Insightful volume delves into what broke up the Beatles.
Who or what REALLY broke up the Beatles? Ken McNab’s book “And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles” hardly provides a definitive answer to that question and is all the better for it.
Of course, there is no single reason the band dissolved, although individuals have long pointed to the death of band manager Brian Epstein, John Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono or Paul McCartney’s attempts to steer the band’s creative ship with the “Get Back” project as THE cause. Those all come into play as McNab details, month by month, the lives of all four Beatles in 1969.
But so much more is also at work, from the band’s Apple Corps becoming more of a financial boondoggle than creative hub, to factions warring over who should represent the group’s business interests, to all four Fabs finding creative outlets and musicmaking opportunities outside their unit.
Gaining confidence in their individual talents, and having the sort of status that granted them their pick of outside projects, all four Beatles discovered other creative possibilities before year’s end. Lennon proved particularly active, enjoying fashioning avant-garde music and happenings with Ono, forming the first incarnation of his Plastic
Ono Band for a live gig in Toronto, recording new songs like “Cold
Turkey” and “Give
Peace a Chance” under his own name and experimenting with his role as an activist for peace.
Harrison continued a writing spree toward future solo projects, produced recordings by soul singer Doris Troy and even joined friend Eric Clapton in hitting the road with Delaney and Bonnie for some European concerts.
Starr drew critical praise for his role in the otherwise-forgettable film “The Magic Christian” and pondered a future including both acting and music.
McCartney worked hardest to keep the Beatle dream alive and seemed most psychologically wounded at the prospect of disbanding, although even he eventually started assembling solo material with the support of his new wife, Linda.
Band business, though, wrought untold damage to the Beatles’ interpersonal relationships and desire to pursue music together. McNab carefully lays out the many difficulties that frustrated and infuriated the group in their final year as a collective. Lennon, Harrison and Starr backed Alan Klein to start managing band affairs, while McCartney lobbied for his new father-inlaw and brother-in-law, Lee and John Eastman. While a decision on who represented the band lagged, important matters required immediate action: Lennon and McCartney could have gained or lost all publishing rights to their songs, record contracts needed to be renegotiated for higher royalty rates and Apple required reorganization to stop hemorrhaging money. On top of that, no one trusted figure existed to offer any sort of creative or career recommendations. With more and more of their time devoted to acrimonious legal and financial meetings, all four Beatles found different ways to insulate themselves from the drudgery of such sessions.
The most troubling part of the Beatles’ breakup for many fans is feeling like the public was denied hearing further masterworks by one of the most important and influential popular music groups of the 20th century. “And in the End” paints a clear picture of what a struggle it was becoming for the band to put all four of their heads together creatively. The early months of 1969 brought about the desultory end of the “Get Back” project. The band’s attempt to work on new material together while simultaneously filming a documentary proved so disappointing at the time that all the recordings stayed shelved throughout most of the year.
When the group finally decided that crafting a proper, more traditional, album was in order, they found themselves often working in pairs or small groups on what was to become “Abbey Road.” While now considered one the band’s classic albums, it also exposed rifts over how many George Harrison songs to feature, how to construct and where to place a suite of Lennon/McCartney song fragments, and how and whether to include songs that some band members found ill-fitting or weak. By the end of 1969, all four band members appeared to come to a similar conclusion about recording more songs under the Beatles banner: What would be the point?
Writing a chapter on each month of 1969, McNab spins a clear timeline of events. Even as he covers so many people and storylines, he keeps all of the information he
shares clear and readable. While some of the details of the band’s business dealings grow a bit wearying in their specificity, they also serve to demonstrate how much of an annoyance such matters surely became for those involved. The book doesn’t really feature any “a-ha” moments or surprise turns, particularly for Beatlemaniacs, but it does gather enough first-hand accounts of events to create a sense of being an insider observing the band’s tumultuous final 12 months.
For years, countless people acted as if the Beatles owed the public everything, from full access to their every move to a steady stream of new music. In 1969, four men in their late 20s took back a bit of their lives for themselves and started choosing how much, and how often, to engage with the world. By the close of “And in the End,” it is hard not to understand why they all started down such a sane, if somewhat bittersweet, path.