The Fingerprints Of Epstein - Yet Another Beatles TL
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More Problems
After all that excitement of Bangladesh, its time to come back down to Earth with some more problems with our boys and Mr Epstein...I won't say anymore other than let's begin!
More Problems
Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
They say things can be too good to be true and as it would turn out in the wake of the triumph that was The Concert For Bangladesh, things would start to turn out differently for the band and in which in many ways wasn't all for the best. The original plan for the album was that following the live show on August 1st, it would then be released worldwide by the end of the month on August 23rd as what Harrison had hoped for yet as it would turn out, things would go all wrong in which that day came and went with no album on the shelf only then for press reports soon began appearing citing 'legal problems' as the reason behind the delaying of the much-anticipated live album. it would seem that problems that would turn out to be a disagreement between EMI-owned Capitol Records (Apple's then US distributor) and Columbia Records (Bob Dylan's label) over who had a rightful claim to release the album [1] and that wasn't helped in which Apple were planning to bypass Capitol Records and have the album released for the US market through their new Apple USA label.
Brian Epstein would share Harrison's flabbergasted feelings of how such a noble cause could be the source of much trouble and the former would speculate as these problems were the reason on why such a relief album had never been done before. Eventually one of these problems were sorted out in which Columbia Records were eventually mollified with the granting of tape distribution rights in North America, and record and tape distribution in the rest of the world. It was now September in which there was still no album yet and there was still more problems to to attend to in which was Capitol's insistence that they receive monetary compensation, thought to be around $400,000 for what the company perceived to be vast production and distribution costs for the boxed three-record set. It was a position from which EMI chairman Bhaskar Menon refused to budge, while Harrison - and the rest of the band after hearing the problems thanks to Epstein saying what was going on - was equally adamant that, since all the artists were providing their services for free and Apple was supplying the album packaging at no charge, the record company 'must give up something' also.
Thankfully an agreement was reached with Capitol Records though as it would turn out the album itself would be the very last US Beatles release to come from Capitol and all subsequence Beatles releases and re-releases in the years to follow would fall under Apple's American label. It would be finally in September that the mixing for the album and the editing of the concert film could finally begin though more problems had started to creep up in which frustrated that the planned release date for the album had slipped to an uncertain date, some Beatles fans living in New York had gone out of their way to try and take matters into their own hands by releasing concert bootlegs on the market in which the more there would be out then then it would seriously affect the sales of the album whenever it was released [2] and John Lennon would act out by doing his part in helping out in which he would request every record store in New York to put up a poster that read , 'Save a starving child. Don't buy a bootleg!' though if this had any affect or not remains unknown to this day.
This all meant that the triple album would now have a huge price of the time for $12.98 in America and a high £5.50 in the UK due to the purchase tax surcharge there. Perhaps to the surprise of no one and of course for The Beatles, the high price was the source of much criticism that nobody would be able to afford it even if the proceeds were all going for a good cause. With all this, McCartney even expressed despair that the whole venture was turning into a classic example of 'the road to hell being paved with good intentions' due to the problems surrounding the album and though publicly Harrison was annoyed by McCartney's words, privately though he did have to agree with his bandmate over what was happening. However the one final issue with the album would all fall upon the actions of Allen Klein himself.
While Epstein had been busy in trying to get the British government to reduce the tax money needed, Klein had been put in charge of registering the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand and while some would have argue that Neil Aspinall who done exceedingly well for the Imagine Tour that summer, it was thought by Epstein that if Klein wanted to manage the band then he would have to prove himself by simply getting this show organized. Given how both shows seemed to work without much issue then it seemed that he had proven himself although any good thoughts about him were about to be dashed. It had been no secret that Klein had wanted to use The Concert For Bangladesh as the jumping off point for a North American leg of the Imagine Tour citing that there was huge demand for American audiences to see them live.
In many ways, Klein wasn't wrong with what he said as he was right about there being a demand from American audiences to see them live yet the band had stated that they had no intention to play live in American in the short term as they were needing to find their live feet again and although they managed to get back to their best as a live band by the end of the tour, they weren't tempted by trying American for that tour. Plus what would annoy the band, mostly Harrison, was that Klein's idea of using the Concert For Bangladesh as the start of a North American tour without knowing as to why the show was taking place at all did anger the band at how he could act so brass neck about. Despite all this though, the album itself would be released in December 1971 in the US and a month later in the UK in which it would achieve overwhelming positive reviews and major sales which made it a huge seller despite the major asking price in which after all the hard work put into the album made all the goodwill worth it and has since been credited as one of the greatest live albums ever made.
Alas as with most hard luck with the album though, Klein had thrown another spanner into the works for all. Despite Epstein putting his faith and trust into Klein into making sure that he could be trusted, Epstein would be left shattered at what he and the rest of the band would discover. It would turn out that Klein had failed to register the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand [4] and it was subsequently denied tax-exempt status by the US Government and as it would turn out, most of the money would be held in an Internal Revenue Service escrow account for ten years. Exactly how Klein had let this happened has been debated by many Beatles fans over the years in which many would say it was Klein's own handling of the situation of it turning into this that led to this though some argue that this was Klein getting back at the band for turning down the offer a lucrative US tour and that is was all done out of pure spite and all of this would pretty be the beginning of the end of Klein's time with The Beatles.
However, in a further twist to this, there is unconfirmed stories from Klein apologists that Epstein had set up Klein to take the fall. The reason being that Epstein had been aware way before work had started that Klein had failed to register the event yet had never said anything about and that it was an act of pettiness to try and get Epstein out of the way and that it would be classic case of 'if your enemy is making a mistake you don't stop them to correct them' and that is what Epstein did for Klein. Of course, this can never confirmed as Epstein has remained tight lipped on the situation with him saying that he was giving Klein the freedom to try and act as manager and in the end Klein failed miserably though given how much the two men didn't get along the theory of Epstein backstabbing Klein could be plausible. It is sadly a dark part of history of what should be an album that should be celebrated as a true masterpiece of an album though the question of how much of the proceeds did end up going to Bangladesh and not in the pockets of certain nefarious sorts would always be a topic that would trouble Harrison for many years right up until his death. For The Beatles though, the behind the scenes situation with Bangladesh would be far from the only problem that would trouble them.
Regardless though, John Lennon was a changed man and Epstein knew that trying to keep Lennon and the rest of the band remain like they had always been from the start was a frankly ludicrous hope that he knew was never going to happen though at the very least he knew he could still have some control with members of the band and it was in December just prior to the release of the long awaited Concert For Bangladesh album that there was an event that Epstein knew could get Lennon from not attending and that could land Lennon into hot water with the authorities. Earlier on in the year, Lennon had taken part in the protests at the Republican National Convention in San Diego [5] and it was said that the FBI had considered deporting him but this was dropped when FBI spies saw Lennon they came to the conclusion that he was 'constantly under the influence of narcotics' and deemed not serious enough threat for them.
This of course now leads to the infamous and well documented stories of how then president Richard Nixon was worried about Lennon's anti-war views that might cost him re-election for 1972 and the fact that the Lennons had allied themselves with several notable leftist activists had made him worried. In some ways, Lennon would get away after that day in San Diego but Epstein knew that he'd been lucky there and when another political rally was to take place - The John Sinclair Freedom Rally - which was taking place in response to the imprisonment of John Sinclair for possession of marijuana that was to take place on December 10, 1971, in the Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Epstein knew that was an event that surely was going to have the authorities sniffing around for trouble and Epstein's main fear that Lennon could end up being arrested yet at that time was unaware of secret plan to try and deport Lennon.
When Epstein was told by Lennon that he was going to attend the rally, he pleaded with him not to get too far in with the crowd noting that if he did things could get worse for him and this would lead to a brief split between the two men with Lennon calling Epstein out for being like a control freak though wasn't running back to Klein after he was starting to felt betrayed by Klein's lack of support for his and Yoko's political activities which he felt was leaving him isolated. As Epstein would best describe it all, Lennon was pretty much angry at everyone who wasn't called Yoko. Instead though, Lennon, in trying to help a favour with George Harrison for the upcoming release of the Bangladesh album to promote would in a shocking twist of events actually leave Lennon isolated from the leftists he was trying to support.
The reason why? The high price of the Bangladesh album had been a source of much anger among those who had been wanting to buy the album and when Lennon tried to tell them that it was all for a good cause, some of those of who he was planning to play alongside at the Sinclair rally weren't happy at the price claiming that most of them wouldn't be able to afford it and it wasn't help that Lennon was, on behalf of Harrison, pleading with them not to buy any of the bootleg copies that were starting to flood the market before the official release had come out in which many would accuse Lennon for a being a hypocrite by doing something that made him sound like a capitalist in which who many of them were against. Lennon though knowing he was doing this out of loyalty for his friend could possibly affect his standing in the community he was wanting to be with and that would indeed be the case. It was then on the eve of the event, both his and Yoko's invite was revoked and they would be asked to not take part [6].
The whole event was a crushing affair for Lennon who felt that all his support had been for nothing and he would describe it all as a year of backstabbing and in that time, he would dig up a song he had written called Isolation which he had written the previous year during his primal scream therapy which now took on a totally different meaning given how he felt now that he had been left isolated by the crowd he wanted to be with. He would shortly after the album would be released would bring out a Christmas single - one that had no inclusion from any of The Beatles with it - called Happy Xmas (War Is Over) which despite the title being a Christmas tune was actually an anti-war protest song regarding America's involvement in Vietnam. Despite the song being regarded a classic nowadays, the song on its first release didn't enjoy much success due to the single's late release, which resulted in limited airplay before Christmas and the fact it was overshadowed by The Concert For Bangladesh album.
Despite this though, Lennon felt wounded by being left out with Epstein trying to tell him that he was already part of a good cause with the new album which had a far greater message he felt than what John and Yoko were trying to do which didn't go down well with Lennon when he heard that. Yet in all of this the irony is that with hindsight that his absence from both the Sinclair Rally and a proposed appearance on hosting The Mike Douglas Show [7] which he called off over how he had been backstabbed would be all a blessing in disguise for Lennon. Unknown to everyone there, there were FBI agents who had been aware that Lennon was to attend which they knew could be used as evidence to Nixon that Lennon might be a threat for him yet many were taken aback that Lennon was nowhere to be seen with them all unaware of what had happened prior to the event.
Thanks to Lennon's 'no-show' at that event or any other similar events afterwards that Nixon and many of those within his government would have used as a excuse to deport him (the song Happy Xmas being looked on as something not exactly important in the grand view of things strangely enough) decided to drop their investigation into Lennon confirming that he had either given up with the politically circles he was in or that something else had happened. While this didn't mean that Lennon would be left off the hook as long as Nixon was around keeping an eye on him as they were still very much aware of his views, he would never become someone that Nixon would put on his so-called 'enemies list' and this meant that the deportation fears for him had gone though that felt like a hollow victory given how Lennon felt he had been treated.
Lennon's pride had indeed been harmed and he would let out his anger for the following year when it came time record more music with the band though as it would turn out, 1972 would prove to be a year like no other for The Beatles in which at first should have been a year to mark the 10th anniversary of their first single Love Me Do but as it would turn, that wouldn't quite what many would expect...
[1] Yes, this all still happened much like with OTL.
[2] This all happened, only difference is that instead of Harrison telling everyone not to buy a bootleg, Lennon does it though has some side effects for him later on here...
[3] Yes, this was actually said flat out to George and Patti at the time, only difference is that Epstein is here with them but even he can't help them out here.
[4] Ofc, Klein famously failed to do this IOTL so the same thing happens here for OTL.
[5] As what he did with OTL.
[6] Major butterfly ITTL as Lennon is not invited after the price of the Bangladesh album and him pleading with them not to get the bootleg backfires on him in which you could say they call him a sell out and given this had FBI spies here that would use his presence as ammunition to try and deport him, it does have an unlikely positive effect in which the deportation threat doesn't hang over his head here though you have to wonder if that is a good or bad thing for TTL.
[7] Yes, no appearance on that show unlike OTL which honestly was pretty much a red rag to a bull that drew him the ire of the Nixon government though without John and Yoko on it this means that suspicious on him are cooled though don't think that means Lennon will be out of the woods yet.
So there we are, not a musical update as that is for the next update though as you can see, some major changes happening here regarding the infamous deportation charges on Lennon which means that we start to see things go different for Lenny here though it won't be all sunshine and rainbows for him as there is still more things to happen to him though not in the way you might imagine. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this short update as we get to more musical stuff for the next album and a year which as we shall see shall see some difficulties for The Beatles...until then, see you next time and please comment!
More Problems
Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
Brian Epstein would share Harrison's flabbergasted feelings of how such a noble cause could be the source of much trouble and the former would speculate as these problems were the reason on why such a relief album had never been done before. Eventually one of these problems were sorted out in which Columbia Records were eventually mollified with the granting of tape distribution rights in North America, and record and tape distribution in the rest of the world. It was now September in which there was still no album yet and there was still more problems to to attend to in which was Capitol's insistence that they receive monetary compensation, thought to be around $400,000 for what the company perceived to be vast production and distribution costs for the boxed three-record set. It was a position from which EMI chairman Bhaskar Menon refused to budge, while Harrison - and the rest of the band after hearing the problems thanks to Epstein saying what was going on - was equally adamant that, since all the artists were providing their services for free and Apple was supplying the album packaging at no charge, the record company 'must give up something' also.
Thankfully an agreement was reached with Capitol Records though as it would turn out the album itself would be the very last US Beatles release to come from Capitol and all subsequence Beatles releases and re-releases in the years to follow would fall under Apple's American label. It would be finally in September that the mixing for the album and the editing of the concert film could finally begin though more problems had started to creep up in which frustrated that the planned release date for the album had slipped to an uncertain date, some Beatles fans living in New York had gone out of their way to try and take matters into their own hands by releasing concert bootlegs on the market in which the more there would be out then then it would seriously affect the sales of the album whenever it was released [2] and John Lennon would act out by doing his part in helping out in which he would request every record store in New York to put up a poster that read , 'Save a starving child. Don't buy a bootleg!' though if this had any affect or not remains unknown to this day.
---------
Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Much has been said about the production but even if one was to ignore that, the was the case of what would be the album's high price regarding tax issues. George Harrison, who had stayed in New York to mix much of what would end up on the album, would return to Britain having just finishing mixing much of the album to have a meeting with Patrick Jenkin of the British Treasury, to deal with the unforeseen obstacle of purchase tax being levied on the album in which Brian Epstein and George's wife Patti would accommodate with George to discuss the matter further to try and reason with Jenkin for a fairer deal. Despite the backing of Epstein acting as a more 'mature' figure in the eyes of Jenkin to try and make him see reason yet despite his best efforts, the trio were all reportedly told by the politician who said, "Sorry! It is all very well for your high ideals, but Britain equally needs the money!" [3] and in the end, the meeting proved to be a fruitless endeavour.Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
This all meant that the triple album would now have a huge price of the time for $12.98 in America and a high £5.50 in the UK due to the purchase tax surcharge there. Perhaps to the surprise of no one and of course for The Beatles, the high price was the source of much criticism that nobody would be able to afford it even if the proceeds were all going for a good cause. With all this, McCartney even expressed despair that the whole venture was turning into a classic example of 'the road to hell being paved with good intentions' due to the problems surrounding the album and though publicly Harrison was annoyed by McCartney's words, privately though he did have to agree with his bandmate over what was happening. However the one final issue with the album would all fall upon the actions of Allen Klein himself.
While Epstein had been busy in trying to get the British government to reduce the tax money needed, Klein had been put in charge of registering the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand and while some would have argue that Neil Aspinall who done exceedingly well for the Imagine Tour that summer, it was thought by Epstein that if Klein wanted to manage the band then he would have to prove himself by simply getting this show organized. Given how both shows seemed to work without much issue then it seemed that he had proven himself although any good thoughts about him were about to be dashed. It had been no secret that Klein had wanted to use The Concert For Bangladesh as the jumping off point for a North American leg of the Imagine Tour citing that there was huge demand for American audiences to see them live.
In many ways, Klein wasn't wrong with what he said as he was right about there being a demand from American audiences to see them live yet the band had stated that they had no intention to play live in American in the short term as they were needing to find their live feet again and although they managed to get back to their best as a live band by the end of the tour, they weren't tempted by trying American for that tour. Plus what would annoy the band, mostly Harrison, was that Klein's idea of using the Concert For Bangladesh as the start of a North American tour without knowing as to why the show was taking place at all did anger the band at how he could act so brass neck about. Despite all this though, the album itself would be released in December 1971 in the US and a month later in the UK in which it would achieve overwhelming positive reviews and major sales which made it a huge seller despite the major asking price in which after all the hard work put into the album made all the goodwill worth it and has since been credited as one of the greatest live albums ever made.
Alas as with most hard luck with the album though, Klein had thrown another spanner into the works for all. Despite Epstein putting his faith and trust into Klein into making sure that he could be trusted, Epstein would be left shattered at what he and the rest of the band would discover. It would turn out that Klein had failed to register the event as a UNICEF benefit beforehand [4] and it was subsequently denied tax-exempt status by the US Government and as it would turn out, most of the money would be held in an Internal Revenue Service escrow account for ten years. Exactly how Klein had let this happened has been debated by many Beatles fans over the years in which many would say it was Klein's own handling of the situation of it turning into this that led to this though some argue that this was Klein getting back at the band for turning down the offer a lucrative US tour and that is was all done out of pure spite and all of this would pretty be the beginning of the end of Klein's time with The Beatles.
However, in a further twist to this, there is unconfirmed stories from Klein apologists that Epstein had set up Klein to take the fall. The reason being that Epstein had been aware way before work had started that Klein had failed to register the event yet had never said anything about and that it was an act of pettiness to try and get Epstein out of the way and that it would be classic case of 'if your enemy is making a mistake you don't stop them to correct them' and that is what Epstein did for Klein. Of course, this can never confirmed as Epstein has remained tight lipped on the situation with him saying that he was giving Klein the freedom to try and act as manager and in the end Klein failed miserably though given how much the two men didn't get along the theory of Epstein backstabbing Klein could be plausible. It is sadly a dark part of history of what should be an album that should be celebrated as a true masterpiece of an album though the question of how much of the proceeds did end up going to Bangladesh and not in the pockets of certain nefarious sorts would always be a topic that would trouble Harrison for many years right up until his death. For The Beatles though, the behind the scenes situation with Bangladesh would be far from the only problem that would trouble them.
