After the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, there was a lull of several months between their last album (Revolver) and when we heard anything musically from them, a time which was unprecedentedly long back then. The Beatles went in different directions: Lennon went off to star in "How I Won the War", McCartney wrote the score for "The Family Way", George Harrison and his wife went to India and took sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar and immersed himself in Hinduism and India, and Ringo stayed home.
And since all was quiet, there were rumors that there was trouble in the group, and that the band was splitting up. There was also a backlash among snide critics who against the Beatles, saying the group was used up and done creatively. Of course, in the OTL, they reconvened, and recorded "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", and the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
But, the Beatles were actually close to breaking up. 1966 had been a Hellish year, for one. In the Philippines, the Beatles politely declined an invitation by the dictators wife to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palance. After this was broadcast, their police protection disappeared, and they had to make it to the airport on their own. "At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans (fearing he would be imprisoned or executed) said, "Tell my wife that I love her." Epstein was forced to give the tax authorities £6,800 worth of Philippine peso notes from the Manila shows, and had to sign the tax bond verifying the exchange before being allowed back on the plane". Later that year, Lennon said the Beatles were "Bigger than Jesus", and American Christians went crazy, burning Beatles albums and memorabilia, and condemning the group, and the Klan and racists also followed suite. There was an incident in Memphis at this time where the Klan vowed vengence and, during the concert, someone through a firecracker on stage which the Beatles thought was someone shooting one of them. "Yesterday and Today" was also released in America in 1966, with its infamous "Butcher Cover" causing a firestorm of controversy. And atop all that, the Beatles had been recording and touring nonstop since they got famous, the crowds were screaming so loud they couldn't hear themselves play anyway, and they were tired and worn out.
Lennon, the de facto leader and founder of the Beatles, felt tired, depressed (I believe because of marital troubles with Cynthia), and unsure of his musical direction, and got very into LSD. All of which made him removed, and he felt like it was perhaps time to move on to something else. George Harrison was also worn out and tired of being a Beatle at the time, and threatened to leave the group following their final performance at Candlestick park. And overall, all of them were tired. So they were very close to going seperate ways. What we got instead was the tranformation from the moptop era (which was, granted, rather diverse, including the Folk of "Rubber Soul" and the Psychedelic of "Revolver"), to Beatles thereafter, with the Psychedelic Free Love era of Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour and then the individualistic, inward looking White Album, and then Abbey Road and Let It Be.
So what if the Beatles, after "Revolver" and after they stopped touring, broke up?
And since all was quiet, there were rumors that there was trouble in the group, and that the band was splitting up. There was also a backlash among snide critics who against the Beatles, saying the group was used up and done creatively. Of course, in the OTL, they reconvened, and recorded "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", and the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
But, the Beatles were actually close to breaking up. 1966 had been a Hellish year, for one. In the Philippines, the Beatles politely declined an invitation by the dictators wife to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palance. After this was broadcast, their police protection disappeared, and they had to make it to the airport on their own. "At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans (fearing he would be imprisoned or executed) said, "Tell my wife that I love her." Epstein was forced to give the tax authorities £6,800 worth of Philippine peso notes from the Manila shows, and had to sign the tax bond verifying the exchange before being allowed back on the plane". Later that year, Lennon said the Beatles were "Bigger than Jesus", and American Christians went crazy, burning Beatles albums and memorabilia, and condemning the group, and the Klan and racists also followed suite. There was an incident in Memphis at this time where the Klan vowed vengence and, during the concert, someone through a firecracker on stage which the Beatles thought was someone shooting one of them. "Yesterday and Today" was also released in America in 1966, with its infamous "Butcher Cover" causing a firestorm of controversy. And atop all that, the Beatles had been recording and touring nonstop since they got famous, the crowds were screaming so loud they couldn't hear themselves play anyway, and they were tired and worn out.
Lennon, the de facto leader and founder of the Beatles, felt tired, depressed (I believe because of marital troubles with Cynthia), and unsure of his musical direction, and got very into LSD. All of which made him removed, and he felt like it was perhaps time to move on to something else. George Harrison was also worn out and tired of being a Beatle at the time, and threatened to leave the group following their final performance at Candlestick park. And overall, all of them were tired. So they were very close to going seperate ways. What we got instead was the tranformation from the moptop era (which was, granted, rather diverse, including the Folk of "Rubber Soul" and the Psychedelic of "Revolver"), to Beatles thereafter, with the Psychedelic Free Love era of Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour and then the individualistic, inward looking White Album, and then Abbey Road and Let It Be.
So what if the Beatles, after "Revolver" and after they stopped touring, broke up?
from 66 to 70 stays married to cynthia never gets shot. ringo plays on albums for kinks, who does acting and solo. george harrison joins clapton in cream and does a solo paul mcartney has his biggest solo hit in sargent pper album which he does by himself. john lennon does his first solo album in 1970. in 1980 the beatles reunite mark chapman tries to shoot john lennon but he trips on stage while the beatles are reheashing in new york for a tour. he is elctrocuted to death. the beatles record new material till 1989. till they break up again.
