Beatles Interview Series: 1969 - Beatles on the Brink of Splitting

In part eight of our Beatles Interview Series, we explore the beginning of the end of The Beatles.  

First up, a bit of an interview given by Ringo on January 21, 1969 to BBC Radio-One's "Scene and Heard" program:

DAVID WIGG: "Last week was quite a controversial week for the Beatles."
(In reference to John Lennon's remarks that had appeared in 'Disc and Music Echo' newspaper a few days before in which Lennon stated: "Apple is losing money. If it carries on like this, we'll be broke in six months.")
RINGO: "Yeah."
DAVID: "How close are you? We've had reports that you're not as close you used to be, and that the Beatles aren't as rich as everyone thought they were and they might have to close down Apple."
RINGO: "Well... shall we take them one at a time?"
DAVID: (smiling) "Yes."
RINGO: (chuckling) "Alright, what was the first one?"
(laughter)
DAVID: "Are you as close?"
RINGO: "Yes. You know, there's that famous old saying, you'll always hurt the one you love. And we all love each other and we all know that. But we still sort of hurt each other, occasionally. You know... where we just misunderstand each other and we go off, and it builds up to something bigger than it ever was. Then we have to come down to it and get it over with, you know. Sort it out. And so we're still really very close people. What was the second one?"
DAVID: "Do you see the Beatles going on like they are at the moment for a long time in the future or do you see a split very soon?"
RINGO: "It depends what you mean as a split, I mean, we split..."
DAVID: "Go your separate ways."
RINGO: "Completely, no. We'll never go... Oh, I can't say never. But I mean, we won't go our separate ways after this album. And we'll always be tied up with each other in some way, because we signed a lot of papers. It says we stay together for 20 years or something. And Apple closing, you know, is... is silly. We have spent a lot of money, because we don't earn as much as people think. 'Cuz if we earn a million then the Government gets 90 percent and we get 10,000. And we, we didn't sort of realize how much we were spending, you know. Like, someone pointed out, to spend 10,000 you have to make a 120. But we just spent it as 120. So what we're doing now is tightening up on our own personal money and on the company's money, you know. We're not just giving as much away on handouts and things like that, you know, and as many projects. We're gonna cut down a bit till we've sorted ourselves out again and do it properly as a business."

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Then, on September 19, 1969, David Wigg conducted an interview with Paul McCartney at the Beatles' Apple Offices in London, for the same program, BBC Radio-One's "Scene and Heard."  Here is a snippet from that interview:

Paul McCartney and David Wigg, 1969, Photo Credit: http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1969.0919.beatles.html

DAVID WIGG: "How much interest and how much control do you have over Apple, now that you have a new manager in Mr. Klein?"
PAUL: "The four of us have it."
DAVID: "Are you like businessmen?"
PAUL: "No, I don't like doing the business bit that much. But you can't avoid it. See, the thing is like, we were once a band, just a band. But then, because we were successful, you can't help it being successful. Money comes in. You can't help that, again. When money comes in, income tax is to be paid. So you can't really help just turning into a businessman 'cuz someone says to you, 'Where's your income tax, mate?' You say, "well, I better go on to someone,' you know. 'I hope I've got a bit to pay you' and stuff. So you got to get all that together, you know. So, it's just force of circumstance. You can't help it."
DAVID: "Paul, what about the future of Beatles? I happen to know that the organizers of the 'Isle Of Wight' pop festival are going to ask you and the rest of Beatles if you will top the bill next year at the Isle Of Wight. Now, what's your reaction to a thing like that? Are you likely to go back on stage and perhaps do a show like that?"
PAUL: "I don't know, you know."
DAVID: "Does it appeal?"
PAUL: "I've never known. I didn't know when we were playing the Cavern that we'd be on the Royal Variety Performance. And after that all the papers said, 'Well, what's left for them.' So then we went to America. They said, 'What's left for 'em' then, you know. And we got into making better albums and stuff. I mean, I just don't know what's gonna happen. It'll be alright though."

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Finally, December 13, 1969, John Lennon gave an interview to New Musical Express, entitled, "Beatles Are On The Brink Of Splitting."  Here are a few excerpts from that interview:

JOHN: “The Beatles split up? It just depends how much we all want to record together. I don’t know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it. I really do.

“The problem is that in the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays there’s three if us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all onto one album. Or we have to think of a double album every time, which takes six months.

“That’s the hang-up we have. It’s not a personal ‘The Beatles are fighting’ thing, so much as an actual physical problem. What do you do? I don’t want to spend six months making an album I have two tracks on. And neither do Paul or George probably. That’s the problem. If we can overcome that, maybe it’ll sort itself out.