---------
Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
Pretty much by 1971, much of the world were all aware of John and Yoko's political activism and Epstein had given up in trying to keep the Lennon's heads down in trying not to alienate fans much like in the early days of the band though given how different each of the band were by this point it would have seemed foolish in trying to keep the band's true feelings bottled up after all these years and make Epstein look like tyrant. That said though whenever Epstein was asked about Lennon's views on certain political aspects, he would try and act diplomatic as possible stating that they are purely his [Lennon's] views and have no connection with The Beatles and that shouldn't be brought into the situation. Indeed, such of John Lennon's outspoken nature had some polarizing effects for him probably since he had ended up with Yoko in which many did lament the loss of the cheeky yet loveable moptop chappie from Liverpool and thought the more outspoken Lennon did alienate that audience away from him though others argued that he was now being his true self that had been bottled up for so many years.Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
Regardless though, John Lennon was a changed man and Epstein knew that trying to keep Lennon and the rest of the band remain like they had always been from the start was a frankly ludicrous hope that he knew was never going to happen though at the very least he knew he could still have some control with members of the band and it was in December just prior to the release of the long awaited Concert For Bangladesh album that there was an event that Epstein knew could get Lennon from not attending and that could land Lennon into hot water with the authorities. Earlier on in the year, Lennon had taken part in the protests at the Republican National Convention in San Diego [5] and it was said that the FBI had considered deporting him but this was dropped when FBI spies saw Lennon they came to the conclusion that he was 'constantly under the influence of narcotics' and deemed not serious enough threat for them.
This of course now leads to the infamous and well documented stories of how then president Richard Nixon was worried about Lennon's anti-war views that might cost him re-election for 1972 and the fact that the Lennons had allied themselves with several notable leftist activists had made him worried. In some ways, Lennon would get away after that day in San Diego but Epstein knew that he'd been lucky there and when another political rally was to take place - The John Sinclair Freedom Rally - which was taking place in response to the imprisonment of John Sinclair for possession of marijuana that was to take place on December 10, 1971, in the Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Epstein knew that was an event that surely was going to have the authorities sniffing around for trouble and Epstein's main fear that Lennon could end up being arrested yet at that time was unaware of secret plan to try and deport Lennon.
When Epstein was told by Lennon that he was going to attend the rally, he pleaded with him not to get too far in with the crowd noting that if he did things could get worse for him and this would lead to a brief split between the two men with Lennon calling Epstein out for being like a control freak though wasn't running back to Klein after he was starting to felt betrayed by Klein's lack of support for his and Yoko's political activities which he felt was leaving him isolated. As Epstein would best describe it all, Lennon was pretty much angry at everyone who wasn't called Yoko. Instead though, Lennon, in trying to help a favour with George Harrison for the upcoming release of the Bangladesh album to promote would in a shocking twist of events actually leave Lennon isolated from the leftists he was trying to support.
The reason why? The high price of the Bangladesh album had been a source of much anger among those who had been wanting to buy the album and when Lennon tried to tell them that it was all for a good cause, some of those of who he was planning to play alongside at the Sinclair rally weren't happy at the price claiming that most of them wouldn't be able to afford it and it wasn't help that Lennon was, on behalf of Harrison, pleading with them not to buy any of the bootleg copies that were starting to flood the market before the official release had come out in which many would accuse Lennon for a being a hypocrite by doing something that made him sound like a capitalist in which who many of them were against. Lennon though knowing he was doing this out of loyalty for his friend could possibly affect his standing in the community he was wanting to be with and that would indeed be the case. It was then on the eve of the event, both his and Yoko's invite was revoked and they would be asked to not take part [6].
The whole event was a crushing affair for Lennon who felt that all his support had been for nothing and he would describe it all as a year of backstabbing and in that time, he would dig up a song he had written called Isolation which he had written the previous year during his primal scream therapy which now took on a totally different meaning given how he felt now that he had been left isolated by the crowd he wanted to be with. He would shortly after the album would be released would bring out a Christmas single - one that had no inclusion from any of The Beatles with it - called Happy Xmas (War Is Over) which despite the title being a Christmas tune was actually an anti-war protest song regarding America's involvement in Vietnam. Despite the song being regarded a classic nowadays, the song on its first release didn't enjoy much success due to the single's late release, which resulted in limited airplay before Christmas and the fact it was overshadowed by The Concert For Bangladesh album.
Despite this though, Lennon felt wounded by being left out with Epstein trying to tell him that he was already part of a good cause with the new album which had a far greater message he felt than what John and Yoko were trying to do which didn't go down well with Lennon when he heard that. Yet in all of this the irony is that with hindsight that his absence from both the Sinclair Rally and a proposed appearance on hosting The Mike Douglas Show [7] which he called off over how he had been backstabbed would be all a blessing in disguise for Lennon. Unknown to everyone there, there were FBI agents who had been aware that Lennon was to attend which they knew could be used as evidence to Nixon that Lennon might be a threat for him yet many were taken aback that Lennon was nowhere to be seen with them all unaware of what had happened prior to the event.
Thanks to Lennon's 'no-show' at that event or any other similar events afterwards that Nixon and many of those within his government would have used as a excuse to deport him (the song Happy Xmas being looked on as something not exactly important in the grand view of things strangely enough) decided to drop their investigation into Lennon confirming that he had either given up with the politically circles he was in or that something else had happened. While this didn't mean that Lennon would be left off the hook as long as Nixon was around keeping an eye on him as they were still very much aware of his views, he would never become someone that Nixon would put on his so-called 'enemies list' and this meant that the deportation fears for him had gone though that felt like a hollow victory given how Lennon felt he had been treated.
Lennon's pride had indeed been harmed and he would let out his anger for the following year when it came time record more music with the band though as it would turn out, 1972 would prove to be a year like no other for The Beatles in which at first should have been a year to mark the 10th anniversary of their first single Love Me Do but as it would turn, that wouldn't quite what many would expect...
[1] Yes, this all still happened much like with OTL.
[2] This all happened, only difference is that instead of Harrison telling everyone not to buy a bootleg, Lennon does it though has some side effects for him later on here...
[3] Yes, this was actually said flat out to George and Patti at the time, only difference is that Epstein is here with them but even he can't help them out here.
[4] Ofc, Klein famously failed to do this IOTL so the same thing happens here for OTL.
[5] As what he did with OTL.
[6] Major butterfly ITTL as Lennon is not invited after the price of the Bangladesh album and him pleading with them not to get the bootleg backfires on him in which you could say they call him a sell out and given this had FBI spies here that would use his presence as ammunition to try and deport him, it does have an unlikely positive effect in which the deportation threat doesn't hang over his head here though you have to wonder if that is a good or bad thing for TTL.
[7] Yes, no appearance on that show unlike OTL which honestly was pretty much a red rag to a bull that drew him the ire of the Nixon government though without John and Yoko on it this means that suspicious on him are cooled though don't think that means Lennon will be out of the woods yet.
So there we are, not a musical update as that is for the next update though as you can see, some major changes happening here regarding the infamous deportation charges on Lennon which means that we start to see things go different for Lenny here though it won't be all sunshine and rainbows for him as there is still more things to happen to him though not in the way you might imagine. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this short update as we get to more musical stuff for the next album and a year which as we shall see shall see some difficulties for The Beatles...until then, see you next time and please comment!
i thought of an idea, basically Richard Lester directed a trilogy of Musketeer films in 1973, 1974 and 1989. Why not have the boys star in them? They were to have originally stared in them since there were plans dating back to 66.
Scaling Everest
And now we return with another update and don't think I'm letting this be just a Beatles wank TL - even though so far they are in better place than OTL for sure - as we now enter 1972 in which will be a year in which quite a lot of drama takes place in which we shall soon see why. Note, there might be some words in this that might cause offense though I think you might know what it might be if you see it. So without saying anymore, let's start!
Allen Klein did looked to be the man to take The Beatles into a new direction while Epstein would have hoped in the first place that Klein would prove himself to be good and that Epstein could simply focus on running Apple Corps and the other musical acts in the company's new increasing line-up. However, over the past few years, Klein had started to prove himself to be not the man that the likes of Lennon, Harrison and Starr had suspected with McCartney and Epstein always having their suspicious about him (Billy Preston being somewhat late to join the band didn't really have an opinion on the man though in truth did seem to prefer Epstein) in which the handling of the funds following the Bangladesh efforts proved to be a breaking point. One American magazine in early 1972 even reported that some of the proceeds remained unaccounted for and had found their way into Klein's accounts which greatly angered Klein who promptly tried to sue the magazine for $150 million in damages.
Despite this threat, the suit was later withdrawn though the accusations attracted unwelcome scrutiny at a time when questions were also being asked about Klein's mismanagement of the Beatles' finances and even debated as to why Epstein wasn't trying to help out Klein although he would answer these questions that he was letting Klein take more control of how to handle things himself if he was still in the running to become the band's new manager though some suspected that Epstein was secretly setting Klein up for a fall which would lead him leaving in disgrace and in truth he had done this to himself and was looking more likely that he would not be getting that role of the band's newest manager. That being said, Epstein wasn't so sure as he was certain someone would be wanting to get control of the band and this was a thought that ate at him for a lot of the time though even it all that wasn't a problem, 1972 was to be difficult year all around in which would all start in January that year.
It would not be clear if they had been even aware of one or the other writing a song about what had happened but it was no surprise to many by this point that Lennon would want to make a protest song about Bloody Sunday in which he would write two being The Luck of The Irish and Sunday Bloody Sunday though he along with many were stunned to see McCartney of all people to write a protest song in which Lennon was taken aback the most in which he had more often than not accused his bandmate for writing 'Granny Music'. McCartney would talk of the situation saying that, "protests songs were always John's area yet after watching what was happening on TV news and really for the first time asking what were we doing in Ireland I felt the need to write something down such was the gravity of the situation [1]".
It would Phil Spector who would be the first person to know about both men writing songs about the Irish Troubles when by a staggering coincidence both men sent their songs to him on the same day and would write back to both not knowing who should record which song. A rather annoyed Lennon would then ring up his bandmate from New York about what McCartney was doing. Lennon would say that, "I rang him up what was he up to as this was so unlike him I though that Phil [Spector] was trying to make a joke and had to ask Paul if what he was doing was true and I couldn't believe it when Paul said it was the truth. I paused on my end for I don't know how long until I then proposed of why don't we release a single from it and that is how it would all start."
Paul and Linda McCartney would fly out to New York to meet up with the Lennons to record the single in which not only would be just be the second time it would be just the two men playing all the instruments on the song as what had been done a few years ago with The Ballad of John And Yoko/Two Of Us single [2] but this would also be the first time that any Beatles song would be recorded and mixed on American soil for the first time (even though there is an argument that The Concert For Bangladesh or The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl live albums are the first) and from the two songs Lennon had written, it was then decided that The Luck Of The Irish would be chosen as Lennon's contribution but also the A-side of the single. Neither George Harrison or Ringo Starr would play in any part with the former at that time was busy trying to work out the funds for Bangladesh while the latter was rather reluctant to take part though both would give their blessing for the single to go ahead.
Epstein wasn't so comfortable with a single that he felt was too political for The Beatles and could alienate much of their fanbase yet by this point, Lennon's own political views were well documented by all and that trying to keep Lennon silent now was frankly useless and he would very reluctantly for Lennon and McCartney to go ahead with the single though he and Sir Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI, both warned the pair that EMI and Apple wouldn't be able to release the single due to it's inflammable nature yet both the two songwriters insisted it must go out with Lockwood telling that that "It will be banned, you know" and he would be proven right [3]. The Luck Of The Irish/Give Ireland Back To The Irish single would be released in February would be banned by the BBC though it must be said this wasn't the first time this had happened with The Beatles as songs like Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, A Day In The Life and The Ballad of John And Yoko had all seen the same fate though this felt very different due to its subject matter which proved to be the most controversial Beatles single released at that point and in some ways ruined the universal appeal of the band in the eyes of many.
The single would reach number one in the charts in Ireland and rather curiously in Spain yet wouldn't see a American release as record executives felt that America had enough troubles at home regarding Vietnam and that the Irish Troubles would be far too difficult to understand for most Americans. The Irish Double as the single would be nicknamed by many afterwards would cause not only some anger on one side of the political debate with many saying that The Beatles should stay out of anything political yet perhaps what was surprising was that even leftists who Lennon had wanted to be part of seemed to look poorly on it in which still looking at him as a sell out following his comments about Bangladesh, many felt that this was Lennon's desperate attempt to try and win back their favour yet this seemed to have backfired in which some felt that by making a record based on the death of innocent people in Northern Ireland just to feel popular again by using The Beatles as a pawn angered many and only succeeded in making Lennon feel more isolated from the left more than ever [4] and McCartney would later state that Lennon was left numb from this treatment in which he felt they totally misread the situation and Lennon would feel more determined to not only try and make his feelings known into making more music.
The idea would be a Greatest Hits album which by then had become common for many musical acts yet strangely The Beatles hadn't really gone into this area despite having more hit singles over the years than many other musical acts could have in a whole career so there was surely a market for it. It would be Klein who seemed to get the ball rolling in which he would pitch to Epstein that not only should they go down this path of releasing a Greatest Hits album but in fact two of them and that both would be a double album. Epstein would for once agree with Klein in what was said to be one of the rare times in which the two men didn't get into an argument over something though there was perhaps another reason to all this from the perspective of Klein and that was there had been many bootleg versions of Beatles hits which were all illegally taking profits from an untapped goldmine that if anyone should've been taking profits then it should be Apple. Some though suggest that this was to try and distract people away from the questions being asked about the band's finances that he following him around though Klein would try and not bring that topic up.
Epstein could see it would be a hit as even tough a double album might be expensive it hadn't stopped fans from buying The White Album and The Concert For Bangladesh which all had recorded great sales and there was no reason why two Greatest Hits albums couldn't do the same and with the added fact that 1972 was the tenth anniversary of Love Me Do, the band's first single, it seemed like an suitable time to act now. So a plan was put into motion to have the two compilations to come out in March and they were both to be called The Beatles/Red (1963 - 1966) and The Beatles/Blue (1967 - 1969) or perhaps better known to many as the Red and Blue albums respectably [5]. While on the Red album that no one would've been able to tell the difference between a song done by ether Lennon or McCartney (in which all of the songs on the album were by), there was indeed a difference with how each song on the Blue album in which one could tell a difference of a song written by a certain Beatle.
The two albums would prove popular enough and hearing the old songs again did bring some nostalgia for the older Beatles fans who probably missed those early days when the band were just a band not some force of nature that probably meant more than just a mere musical act yet others began to wonder if there would be a third compilation album from 1970 onwards in which the word was simply 'never say never' but in truth it wasn't know how long the band might go on for but what was more exciting following the release of the two albums was that another Beatles album, the fifteenth album to be released in July and with Lennon now living in New York, it was him who would make the suggesting of, following the recording of the Irish Double at the A&R Recording Studios [6], felt that the band should try a different location away from the typical recording locations at either Abbey Road or Savile Road and use that as a base of operation.
McCartney seemed keen on the idea, Ringo Starr was willing to try out the idea and even George Harrison was interested in somewhere different to see how things might turn out while Billy Preston was happy to be a bit more closer to home. It was only when the theme of the album was about to take shape that things would start to go somewhat off the rails. By now, Phil Spector's work on the last two Beatles albums had been exceptional with the expectation he'd make it three in a row here; even McCartney who had at first been angry at how he had try to add a choir for The Long And Winding Road had grown to like Spector's work though there was a sense that something was missing that their former producer George Martin wasn't there to help out though he was busy with other Apple artists at this time. That said though, the story of The Beatles' fifteenth album was to be a troubling one from the start.
Lennon had grown annoyed of the rather 'dreamy' sound of Imagine in which he had grown to dislike a lot and now he wanted a more rougher take that would be a far cry from Spector's notable 'Wall of Sound' system. It was clear from the get-go that the album was being championed by Lennon more with the direction he wanted the album to go in and that was more of a political direction that made the others rather worried knowing the situation regarding the Irish Double. Harrison would describe Lennon during that time as a man possessed searching for something and would often clash with Spector wanting him to reduce the production on the album and there would be times in which his bandmates would sadly had to wait for an argument to blow over, not helped by Yoko often butting in to give her opinion on the matter.
In the end, Brian Epstein would grow fed up with most of the bickering in which he would step in tell them to get on with it though he was to left shocked at some of the songs Lennon had presented for the new album as most of them had strong political undertones such as Attica State which was based on the Attica prison riots the previous year and had been first written on Lennon's birthday that year, another song was John Sinclair which was based on the American poet who was arrested for the possession of marijuana in 1969 and finally there was one called New York City which was not only about the said city itself but about Lennon's recent immigration issues of his fear of deportation yet that was a song that the band seemed to like the most.
However, it was another political song that Lennon wrote that nearly caused Epstein to shoot down Lennon from the moment he heard the title song and that was the controversially titled Woman Is The Nigger Of The World. A title that had been thought of by Yoko back in 1969 and a song that no matter how good it sounded would never get any radio time due to the 'N' word in the title and after the situation regarding the Irish Double, something like that song on a Beatles record was the last thing Epstein would have wanted and even the rest of the band were uncomfortable of playing it with McCartney trying to be diplomatic in saying that if they changed the title then it might be still be there for use yet the Lennons flat out refused claiming that if they did then the whole meaning of the song's title would be lost.
