and the others told John to hold off on the announcement because the world was not ready for this kind of news. John agreed and moved onto some other obsession.
It wasn't like the band was getting along at this time. Ringo had quit the band for a few weeks in 1968 as they recorded the White Album. He was sick of the arguing. And George Harrison quit for a brief period during the Let it Be sessions in early 1969. Their engineer, Geoff Emerick, only a few years after taking on the dream job of working with the Beatles, begged off the assignment by then because he could not handle the tension. And except for some mop-up work on the Let it Be album (recorded prior to Abbey Road) in January 1970, the Beatles never worked together again. And that mop-up did not include John. He was off on a new tangent at the time, doing his peace stuff with Yoko.
Beatles scholars think the band had not closed off the future by this point. There was always tomorrow. Bands did not really break up in the late 1960s, and those that did usually did so with fanfare, like Cream. Other bands forged ahead without key members if they had to. The Beatles had done it all by 1969, and they were approaching their peak as musicians and songwriters. Last year, a tape recording surfaced of another band meeting in which the Beatles talked about ways to record a follow-up to Abbey Road, giving each member four songs per album. So the September 1969 meeting may not have been the end.
But other Beatles scholars think John made up his mind to leave the band when he recorded Cold Turkey, his first solo single. The Beatles had rejected that song, so John created the Plastic Ono Band and found other musicians to work with him on the song. And still other scholars think John got ideas about going solo when he did a concert in Toronto in late 1969 on his own.
Let's go with that theory for a minute. The Beatles had not played before a live audience since August 1966. They stopped touring because the concerts were crazy. The girls were screaming, the band could not hear itself play, they wanted to spend more time in the studio, and their first album following that decision was Sgt. Pepper. So who needs concerts? Yet, the rest of the rock and roll world was performing all over the place. The Rolling Stones hit the road again in 1969 after taking three years off. And don''t forget Woodstock and the other rock festivals that year.
The Toronto show was one of those festivals. It featured the old timers, like Chuck Berry, who were not even that old yet. Lennon was asked to play, and he accepted, bringing along Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White as his pick-up band. Clapton was an obvious choice, a friend of the Beatles who played on the White Album. The Beatles knew Voormann from their Hamburg days of the early 1960s. He went on to play bass for Manfred Mann and guested on some of the Beatles' solo albums of the early 1970s. White became the drummer for Yes. Since the band did not have much time to rehearse, they played the songs they all knew, including Money and Blue Suede Shoes. And that's what you got in this video below. Plus some pyrotechnics from Yoko.
John is really enjoying himself during this performance. Maybe he realized he did not need the Beatles anymore. Time to break out with other musicians. Maybe breaking up the band he had started was not such a bad thing. This concert was about 10 days before John told Paul he was daft. The Beatles never worked together again. All things must pass.
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