I think either DValdron or Glass Onion showed a scenario where they survive into the early 1970's in an earlier thread. I think I remember that one thing that helped lead to a Beatles break up was the death of their manager, right?
The things that broke or helped break the Beatles up:
- Death of Brian Epstein in 1967
- The White Album (both Ringo and George Martin left at one point)
- Yoko Ono
- The paradox of Paul's keeping them together, driving them apart
- George's stockpile of songs and plan to be the like Bob Dylan and The Band
- John messing Paul about with his plans to leave and his delusions of grandeur
- Allan Klein and the court case
- Apple Corps
- Twickenham Film Studios and the
Let It Be film
- Divergence in musical style
- Plastic Ono Band's initial success
- Phil Spector and the
Let It Be album
- The
McCartney album
Epstein's death hit them hard probably internally Lennon most as they were 'allegedly' very close (though I'd take the rumours with a pinch of salt). Despite the fact Epstein was an awful manager he did keep them going on the right path so much so that the Beatles protested that had he handed control over to another manager Robert Stigwood (can't remember the exact reason but something to do with selling his company) they would only ever record one song again, 'God Save The Queen'.
Epstein left a sort of vacuum which McCartney later attempted to fill to keep them on track. You see things start to go awry with Magical Mystery Tour (which was about 2 years too soon) and the Beatles, which although is a masterpiece it demonstrates the divisions developing. Whilst the business dealings started to go wrong involving their publishing rights when their publisher Dick James sold his shares to ATV (a British talent organisation, publisher and TV company) without telling the other Beatles after their personal relationship started to go cold.
The trip to India with the Maharishi led to a very annoyed Lennon (part of his turning against religion was due to the Maharishi along with the church's refusal to allow him to marry Yoko supposedly) whilst George became ever enlightened as a result. The large number of songs that emerged from all of them left a massive stockpile with Harrison (who'd already had a number unreleased) worst affected. This led to a plan for a double-album which their producer, George Martin didn't want. He was the man who they respected greatest and they ignored him. The result was Martin leaving Abbey Road and going on holiday whilst some of the songs were recorded.
The songs that were recorded were done with either 1, 2 or 3 Beatles in varying combinations with many not having all the Beatles present recording a song. This started to annoy whilst Harrison was already irritated as he felt his songs were second-rate as Paul (ever the perfectionist) would spend ages on his songs and not very long on George's. At one point Ringo left, only to be tempted back.
Meanwhile you had Apple Corps developing in the background. As most people know it went tits up for various reasons. You had the failing Apple Boutique, mad-cap business plans for apple-shaped radios and the like and a guy called Magic Alex with his electronic experiments in the basement and failure to make the aforementioned apple-shaped radio. Apple Corps became a gravy train siphoning the Beatles money with crazy rooms full of tapes from wannabe stars whilst occasionally being gatecrashed by Hells Angels during Christmas parties thanks to Harrison.
In comes 'Yellow Submarine' which, because they didn't star in it, didn't fill contractual obligations meaning they had to make another film. The film became 'Let It Be' which originated from Paul's plan to go back on the road in small venues like surprise appearances in pubs with 'no-overdubs' (i'm a poet... I amuse myself). This plan entitled 'Get Back' would fail miserably as they ended up being recorded early in the morning in a cold and miserably grey film studio at Twickenham. George starts to get annoyed as he thinks he's being patronised by Paul, who is trying to get them to actually do something albeit going about it the wrong way. John is also away with the fairies at this point and Ringo is just being Ringo.
Yoko Ono was just in the way all the time, sitting on amps and she also led to the creation of the Plastic Ono Band, which was somewhat successful and John wanted it to continue. John also descended into heroin addiction and just lost it after going for 'Primal Scream' therapy. Meanwhile, Paul and John had little in common both in terms of musical stylings and emotions so had little to write about together (Paul's Get Back project is ironic as John would later want to return to his roots with 'Rock n Roll')
Get Back went unreleased, and the band went crawling back to George Martin asking him to make another album, which he agreed to provided they 'did it like they used to'. The result was Abbey Road which had a John-led part (Side 1) and a Paul-led part (Side 2). Paul once again annoyed Harrison as he took too long doing 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'.
Then you get the Apple Corps disaster as they have to shed friends who are sacked when Allen Klein comes in. McCartney attempts to block Allen Klein as manager after Mick Jagger told him to stay away from him in the strictest confidence. McCartney instead proposes his girlfriend and wife, Linda Eastman's, family. The Eastman's, who were lawyers went in and basically called Klein a crook and accidentally made Klein look reasonable. Meanwhile, John, angry at the sale of ATV put off a planned bid for the company masterminded by Klein by launching a tirade against 'city fat-cats'.
John told Paul he wanted to leave the Beatles and planned to do so, whilst George wanted everything to be put on hold whilst he did his own album recording his stockpile of songs. Paul then got annoyed when the tapes to Get Back were handed to Phil Spector who he contended ruined 'The Long and Winding Road'. The album was released as 'Let It Be' along with the film which showed up their divisions.
However, the straw that broke the camels back was probably Ringo being forced to ask Paul to put the release of his solo album (which he'd recorded secretly using a borrowed 4-track machine) back because they wanted to release Let It Be. Paul, already induced with dangerously high levels of alcohol and Scotland, got angry and lashed out at Ringo over it. The album release went ahead as planned. Paul then annoyed John as he wanted to be the one to break up the band, and George as he only wanted them to break up for a while so he could record his album.
The result was no chance of them getting back together as it the dam broke leading to a High Court Case freezing all their assets, Wings, John and Yoko in New York, George's 20 year sulk, Ringo's albums of guests and George Martin's freelance work away from EMI.