Must to Lennon's dismay, the song and much of his others he had brought out had been voted down by the band but Epstein admitted that there was nothing stopping him from recording his own album with those songs on it in which Lennon would accept as a consolation vote though his more political leanings on his songs in compared to previous years had not gone unnoticed by his bandmates in which Starr would privately admit that he felt Lennon was still reeling from being 'banished' from the left and was trying desperately to win back their favour though it would be something Lennon would not admit to anyone else though the others did seem to feel that was the case. In the end, other than having New York City getting the nod, Lennon would have to go back into his archives and would dig up two other songs to make his contribution of three songs for the album which one would the Bob Dylan inspired folk song Working Class Hero which had been written up two years ago as another of his political songs which didn't have the same baggage as some of the other songs and seemed 'safe' compared to the others.
It had been a song that would now get its moment to shine while in contrast his other song that would be included which would contrast with Lennon's two raw sounds which would be Oh My Love, probably one of Lennon's most tender love songs ever written and a welcomed additional to the album. Then it was McCartney's turn to turn in his songs for the album in which the fist would be indie sounding Smile Away, the other being the utter mind screw of a song called Monkberry Moon Delight and finally topped up with the rather interesting ukulele inspired Ram On which was Harrison would get to have some fun playing on the ukulele in which it has been well documented that Harrison had always loved that quirky instrument. Ringo Starr would also bring in his contribution for the album which would be Back Off Boogaloo which many of his bandmates all stated was actually perhaps his best efforts signwriting wise and was pretty much to stick-on for the album.
Finally, Harrison would bring out his three chosen songs which would be You, a soul inspired number he had written up the previous year, the other song would be Apple Scruffs which was a name given to die-hard Beatles fans who would wait outside a studio whenever the band recording an album and would see for the first time in a few years have Lennon play on the harmonica once again which seemed like a fitting choice given how early Beatles songs like Love Me Do and Please Please Me all featured the use of Lennon playing that instrument was something of a throw back to the old days which the anniversary of that first single seemed a happy coincidence. Finally the other song for the album would be the so called big finale track which would be Living In The Material World, a song which would play into more of Harrison's and even Preston's more spiritual beliefs which would find itself in contrast with Lennon's more harsher political songs which all was to cause the album's biggest problem and that was about tone.
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Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The new album itself would be called Everest which had been the title for Abbey Road in the first place [7] but instead the title was brought back for the newest album though it is unclear as to why this was the case as the story has many variations depending on which Beatle or anyone in their close circle who you ask. Epstein had always suggested that the title was to reference of how far the band had come in the decade since their first single and that this was the peak like scaling Mount Everest itself; McCartney and Preston insists that the album was to have an explorer theme yet overtime as recording took place, this all lost its way; Harrison would make a sly comment that the title was possibly an unexpected reference in his own mind of how he had made managed to scale the heights of Lennon and McCartney and reached a peak as a songwriter and both Lennon and Starr would insist there was no meaning and that he says the title itself sound striking so they just dusted that name off again and decided to reuse it.
Whatever the reason, the true story for the album's title may never be known but what was known was how much of a slog it was regarding its direction. In some ways, it was a repeat of the White Album in which Phil Spector would have his work cut and likely would have felt that he was in the same as George Martin who would famously remark that he would be in different recording studios to accommodate each Beatle for it to appeal to that certain sound they each wanted and as it would turn out for Everest, history had repeated itself. The one difference here is that Spector would fail to make the album have a coherent tone in all the songs would class with each other from the biting rawness of Working Class Hero being followed by the jolly sounding Apple Scruffs or even something like the tender Oh My Love being followed by the madness of Monkberry Moon Delight; it wouldn't take a genius to realise that some of these songs, while all good in their own right, shouldn't be placed together.
What made things more difficult was Lennon's drive for this album in which he would position himself as the band's leader instead of McCartney who he had felt had been positioning himself for the role over the last few years which while it was a welcomed change at first, Lennon though wouldn't have quite the tact that admittedly McCartney had and most of his bickering was with Spector in which the later was wanting to add his famous 'Wall Of Sound' yet Lennon wanted a more stripped down sound as seen in his songs yet the rest of the band wanting a more fleshed out sound as with the previous two albums and in the end, Spector would be forced into make a compromise for the sound yet this was to make the production being either too raw or too produced.
These problems with the album even went as far as the design of even the album cover as to what it was to look like. Originally, the idea was have a photo of the band dressed as artic explorers planting a flag on top of the peak of Mount Everest which would have made sense with the album's title and play up the band's zany sense of humour yet this idea didn't get far. Another idea would be from Harrison and that would be a parody of the famous art piece of The Last Supper with the band all sitting at a banquet table which would at first happen in which Hollywood photographer Ken Marcus would take it with the picture having hidden messages within the photo such as a nurse with a pram, set back from and to the left of the dining table, which seemed to be a hidden reference by Harrison referring to Boyd's inability to conceive a child; and the empty, distant wheelchair in memory of Harrison's late mother [8].
In the end though, even this cover wasn't chosen though it would end up on the rear cover, and instead what would follow in its place would be something rather basic in which would be Lennon's own idea of having a more stripped back feel in which the final album cover would be a black background with five circle portraits of the band with Preston's being placed in the middle [9] which was Lennon's suggesting of appealing of the leftists buyers of the sight of a black man taking centre stage on a Beatles album might appeal to them and win him their goodwill again. That said, Preston felt rather unsure about the idea and wasn't comfortable to be used as statement though Starr would assure him that having him in the middle meant that there would be no ego stroking from the rest of the band of who would get to be centre stage and Preston would feel a little better after that. With that all said on July 3rd 1972 in the United States and July 7th in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, Everest would be released to the public.
Everest (1972)
Side 1
1) New York City
2) You
3) Back Off Boogaloo
4) Oh My Love
5) Monkberry Moon Delight
Side 2
6) Working Class Hero
7) Apple Scruffs
8) Ram On
9) Smile Away
10) Living In The Material World
As it would turn out, Everest - while not a flop as it would sell fairly well enough though far lower compared to the previous Beatles albums - would be mark as the band's first misfire as it would fell to reach number one in the charts only reaching as high as number five before dropping after that. The questions of what went wrong with the album are widely documented depending on who you ask though some say the album was doomed from the start in which the Irish Double single left both critics and Beatles fans alike rather alienate of a more political stance even if Harrison, Starr or Preston had nothing to do with it which meant that some were going into the album with a negative viewpoint from the start rather than an open one. Some claim that it wasn't helped that with it being an anniversary year some were expecting another Sergeant Pepper in which after how well the likes of All Things Must Pass and Imagine had been with their production there was no reason to doubt the same could happen here.
Instead what listeners got was a rather disjointed album that clearly didn't know which way it was going either with Spector's 'Wall Of Sound' or more of a raw stripped back level with the collection of songs, while good in their own right, probably shouldn't have been put together which left a rather baffling setlist in which the similarities to the White Album were there but worse. But no one got it worse than that of Lennon and McCartney in which many critics bemoaned their selection of songs for the album claiming that there was nothing ground-breaking with them though some did admit that Oh My Love was actually worth it but that was about that; not to mention that with the Irish Double still leaving a bad taste in the mouth for some, it was fair that some had an axe to grind with Lennon sadly getting the blame in which he admitted prior to the album's release that he was having more control of it and accidently made himself the fall guy for the album once it was released and the press wanted someone to blame.
Despite all this bad press the album did get, it wasn't all bad news. In contrast to Lennon and McCartney's offerings, Harrison and even Starr's work for the album was met with great praise in which You seemed like a good classic pop song while Starr's Back Off Boogaloo turned out to be the unlikely hit for the album that would chart higher than anything McCartney or Lennon did that year which went to show how much those two had underperformed for the album. Many who gave the album any sort of positive points would all claim that Harrison and Starr's work for the album saved the album to give it some weight when if not for them then the album would have been an unmitigated disaster. This would be parodied in an New York based newspaper with a caricature drawing of Harrison and Starr carrying the weight of a giant garbage bag on their backs while trying to climb up the slopes of Mount Everest with Preston trying to push from the back in which the garbage bag had a label on it saying 'Everest or rather Paul and John's Garbage' with to top it all off had a squabbling Lennon and McCartney on top of the bag arguing about something.
As crude as the drawing was, it was sadly a somewhat correct description of how many saw the album in which Harrison and Starr carried this album on their backs. In years later with many a retrospect looking at the album from a more open minded view would all admit that while the album is considered something of a black sheep in the Beatles canon, it is nowhere near the disaster that some make it out to be in which on its own the album is good though that it is dealt a bad hand in which the Irish Double had muddied the waters that would've made things worse but even if that hadn't happened, it was coming after two very good albums in which many expected this to sound similar yet Everest would be a very different beast to the other Beatles albums at that point and many were taken aback of how different it sounded and were likely not happy with it with some calling it the 'Anti-Imagine' album due to how Lennon had stated he had wanted to move away from the more dreamy sound of the other albums.
In the end, Everest would underperform to put it nicely and any suggestions of having a tour to coincide with the album were quietly swept under the rug and The Beatles were left in an strange position in which they didn't know where to go from here and Epstein would find himself being asked questions if the album's failure was a sign that the band was on the verge of collapse in which Epstein would deny yet deep down he'd have to wonder what on earth were they to do now? To make matters worse, it would seem that even Klein when upon listening to it at first seemed aware that the album was not going to go down well and would actually try and cut back on the marketing as a why to cut any losses the album might make but instead contribute to the low costs which for the band would be final straw for Klein's hope of becoming manager.
Yet no one took the album's outcome badly more than Lennon in which not only had he made himself as the brainchild behind the feel of the album's tone but was single out as the one reasonable for the album's reception. What was worse him was that support he hoped to win back the leftist crowd he was aiming for didn't materialise and ultimately his efforts had been all for nothing and in some ways had ruined the band's spotless record with success though some would argue this was going to end sooner or later no matter what. Lennon though wasn't going to give up so easily though in he and Yoko would, by taken Epstein's advice of making a solo album of the songs that Epstein felt had no place on a Beatles album and that Lennon would be free to make they wanted. They would bring back Spector in which despite the two having clashed during the recording of Everest would strangely get back together to record this new album in which was hoped for a October release. Surely it couldn't get worse, right?
[1] In which Paul said IOTL.
[2] If you look back on earlier for this TL.
[3] As what was said and happened much like OTL.
[4] Yeah, Lennon's political activism ITTL goes from bad to worse here following Bangladesh here.
[5] Yes, we have the Red and Blue albums from OTL here, only changes are is they are released a year earlier from OTL and that Blue doesn't go up to 1970 here.
[6] Funnily enough, was where OTL Ram album was recorded so here it makes an appearance for TTL.
[7] As was the case for OTL too.
[8] Yes, this is based off this image for OTL's Living In The Material World...just imagine more Beatles on it.
[9] A bit like OTL's Let It Be cover though with Preston on it.
And there we are, a misfire for The Beatles here and while it would have been easy for TTL to have nothing but success for a still united Beatles here but that would make things boring but a little bit ASB in which success can't last forever and this is an example of this which makes things a little bit more plausible here. But yeah, Everest doesn't do well here and what will Lennon do next? Well, if you know how 1972 went for him IOTL...well.
Anyway, please comment if you want to see what happens next and what'd you think will happen next for the boys and Mr Epstein himself for TTL? Find out next time as we go on through this rather sticky year for The Beatles!
Scaling Everest
Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
1971 would seem by many by both the musical press and public of the year that The Beatles had solved many of those inner problems regarding Apple, who got what on an album and other issues that hung over the band and with a successful comeback tour in Europe and an hugely successful Concert For Bangladesh album and show, it was hard to see where any problems might lie. 1972 would also be the tenth anniversary of the band's first single in Love Me Do and it would be funny looking back on that song and seeing how far the song writing for the band had changed within that time so this did seem like a time for celebration but alas as the old saying goes, things seemed a little too good to be true. This was the final year before Brian Epstein's managerial contract would run out in October that year and while he would admit that ten years as the band's manager did seem like a amount of time that looked as though he had outstayed his welcome and that change was needed.Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Allen Klein did looked to be the man to take The Beatles into a new direction while Epstein would have hoped in the first place that Klein would prove himself to be good and that Epstein could simply focus on running Apple Corps and the other musical acts in the company's new increasing line-up. However, over the past few years, Klein had started to prove himself to be not the man that the likes of Lennon, Harrison and Starr had suspected with McCartney and Epstein always having their suspicious about him (Billy Preston being somewhat late to join the band didn't really have an opinion on the man though in truth did seem to prefer Epstein) in which the handling of the funds following the Bangladesh efforts proved to be a breaking point. One American magazine in early 1972 even reported that some of the proceeds remained unaccounted for and had found their way into Klein's accounts which greatly angered Klein who promptly tried to sue the magazine for $150 million in damages.
Despite this threat, the suit was later withdrawn though the accusations attracted unwelcome scrutiny at a time when questions were also being asked about Klein's mismanagement of the Beatles' finances and even debated as to why Epstein wasn't trying to help out Klein although he would answer these questions that he was letting Klein take more control of how to handle things himself if he was still in the running to become the band's new manager though some suspected that Epstein was secretly setting Klein up for a fall which would lead him leaving in disgrace and in truth he had done this to himself and was looking more likely that he would not be getting that role of the band's newest manager. That being said, Epstein wasn't so sure as he was certain someone would be wanting to get control of the band and this was a thought that ate at him for a lot of the time though even it all that wasn't a problem, 1972 was to be difficult year all around in which would all start in January that year.
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Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
On January 30th, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot twenty-six unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march in which Thirteen people died that day while others were injured by rubber bullets of batons with even two being run down by army vehicles. The event in question would be known as 'Bloody Sunday' in which would be perhaps one of the darkest moments in Anglo-Irish history and caused an uproar on both sides of the Irish sea and such an event did not go unnoticed by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney as with both men carrying Irish heritage in their families both felt compelled to do something to express their anger over what had happened and both would get to writing up songs though curiously enough, both had not told the other that they would be writing a song regarding the events of Bloody Sunday.Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
It would not be clear if they had been even aware of one or the other writing a song about what had happened but it was no surprise to many by this point that Lennon would want to make a protest song about Bloody Sunday in which he would write two being The Luck of The Irish and Sunday Bloody Sunday though he along with many were stunned to see McCartney of all people to write a protest song in which Lennon was taken aback the most in which he had more often than not accused his bandmate for writing 'Granny Music'. McCartney would talk of the situation saying that, "protests songs were always John's area yet after watching what was happening on TV news and really for the first time asking what were we doing in Ireland I felt the need to write something down such was the gravity of the situation [1]".
It would Phil Spector who would be the first person to know about both men writing songs about the Irish Troubles when by a staggering coincidence both men sent their songs to him on the same day and would write back to both not knowing who should record which song. A rather annoyed Lennon would then ring up his bandmate from New York about what McCartney was doing. Lennon would say that, "I rang him up what was he up to as this was so unlike him I though that Phil [Spector] was trying to make a joke and had to ask Paul if what he was doing was true and I couldn't believe it when Paul said it was the truth. I paused on my end for I don't know how long until I then proposed of why don't we release a single from it and that is how it would all start."
Paul and Linda McCartney would fly out to New York to meet up with the Lennons to record the single in which not only would be just be the second time it would be just the two men playing all the instruments on the song as what had been done a few years ago with The Ballad of John And Yoko/Two Of Us single [2] but this would also be the first time that any Beatles song would be recorded and mixed on American soil for the first time (even though there is an argument that The Concert For Bangladesh or The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl live albums are the first) and from the two songs Lennon had written, it was then decided that The Luck Of The Irish would be chosen as Lennon's contribution but also the A-side of the single. Neither George Harrison or Ringo Starr would play in any part with the former at that time was busy trying to work out the funds for Bangladesh while the latter was rather reluctant to take part though both would give their blessing for the single to go ahead.
Epstein wasn't so comfortable with a single that he felt was too political for The Beatles and could alienate much of their fanbase yet by this point, Lennon's own political views were well documented by all and that trying to keep Lennon silent now was frankly useless and he would very reluctantly for Lennon and McCartney to go ahead with the single though he and Sir Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI, both warned the pair that EMI and Apple wouldn't be able to release the single due to it's inflammable nature yet both the two songwriters insisted it must go out with Lockwood telling that that "It will be banned, you know" and he would be proven right [3]. The Luck Of The Irish/Give Ireland Back To The Irish single would be released in February would be banned by the BBC though it must be said this wasn't the first time this had happened with The Beatles as songs like Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, A Day In The Life and The Ballad of John And Yoko had all seen the same fate though this felt very different due to its subject matter which proved to be the most controversial Beatles single released at that point and in some ways ruined the universal appeal of the band in the eyes of many.
The single would reach number one in the charts in Ireland and rather curiously in Spain yet wouldn't see a American release as record executives felt that America had enough troubles at home regarding Vietnam and that the Irish Troubles would be far too difficult to understand for most Americans. The Irish Double as the single would be nicknamed by many afterwards would cause not only some anger on one side of the political debate with many saying that The Beatles should stay out of anything political yet perhaps what was surprising was that even leftists who Lennon had wanted to be part of seemed to look poorly on it in which still looking at him as a sell out following his comments about Bangladesh, many felt that this was Lennon's desperate attempt to try and win back their favour yet this seemed to have backfired in which some felt that by making a record based on the death of innocent people in Northern Ireland just to feel popular again by using The Beatles as a pawn angered many and only succeeded in making Lennon feel more isolated from the left more than ever [4] and McCartney would later state that Lennon was left numb from this treatment in which he felt they totally misread the situation and Lennon would feel more determined to not only try and make his feelings known into making more music.