“None of us want to be background musicians most of the time. It’s a waste. We didn’t spend ten years ‘making it’ to have the freedom in the recording studios, to be able to have two tracks on an album.

“It’s not like we spend our time wrestling in the studio trying to get our own songs on. We all do it the same way… we take it in turns to record a track. It’s just that usually in the past, George lost out because Paul and I are tougher.

[...]

“You have to realize that there’s a peculiar situation, in that if ‘Cold Turkey’ had the name Beatles on it, probably it would have been a No. 1.

“ ‘Cold Turkey’ has got Ringo and me on it, and yet on half the Beatles’ tracks of ‘Abbey Road,’ I’m not on, or half the tracks on the double album – and even way back. Sometimes there might be only two Beatles on a track. It’s got to the situation where if we have the name ‘Beatle’ on it, it sells. So you get to think: ‘What are we selling? Do they buy it because it’s worth it, or just because it says ‘Beatles’?

“George is in the same position. I mean, he’s got songs he’s been trying to get on since 1930. He’s got to make an album of his own. And maybe if he puts ‘Beatles’ on the label rather than George Harrison, it might sell more. That’s the drag.

“Of course we could each make an album and call it ‘The Beatles,’ but that would be cheating. And that’s not my scene."

Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from radio interviews and original magazine issue

What If The Beatles Hadn't Stopped Touring?

The Beatles on tour in 1966.

It's a question that's hotly discussed. What if the Beatles had decided to keep on touring the globe? What if Candlestick Park hadn't been their last hurrah for touring?

My personal opinion is that the Beatles were right to stop touring and they also picked the perfect time to do it. In 1966 the world was changing, the so called "Summer of Love" was a year away and after that a horrible hangover for touring bands.

In December 1969, the Rolling Stones and other bands put on a free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Northern California. This was their answer to fans saying their ticket prices for their tour were too high and also it was something that people on the west coast could enjoy what the east coasters had with the critically acclaimed Woodstock Festival four months earlier.

The Stones' management team decided to hire the Hells Angels to provide  some semblance of security at the concert. They were paid in beer and that's when you know things are going to go downhill. When Mick Jagger stepped out of the helicopter when the band arrived at Altamont, he was punched in the face by someone in the crowd. Fights broke out between the festival goers and the Hells Angels and it all came to a head during the Stones' set when during 'Under My Thumb' 18 year old Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by one of the Angels when he pulled a revolver. This kid was high as a kite and had already been beaten up by the Hells Angels for attempting to climb on stage. Footage of the incident was captured in the Rolling Stones documentary film 'Gimme Shelter', which had been produced by Albert and David Maysles, the same team who had captured the Beatles historic first visit to the United States in 1964.

The two films contrast greatly and if the Beatles ever saw 'Gimme Shelter' they probably realised they had made the right decision to stop touring when they did (By the time of the Altamont concert, the Beatles had ceased to function as a group anyway).

It is to be noted that the Hells Angels were not totally responsible for the mayhem that ensued at Altamont, many of the audience were drunk, high and aggressive too.

In short, a free concert + high people + aggressive biker gang = Bloody Disaster.

This was the underlying mood of the time too. George Harrison and his then wife Pattie Boyd visited Haight-Ashbury, the so called epi-centre of the Hippie counter-culture, in San Francisco in 1967.

"I went there expecting it to be a brilliant place, with groovy gypsy people making works of art and paintings and carvings in little workshops. But it was full of horrible spotty drop-out kids on drugs, and it turned me right off the whole scene. I could only describe it as being like the Bowery: a lot of bums and drop-outs; many of them very young kids who'd dropped acid and come from all over America to this mecca of LSD.

We walked down the street, and I was being treated like the Messiah. The Beatles were pretty big, and for one of them to be there was a big event. I became really afraid, because the concoction that the DJ had given me was having an effect. I could see all the spotty youths, but I was seeing them from a twisted angle. It was like the manifestation of a scene from an Hieronymus Bosch painting, getting bigger and bigger, fish with heads, faces like vacuum cleaners coming out of shop doorways... They were handing me things - like a big Indian pipe with feathers on it, and books and incense - and trying to give me drugs. I remember saying to one guy: 'No thanks, I don't want it.' And then I heard his whining voice saying, 'Hey, man - you put me down.' It was terrible. We walked quicker and quicker through the park and in the end we jumped in the limo, said, 'Let's get out of here,' and drove back to the airport." 

- George Harrison on visiting Haight-Ashbury.

Although I'm sure lots of people had a great experience dropping acid and sleeping with strangers in the late 60s, it just wasn't the way forward and if the Beatles had kept on touring, it would have probably seen them play places like Altamont and things like this happen. They'd experienced hostility in the Philippines and the southern states of the USA but nothing tragic had happened at their concerts and with them giving up touring, nothing was likely to either.