Chapter 37: (You Say You Want a) Revolution - The Beatles from 1965 - 1968
Above: George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, collectively: The Beatles. The band is photographed here after having just finished recording
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at Abbey Road Studios, May 1967.
One of the defining traits of the “Swinging Sixties” as they would come to be called, was the new, unique varieties of music that would grow from this time of tremendous prosperity, conflict, and societal change. From the bustling heart of the United States, a blend of soul and blues called “Motown” swept out from its birthplace in Detroit and quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with in popular music. In the South and West, Country music was percolating on its own traditional style. Legends like “The Man in Black”, Johnny Cash; and new stars in the forms of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and others were creating a distinct sound that fought back against Country’s squeaky clean image and told tales of rebels, criminals, and low lifes. “Outlaw Country”, the darker breed of country music, would not reach the zenith of its popularity until the following decades, but it certainly had its roots in the late 60’s, personified by Johnny Cash’s now legendary performance and live album
At Folsom Prison in 1968.
Meanwhile, Rock N Roll was undergoing its own adolescent period. Shortening its name to simply “Rock”, even the genre’s foremost practitioners grew bored of the blues inspired, backbeat of the 50’s. As its musicians aged, Rock started to move away from its simple, three chord roots to work in influences from other genres, adding maturing, not to mention musical complexity to its sound. The King, Elvis Presley had taken a liking to crafting orchestral magnificence, pomp and circumstance, into his music. Swelling horn sections, strings, and soul-infused backing vocals gave Presley’s recent work a truly epic feel. His former opening act, Buster and the Battery, led by their flamboyant frontman/guitarist Jimi Hendrix meanwhile, joined with the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and others in trying to bring the sensations of psychedelic drugs into their music. Loud, wailing guitars joined the heavy thunder of bass and drums, paving the way for Hard Rock, and Heavy Metal, which still lay several years down the road. On the other end of the spectrum, some sought a retreat from Rock’s heavier sound.
Before his death, Bob “the Bard” Dylan had experimented with taming the aggression and sexual drive of Rock by tempering it with a “rootsy”, nearly Thoreauvian aesthetic derived from his experience as a Folk singer. Bootlegged recordings and demo tapes made with his backing band survived in his Woodstock, New York basement, and suggested a new direction for the genre as a whole: one in touch with the Earth, with the performer’s fellow man, and with oneself as well. It would take years for the tapes to be sifted through and released however, leaving this sound a buried treasure for the time being. In Dylan’s absence, the biggest innovators in the genre were left to be The Beach Boys, whose “brains” in Brian Wilson were by the end of 1967 suffering a near mental breakdown, and the Beatles.
In the aftermath of their highly successful tour of the US and Europe with Elvis Presley in 1965, the band had come to two conclusions: they wanted to complicate their sound; and they needed a break from touring. Long, hard hours spent on the road had taken their toll on the Fab Four. They were often carted from city to city with hardly any time to sleep in their hotel rooms before being forced to check out, whisked away to some award show or red carpet party. The concerts themselves were, as John Lennon put them, “a joke.” The crowds of screaming, adoring fans were so loud and ceaseless in their adoration, that the band couldn’t hear themselves play. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr admitted to guessing what the other one was playing, and had no way of knowing if they were in time together. For a band that prided themselves highly on musicianship, these conditions were intolerable. After a final tour of the US to promote Revolver, the band’s big psychedelic album of 1966, they approached their manager, Brian Epstein, and informed him of their decision to curtail touring indefinitely. For the foreseeable future, the Beatles would be a studio band, exclusively.
Though other managers could have thrown a fit, or protested, Epstein, known to many fans as “the Fifth Beatle” was renowned for the trust in and freedom he gave the artists he represented. To him, if the band felt that their time was better spent in the studio, then that was where they ought to be. With Epstein’s approval, and under the watchful eye of genius producer George Martin, this period in the Beatles’ career gave rise to some of their arguably finest work. Revolver with its “Yellow Submarine”s, was followed in 1967 by “Strawberry Fields Forever”,
Sgt. Pepper, and
The Magical Mystery Tour. The summer of love found an anthem in the aptly named “All You Need is Love” and millions of Rock fans the world over began to wonder: just who was the Walrus, anyway? The band’s looks changed, too. Their matching suits and moptops were traded for bright, vibrant, bohemian getups and in the case of John Lennon, killer sideburns.