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Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The Irish Double had left The Beatles - mostly John Lennon and Paul McCartney to be exact - in a rather unfavourable light in the eyes of many not since the infamous 'Bigger Than Jesus' debacle though thankfully there was a lack of death threats this time round. Nonetheless, both songs on the single were looked down on for trying too hard to try and appeal to the growing counter-culture movement among reviewers with one modern reviewer stating that 'the record managed to irritate everyone, not least for its naïve, simplistic attitude to a complex situation … but also for its musical mediocrity. The BBC banned the record, granting it a notoriety disproportionate to its importance.' Something had to be done to try and distract the public of the band going in strange new direction in which would be one of the few times that Allen Klein and Brian Epstein would agree on something to try and re-package the band as the lovable Moptops one last time as everyone not only remember but perhaps longed to return.Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The idea would be a Greatest Hits album which by then had become common for many musical acts yet strangely The Beatles hadn't really gone into this area despite having more hit singles over the years than many other musical acts could have in a whole career so there was surely a market for it. It would be Klein who seemed to get the ball rolling in which he would pitch to Epstein that not only should they go down this path of releasing a Greatest Hits album but in fact two of them and that both would be a double album. Epstein would for once agree with Klein in what was said to be one of the rare times in which the two men didn't get into an argument over something though there was perhaps another reason to all this from the perspective of Klein and that was there had been many bootleg versions of Beatles hits which were all illegally taking profits from an untapped goldmine that if anyone should've been taking profits then it should be Apple. Some though suggest that this was to try and distract people away from the questions being asked about the band's finances that he following him around though Klein would try and not bring that topic up.
Epstein could see it would be a hit as even tough a double album might be expensive it hadn't stopped fans from buying The White Album and The Concert For Bangladesh which all had recorded great sales and there was no reason why two Greatest Hits albums couldn't do the same and with the added fact that 1972 was the tenth anniversary of Love Me Do, the band's first single, it seemed like an suitable time to act now. So a plan was put into motion to have the two compilations to come out in March and they were both to be called The Beatles/Red (1963 - 1966) and The Beatles/Blue (1967 - 1969) or perhaps better known to many as the Red and Blue albums respectably [5]. While on the Red album that no one would've been able to tell the difference between a song done by ether Lennon or McCartney (in which all of the songs on the album were by), there was indeed a difference with how each song on the Blue album in which one could tell a difference of a song written by a certain Beatle.
The two albums would prove popular enough and hearing the old songs again did bring some nostalgia for the older Beatles fans who probably missed those early days when the band were just a band not some force of nature that probably meant more than just a mere musical act yet others began to wonder if there would be a third compilation album from 1970 onwards in which the word was simply 'never say never' but in truth it wasn't know how long the band might go on for but what was more exciting following the release of the two albums was that another Beatles album, the fifteenth album to be released in July and with Lennon now living in New York, it was him who would make the suggesting of, following the recording of the Irish Double at the A&R Recording Studios [6], felt that the band should try a different location away from the typical recording locations at either Abbey Road or Savile Road and use that as a base of operation.
McCartney seemed keen on the idea, Ringo Starr was willing to try out the idea and even George Harrison was interested in somewhere different to see how things might turn out while Billy Preston was happy to be a bit more closer to home. It was only when the theme of the album was about to take shape that things would start to go somewhat off the rails. By now, Phil Spector's work on the last two Beatles albums had been exceptional with the expectation he'd make it three in a row here; even McCartney who had at first been angry at how he had try to add a choir for The Long And Winding Road had grown to like Spector's work though there was a sense that something was missing that their former producer George Martin wasn't there to help out though he was busy with other Apple artists at this time. That said though, the story of The Beatles' fifteenth album was to be a troubling one from the start.
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Extract from 'The Beatles On The Brink' by Ken McNab
When it came time to start recording the album in March, many, including most of the band and Phil Spector, had expected an album that would follow up with the production and sound as seen with All Things Must Pass and Imagine though they would accept there would be some tweaks needed to make it stand out compared to the others. The new album would certainly sound different for sure though perhaps not for the best reasons. Lennon had wanted an album that would be a more rawer and stripped back sound for the album that would sound different from the other productions from the other albums before; incidentally though the idea of stripped back Beatles sounding album had been McCartney's idea during the infamous The Beatles At Work sessions in 1969 though this was never brought up oddly enough.Extract from 'The Beatles On The Brink' by Ken McNab
Lennon had grown annoyed of the rather 'dreamy' sound of Imagine in which he had grown to dislike a lot and now he wanted a more rougher take that would be a far cry from Spector's notable 'Wall of Sound' system. It was clear from the get-go that the album was being championed by Lennon more with the direction he wanted the album to go in and that was more of a political direction that made the others rather worried knowing the situation regarding the Irish Double. Harrison would describe Lennon during that time as a man possessed searching for something and would often clash with Spector wanting him to reduce the production on the album and there would be times in which his bandmates would sadly had to wait for an argument to blow over, not helped by Yoko often butting in to give her opinion on the matter.
In the end, Brian Epstein would grow fed up with most of the bickering in which he would step in tell them to get on with it though he was to left shocked at some of the songs Lennon had presented for the new album as most of them had strong political undertones such as Attica State which was based on the Attica prison riots the previous year and had been first written on Lennon's birthday that year, another song was John Sinclair which was based on the American poet who was arrested for the possession of marijuana in 1969 and finally there was one called New York City which was not only about the said city itself but about Lennon's recent immigration issues of his fear of deportation yet that was a song that the band seemed to like the most.
However, it was another political song that Lennon wrote that nearly caused Epstein to shoot down Lennon from the moment he heard the title song and that was the controversially titled Woman Is The Nigger Of The World. A title that had been thought of by Yoko back in 1969 and a song that no matter how good it sounded would never get any radio time due to the 'N' word in the title and after the situation regarding the Irish Double, something like that song on a Beatles record was the last thing Epstein would have wanted and even the rest of the band were uncomfortable of playing it with McCartney trying to be diplomatic in saying that if they changed the title then it might be still be there for use yet the Lennons flat out refused claiming that if they did then the whole meaning of the song's title would be lost.
Must to Lennon's dismay, the song and much of his others he had brought out had been voted down by the band but Epstein admitted that there was nothing stopping him from recording his own album with those songs on it in which Lennon would accept as a consolation vote though his more political leanings on his songs in compared to previous years had not gone unnoticed by his bandmates in which Starr would privately admit that he felt Lennon was still reeling from being 'banished' from the left and was trying desperately to win back their favour though it would be something Lennon would not admit to anyone else though the others did seem to feel that was the case. In the end, other than having New York City getting the nod, Lennon would have to go back into his archives and would dig up two other songs to make his contribution of three songs for the album which one would the Bob Dylan inspired folk song Working Class Hero which had been written up two years ago as another of his political songs which didn't have the same baggage as some of the other songs and seemed 'safe' compared to the others.
It had been a song that would now get its moment to shine while in contrast his other song that would be included which would contrast with Lennon's two raw sounds which would be Oh My Love, probably one of Lennon's most tender love songs ever written and a welcomed additional to the album. Then it was McCartney's turn to turn in his songs for the album in which the fist would be indie sounding Smile Away, the other being the utter mind screw of a song called Monkberry Moon Delight and finally topped up with the rather interesting ukulele inspired Ram On which was Harrison would get to have some fun playing on the ukulele in which it has been well documented that Harrison had always loved that quirky instrument. Ringo Starr would also bring in his contribution for the album which would be Back Off Boogaloo which many of his bandmates all stated was actually perhaps his best efforts signwriting wise and was pretty much to stick-on for the album.
Finally, Harrison would bring out his three chosen songs which would be You, a soul inspired number he had written up the previous year, the other song would be Apple Scruffs which was a name given to die-hard Beatles fans who would wait outside a studio whenever the band recording an album and would see for the first time in a few years have Lennon play on the harmonica once again which seemed like a fitting choice given how early Beatles songs like Love Me Do and Please Please Me all featured the use of Lennon playing that instrument was something of a throw back to the old days which the anniversary of that first single seemed a happy coincidence. Finally the other song for the album would be the so called big finale track which would be Living In The Material World, a song which would play into more of Harrison's and even Preston's more spiritual beliefs which would find itself in contrast with Lennon's more harsher political songs which all was to cause the album's biggest problem and that was about tone.
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Extracts from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
Whatever the reason, the true story for the album's title may never be known but what was known was how much of a slog it was regarding its direction. In some ways, it was a repeat of the White Album in which Phil Spector would have his work cut and likely would have felt that he was in the same as George Martin who would famously remark that he would be in different recording studios to accommodate each Beatle for it to appeal to that certain sound they each wanted and as it would turn out for Everest, history had repeated itself. The one difference here is that Spector would fail to make the album have a coherent tone in all the songs would class with each other from the biting rawness of Working Class Hero being followed by the jolly sounding Apple Scruffs or even something like the tender Oh My Love being followed by the madness of Monkberry Moon Delight; it wouldn't take a genius to realise that some of these songs, while all good in their own right, shouldn't be placed together.
What made things more difficult was Lennon's drive for this album in which he would position himself as the band's leader instead of McCartney who he had felt had been positioning himself for the role over the last few years which while it was a welcomed change at first, Lennon though wouldn't have quite the tact that admittedly McCartney had and most of his bickering was with Spector in which the later was wanting to add his famous 'Wall Of Sound' yet Lennon wanted a more stripped down sound as seen in his songs yet the rest of the band wanting a more fleshed out sound as with the previous two albums and in the end, Spector would be forced into make a compromise for the sound yet this was to make the production being either too raw or too produced.
These problems with the album even went as far as the design of even the album cover as to what it was to look like. Originally, the idea was have a photo of the band dressed as artic explorers planting a flag on top of the peak of Mount Everest which would have made sense with the album's title and play up the band's zany sense of humour yet this idea didn't get far. Another idea would be from Harrison and that would be a parody of the famous art piece of The Last Supper with the band all sitting at a banquet table which would at first happen in which Hollywood photographer Ken Marcus would take it with the picture having hidden messages within the photo such as a nurse with a pram, set back from and to the left of the dining table, which seemed to be a hidden reference by Harrison referring to Boyd's inability to conceive a child; and the empty, distant wheelchair in memory of Harrison's late mother [8].
In the end though, even this cover wasn't chosen though it would end up on the rear cover, and instead what would follow in its place would be something rather basic in which would be Lennon's own idea of having a more stripped back feel in which the final album cover would be a black background with five circle portraits of the band with Preston's being placed in the middle [9] which was Lennon's suggesting of appealing of the leftists buyers of the sight of a black man taking centre stage on a Beatles album might appeal to them and win him their goodwill again. That said, Preston felt rather unsure about the idea and wasn't comfortable to be used as statement though Starr would assure him that having him in the middle meant that there would be no ego stroking from the rest of the band of who would get to be centre stage and Preston would feel a little better after that. With that all said on July 3rd 1972 in the United States and July 7th in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, Everest would be released to the public.
Everest (1972)
Side 1
1) New York City
2) You
3) Back Off Boogaloo
4) Oh My Love
5) Monkberry Moon Delight
Side 2
6) Working Class Hero
7) Apple Scruffs
8) Ram On
9) Smile Away
10) Living In The Material World
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Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
When a Beatles album was released, it was always a sure-fire winner to top the albums sells charts regardless of the quality and with this year being an anniversary year with the Red and Blue albums already selling well which acted as a preshow for many would think would be a big anniversary celebration to mark, surely Everest would deliver? What happened next was something that no one had expected to see from a Beatles album...an album that was getting mixed to negative reviews from the critics and even fans. The reaction was something to caught everyone off guard as the idea of a 'bad' Beatles album seemed unthinkable and while there had been albums before that had gained mixed reviews, they were nothing like this in which some critics and several anti-Beatles folks went as far as gleefully state that the Beatles bubble had finally burst and it being in the big anniversary year just seemed to make some take great delight in the situation.Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
As it would turn out, Everest - while not a flop as it would sell fairly well enough though far lower compared to the previous Beatles albums - would be mark as the band's first misfire as it would fell to reach number one in the charts only reaching as high as number five before dropping after that. The questions of what went wrong with the album are widely documented depending on who you ask though some say the album was doomed from the start in which the Irish Double single left both critics and Beatles fans alike rather alienate of a more political stance even if Harrison, Starr or Preston had nothing to do with it which meant that some were going into the album with a negative viewpoint from the start rather than an open one. Some claim that it wasn't helped that with it being an anniversary year some were expecting another Sergeant Pepper in which after how well the likes of All Things Must Pass and Imagine had been with their production there was no reason to doubt the same could happen here.
Instead what listeners got was a rather disjointed album that clearly didn't know which way it was going either with Spector's 'Wall Of Sound' or more of a raw stripped back level with the collection of songs, while good in their own right, probably shouldn't have been put together which left a rather baffling setlist in which the similarities to the White Album were there but worse. But no one got it worse than that of Lennon and McCartney in which many critics bemoaned their selection of songs for the album claiming that there was nothing ground-breaking with them though some did admit that Oh My Love was actually worth it but that was about that; not to mention that with the Irish Double still leaving a bad taste in the mouth for some, it was fair that some had an axe to grind with Lennon sadly getting the blame in which he admitted prior to the album's release that he was having more control of it and accidently made himself the fall guy for the album once it was released and the press wanted someone to blame.
Despite all this bad press the album did get, it wasn't all bad news. In contrast to Lennon and McCartney's offerings, Harrison and even Starr's work for the album was met with great praise in which You seemed like a good classic pop song while Starr's Back Off Boogaloo turned out to be the unlikely hit for the album that would chart higher than anything McCartney or Lennon did that year which went to show how much those two had underperformed for the album. Many who gave the album any sort of positive points would all claim that Harrison and Starr's work for the album saved the album to give it some weight when if not for them then the album would have been an unmitigated disaster. This would be parodied in an New York based newspaper with a caricature drawing of Harrison and Starr carrying the weight of a giant garbage bag on their backs while trying to climb up the slopes of Mount Everest with Preston trying to push from the back in which the garbage bag had a label on it saying 'Everest or rather Paul and John's Garbage' with to top it all off had a squabbling Lennon and McCartney on top of the bag arguing about something.
As crude as the drawing was, it was sadly a somewhat correct description of how many saw the album in which Harrison and Starr carried this album on their backs. In years later with many a retrospect looking at the album from a more open minded view would all admit that while the album is considered something of a black sheep in the Beatles canon, it is nowhere near the disaster that some make it out to be in which on its own the album is good though that it is dealt a bad hand in which the Irish Double had muddied the waters that would've made things worse but even if that hadn't happened, it was coming after two very good albums in which many expected this to sound similar yet Everest would be a very different beast to the other Beatles albums at that point and many were taken aback of how different it sounded and were likely not happy with it with some calling it the 'Anti-Imagine' album due to how Lennon had stated he had wanted to move away from the more dreamy sound of the other albums.
In the end, Everest would underperform to put it nicely and any suggestions of having a tour to coincide with the album were quietly swept under the rug and The Beatles were left in an strange position in which they didn't know where to go from here and Epstein would find himself being asked questions if the album's failure was a sign that the band was on the verge of collapse in which Epstein would deny yet deep down he'd have to wonder what on earth were they to do now? To make matters worse, it would seem that even Klein when upon listening to it at first seemed aware that the album was not going to go down well and would actually try and cut back on the marketing as a why to cut any losses the album might make but instead contribute to the low costs which for the band would be final straw for Klein's hope of becoming manager.
Yet no one took the album's outcome badly more than Lennon in which not only had he made himself as the brainchild behind the feel of the album's tone but was single out as the one reasonable for the album's reception. What was worse him was that support he hoped to win back the leftist crowd he was aiming for didn't materialise and ultimately his efforts had been all for nothing and in some ways had ruined the band's spotless record with success though some would argue this was going to end sooner or later no matter what. Lennon though wasn't going to give up so easily though in he and Yoko would, by taken Epstein's advice of making a solo album of the songs that Epstein felt had no place on a Beatles album and that Lennon would be free to make they wanted. They would bring back Spector in which despite the two having clashed during the recording of Everest would strangely get back together to record this new album in which was hoped for a October release. Surely it couldn't get worse, right?
[1] In which Paul said IOTL.
[2] If you look back on earlier for this TL.
[3] As what was said and happened much like OTL.
[4] Yeah, Lennon's political activism ITTL goes from bad to worse here following Bangladesh here.
[5] Yes, we have the Red and Blue albums from OTL here, only changes are is they are released a year earlier from OTL and that Blue doesn't go up to 1970 here.
[6] Funnily enough, was where OTL Ram album was recorded so here it makes an appearance for TTL.
[7] As was the case for OTL too.
[8] Yes, this is based off this image for OTL's Living In The Material World...just imagine more Beatles on it.
[9] A bit like OTL's Let It Be cover though with Preston on it.
And there we are, a misfire for The Beatles here and while it would have been easy for TTL to have nothing but success for a still united Beatles here but that would make things boring but a little bit ASB in which success can't last forever and this is an example of this which makes things a little bit more plausible here. But yeah, Everest doesn't do well here and what will Lennon do next? Well, if you know how 1972 went for him IOTL...well.
Anyway, please comment if you want to see what happens next and what'd you think will happen next for the boys and Mr Epstein himself for TTL? Find out next time as we go on through this rather sticky year for The Beatles!
Agree but it had to happen eventually (an album not reaching No.1), a shame it was their tenth anniversary and it was titled "Everest".
Possibly clips would have been seen yet I'm unsure at that time there would be a full concert film of the show though no doubt that there would be many bootlegs of the various shows that would have appeared a lot ITTL.
Lennon's Downfall
It is time for another non-musical yet important update for the TL in which the last time we saw The Beatles, Everest didn't do so well and 1972 in general has been a pretty ropey time to be a Beatles fan but for Lennon, it has been all rather tough for him but if you thought it was all bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. If you are a Lennon fan and know what happened later on in November 1972, you can see where this is all going...
Lennon's Downfall
Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
Apple Corps seemed like a strange beast that not many knew what to think as 1972 neared its end. What had started off as what was nothing more than a glorified tax dodge had under Brian Epstein's rule - being perhaps the only one in The Beatles' inner circle who knew anything about business even if some outsiders thought otherwise of him - managed to make the company turn into something of a media juggernaut that had not only The Beatles producing their big selling records and singles, films and many more up and coming talent that Epstein had picked up and all who looked like they could not only make it big but maybe even stand on a level playing field with The Beatles. That said though, some argued that all the good things that were coming out of Apple such as opening up a new American label most recently were all but covering cracks over what was going on with The Beatles in which questions had been asked since the start of the label in 1968 if the band had a future.
