by Victoria Lucas
No.
No, no, no, no. no. I don’t believe it, can’t believe it, am not going to believe it.
Paul McCartney
Longer than the road that stretches Out ahead."
Oh, all right, I guess I have to. Paul announced on April 10 he was no longer working with the group.
I thought they had fixed it–that rift that opened up when John became JohnYoko. (The band had a policy about girl friends hanging out in the studio, but John insisted that she be with him.) But I guess that wasn’t all. (Oh! that was such a great Toronto event last year! Or so I hear. And I only wish I could have been at the Rooftop Concert.)
Yoko Ono and John Lennon
They were in so many ways my connection to the world here in the north woods, in my isolation, in the world I share usually with just one other person.
Red car and Ganesha (Jeep)
The woods where the snow still clings, where the world filters in like sunlight through the branches, of occasional echos of doings thousands of miles away. We don’t usually have the money to buy the journals and the rags; we seldom use expensive gasoline to drive the 30 km to the nearest standard 20th-century supermarket, newsstand or college (in either Castlegar or Nelson).
Nelson, British Columbia
Where will my truth come from now? We have been able to borrow tapes from friends backing up their records–the electronic music I now love, the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Sly & the Family Stone, and others.
The "Fab Four" just came out with “Let It Be,” and now they’re breaking up!? Although I should say that “Let It Be,” released last, was actually recorded before “Abbey Road,” their last album. (For those of you who have been living in a closet, “Let It Be” was both a film and an album.)
Boxed set of "Let It Be" pieces
I guess I have to “Let It Be.” We opened up the meager purse and made a trip to Nelson (also for other purposes, like grocery shopping), and, from what I can glean from borrowing, talking, and finding a precious Guardian newspaper, the disagreements had been going on for some time. It got so the Beatles didn’t like each others’ songs or the way they were orchestrated or recorded. (One of my favorite songs, “The Long and Winding Road,” on the “Let It Be” album, for instance, became a bone of contention with McCartney, who didn’t like the recorded treatment but didn’t at first object to it). It was also a problem that the McCartney-Lennon hold on songwriting provided no equality for the others’ compositions.
John Lennon
In summing it up, I think the main problem with the Beatles’ working together is maturation.
Growing Up Together
I’m about the same age as the Beatles–all of us born between 1940 and 1943. We share the history of our time, the new technologies, revolutions in culture. I've changed, and I don't have a lock on it. In the beginning (1958), there were John, Paul, and George, playing in their home town (Liverpool–but who doesn't know that?) and (oddly enough) in Hamburg, Germany. In 1962 they found Ringo after many changes on percussion, and that same year they had their first "hit" song, "Love Me Do." For myself, I was completely unaware of them at this time, not following rock and roll at all.
Ringo Starr, drumming
It took only another two years to turn their small rock-and-roll band into Beatlemania not only in the UK but in their USA tour (1964, followed by their Canadian performances) and their first film, "A Hard Day's Night." I first became aware of them during the "British invasion" of the US by UK rock'n'rollers, and I began to pick up the beat with the title music of the film and "Eight Days a Week."
All the Beatles jump
By 1966 they had renounced their touring and concentrated on the studio recordings that encouraged them to refine their music. It was the albums that got to me. A small record player became part of the essential belongings that my husband Mel and I carried from place to place–although what we played was sometimes borrowed. (We were, after all, voluntarily dirt-poor hippies who could not afford any concert we couldn't sneak into. We also found it necessary to trade in albums in good condition to get a new or newish one.) This meant that I seldom experienced albums as such, either hearing only what a friend recorded on tape (on my portable reel-to-reel player) or what others would play for us. Records scratched too easily to be lent with abandon.
The Abbey Road studio
As the band moved into their studio and made it their own, their output increased. I enjoyed "Ticket to Ride," puzzled over "Help!" (as it turns out John really meant it), and sang "Yesterday" to myself (all 1965). I must have had a tape of "Rubber Soul," because I didn't recognize the album name, but I distinctly remember five of the songs that I pretty much memorized ("Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," "You Won't See Me," "Michelle," and "In My Life," 1965).
I don't remember the album name from 1966, either, but the song that rocked me the most that year was "Yellow Submarine." I felt as if I and all my friends were in that submarine with the song's author, Ringo, and just having a ball. It was sort of in line with "Got to Get You Into My Life," Paul's song. By 1967 I was loving the albums more and more, memorizing songs, finding hidden meanings(!). There were Sgt. Pepper and the "Magical Mystery Tour," "All You Need Is Love," and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (however you interpret that one).
In 1968 the songs cut deeper, and the "White" album was like a book that I read and reread, to extract every drop of meaning. Songs became personal, and "Revolution" seemed like a profound political statement. "Blackbird" was exquisite poetry. Funny songs were hilarious. By the time "Abbey Road" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970) were released I was a full-blown convert of my own beliefs about the Beatles and their music. Hence my shock at their break-up–it will take me some time to disentangle myself from the belief system I wrought.
Seeds of Destruction…and Rebirth
While on that 1964 USA tour that brought them so much fame and money, the four young men required fully democratic agreement among them for any decision making. If they couldn’t reach universal agreement they had to work at the decision until they found it. But, as they matured, their needs, thoughts, artistic growth, and relationships diverged until they became incompatible, and they could no longer reconcile their differences, fighting over everything from management to orchestration. Given their history their break-up now should be no surprise–although it was to me, since I had not been following any of the manager changes (with one death), public rows, or other signs of unrest.
And so goodbye, Beatles; hello, John Ono Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr (in any desired order). We look forward to discovering yet again who you are this time, and wish you well. (Tell you what: while you four are off remaking yourselves, I'll be here in the woods listening to CBC and trying to decipher those funny voices and British accents on "The Goon Show.")
Abbey Road album
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make."
[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]
The record in the picture must be a later pressing from whenever, because in the very first ones, the apple was red — i.e. (I take it) ripe, suggesting the Beatles' attainment of fruition. Or was it some other reason?
The hurt of the Beatles' breakup is, for me, much eased by Paul's release a short time before Let It Be was issued, of a solo album with some really appealing tracks, notably the warm "Every Night" with its entrancing instrumentation and "Maybe I'm Amazed," surely a career high point for him. What's more I don't think either of these would likely have been better if the whole group had been on board. McCartney's at least competent electric guitar playing reminds me that (as I understand) one of George's compositions, the lead guitar in the solo was… by Paul! He also wrote my favorite track on Badfinger's album, released earlier this year — "Come and Get It." However hard the breakup may be personally on Paul, this most musical of the Beatles does not seem to have reached the end of his musical road.