In addition to the maturation in their music, the band also began to look into themselves more as individuals and as artists. Following George’s lead, the Fab Four developed an interest in the music, culture, and traditions of India; in particular, transcendental meditation. Though forced to decline an invitation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to one of his seminars in Bangor, Maine, due to Brian Epstein’s sickness and subsequent recovery, the band did decide to join the Yogi at his “training center” in India upon completion of the sister film to
Magical Mystery Tour. With Brian’s express permission, and a promise on his part to make a full recovery, the band, along with their girlfriends and wives, departed London for Bombay, India on February 15th, 1968. Before leaving, on Christmas Day, 1967, Paul and his longtime girlfriend, actress Jane Asher announced that they were engaged to be married. Cynthia Lennon agreed to join her husband in India as well, though rumors persisted in tabloids about fights with John growing ever more heated, and that he was pursuing a relationship with Swiss actress Ursula Andress.
Joined in the program by Mia Farrow, Mike Love, Donovan, and several other notable celebrities, the Beatles’ apparent devotion to the ideals espoused therein shocked the world. It seemed like only yesterday that John Lennon had gotten the band into hot water by referring to his group as “bigger than Jesus” and calling religious disciples “thick and ordinary”. To every evangelical, or God fearing citizen of the western world, it had seemed like Lennon’s comments were further confirmation of their fears that Rock music was the work of the Devil, and that the Beatles were only the latest in a long line of antiChrists sent to sully their children and destroy morality itself. Yet, not two years later, here were those same long haired rascals sitting with folded legs and eyes closed, seeking spiritual guidance from a hindi man halfway around the world. Harrison summed up the band’s reasoning for pursuing an interest in TM (transcendental meditation) thus: “We have all the money you could ever dream of. We have all the fame you could ever wish for. But, it isn’t love. It isn’t health. It isn’t peace inside, is it?” Away from the media throng, and the harsh hustle and bustle of the road, the band began to finally relax.
The Beatles’ time in India was also prolific for their songwriting. If the band’s music over the past year had been heavily inspired by their experiences with psychedelic drugs, the new batch of songs being composed in Rishikesh reflected the change in their habits and surroundings. Clean, undistorted guitar; rich instrumentation marked by Sitar and other Indian influences; and lyrics about the beauty and simplicity that the Fab Four found in nature around them. Though tensions occasionally flared between members, especially when Harrison and McCartney fought over whether or not they should be planning their next album while on the trip; this period in the band’s career marked a high water mark for positivity in the group. Ringo described the relations between the four of them to “be higher than ever before” while they spent most of their days in deep reflection and meditation. Lennon would later say that he “wrote some of his favorite songs on that trip.” Among these: “Julia”, a ballad of longing for his mother, who passed far too young; and “Across the Universe”.
Unfortunately, not all was well during the Beatles’ stay with the Maharishi. The many stressors of the outside world, notably the demands of a career in show business and the perceived misbehavior by many members of the band’s entourage, began to catch up with them. During his course on transcendental meditation, the Maharishi enforced a strict ban on the use of alcohol and drugs, as he believed such substances distracted the mind and defeated the purpose of taking a trip to get in touch with one’s true inner self. Though George Harrison and John Lennon made an earnest effort to abide by this edict, they had a hard time pushing such moderation onto the friends and cohorts they brought with them from the UK. The band’s road staff and buddies smoked hashish, dropped acid, and “drank hooch” into the late hours of the evening, driving the Maharishi and their fellow students to anger. Furthermore, a friend and electronics engineer for the band, called “Magic Alex” Mardas began to spread rumors that the Maharishi was engaged in inappropriate sexual relations with some of his young female students, despite the teacher’s claims of a vow of celibacy. These rumors were, according to Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison, utterly unfounded, but rose tensions at the retreat nonetheless, and eventually led to Mia Farrow’s departure from the program. Add to all of this the mundane annoyances of insects, close contact with nature, and as Ringo Starr put it: “the blandest, least appetizing food known to man”, and it became easy to see why the Beatles decided not to complete the full length version of the Maharishi’s meditation course.