The glory of 1971 which seemed at the time as the answer that the band was here to stay was now looked on in some quarters as nothing more than a false dawn in which The Beatles had suffered a year in which anything they released hadn't done well; the Irish Double single had been the first Beatles Single not to reach any big heights and the underperformance of Everest, the first Beatles album not to hit number one in the charts was a shock to many and proving that the Irish Double was no fluke for a 'failed' Beatles product and that the cracks were starting to show which to some had tarred the image of the band in the eyes of many in which some conservative minded folk felt they were going too far left (mostly with John Lennon) and looking to be too radical while even those on the left felt that the band (mostly Lennon again) were acting like sell outs mainly due to how Apple wasn't quite the hippy eutopia when first announced in which with hindsight was laughable even then which now became pretty much a typical business like anything else and that many leftists were left flabbergasted at the price of The Concert For Bangladesh album in which despite Lennon pleading them to buy it, many refused.
In fact, no Beatle suffered the year more than that of Lennon in which even without the problems the band had with their recent output, his status as some radical poet for the left had taken a battering in which he had found himself isolated from them the crowd he had so desired for and in many ways there were many that put the blame on Lennon for the direction The Beatles had gone in and how badly things had gone for them. At first he would try and answer the critics main gripe of how unequal it sounded with some songs sounding all polished like Harrison's work while Lennon's was more raw and clashed with the tone of an album that honestly didn't know what direction to take it in. Lennon would say that he was wanting to try something different with the sound in which while there had been no trouble in trying something different as The Beatles had always done this from the moment they ended their touring days though there was a direction of what they were doing which was not present here.
In perhaps the state he was in he would try and put some of the blame on Phil Spector for making the album the way it was yet Spector and even the rest of the band would all say that Lennon was the one who was not on the same wave length with the rest of the band during the production of the album. Even with all that aside with how things had gone for him musically, his own personal life was not much better in which the fear of being deported and being on Nixon's enemies list, the ongoing search for Yoko’s daughter and his growing paranoid fears that any phone call he made was being wiretapped for keeping an eye on him to find any excuse to deport him. What made things more tense that 1972 was an election year and Lennon knew that if Nixon won another four years in office then there was a good chance that in that time he could be kicked out of the country and unlikely to be allowed back in.
It was a grim state of affairs for Lennon but yet despite all of this there was a small ray of hope that he might have a chance to win back much of that leftist crowd that had left him. With the many songs that Epstein had stated were not suitable for a Beatles record, there was nothing to stop him from recording his own album with Yoko with those songs and following the underwhelming performance with Everest, Lennon felt determined to record another album as what some might say as a last ditch attempt for his political reputation. Epstein reportedly gave Lennon his blessing even though from some of the songs that he had heard that would likely not go down well though he was more stunned that despite having badmouth Spector over the Everest album, he was brought in to record John and Yoko's new album in which baffled many though likely he was on a contract to record another album for Apple and this new one would likely be the one that would send Spector on his way and it is said the two men wouldn't see eye to eye though never once did it break into an argument even though tension was there and when recording was over, likely both were happy to see the back of each other.
For anyone who had followed the Lennons in their dabbles of solo material over the years knew that the material flat out alienate or baffled many and after what had come before that many expected this album was to follow suite. The new album itself would be called Some Time In New York City [1] in which would undoubtedly be perhaps Lennon's most radical and charged work to date and what looked to be an album that was going to appeal to that crowd he so wanted to be part of but if he thought the backlash to the Irish Double and the mixed reception to Everest had been bad, they were nothing compared to the utter scathing reviews that Lennon would get for Some Time In New York City which would get from the musical press upon its release in September [2] and although the UK release managed a number 11 chart peak, it only went to number 48 in the US. Lennon was reportedly stunned by the album's failure and to add to the humiliation to him, there was the old saying that it happens in three in which now he had oversaw a third misfire on his watch.
Several conservative listeners would take some form of mockery of the album's failure and of the Lennons as it was 'a crude, superficial look at trendy leftist politics and have plunged even further into their endless echo chamber', while even the leftist community that Lennon had aimed for either ignored it or outright called Lennon as 'a pathetic, ageing revolutionary'. To say that it had been a major backfire for Lennon would be an understatement with many more neutral critics calling the album as 'Lennon's death cry for a trying to appeal to a political group that had long since given up on him and that he on his own is nothing without the help of The Beatles'. It must be noted that by late 1972, political rock had lost much of its edge with Some Time In New York being the unwanted poster child of dying art.
What made things more worse for Lennon was that Allen Klein, the man who both John and Yoko had great faith in when they first brought him in for a possible position to be the band's new manager yet with how much he had rubbed them off the wrong way over the past few years with Epstein showing that he was a better man despite his own flaws, it was Klein's reluctance to promote the new album and support Lennon's political cause would be the straw that broke the camel's back for him [3] and in October, a battered and angry Lennon would call Epstein and the rest of the band that he had finally had it with Klein and wanted him out and this was to put an end of Klein's chances of being the new Beatles manager.
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Extract from 'Epstein vs Klein - The Battle For The Beatles' by Janie E. Black
With Lennon not able to leave the country with the fear that he would likely not be allowed in, the rest of the band arrived in New York along with Epstein to meet with Klein at Apple USA to give Klein the news he had not wanted to hear and hoped that would never happened which was that he was not to be their new manager once Epstein's contract expired later that month. The meeting in question would be behind closed doors with many Apple employees not able to know what was going on though it would lead to many far flung stories of what went down with some more plausible than others and even The Beatles themselves many years later would all shy away from talking about Klein as if he was something looked back on as 'old shame' and anytime they would have to talk about him it was with reluctance. Not much is known about what exactly was said in that meeting though Klein was giving the news that he would not be getting his role as manager in which his various issues such as the missing funds over Bangladesh remained unknown, the lawsuit with My Sweet Lord which had left a bad taste in the mouth for George Harrison and now how he had ghosted John Lennon to try and join him in a political cause had all made it in their eyes that Klein was not suitable.
The hard talking American wasn't done yet and even though he hated to admit that his hopes of being manager were over, in which he lambasted Epstein for his previous failings as manager in which Klein to his credit wasn't wrong about and something Epstein hated to admit for those early days and also attacked Lennon for what he was trying to do was always going to end in failure and had warned him not to release Some Time In New York City and even before that to not attach The Beatles to a political cause such as the Irish Double and given how everything for the band had, to try and be polite as possible, had all ended up being underwhelming with Lennon's recent solo album being an unmitigated disaster with Klein responding to all this by saying 'Told You So' though the same phrase was the same for Paul McCartney who had long been suspicious of how well Klein had them in mind alongside Epstein and now the two men had finally be proven right.
As heated as that final meeting between both parties was, it is quite surprising that it didn't come to any blows nor did Klein needed to be dragged out by security out of the building though would leaving with parting words that given the state The Beatles were in, he doubted that they were to last another year and predicated that Lennon was going to be deported soon. With that, Allen Klein's tenue with The Beatles had come to an end in which while he wasn't fired in a sense given how he had not been on a contract from the start thanks to Epstein working out the compromised contract in which if Klein did well then he would slip into the role as manager but yet with him now having done badly, there was no chance of anything good happening for him with the band.
Yes, Epstein had 'won' the battle for the control of The Beatles, coincidently just a few days before his 38th birthday, in his his contract with the band being renewed later that day for an undisclosed amount of time but at the same time, there was a feeling for Epstein that something didn't feel right as in he felt that he had only gotten the renewal was that no one was wanting to touch The Beatles after the year they had and that the only reason he had gotten the job as there was no other choice. The mere prospect of no one wanting to touch the Beatles considering their status as the biggest band in the world seemed laughable and barely believable from even a year ago but then again that was what had happened with 1972 for the band. Epstein would state that he felt it was a hollow victory as with everything else that had happened, was there really a future for The Beatles?
To this day, Allen Klein divides opinion on if he would have been a good manager pointing out several good things he had done or if he was a free wheeling loudmouth conman who would have led The Beatles to doom regardless. What matter though at this point going forward was that Klein's role in any future Beatles work was no more and now is just another character in the band's long history but even with him gone, things weren't going to turn a corner for them as with Epstein and the band all agreeing that 1972 - the year in which the band should've been celebrating a glorious ten years since they released their first single - had turned into a year that many Beatles fans over the years would agree had been a poor one. Question now was what now?
With all this going on with his personal life is that by November 1972, Lennon’s immersion in radical politics wasn’t the same as it had been a year earlier. He didn’t change his pro-peace views—and didn’t back down from fighting for the chance to perform political songs if given the chance though sadly it seems that those who he felt needed him didn't want nothing to do with him. Yes, while Lennon might not have the appeal of the activists he had wanted to be part of and feel like he fitted right in, the one thing that he and that crowd had in common was their hatred for Nixon and the hope that the upcoming Presidential Election would see him voted out though perhaps both had different reasons in which much of the left knew a Nixon defeat would be a anti-war vote while it would mean, at least for Lennon's mind, any fears of being deported would be vanished once and for all.
Lennon had been suspecting that George McGovern, the Democrat nomination who had been elected to challenge Nixon, had a good chance to beat him as with anti-war protests regarding Vietnam and other such events happening in the country and that in Lennon's mind Nixon was evil through and through and that the American public would vote him out. Of course it was the stress of by this point he and Yoko had still not found Kyoko since they arrived in the United States [3] and the fear of being deported was a very real prospect for Lennon though oddly in a way thanks to Epstein telling the Lennons to try and keep a low profile as best as they could, it had actually done wonders in shaking off consent surveillance from the FBI in which declassified information would state that by mid 1972, Lennon was considered no longer a threat due to how he had been seen to be absence from many far left movements that Nixon had felt could threaten his chances of re-election [4].
To add more humiliation to Lennon had he known it, even his radical work with Some Time In New York and of the charged songs in that album didn't even get a mention in those declassified reports which went to show just how much of an irrelevance Lennon was starting to become on both sides of the political aisle. That said while Lennon wasn't off the hook all together, he at the very least was now not considered serious enough to make it to Nixon's enemies list. That said, the Lennons would have been unaware of this and only knew that Nixon being gone was the only thing they knew would be enough to prevent the deportation from happening. When Lennon would tell Epstein how he felt that in his mind that Nixon was so evil, at least in the perception of those in New York City were the couple lived, that McGovern was surely going to win hands down even though Lennon did have some doubts about him in the back of his mind that he felt he was 'too nice'.
Epstein wasn't so sure in while he really was neutral and had nothing to say about American politics and nowhere near invested as Lennon was, he did feel for Lennon being aware that despite him trying to keep Lennon down as best as he could the fear of the Beatle being ousted back to Britain was a real possibility. Yet he did try pointing out to John and Yoko that he felt that the pair were living in an echo chamber and that there was a bigger world outside of New York that likely didn't share the same views as they did. Lennon of course refused to believe that notion and would invite Epstein to a party hosted by their Yippie friend Jerry Rubin at his home in Soho which was taking place on election night in which at the party would feature the likes of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg [5] just to name a few; all of who were expecting a crushing defeat for Nixon and Epstein would admit that he felt out of place being perhaps the last man to in with such a crowd. Bizarrely enough, he ended up stealing the show.
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Extracts from 'In My Life' by John Lennon
When I invited Brian to take part in the party, he said he didn't felt that he belonged with that crowd as they would likely see him as part of the elite as he called it but me and Yoko assured him that this wouldn't be the case in which that he could tell them that he was gay and no harm would come to him which remember back then no one other than those within his inner circle and the other music acts he had on the Apple label knew about this in which he was still scared to come out in public and that if anything they'd all likely take him to heart. I honestly don't know how long it took to convince him to join but I managed too yet he warned me that the so-called victory party that I was calling it was jumping the gun too soon that he pointed out that he had nagging feeling that Nixon could win yet I was wanting to prove to him that he would be wrong.
Brian would actually loosen up a little bit, after a drink or two, and would open up to them once he knew he had a captive audience and I was shocked that then he would take the plunge and announced to the crowd that he was gay and while I had said to him that they would support him, there was a feeling in the back of my mind it might have not had been the case. Thankfully once the shocked reaction past, they all happily congratulated him in coming out to them and I think Brian was taken aback at just how well all these people who were all strangers to him actually all took to him; didn't matter that he likely wasn't on the same page with them politically, just for what he was and how likable they thought of him he had ended up being the unlikely star of the party.
Now you'll notice something rather significant here, I've not mentioned myself here in which there was a reason for it...I was forgotten about as Brian had accidently stolen the show and probably one of the rare times a Beatle would get upstaged by someone! Me and Yoko only got one of two comments but they were nothing compared to the attention Brian had gathered and I would remember that he had this look of nervous embarrassment that he must have felt of stealing my thunder in which at first he wanted nothing to do with the party and I did feel a bit of anger I had been forgotten about but alas it just went to show how much my stock had fallen but that night would end up being perhaps the worst night of my life for what you all knew happened next...
Lennon would go ahead with taking shots regardless though the problem was not only was Nixon winning states, he was winning a lot of them. A lot being which would be a staggering landslide of 49 states in which would go down as one the biggest election victories in American history and Nixon all but swept the national board by winning every state except Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia. For the anti-war left which was pretty much everyone there at the party, it was a devasting result in which Epstein despite feeling sorry for many of them did feel a sense of 'I told you so' that this could happen. Lennon wouldn't even finish his drinking game, stopping at what was either his 23rd or 25th shot when it became clear that Nixon was going to win and he would take it personally but now it a drunken state, he would take out his anger on pretty much everyone there at the party.
Not only would accuse Epstein of working for the FBI for all this time but even would lambast everyone else there for all being secretly working for Nixon and how that they had sabotaged his career and that he let out his frustrations that he had been betrayed from being isolated from the left. Any small sliver of support Lennon had from the left at that point would be destroyed that night in which it was quite amazing Epstein would recall that they weren't thrown out though by this point once the results of more states being won, the party was disintegrating even further with Epstein now taking on the role of trying to console many guests at how bad the result had been for them. However, the worse was yet to follow that was to be the cherry on top for this calamitous party.
Lennon would make the mistake that he would regret for many years in which in a blind drunken and angry state, he would begin to flirt with one of Rubi's female roommates, Carol Realini, a woman that Abbie Hoffman himself had slept with...and John would do this right in front of Yoko in which he ended up kissing Realini [7]. If that wasn't shocking enough, Lennon would take Realini to an empty room in which to Yoko and Epstein's horror and the amazement of everyone else at the party, proceeded to have loud sex with her. Some disturbed guests would take this as the time to leave and now a shocked Epstein would have to comfort Yoko who was breaking down in tears at her husband's blatant affair right in front of their eyes.
Epstein would recall that he would offer her his sunglasses to try and cover her tears over Yoko's face so she could hide behind them. Epstein offered to take Yoko home in which they would get a taxi back to the Dakota in which when it seemed that Lennon looked liked a lost cause by this point. When Lennon would finally exit from the room and had ended his drunken love making, he was furious when he learned that Yoko and left with Epstein and would get a cab back to the Dakota in which he left that party stumbling away out the building in which one guest would remark that Lennon was no longer some demi-god in their eyes but rather a man with a big mouth and cheating heart who had committed suicide politically.
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Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
It was a horrible night and Yoko once she got back into the taxi would cry uncontrollably at what John had done and I felt angry at what he had done yet at the same time, I felt pity and how broken he was at how things had gone and to say the year had gone badly for him was putting it mildly. When we got to the Dakota, Yoko went up to their apartment in which she told me not let John in and when I asked her what should I do, she didn't have an answer and just said she wanted a few days aways from him and went to bed after that. I knew John would be back soon so I spent most of the evening in the lobby awaiting for John to return and sure enough about some hours later, he did return fuming at what had happened that we had gone without him though honestly he was at fault for letting this happen.
When he saw me waiting in the lobby he stormed up to me and said, "The fuck were you playing at?! Where's Yoko?!"
I tried to defuse the situation by saying, "Listen John, she's asleep now. She wants to be alone for a few days and honestly we should drink to death somewhere else if I were you."
I said it with bit more sarcasm than I meant and had this been said by anyone else then John would have likely gotten into a drunken fight but because this was me he was speaking too, he suddenly soften and in his eyes, I could see that he was saddened at what he had done and really remorseful at his actions once it seemed to dawn on him the gravity of the situation. "Mr Epstein, I've really fucked up badly with this, haven't I?"
"You most certainly have dear boy," I replied, "and not for the first time."
At this point, John seemed stop his rambling and raving with his emotions still running high over what had just happened. The fact he had called me 'Mr Epstein' like he used to when we first met in the old days instead of just 'Brian' was telling as if he felt too ashamed at what he had done and he did have that look of a disgraced student talking with a teacher.
"Come on," I said to him, "let's get to my suite where you can stay for the time being."
John at first didn't want to go and wanted to get back to Yoko yet knowing how hopeless his chances were for her to forgive him at this point or ever as I suspected deep down, he reluctantly followed me and he would end up binge drinking the rest of the night and staying in the living room and he really was a fallen giant of man who was one of the great musicians of all time had instead been reduced to an utter wreck of man who I feared had damaged his marriage for good in which flashbacks to what had happened with him and Cynthia crossed my mind in which lightning had struck twice in which John had cheated on his wife yet again, only this time Yoko had saw all the ugly details; even Cynthia didn't have to witness such terrible acts.
That moment in truth really capped of a terrible year for the band and myself personally in which shortly after the election night, the story of John's cheating leaked to the press and in turn they, who had grown weary of John by this point, all had a field day in which in the following week I would have to try and do damage control though honestly I felt like the captain on the Titanic with the ship going down in which seemed to indicate just how bad things were.
The following month, I would spend Christmas at Friar Park with George and Patti in which while was an enjoyable time, I could feel that there was trouble between the Harrisons in their marriage and the mere thought of more relationship crises for the band was a terrible thought I pray wasn't going to happen. Yes, Allen Klein was gone but in hindsight it felt like a mutilated victory and I had to wonder if Allen had been the victor all along in which he had dodged a bullet in which was all the madness that had happened in which I had to pick u[ the pieces? I really hadn't a clue what 1973 would bring but I could remember at Friar Park on Christmas Day I went for a walk in the gardens in which the thought on my mind was, 'what do I do now?'
