All the little tidbits you thought you knew about John, Paul, George, and Ringo and their
journey from Liverpool to superstardom might just be a little off.
This is the untold truth of The Beatles.
The Beatles' lyrics were unlike most other pop music of the time, but that doesn't mean
they were intentionally writing profound poetry.
Case in point: "I Am The Walrus," perhaps the most lyrically obtuse Beatles song of
them all.
As it turns out, it's almost completely gibberish, put out by John Lennon as a poke at people
taking his pop music too seriously.
Lennon was working on the song when he received a letter from a student at his old school,
Quarry Bank.
The student told Lennon that his teacher was having them read Beatles lyrics and analyze
them for deeper meaning.
Lennon was deeply amused by the idea, so to mess with this teacher, he decided to take
the absurdity of "I Am the Walrus" completely over the top.
He recalled a playground chant from his childhood and then warped that into completely meaningless
lyrics like "Yellow matter custard/Dripping from a dead dog's eye."
Ever since the Beatles broke up, people have laid the blame on Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.
According to this story, everything was fine in the band, then Yoko showed up, convinced
John he was better than his bandmates, and the two went off to record weird music together.
Except, it's just not true.
The Beatles were almost certainly going to break up anyway, and anyone who blames Yoko
is simply angry at the wrong target.
Paul McCartney himself has argued as much.
"But she certainly didn't break the group up.
The group was breaking up."
In McCartney's mind, Lennon was ready to leave anyway, having grown tired of the "unhealthy
rivalry" between the band members.
As far as McCartney's concerned, all Ono did was provide Lennon with the courage and inspiration
to leave, and to embrace his own creativity full-throttle.
Most Beatles songs feature the writing credit "Lennon/McCartney."
That's due to an early agreement between the two musicians and Brian Epstein, the band's
manager.
Epstein and Lennon proposed that any song Lennon or McCartney wrote would be credited
to "Lennon/McCartney."
McCartney was initially fine with that, but he suggested that the credit be reversed if
he were the primary or solo writer.
Epstein and Lennon supposedly agreed, but it never happened.
Sometimes, McCartney seems fine with the arrangement.
In a 2015 interview with Esquire, he said,
"It's a good logo, like Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Hammerstein and Rodgers doesn't work."
Other times, he's irked by being the second guy in the name, particularly on songs like
"Yesterday," which he wrote entirely by himself.
He tried to get his alternating-credits idea going after the band broke up.
Yoko Ono allegedly agreed but then backtracked for unexplained reasons.
Decades later, we're not likely to see "McCartney/Lennon" on anything official anytime soon.
Approximately one second after the Beatles broke up, the public began clamoring for a
reunion.
Amazingly, we almost got just that on April 24, 1976, and it would've taken place on the
first season of Saturday Night Live.
During the evening's episode, SNL producer Lorne Michaels appeared on camera to offer
the Beatles a comically low $3,000 to reunite on his show and sing a paltry three songs.
"We've heard from The Monkeys, Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman's Hermits, Peter and
Gordon, The Cowsills, and Lulu, but still no word from the Beatles"
Obviously, Michaels had no reason to believe the group would actually take him up on the
offer, but it actually almost happened.
As it turns out, John and Paul were in New York City, hanging out and watching the show
together.
As Lennon recounted in the book All We Are Saying, the pair actually considered taking
a cab down to the studio and accepting Michaels' offer, just to be funny.
Ultimately they chose not to, but not because the money wasn't right or because they worried
it would be detrimental to their legacy, but because they were just too tired.
However, later that year, George Harrison appeared on the show and attempted to take
Michaels up on the offer.
The Yesterday and Today album cover is safe and pedestrian, with the band posing around
an empty suitcase.
But when the album first hit shelves in June 1966, it was to feature an entirely different,
far more controversial image: the Fab Four posing with dead babies.
The "babies" were actually just doll parts, but it's still a little shocking that the
lads tried to pull off the stunt.
The idea came from one of the band's favorite photographers, Robert Whitaker.
He was fed up with taking "squeaky-clean pictures of the Beatles" and decided to "revolutionize
what pop idols are."
Most of the Beatles were down for it, with McCartney claiming that it was their comment
on the Vietnam War.
But ultimately, a wide release of the cover didn't happen, for the same reason behind
most things in life: money.
The Beatles were negotiating a new record deal and didn't want to alienate any potential
suitors.
So they okayed the new, inoffensive cover.
In March 1966, John Lennon sparked more controversy than he ever intended to.
During an interview with the London Evening Standard, he claimed,
"Christianity will go.
It will vanish and shrink … We're more popular than Jesus now.
I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity."
Few in England were bothered by the comment, but then it was re-published in the American
magazine Datebook, which led to outrage, prompting Lennon to clarify his comments.
"We meant more to kids than Jesus did or religion at that time.
I wasn't knocking it or putting it down, I was just saying it."
Radio stations called for Beatles boycotts, there were public record smashings, concerts
were picketed, the Vatican condemned the band, and they even started receiving death threats.
Eventually, after a cherry bomb went off during a concert and spooked the band into thinking
someone shot at them, they quit touring completely.
This story has an even more unfortunate coda.
One of the people outraged by Lennon's quote was a born-again Christian named Mark David
Chapman, once one of Lennon's biggest fans.
Chapman admitted that the Jesus comment sent him into a spiral of hatred, which eventually
culminated with him assassinating Lennon.
While Lennon's life ended very tragically, we can take solace in the fact that the music
he and his bandmates created continues to inspire the world.