Ringo and his wife Maureen left first, returning to London on March 11th, 1968. Though Ringo told the BBC in an interview shortly after his return that: “Meditation changed my life for the better,” he and Maureen were happy to return to their normal lives. They had missed their children dearly while they were away. McCartney and Asher followed suit in departing India a few weeks later. She had a theatrical commitment to attend to and Paul hoped to check up on Brian Epstein’s recovery and talk to him about the management of Apple Corps., the band’s record label they had opened the year before. Lennon and Harrisons’ departures from the retreat came later, and were plagued with their own series of difficulties. When John and his wife, Cynthia, attempted to take a taxi from the retreat to Delhi, their vehicle broke down several times and popped a flat tire, leading Lennon to half-sarcastically wonder if the Maharishi had laid a curse on them. After finally reaching the Indian capital, the couple caught the first flight back to London, but only after Lennon got himself well and truly sloshed at the hotel’s bar. During the flight, Cynthia would later recall, her husband drunkenly recalled his numerous infidelities to her in front of their entourage, and embarrassed her greatly. When she asked him, in a sad whisper only barely audible, to please stop, he only laughed before declaring that Ursula [Andress] was the only woman he really loved. “It was in that moment,” she would write. “That I knew our marriage was well and truly over.”
Two weeks after their return to the UK, Cynthia Lennon filed papers for a divorce from her husband. While in his car on the way over to visit Julian and Cynthia to help them move belongings out of their shared house with Lennon and into Cynthia’s new apartment, Paul McCartney scribbled some words of encouragement for little Julian onto a piece of scratch paper. To these he quickly added a sweet little melody, forming the bones for what would become one of the band’s most iconic songs.
“Hey Jules, don’t make it bad.
Take a sad song, and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.”
…
Following their experiences in India, the Beatles embarked on yet another ambitious recording project to try and keep their spirits up amidst their personal turmoil. Filled to the brim with new material from the retreat, all four members of the band were excited to get to work once again with George Martin on what they hoped would ultimately become a double album. Their time abroad and the immediate after effects left their mark on the band, however, and would change their direction as artists for the rest of their careers. All four would continue to practice transcendental meditation, eventually taking classes once again in the 70’s under Mike Love, who completed his training and became an instructor in his own right by 1971. George Harrison would remain the most openly spiritual member of the band, though Lennon had found new causes to care about in the form of political activism. Advocating peace, love, and equality, the “thinking man’s Beatle” appeared at anti-war protests throughout London in response to the War in Rhodesia, as well as rallies denouncing Conservative MP Enoch Powell after his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech in April of 1968.
Looking to expand the Beatles’ sound ever further, Paul McCartney became fascinated with rumors of “lost tapes” belonging to Bob Dylan before his untimely passing, resting in boxes beneath his home in Woodstock, New York. Supposedly containing hours of unreleased material, these tapes were kept by Dylan’s former backing band, a group of Canadian “roots rock” performers who had helped him to record them and went by the simple moniker: The Band. Following a trip to the States and a hefty offer to sign The Band to Apple Corps., the group agreed to share the tapes with McCartney, who found them highly inspirational when it came time to write his share of songs for the new double album. Music critic and co-founder of Rolling Stone Magazine, Jann Wenner summed up the tapes’ influence on the Beatles’ career thus:
“Following the guiding influence of Bob Dylan’s maturity, it would fall to the four famous lads from Liverpool to lead Rock out of its adolescence and into the next stage in its development. Less self-conscious and unconcerned with being ‘cool’, the Beatles work from 1968 - 1969 would feature new journeys into Jazz influenced improvisational instrumentation; reflective lyrics about raising children and the changes that occur with the gradual fading of youth; and the importance of togetherness and community. To millions of hippies and young people across the world who were beginning to settle down and start families themselves, these themes were particularly resonant. All in all, the genre that would come to be known as ‘Dad Rock’ can trace its roots back to Paul McCartney and the Beatles new direction as they returned from India and began work on what would ultimately become “The White Album”.
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