[1] Yes, that album is still released though is not a double album here with many included songs as from our TL but nonetheless still performs as bad as OTL.
[2] As what happened with OTL's version.
[3] What really caused Lennon's relationship to break with Klein with OTL which still happens for TTL.
[4] A small but big change for Lennon here...thanks to Epstein telling Lennon to keep his head down and how the left abounded him, Nixon here now no longer see's him as threat compared to OTL which means at least the fear of deportation isn't a thing though in all honesty that's just a mere consolation for Lennon for what has happened.
[5] As what happened with John and Yoko heading to that party much like with OTL though only difference here is that Epstein is in tow with them.
[6] Yes, Lennon did get wasted at that party following the big victory of Nixon.
[7] Yes, this happened too with the only difference being Epstein is sadly there too to witness the events.
Well then, you can say its not all going well for the band here and even though Klein is gone, is it worth it? Yeah, 1972 ITTL for Beatles fans is a pretty awful year and now as we move into 1973, what will they do now? Comment if you want more and stay tuned for the next update!
Lennon's Downfall
Extract from 'Harmony And Strife: The Early Years Of Apple 1968 - 1972' by Jordon Monroe
The glory of 1971 which seemed at the time as the answer that the band was here to stay was now looked on in some quarters as nothing more than a false dawn in which The Beatles had suffered a year in which anything they released hadn't done well; the Irish Double single had been the first Beatles Single not to reach any big heights and the underperformance of Everest, the first Beatles album not to hit number one in the charts was a shock to many and proving that the Irish Double was no fluke for a 'failed' Beatles product and that the cracks were starting to show which to some had tarred the image of the band in the eyes of many in which some conservative minded folk felt they were going too far left (mostly with John Lennon) and looking to be too radical while even those on the left felt that the band (mostly Lennon again) were acting like sell outs mainly due to how Apple wasn't quite the hippy eutopia when first announced in which with hindsight was laughable even then which now became pretty much a typical business like anything else and that many leftists were left flabbergasted at the price of The Concert For Bangladesh album in which despite Lennon pleading them to buy it, many refused.
In fact, no Beatle suffered the year more than that of Lennon in which even without the problems the band had with their recent output, his status as some radical poet for the left had taken a battering in which he had found himself isolated from them the crowd he had so desired for and in many ways there were many that put the blame on Lennon for the direction The Beatles had gone in and how badly things had gone for them. At first he would try and answer the critics main gripe of how unequal it sounded with some songs sounding all polished like Harrison's work while Lennon's was more raw and clashed with the tone of an album that honestly didn't know what direction to take it in. Lennon would say that he was wanting to try something different with the sound in which while there had been no trouble in trying something different as The Beatles had always done this from the moment they ended their touring days though there was a direction of what they were doing which was not present here.
In perhaps the state he was in he would try and put some of the blame on Phil Spector for making the album the way it was yet Spector and even the rest of the band would all say that Lennon was the one who was not on the same wave length with the rest of the band during the production of the album. Even with all that aside with how things had gone for him musically, his own personal life was not much better in which the fear of being deported and being on Nixon's enemies list, the ongoing search for Yoko’s daughter and his growing paranoid fears that any phone call he made was being wiretapped for keeping an eye on him to find any excuse to deport him. What made things more tense that 1972 was an election year and Lennon knew that if Nixon won another four years in office then there was a good chance that in that time he could be kicked out of the country and unlikely to be allowed back in.
It was a grim state of affairs for Lennon but yet despite all of this there was a small ray of hope that he might have a chance to win back much of that leftist crowd that had left him. With the many songs that Epstein had stated were not suitable for a Beatles record, there was nothing to stop him from recording his own album with Yoko with those songs and following the underwhelming performance with Everest, Lennon felt determined to record another album as what some might say as a last ditch attempt for his political reputation. Epstein reportedly gave Lennon his blessing even though from some of the songs that he had heard that would likely not go down well though he was more stunned that despite having badmouth Spector over the Everest album, he was brought in to record John and Yoko's new album in which baffled many though likely he was on a contract to record another album for Apple and this new one would likely be the one that would send Spector on his way and it is said the two men wouldn't see eye to eye though never once did it break into an argument even though tension was there and when recording was over, likely both were happy to see the back of each other.
For anyone who had followed the Lennons in their dabbles of solo material over the years knew that the material flat out alienate or baffled many and after what had come before that many expected this album was to follow suite. The new album itself would be called Some Time In New York City [1] in which would undoubtedly be perhaps Lennon's most radical and charged work to date and what looked to be an album that was going to appeal to that crowd he so wanted to be part of but if he thought the backlash to the Irish Double and the mixed reception to Everest had been bad, they were nothing compared to the utter scathing reviews that Lennon would get for Some Time In New York City which would get from the musical press upon its release in September [2] and although the UK release managed a number 11 chart peak, it only went to number 48 in the US. Lennon was reportedly stunned by the album's failure and to add to the humiliation to him, there was the old saying that it happens in three in which now he had oversaw a third misfire on his watch.
Several conservative listeners would take some form of mockery of the album's failure and of the Lennons as it was 'a crude, superficial look at trendy leftist politics and have plunged even further into their endless echo chamber', while even the leftist community that Lennon had aimed for either ignored it or outright called Lennon as 'a pathetic, ageing revolutionary'. To say that it had been a major backfire for Lennon would be an understatement with many more neutral critics calling the album as 'Lennon's death cry for a trying to appeal to a political group that had long since given up on him and that he on his own is nothing without the help of The Beatles'. It must be noted that by late 1972, political rock had lost much of its edge with Some Time In New York being the unwanted poster child of dying art.
What made things more worse for Lennon was that Allen Klein, the man who both John and Yoko had great faith in when they first brought him in for a possible position to be the band's new manager yet with how much he had rubbed them off the wrong way over the past few years with Epstein showing that he was a better man despite his own flaws, it was Klein's reluctance to promote the new album and support Lennon's political cause would be the straw that broke the camel's back for him [3] and in October, a battered and angry Lennon would call Epstein and the rest of the band that he had finally had it with Klein and wanted him out and this was to put an end of Klein's chances of being the new Beatles manager.
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Extract from 'Epstein vs Klein - The Battle For The Beatles' by Janie E. Black
The hard talking American wasn't done yet and even though he hated to admit that his hopes of being manager were over, in which he lambasted Epstein for his previous failings as manager in which Klein to his credit wasn't wrong about and something Epstein hated to admit for those early days and also attacked Lennon for what he was trying to do was always going to end in failure and had warned him not to release Some Time In New York City and even before that to not attach The Beatles to a political cause such as the Irish Double and given how everything for the band had, to try and be polite as possible, had all ended up being underwhelming with Lennon's recent solo album being an unmitigated disaster with Klein responding to all this by saying 'Told You So' though the same phrase was the same for Paul McCartney who had long been suspicious of how well Klein had them in mind alongside Epstein and now the two men had finally be proven right.
As heated as that final meeting between both parties was, it is quite surprising that it didn't come to any blows nor did Klein needed to be dragged out by security out of the building though would leaving with parting words that given the state The Beatles were in, he doubted that they were to last another year and predicated that Lennon was going to be deported soon. With that, Allen Klein's tenue with The Beatles had come to an end in which while he wasn't fired in a sense given how he had not been on a contract from the start thanks to Epstein working out the compromised contract in which if Klein did well then he would slip into the role as manager but yet with him now having done badly, there was no chance of anything good happening for him with the band.
Yes, Epstein had 'won' the battle for the control of The Beatles, coincidently just a few days before his 38th birthday, in his his contract with the band being renewed later that day for an undisclosed amount of time but at the same time, there was a feeling for Epstein that something didn't feel right as in he felt that he had only gotten the renewal was that no one was wanting to touch The Beatles after the year they had and that the only reason he had gotten the job as there was no other choice. The mere prospect of no one wanting to touch the Beatles considering their status as the biggest band in the world seemed laughable and barely believable from even a year ago but then again that was what had happened with 1972 for the band. Epstein would state that he felt it was a hollow victory as with everything else that had happened, was there really a future for The Beatles?
To this day, Allen Klein divides opinion on if he would have been a good manager pointing out several good things he had done or if he was a free wheeling loudmouth conman who would have led The Beatles to doom regardless. What matter though at this point going forward was that Klein's role in any future Beatles work was no more and now is just another character in the band's long history but even with him gone, things weren't going to turn a corner for them as with Epstein and the band all agreeing that 1972 - the year in which the band should've been celebrating a glorious ten years since they released their first single - had turned into a year that many Beatles fans over the years would agree had been a poor one. Question now was what now?
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Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
If anyone had suffered a pretty rocky year within the band that wasn't Brian Epstein trying to get Allen Klein out of the door, it would be of course John Lennon in which as the old saying goes, things happen in three, in which the Irish Double, Everest and Some Time In New York City had either underperformed or had scored badly with critics. However Lennon would likely had argued that those were the least of his concerns in which that year had been pretty much down a comedown on some of Lennon's more radical activism in which him being excluded from the left with some of those on the left even mocking Lennon that for a man who had wrote Working Class Hero wasn't really one for he had grown up in what could be considered rather comfortable middle class surroundings living with his Aunt Mimi and some would call him out as a hypocrite once they had dug up more of his background.Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
With all this going on with his personal life is that by November 1972, Lennon’s immersion in radical politics wasn’t the same as it had been a year earlier. He didn’t change his pro-peace views—and didn’t back down from fighting for the chance to perform political songs if given the chance though sadly it seems that those who he felt needed him didn't want nothing to do with him. Yes, while Lennon might not have the appeal of the activists he had wanted to be part of and feel like he fitted right in, the one thing that he and that crowd had in common was their hatred for Nixon and the hope that the upcoming Presidential Election would see him voted out though perhaps both had different reasons in which much of the left knew a Nixon defeat would be a anti-war vote while it would mean, at least for Lennon's mind, any fears of being deported would be vanished once and for all.
Lennon had been suspecting that George McGovern, the Democrat nomination who had been elected to challenge Nixon, had a good chance to beat him as with anti-war protests regarding Vietnam and other such events happening in the country and that in Lennon's mind Nixon was evil through and through and that the American public would vote him out. Of course it was the stress of by this point he and Yoko had still not found Kyoko since they arrived in the United States [3] and the fear of being deported was a very real prospect for Lennon though oddly in a way thanks to Epstein telling the Lennons to try and keep a low profile as best as they could, it had actually done wonders in shaking off consent surveillance from the FBI in which declassified information would state that by mid 1972, Lennon was considered no longer a threat due to how he had been seen to be absence from many far left movements that Nixon had felt could threaten his chances of re-election [4].
To add more humiliation to Lennon had he known it, even his radical work with Some Time In New York and of the charged songs in that album didn't even get a mention in those declassified reports which went to show just how much of an irrelevance Lennon was starting to become on both sides of the political aisle. That said while Lennon wasn't off the hook all together, he at the very least was now not considered serious enough to make it to Nixon's enemies list. That said, the Lennons would have been unaware of this and only knew that Nixon being gone was the only thing they knew would be enough to prevent the deportation from happening. When Lennon would tell Epstein how he felt that in his mind that Nixon was so evil, at least in the perception of those in New York City were the couple lived, that McGovern was surely going to win hands down even though Lennon did have some doubts about him in the back of his mind that he felt he was 'too nice'.
Epstein wasn't so sure in while he really was neutral and had nothing to say about American politics and nowhere near invested as Lennon was, he did feel for Lennon being aware that despite him trying to keep Lennon down as best as he could the fear of the Beatle being ousted back to Britain was a real possibility. Yet he did try pointing out to John and Yoko that he felt that the pair were living in an echo chamber and that there was a bigger world outside of New York that likely didn't share the same views as they did. Lennon of course refused to believe that notion and would invite Epstein to a party hosted by their Yippie friend Jerry Rubin at his home in Soho which was taking place on election night in which at the party would feature the likes of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg [5] just to name a few; all of who were expecting a crushing defeat for Nixon and Epstein would admit that he felt out of place being perhaps the last man to in with such a crowd. Bizarrely enough, he ended up stealing the show.
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Extracts from 'In My Life' by John Lennon
[...]
When we got there, I will admit I got a rather lukewarm welcome by everyone there in which my stock had fallen that bad in their eyes in which the only thing we all had in common was our hatred of Nixon; I might have been a Republic senator in their eyes. But really turned things on its head when I introduced them to Brian and at once the mood the change in which they had all been aware about Brian and what he had done for The Beatles and how they all saw him as the mastermind of the first British invasion and I would say they were all awestruck by him and at once they all wanted to get to know him in which he had by total accident became the star guest of the night and not me and Yoko. They would all ask him questions about his life before in which they may not had in which slowly and surely he would explain about who he was. When he revealed his Jewish heritage he would find some support from several Jews who where there which did make him feel a bit more welcomed.
Brian would actually loosen up a little bit, after a drink or two, and would open up to them once he knew he had a captive audience and I was shocked that then he would take the plunge and announced to the crowd that he was gay and while I had said to him that they would support him, there was a feeling in the back of my mind it might have not had been the case. Thankfully once the shocked reaction past, they all happily congratulated him in coming out to them and I think Brian was taken aback at just how well all these people who were all strangers to him actually all took to him; didn't matter that he likely wasn't on the same page with them politically, just for what he was and how likable they thought of him he had ended up being the unlikely star of the party.
Now you'll notice something rather significant here, I've not mentioned myself here in which there was a reason for it...I was forgotten about as Brian had accidently stolen the show and probably one of the rare times a Beatle would get upstaged by someone! Me and Yoko only got one of two comments but they were nothing compared to the attention Brian had gathered and I would remember that he had this look of nervous embarrassment that he must have felt of stealing my thunder in which at first he wanted nothing to do with the party and I did feel a bit of anger I had been forgotten about but alas it just went to show how much my stock had fallen but that night would end up being perhaps the worst night of my life for what you all knew happened next...
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Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Despite Epstein's warnings that victory was no a sure thing for the Democrats and that Nixon could still win, many as well as Lennon all thought that Epstein was being too pessimistic yet when news filtered in a slow pace that it seemed that Nixon was not only going to win, but in a possible landslide, the party which had been all full of life would then turn into a wake yet some would not believe in in once the final results came in. One of them would be Lennon who, in perhaps a sense of denial of that all his political activism over the past few years was about to backfire in the most humiliating way possible, he would then make the terrible mistake in which he would having a drinking game for himself in which for every state that Nixon would win he'd take a shot [6] in which Epstein pleaded with him not to do it in which his predictions of Nixon actually winning were looking more likely by the hour.Extract from 'Epstein: The Secondary Years 1968 - 1978' by Debbie Geller
Lennon would go ahead with taking shots regardless though the problem was not only was Nixon winning states, he was winning a lot of them. A lot being which would be a staggering landslide of 49 states in which would go down as one the biggest election victories in American history and Nixon all but swept the national board by winning every state except Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia. For the anti-war left which was pretty much everyone there at the party, it was a devasting result in which Epstein despite feeling sorry for many of them did feel a sense of 'I told you so' that this could happen. Lennon wouldn't even finish his drinking game, stopping at what was either his 23rd or 25th shot when it became clear that Nixon was going to win and he would take it personally but now it a drunken state, he would take out his anger on pretty much everyone there at the party.
Not only would accuse Epstein of working for the FBI for all this time but even would lambast everyone else there for all being secretly working for Nixon and how that they had sabotaged his career and that he let out his frustrations that he had been betrayed from being isolated from the left. Any small sliver of support Lennon had from the left at that point would be destroyed that night in which it was quite amazing Epstein would recall that they weren't thrown out though by this point once the results of more states being won, the party was disintegrating even further with Epstein now taking on the role of trying to console many guests at how bad the result had been for them. However, the worse was yet to follow that was to be the cherry on top for this calamitous party.
Lennon would make the mistake that he would regret for many years in which in a blind drunken and angry state, he would begin to flirt with one of Rubi's female roommates, Carol Realini, a woman that Abbie Hoffman himself had slept with...and John would do this right in front of Yoko in which he ended up kissing Realini [7]. If that wasn't shocking enough, Lennon would take Realini to an empty room in which to Yoko and Epstein's horror and the amazement of everyone else at the party, proceeded to have loud sex with her. Some disturbed guests would take this as the time to leave and now a shocked Epstein would have to comfort Yoko who was breaking down in tears at her husband's blatant affair right in front of their eyes.
Epstein would recall that he would offer her his sunglasses to try and cover her tears over Yoko's face so she could hide behind them. Epstein offered to take Yoko home in which they would get a taxi back to the Dakota in which when it seemed that Lennon looked liked a lost cause by this point. When Lennon would finally exit from the room and had ended his drunken love making, he was furious when he learned that Yoko and left with Epstein and would get a cab back to the Dakota in which he left that party stumbling away out the building in which one guest would remark that Lennon was no longer some demi-god in their eyes but rather a man with a big mouth and cheating heart who had committed suicide politically.
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Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
When he saw me waiting in the lobby he stormed up to me and said, "The fuck were you playing at?! Where's Yoko?!"
I tried to defuse the situation by saying, "Listen John, she's asleep now. She wants to be alone for a few days and honestly we should drink to death somewhere else if I were you."
I said it with bit more sarcasm than I meant and had this been said by anyone else then John would have likely gotten into a drunken fight but because this was me he was speaking too, he suddenly soften and in his eyes, I could see that he was saddened at what he had done and really remorseful at his actions once it seemed to dawn on him the gravity of the situation. "Mr Epstein, I've really fucked up badly with this, haven't I?"
"You most certainly have dear boy," I replied, "and not for the first time."
At this point, John seemed stop his rambling and raving with his emotions still running high over what had just happened. The fact he had called me 'Mr Epstein' like he used to when we first met in the old days instead of just 'Brian' was telling as if he felt too ashamed at what he had done and he did have that look of a disgraced student talking with a teacher.
"Come on," I said to him, "let's get to my suite where you can stay for the time being."
John at first didn't want to go and wanted to get back to Yoko yet knowing how hopeless his chances were for her to forgive him at this point or ever as I suspected deep down, he reluctantly followed me and he would end up binge drinking the rest of the night and staying in the living room and he really was a fallen giant of man who was one of the great musicians of all time had instead been reduced to an utter wreck of man who I feared had damaged his marriage for good in which flashbacks to what had happened with him and Cynthia crossed my mind in which lightning had struck twice in which John had cheated on his wife yet again, only this time Yoko had saw all the ugly details; even Cynthia didn't have to witness such terrible acts.
That moment in truth really capped of a terrible year for the band and myself personally in which shortly after the election night, the story of John's cheating leaked to the press and in turn they, who had grown weary of John by this point, all had a field day in which in the following week I would have to try and do damage control though honestly I felt like the captain on the Titanic with the ship going down in which seemed to indicate just how bad things were.
The following month, I would spend Christmas at Friar Park with George and Patti in which while was an enjoyable time, I could feel that there was trouble between the Harrisons in their marriage and the mere thought of more relationship crises for the band was a terrible thought I pray wasn't going to happen. Yes, Allen Klein was gone but in hindsight it felt like a mutilated victory and I had to wonder if Allen had been the victor all along in which he had dodged a bullet in which was all the madness that had happened in which I had to pick u[ the pieces? I really hadn't a clue what 1973 would bring but I could remember at Friar Park on Christmas Day I went for a walk in the gardens in which the thought on my mind was, 'what do I do now?'
[1] Yes, that album is still released though is not a double album here with many included songs as from our TL but nonetheless still performs as bad as OTL.
[2] As what happened with OTL's version.
[3] What really caused Lennon's relationship to break with Klein with OTL which still happens for TTL.
[4] A small but big change for Lennon here...thanks to Epstein telling Lennon to keep his head down and how the left abounded him, Nixon here now no longer see's him as threat compared to OTL which means at least the fear of deportation isn't a thing though in all honesty that's just a mere consolation for Lennon for what has happened.
[5] As what happened with John and Yoko heading to that party much like with OTL though only difference here is that Epstein is in tow with them.
[6] Yes, Lennon did get wasted at that party following the big victory of Nixon.
[7] Yes, this happened too with the only difference being Epstein is sadly there too to witness the events.
Well then, you can say its not all going well for the band here and even though Klein is gone, is it worth it? Yeah, 1972 ITTL for Beatles fans is a pretty awful year and now as we move into 1973, what will they do now? Comment if you want more and stay tuned for the next update!
With A Little Help From Mr Bond and Mr Martin
Now then, here we go again although I will say as I write this I'm not 100% well as I have a bit of cold so I might not be fully firing on all cylinders as I write this one. Anyway, after how 1972 proved to be not The Beatles best year for a number of factors so now we move into 1973 in which looks to be a make or break year for The Beatles...what will happen next? Let's find out...
The story of John Lennon's cheating on Yoko in the wake of Nixon's election victory had been picked up in the press with some comparing it to that of what he did with Cynthia with Lennon getting the rather unfortune nickname in the press as 'Johnny Two Times' in which Brian Epstein would try and play damage control saying that Lennon had been under a lot of stress and what happened was a moment of madness from him and that he would be taking a break for a time though some cynical members in the press thought that in the wake of the failure of Everest that what Lennon did was nothing more than just a glorified PR stunt to get attention for the band though this was far from the truth with some then asking the question were The Beatles really finished? A question that in private, Lennon had asked Epstein if this was the end and with all that had happened with him of late, he seemed to have resigned himself to a doomed fate.
Incredibly despite what he had done, Yoko had allowed John back in their apartment at the Dakota though it wasn't a happy affair in which thanks to John's issues for his fear of being deported and of how both Everest and Some Time In New York City had both done badly, the once inseparable lovers now looked like a couple that was on the verge of collapse. For months, Yoko tried to ignore the three televisions that were always on and that her husband seemed totally focused on them and never on her. He had been focused on several big news stories with those being the final Apollo moon mission, the hard-to-accept ending of the Vietnam War and the deepening of the Watergate scandal. In summery, their relationship was no longer what it used to be as when they first moved into their apartment in the Dakota they thought that it was a physical manifestation of their profound love they had for each other but now it had become a place where they coexisted but on a silent level.
John seemed to tolerate yet Yoko was at her wit's end with her trying to contact Epstein to explain how bad things had gotten and what were they going to do. Epstein had feared the moment Yoko allowed John back in - in which he had found crazy given what had happened - was that it looking pretty much certain that it was becoming impossible for them to live in the same space and that the only solution was one of them to move out. Yoko suggested that if The Beatles could help drag him away for a period then maybe she could have time recover and hopefully by then their marriage might return to normal again; normal as in by Lennon standards. She didn't want a divorce as that was what she would say to Epstein as an unthinkable option but the Lennons were needing a change regardless.
That being said though, John was certain that The Beatles were finished and that his relationship was doomed and that the only outcome was to return to Britain with Nixon's election victory pretty much certain meant his time in America was over. It was however with hindsight that regarding deportation is that he really should have worried in which with his lack of notable political activity that John would have gotten up to thanks to Epstein keeping him in place [1] it had meant that John was no longer a target for Nixon's infamous enemies lists and that the fact that his own personal life seemed to be in utter shambles only seemed to confirm to those in Nixon's inner circle that John was no longer deemed worth the time to spy on and with that, the Lennons would get a surprise announcement from their lawyer that from out of the blue, the immigration case seemed to over and that John could now claim permanent residency in the United States.
It seemed laughably too good to be true given how much the Lennons felt that after all these years fighting his immigration case that it could be dropped like that overnight yet sure enough when John demanded his lawyer to tell him the truth, he was shocked that this was no joke and that that fear of deportation could finally be laid to rest though it seemed rather cruelly ironic in which in the years that he had fallen in love with New York and didn't want to leave yet no longer the threat of deportation hanging over his head finally lifted only for now that he did feel a sense of wanting to leave the country after what was happening and not because of his personal life but that he seemed aware that with Nixon's landslide victory that he would make life a living hell for not only for Lennon but perhaps many leftists that had called out Nixon throughout most of the year which had only made them easy targets for the president.
It was thanks to Epstein that he would convince Lennon to return to Britain at least for a short time in which the door to return to America was there and surprisingly Yoko would agree on this in which by this point, she was needing a break from her husband leaving a bad atmosphere and perhaps wouldn't have the burden of his neediness in which the band could help give him something to do rather than just remain in their apartment doing nothing that watch television. However, she didn't want her husband to be totally free of her as Yoko as while she would ask him to leave, she refused to give up all the ties -co-activists, collaborator. wife - that bounded them together so she would dispatch her and John's secretary, May Pang, to become his companion and keep him out of trouble. This might not have sounded bad at first though it was when Epstein asked Yoko about this arrangement that left him gobsmacked at what Yoko wanted.
This would be the first time I'd get to know her though I was shocked to hear what Yoko told me she wanted May to do. The plan Yoko had for May was not just to make sure that John would be kept out of trouble but also to - and I'm not joking here - to sleep with John and report back with what she was seeing. Granted by this point a I had reluctantly gotten use to some of the couple's more bizarre and outlandish things they would do but this though was really a step too far in which I warned Yoko that having this girl sleep with her husband could only make things worse for their strained relationship yet Yoko insisted on this plan going ahead in which she even stated that she suspected John had found May sexually attractive [2] so there was nothing wrong with the idea in which she stated that since Ringo owned Tittenhurst Park that John and May could stay there though I wasn't sure if Ringo would want that considering that he had just moved his family there.
In the end, I had to give in and hoped that she would be right but I seriously doubted it would work. I didn't know what to say about it and I remember when I first revealed the story to Queen on a lunch break when they in the middle of recording their first album that year, I remember the stunned looked they gave me at Yoko's crazy plan in which I remember Freddie Mercury burst out laughing to the point he had tears running down his face laughing at the utter absurdity of it in which when he is saying that you know it must be crazy. Brian May on the other hand looked worried as he, along with, feared that this could spell doom. Yes, you could say this was a Rock 'N' Roll lifestyle that you would always expect but this was something else that even I knew was a terrible idea.
So it was in May that I would meet John and May at the airport at Heathrow in which not only was it the first time that John would be back on British soil after a few years but that he would be with another woman that wasn't Yoko or Cynthia. That first meeting was something I had no idea what to expect in which they came in not looking like some famous couple but rather some stragglers who had looked as though they had 'escaped' from wherever it was they were from and hoped for a new life and in some ways that was the truth given the case of what had happened with John though May looked rather bewildered at the situation she had gotten herself in for. When they saw me, they came up to me with John greeting like an old friend.
"Welcome to England," I joked to them, "hope the flight wasn't bad."
"Coming back to shitty weather," John joked. "Yep, I'm back here again alright."
it was a great way to break the ice and we laughed. Then I would meet May Pang and would finally get to know her better. The girl was only twenty-two years old and was placed in a very confusing situation in which here she was sent over half way across the world to sleep with a Beatle which seemed like every girl's dream if the fact that said Beatle wasn't already a married man and was having marriage troubles and was being encouraged by Yoko to sleep with John. I had no clue what to feel for her other than feel sorry for such a young girl to in such a situation though that said, she seemed excited to meet me as John would introduce me to her as we shook hands.
"Are you Mr. Epstein? John told me so much about you," May asked with what I could only describe a little sense of awe at seeing me.
"Please, just call me Brian," I replied warmly. "So then, we have much to catch on about."
And that's what we did; in the car journey in which I drove and they sat in the back, we talked about various things with May asking all the questions about me, The Beatles and the other acts we had on the Apple label in which John in that time simply sat back and let May do all the talking in which I could see John was sitting there looking out from the window at the passing buildings and then scenery in which I had no doubt he was in a reflective mood at where he was and what happened; I wanted to ask if he was ok but then again knowing John he would have told me to shut up and keep driving and beside May was acting as the more friendly backseat driver as I suspect any taxi driver would like whenever they have a tourist on them.
However, something felt odd in which I just found May such a delight to talk too which made me think of Yoko. What I mean to say is that it took me two years to warm up to Yoko from the moment she entered John's life while May Pang in contrast took less than ten minutes for me to like her as she just seemed so grounded and normal compared to Yoko and if I was liking her, who knows how John might have felt for her? All I knew though was that for John, it was time for him to get back with the band as after Phil Spector had bailed on the band and refused to work with John again in anyway, it would be George Martin that would lend a helping hand in which he too needing a helping hand for a certain Mr Bond.
My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done; such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s as bad as listening to The Beatles without earmuffs.
It was a line that would be iconic and of its time in which at the film's release in 1964, Beatlemania was on a high and it would have seem unthinkable to speak bad about the band at the time in which it is reported many young teenage girls who watched the film in the cinema would boo loudly at the diss from 007. Other members of the audience would be split down the middle by the agent’s words, some saw it as the perfect kickback against the long-haired revolution and others saw it as Bond not keeping up with the times. Funnily enough, both The Beatles and James Bond film series had gone on a similar path in which both were at their height due the mid 60's in which they became both icons of British pop culture yet by the early 70's both saw their fame take something of a dip in which The Beatles' latest record Everest had proved to be a failure in their eyes while the last James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever had left a lot to be desired.
Both were at a cross road knowing that whatever happened next would be a make or break time for both and with the idea of the legendary secret agent's infamous diss towards The Beatles in the mind of many nine years ago, it would end up being one of the most hilariously ironic moments in pop culture history in which it would be that The Beatles would strike back in which it would that they would be singing the title song for the next James Bond movie Live and Let Die which would be the debut role of Roger Moore in the role as 007. That said, the idea of bringing the band on for the film's title song had been thanks to The Beatles long time producer George Martin who was put in charge to write the film's soundtrack in which producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli would ask Martin that due to his connections with The Beatles that if they might be interested in playing the next film's title song in which having the world's biggest band playing the next song on the upcoming Bond film would be major coup.
George Martin was unsure if the band would willing to do as none of their songs had ever been used for any film outside films staring The Beatles though this talk was happening prior the release of Everest which upon its rather lacklustre reception did cool interest in The Beatles yet nonetheless George Martin who saw that the band were needing a helping hand would tell Tom Mankiewicz, the film's screenwriter, to present the unfinished script for the band to have a look for themselves. Paul McCartney would later read the Ian Fleming book the film would be based on and jumped at the chance to write the title song for the film [3] in which all the band would reunite with the exception of John who at the time was still in America though it would see George Harrison's friend Ray Cooper playing percussion on the song.
Well McCartney was the one most keen on the idea and the one who knew a quick bounce back was needed, the others weren't so sure though Ringo Starr would tag along with Harrison unsure about wanting to work on the song though combine that with how bad the last Beatles record had gone and not to mention his own personal life with his failing marriage to Patti, even he had to admit that McCartney was right that the band needed an extra boost to get them back on their feet and distract them from their troubles in which Live and Let Die would be a rare McCartney/Harrison song [4] to be written by them. Lennon though while he said he would not take part in the recording he would give his blessing for them to do the song without him in which the song would be recorded in October 1972 as the last song to be done that year for the band.
There would be some nostalgia for the band that for the first time since the Abbey Road sessions that they were recording with George Martin again and they would share stories reflecting on the old days and even though there had been no comment then about recording a new Beatles album then, there was that feeling that if they did then they wanted to get back to having Martin act as their producer once again and with 1973 being the tenth anniversary of their first recorded which Martin did produce, it seemed like a no brainer for them. Away from that though and prior to the film's release, it was decided that the band would perform in a music video that would be filmed in May and released in time for film coming out the following month.
May would actually be the month in which Lennon would return to the UK and he would be dragged into a film studio to begin recording the music video with him on bass...a role that he didn't play on the recording as that was McCartney doing it. Lennon would bemoan that he didn't have much time to get much practice to play the bass for the song, likely due to script producer deadlines to get the music video out, with him only getting just two days worth of practice in which McCartney would have to teach him all the notes and as it would turn out, that filming session of the music video would not only the first time Lennon would perform on the song but that the whole band as well as George Martin's orchestra group would play it in 'live' setting even though it would be later on dubbed in post production in which Lennon would remark that had he known he might not had bothered learning and could have played anything and no one would have noticed.
Nonetheless, the music video itself would have McCartney on piano, Lennon on bass, Harrison on guitar, Starr on drums with Preston on keyboards with Martin conducting a twenty-four piece orchestra which would actually be the first time that he would appear on any Beatles music video in which the video had nothing much special in which saw a performance with the band that was split with scenes from the film though it was the ending that was a stand out in which towards the end from up on the rafters would be an uncredited Mal Evans playing a rather shifty villain dressed in trench coat and fedora hat who has a TNT detonator who activates it which sets of booby trap in McCartney's piano which explodes which ends the video on a explosive note [5].
There was much riding on both the song and film to be a hit in which many felt could be a test to see if both The Beatles and James Bond still had live in them yet. The film would premier in the UK in July (being released in the United States a month earlier) at Odeon Leicester Square in London in which both The Beatles, along with their partners - that being without Pattie who was nowhere to be seen which only fuelled speculation that things weren't going right for the Harrisons, and George Martin would seen on the red carpet in which there would be Mr Bond himself being Roger Moore in which would lead to an iconic photo of the two icons of British culture together for the first time and a fact that no one would have predicted would have been the case when Sean Connery as James Bond back in Goldfinger would have considered happening then but alas it is funny what life could throw up.
Thankfully, the film - produced for $8 million - would be a box office hit by grossing $160 million worldwide which proved that James Bond still had life but also the main song itself as a single was a hit in itself in which it would hit number 1 in the US charts and number 3 in the UK charts which proved that The Beatles still had life in them yet the single did have some bitterness for Harrison was that the B-side would be a song he had written called So Sad which was a song written in late 1972 about his failing marriage to Pattie and seemed like a strange choice for something James Bond related considering it was something more personal yet there was a need for a B-side and So Sad was the song chosen. Oddly, Harrison didn't seem bothered at first that this song would be chosen considering he was just happy to get more of his songs out there yet what was something that rubbed him off the wrong way was that he was told that his song would have a major part in the film in which he was looking forward to seeing what it was, only then to find out at the London premier that it wasn't be quite what he expected.
The song would be seen in the scene in which James Bond is being picked up from JFK airport by Charlie only the latter to be shot by an dart and the song could just be heard playing on the car radio in the background for just under thirty seconds [6] and even then it was buried by a musical piece written by George Martin. It was more a blink and you'll miss it moment and it would lead to a long running fake hoax story that lasted for many years that an angry George Harrison upon seeing that his song was barely been played would walk out of the cinema in disgust at how his song had gotten the short end of the deal though in truth what happened was he would be taken aback by what he saw and would lean over to Lennon asking "Is that It?" and would be left baffled at why they had told him in the first place that his song would be used in a important way, yet strangely the song was used for the death of some random person which in a way made the term 'So Sad' look more like a blatant understatement than anything else.
Despite this grumbling from the quiet Beatle, 1973 seemed to be looking good so far yet Brian Epstein knew that one decent single wasn't enough as they would need to put out an album yet after Everest and how much they had been left with bruised ego and how much of a daunting task it was looking to be to try and get back on top form not to mention the personal lives of the band, no one knew just what was to happen next but 1973 was looking to be a year that would ask the question if The Beatles could regain top spot in a world that was changing at a fast pace. The only way to find out was to go on the run to Lagos...
[1] Epstein's presence is both an annoyance yet blessing for Lennon here.
[2] So now we have May Pang enter TTL and her presence here starts of pretty much the same as OTL so far.
[3] So yes, the song is pretty much the same as OTL with some extra Beatles added on top.
[4] Unlike OTL which is written by Paul and Linda so there might be some little differences to TTL's version of the song.
[5] So the music video is pretty much the same as what we had with the OTL version with Wings but with The Beatles on it and Mal Evans too as we see in the video:
[6] It is this scene in question and you can perhaps understand by Harrison would be pissed off of how his song gets buried in the scene.
So now we enter 1973 and a taste of James Bond into the TL as you can't have any Beatles TL without including that song that in the wake of a failure of Everest here they'd need to have a 'pick me up' to get them on course. Now then, some of you might know where the next part of the TL might be leading and I won't say too much but you could be for some shocks twists and turns yet to follow. Until then, hope you enjoyed the update and see you all soon as we head to Nigeria with the Fab Five!
With A Little Help From Mr Bond and Mr Martin
Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The early 70's had been pretty much a roller coaster ride for The Beatles in which 1970 had seen the band enter the new decade on a high note and 1971 looked to be the year in which following a successful comeback tour in Europe and the triumph of The Concert For Bangladesh it looks as though nothing would stop The Beatles yet 1972 happened and evert Beatles fan would know what happened next in which in hindsight made the victories of 1971 looked like nothing more than a false dawn. Everyone had assumed by the end of the year that the band were past their peak and that the days of Beatlemania were nothing more than just a distant memory which ironically enough 1973 would actually be the tenth anniversary of Beatlemania kicking off and of the band's first album Please Please Me yet things could not have been more different for the band. Yes, the shadow of of Allen Klein had gone yet that didn't seem to make a difference to how things were both with how poor Everest had gone down and with the lives of the band too.Extract from 'Peaked: The Beatles In The 1970's' by Alyson Henderson
The story of John Lennon's cheating on Yoko in the wake of Nixon's election victory had been picked up in the press with some comparing it to that of what he did with Cynthia with Lennon getting the rather unfortune nickname in the press as 'Johnny Two Times' in which Brian Epstein would try and play damage control saying that Lennon had been under a lot of stress and what happened was a moment of madness from him and that he would be taking a break for a time though some cynical members in the press thought that in the wake of the failure of Everest that what Lennon did was nothing more than just a glorified PR stunt to get attention for the band though this was far from the truth with some then asking the question were The Beatles really finished? A question that in private, Lennon had asked Epstein if this was the end and with all that had happened with him of late, he seemed to have resigned himself to a doomed fate.
Incredibly despite what he had done, Yoko had allowed John back in their apartment at the Dakota though it wasn't a happy affair in which thanks to John's issues for his fear of being deported and of how both Everest and Some Time In New York City had both done badly, the once inseparable lovers now looked like a couple that was on the verge of collapse. For months, Yoko tried to ignore the three televisions that were always on and that her husband seemed totally focused on them and never on her. He had been focused on several big news stories with those being the final Apollo moon mission, the hard-to-accept ending of the Vietnam War and the deepening of the Watergate scandal. In summery, their relationship was no longer what it used to be as when they first moved into their apartment in the Dakota they thought that it was a physical manifestation of their profound love they had for each other but now it had become a place where they coexisted but on a silent level.
John seemed to tolerate yet Yoko was at her wit's end with her trying to contact Epstein to explain how bad things had gotten and what were they going to do. Epstein had feared the moment Yoko allowed John back in - in which he had found crazy given what had happened - was that it looking pretty much certain that it was becoming impossible for them to live in the same space and that the only solution was one of them to move out. Yoko suggested that if The Beatles could help drag him away for a period then maybe she could have time recover and hopefully by then their marriage might return to normal again; normal as in by Lennon standards. She didn't want a divorce as that was what she would say to Epstein as an unthinkable option but the Lennons were needing a change regardless.
That being said though, John was certain that The Beatles were finished and that his relationship was doomed and that the only outcome was to return to Britain with Nixon's election victory pretty much certain meant his time in America was over. It was however with hindsight that regarding deportation is that he really should have worried in which with his lack of notable political activity that John would have gotten up to thanks to Epstein keeping him in place [1] it had meant that John was no longer a target for Nixon's infamous enemies lists and that the fact that his own personal life seemed to be in utter shambles only seemed to confirm to those in Nixon's inner circle that John was no longer deemed worth the time to spy on and with that, the Lennons would get a surprise announcement from their lawyer that from out of the blue, the immigration case seemed to over and that John could now claim permanent residency in the United States.
It seemed laughably too good to be true given how much the Lennons felt that after all these years fighting his immigration case that it could be dropped like that overnight yet sure enough when John demanded his lawyer to tell him the truth, he was shocked that this was no joke and that that fear of deportation could finally be laid to rest though it seemed rather cruelly ironic in which in the years that he had fallen in love with New York and didn't want to leave yet no longer the threat of deportation hanging over his head finally lifted only for now that he did feel a sense of wanting to leave the country after what was happening and not because of his personal life but that he seemed aware that with Nixon's landslide victory that he would make life a living hell for not only for Lennon but perhaps many leftists that had called out Nixon throughout most of the year which had only made them easy targets for the president.
It was thanks to Epstein that he would convince Lennon to return to Britain at least for a short time in which the door to return to America was there and surprisingly Yoko would agree on this in which by this point, she was needing a break from her husband leaving a bad atmosphere and perhaps wouldn't have the burden of his neediness in which the band could help give him something to do rather than just remain in their apartment doing nothing that watch television. However, she didn't want her husband to be totally free of her as Yoko as while she would ask him to leave, she refused to give up all the ties -co-activists, collaborator. wife - that bounded them together so she would dispatch her and John's secretary, May Pang, to become his companion and keep him out of trouble. This might not have sounded bad at first though it was when Epstein asked Yoko about this arrangement that left him gobsmacked at what Yoko wanted.
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Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
As much as I didn't want the pair to have a split, things really hadn't gotten better following that infamous night so there was no other choice than to have a change in the hope that time away from each other could help, not to mention Lennon getting out of New York might have been a good idea given what the last few months had brought him. Yoko insisted that John was to be accommodated by their secretary if he was to leave who would of course be a girl you all know as May Pang. Now to go off on a tangent, I hadn't really spoken to her much at that point; she had first started working as a receptionist as Allen Klein's management office in New York before she was hired by John and Yoko for some of their with their avant-garde film projects (which I have to wonder what on earth she must've have thought of them) before eventually she would be given a permanent position as their personal assistant when the Lennons moved from London to New York and place at Apple USA.Extract from 'In My Own Words' by Brian Epstein
This would be the first time I'd get to know her though I was shocked to hear what Yoko told me she wanted May to do. The plan Yoko had for May was not just to make sure that John would be kept out of trouble but also to - and I'm not joking here - to sleep with John and report back with what she was seeing. Granted by this point a I had reluctantly gotten use to some of the couple's more bizarre and outlandish things they would do but this though was really a step too far in which I warned Yoko that having this girl sleep with her husband could only make things worse for their strained relationship yet Yoko insisted on this plan going ahead in which she even stated that she suspected John had found May sexually attractive [2] so there was nothing wrong with the idea in which she stated that since Ringo owned Tittenhurst Park that John and May could stay there though I wasn't sure if Ringo would want that considering that he had just moved his family there.
In the end, I had to give in and hoped that she would be right but I seriously doubted it would work. I didn't know what to say about it and I remember when I first revealed the story to Queen on a lunch break when they in the middle of recording their first album that year, I remember the stunned looked they gave me at Yoko's crazy plan in which I remember Freddie Mercury burst out laughing to the point he had tears running down his face laughing at the utter absurdity of it in which when he is saying that you know it must be crazy. Brian May on the other hand looked worried as he, along with, feared that this could spell doom. Yes, you could say this was a Rock 'N' Roll lifestyle that you would always expect but this was something else that even I knew was a terrible idea.
So it was in May that I would meet John and May at the airport at Heathrow in which not only was it the first time that John would be back on British soil after a few years but that he would be with another woman that wasn't Yoko or Cynthia. That first meeting was something I had no idea what to expect in which they came in not looking like some famous couple but rather some stragglers who had looked as though they had 'escaped' from wherever it was they were from and hoped for a new life and in some ways that was the truth given the case of what had happened with John though May looked rather bewildered at the situation she had gotten herself in for. When they saw me, they came up to me with John greeting like an old friend.
"Welcome to England," I joked to them, "hope the flight wasn't bad."
"Coming back to shitty weather," John joked. "Yep, I'm back here again alright."
it was a great way to break the ice and we laughed. Then I would meet May Pang and would finally get to know her better. The girl was only twenty-two years old and was placed in a very confusing situation in which here she was sent over half way across the world to sleep with a Beatle which seemed like every girl's dream if the fact that said Beatle wasn't already a married man and was having marriage troubles and was being encouraged by Yoko to sleep with John. I had no clue what to feel for her other than feel sorry for such a young girl to in such a situation though that said, she seemed excited to meet me as John would introduce me to her as we shook hands.
"Are you Mr. Epstein? John told me so much about you," May asked with what I could only describe a little sense of awe at seeing me.
"Please, just call me Brian," I replied warmly. "So then, we have much to catch on about."
And that's what we did; in the car journey in which I drove and they sat in the back, we talked about various things with May asking all the questions about me, The Beatles and the other acts we had on the Apple label in which John in that time simply sat back and let May do all the talking in which I could see John was sitting there looking out from the window at the passing buildings and then scenery in which I had no doubt he was in a reflective mood at where he was and what happened; I wanted to ask if he was ok but then again knowing John he would have told me to shut up and keep driving and beside May was acting as the more friendly backseat driver as I suspect any taxi driver would like whenever they have a tourist on them.
However, something felt odd in which I just found May such a delight to talk too which made me think of Yoko. What I mean to say is that it took me two years to warm up to Yoko from the moment she entered John's life while May Pang in contrast took less than ten minutes for me to like her as she just seemed so grounded and normal compared to Yoko and if I was liking her, who knows how John might have felt for her? All I knew though was that for John, it was time for him to get back with the band as after Phil Spector had bailed on the band and refused to work with John again in anyway, it would be George Martin that would lend a helping hand in which he too needing a helping hand for a certain Mr Bond.
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Extract from 'Beatles At The Movies' by Roy Carr
In the James Bond film Goldfinger, James Bond is after a hot and heavy scene of flirtation is with a lady (of course) in his bedroom when notices that the champagne has gone warm. It’s an unacceptable situation for the secret agent and provokes him to utter an unforgettable line:Extract from 'Beatles At The Movies' by Roy Carr
My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done; such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s as bad as listening to The Beatles without earmuffs.
It was a line that would be iconic and of its time in which at the film's release in 1964, Beatlemania was on a high and it would have seem unthinkable to speak bad about the band at the time in which it is reported many young teenage girls who watched the film in the cinema would boo loudly at the diss from 007. Other members of the audience would be split down the middle by the agent’s words, some saw it as the perfect kickback against the long-haired revolution and others saw it as Bond not keeping up with the times. Funnily enough, both The Beatles and James Bond film series had gone on a similar path in which both were at their height due the mid 60's in which they became both icons of British pop culture yet by the early 70's both saw their fame take something of a dip in which The Beatles' latest record Everest had proved to be a failure in their eyes while the last James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever had left a lot to be desired.
Both were at a cross road knowing that whatever happened next would be a make or break time for both and with the idea of the legendary secret agent's infamous diss towards The Beatles in the mind of many nine years ago, it would end up being one of the most hilariously ironic moments in pop culture history in which it would be that The Beatles would strike back in which it would that they would be singing the title song for the next James Bond movie Live and Let Die which would be the debut role of Roger Moore in the role as 007. That said, the idea of bringing the band on for the film's title song had been thanks to The Beatles long time producer George Martin who was put in charge to write the film's soundtrack in which producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli would ask Martin that due to his connections with The Beatles that if they might be interested in playing the next film's title song in which having the world's biggest band playing the next song on the upcoming Bond film would be major coup.
George Martin was unsure if the band would willing to do as none of their songs had ever been used for any film outside films staring The Beatles though this talk was happening prior the release of Everest which upon its rather lacklustre reception did cool interest in The Beatles yet nonetheless George Martin who saw that the band were needing a helping hand would tell Tom Mankiewicz, the film's screenwriter, to present the unfinished script for the band to have a look for themselves. Paul McCartney would later read the Ian Fleming book the film would be based on and jumped at the chance to write the title song for the film [3] in which all the band would reunite with the exception of John who at the time was still in America though it would see George Harrison's friend Ray Cooper playing percussion on the song.
Well McCartney was the one most keen on the idea and the one who knew a quick bounce back was needed, the others weren't so sure though Ringo Starr would tag along with Harrison unsure about wanting to work on the song though combine that with how bad the last Beatles record had gone and not to mention his own personal life with his failing marriage to Patti, even he had to admit that McCartney was right that the band needed an extra boost to get them back on their feet and distract them from their troubles in which Live and Let Die would be a rare McCartney/Harrison song [4] to be written by them. Lennon though while he said he would not take part in the recording he would give his blessing for them to do the song without him in which the song would be recorded in October 1972 as the last song to be done that year for the band.
There would be some nostalgia for the band that for the first time since the Abbey Road sessions that they were recording with George Martin again and they would share stories reflecting on the old days and even though there had been no comment then about recording a new Beatles album then, there was that feeling that if they did then they wanted to get back to having Martin act as their producer once again and with 1973 being the tenth anniversary of their first recorded which Martin did produce, it seemed like a no brainer for them. Away from that though and prior to the film's release, it was decided that the band would perform in a music video that would be filmed in May and released in time for film coming out the following month.
May would actually be the month in which Lennon would return to the UK and he would be dragged into a film studio to begin recording the music video with him on bass...a role that he didn't play on the recording as that was McCartney doing it. Lennon would bemoan that he didn't have much time to get much practice to play the bass for the song, likely due to script producer deadlines to get the music video out, with him only getting just two days worth of practice in which McCartney would have to teach him all the notes and as it would turn out, that filming session of the music video would not only the first time Lennon would perform on the song but that the whole band as well as George Martin's orchestra group would play it in 'live' setting even though it would be later on dubbed in post production in which Lennon would remark that had he known he might not had bothered learning and could have played anything and no one would have noticed.
Nonetheless, the music video itself would have McCartney on piano, Lennon on bass, Harrison on guitar, Starr on drums with Preston on keyboards with Martin conducting a twenty-four piece orchestra which would actually be the first time that he would appear on any Beatles music video in which the video had nothing much special in which saw a performance with the band that was split with scenes from the film though it was the ending that was a stand out in which towards the end from up on the rafters would be an uncredited Mal Evans playing a rather shifty villain dressed in trench coat and fedora hat who has a TNT detonator who activates it which sets of booby trap in McCartney's piano which explodes which ends the video on a explosive note [5].
There was much riding on both the song and film to be a hit in which many felt could be a test to see if both The Beatles and James Bond still had live in them yet. The film would premier in the UK in July (being released in the United States a month earlier) at Odeon Leicester Square in London in which both The Beatles, along with their partners - that being without Pattie who was nowhere to be seen which only fuelled speculation that things weren't going right for the Harrisons, and George Martin would seen on the red carpet in which there would be Mr Bond himself being Roger Moore in which would lead to an iconic photo of the two icons of British culture together for the first time and a fact that no one would have predicted would have been the case when Sean Connery as James Bond back in Goldfinger would have considered happening then but alas it is funny what life could throw up.
Thankfully, the film - produced for $8 million - would be a box office hit by grossing $160 million worldwide which proved that James Bond still had life but also the main song itself as a single was a hit in itself in which it would hit number 1 in the US charts and number 3 in the UK charts which proved that The Beatles still had life in them yet the single did have some bitterness for Harrison was that the B-side would be a song he had written called So Sad which was a song written in late 1972 about his failing marriage to Pattie and seemed like a strange choice for something James Bond related considering it was something more personal yet there was a need for a B-side and So Sad was the song chosen. Oddly, Harrison didn't seem bothered at first that this song would be chosen considering he was just happy to get more of his songs out there yet what was something that rubbed him off the wrong way was that he was told that his song would have a major part in the film in which he was looking forward to seeing what it was, only then to find out at the London premier that it wasn't be quite what he expected.
The song would be seen in the scene in which James Bond is being picked up from JFK airport by Charlie only the latter to be shot by an dart and the song could just be heard playing on the car radio in the background for just under thirty seconds [6] and even then it was buried by a musical piece written by George Martin. It was more a blink and you'll miss it moment and it would lead to a long running fake hoax story that lasted for many years that an angry George Harrison upon seeing that his song was barely been played would walk out of the cinema in disgust at how his song had gotten the short end of the deal though in truth what happened was he would be taken aback by what he saw and would lean over to Lennon asking "Is that It?" and would be left baffled at why they had told him in the first place that his song would be used in a important way, yet strangely the song was used for the death of some random person which in a way made the term 'So Sad' look more like a blatant understatement than anything else.
Despite this grumbling from the quiet Beatle, 1973 seemed to be looking good so far yet Brian Epstein knew that one decent single wasn't enough as they would need to put out an album yet after Everest and how much they had been left with bruised ego and how much of a daunting task it was looking to be to try and get back on top form not to mention the personal lives of the band, no one knew just what was to happen next but 1973 was looking to be a year that would ask the question if The Beatles could regain top spot in a world that was changing at a fast pace. The only way to find out was to go on the run to Lagos...
[1] Epstein's presence is both an annoyance yet blessing for Lennon here.
[2] So now we have May Pang enter TTL and her presence here starts of pretty much the same as OTL so far.
[3] So yes, the song is pretty much the same as OTL with some extra Beatles added on top.
[4] Unlike OTL which is written by Paul and Linda so there might be some little differences to TTL's version of the song.
[5] So the music video is pretty much the same as what we had with the OTL version with Wings but with The Beatles on it and Mal Evans too as we see in the video:
So now we enter 1973 and a taste of James Bond into the TL as you can't have any Beatles TL without including that song that in the wake of a failure of Everest here they'd need to have a 'pick me up' to get them on course. Now then, some of you might know where the next part of the TL might be leading and I won't say too much but you could be for some shocks twists and turns yet to follow. Until then, hope you enjoyed the update and see you all soon as we head to Nigeria with the Fab Five!
Kind of surprised that the Beatles didn't have cameos in the Live and Let Die film as well as having Live and Let die be the main theme song.
Still, a critical pick me up for the Beatles after what happened in 72. Of course, for the Beatles to be fully back, they need a #1 Album. The last sentence which mentions 'on the run' is perhaps foreshadowing though...
Still, a critical pick me up for the Beatles after what happened in 72. Of course, for the Beatles to be fully back, they need a #1 Album. The last sentence which mentions 'on the run' is perhaps foreshadowing though...