did Yoko break up the Beatles?

[KG]

inquiring minds, etc.

[enigmatic]

1. More Allen Klein than Yoko

Though The Beatles were on the fast track to a break-up w/o either.

[johnnie]

5. Klein died the other day

Didn't really get mentioned that I saw.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. And the minute Klein arrived on the Other Side

John Lennon & Brian Jones beat the shit out of him. George Harrison didn't take part in the violence, but he laughed, and then went back to meditating.

Klein recovered soon enough and went back to being an asshole. He's already trying to sign Michael Jackson to an eternal contract.

[jobycom]

13. It got mentioned, but swallowed up by Steve McNair's murder. nt

[enigmatic]

16. I just saw that!

I've had Lennon's "Steel And Glass" running thriough my head all this morning since I read about Klein's death...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. No

By the time of The White Album, they had nothing left to prove. They had accomplished everything they'd set out to accomplish. The only thing left was to keep creating product, and they'd already decided they weren't willing to perform in concert any more.

Lennon's relationship with Yoko was one facet of the overall landscape, but to lay the breakup on her...or on Lennon exclusively...isn't fair, and isn;t accurate.

They had bad business decisions...including the failed "Apple Boutiques"...and they simply did not come up with a new challenge as big as "conquering America," or one that equally ignited all four of them. So they bickered and got high and fucked around and went their separate ways.

:toast:

[Deja Q]

3. No, but with that voice she must've broke up an awful lot of mirrors...

:hide:

[gmoney]

4. wasn't the first McCartney album recorded before the break-up?

I'm guessing he felt that John's "weird" songs were keeping him from realizing the pure pop nirvana of "Silly Love Songs" and "Uncle Albert" or something.

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. No. It was released before Let It Be (or the same week? something like that)

But the Let It Be material was already over a year old by then, and though the official announcement of the Beatles breakup wouldn't come until June 1970, their last recording session - which was for overdubs on "I Me Mine" was in January of that year, and John didn't even show up for that one. Which explains the cryptic stuff about Dave D, Micky and Titch or whatever it is that George is saying at the beginning of that song. It was a coded admission that John had left the band.

[edbermac]

6. No. Said Paul M once: The Beatles broke up the Beatles.

Brian Epstein died, they formed Apple, John got more into avant-garde stuff with Yoko, George became involved with the Maharishi and meditation, they were getting married and starting families; after 10 years of Beatlemania, they just grew apart. Even in the Anthology book, Ringo said that Yoko and Linda had taken a lot of shit about the group disbanding.

[Steely_Dan]

7. No...

I actually think all of the responses are pretty accurate and contributed to the break-up. However, I sometimes think that Paul had more to do with breaking up the Beatles than anyone else. At least, he was the one that was looking beyond the horizon more than the others.

Regardless, it is my belief that their "soon-to-be" break-up made the songs on the White Album some of the best work "they" did. I know that during that time they did not spend a lot of time collaborating, However, they did share some ideas with each other. The fact that they relied more on their own individual instincts allowed for greater exploration of their own creative thought. Having said that, I don't believe that John or Paul were nearly as good in their solo careers as they were together (of course their are exceptions). I simply think that the White Album represented the "perfect distance" from each other to produce some timeless music. Consider songs like "Dear Prudence" or "Blackbird."

I was never a big Beatles fan. They were a couple of years ahead of my "musical time." However, in looking back, I am convinced that they were the most influential rock band of all time.

-P

I might want to add that rarely does George Martin get the credit he deserves for guiding the Beatles in a direction that some might call "progressive rock." The addition of so many different instruments (from Martin's classical background) gave the Beatles a sound that put them way ahead of their contemporaries. Of course, the drugs didn't hurt either.

-P

[cloudbase]

8. She probably knew a few good jokes.

So I guess the answer is yes.






















Oh! You meant the other kind of break up.

[MorningGlow]

10. No; it was Brian Epstein's death that started their unraveling

He held them together, and they couldn't cope without him, IMO. Plus the boys just started to grow apart--Yoko was more a result of that than a cause.

[blogslut]

12. No

n/t

[jobycom]

14. John and Paul were two incredible talents who had completely different goals.

For a while the dialectic between the two inspired great work, but at some point I think they just passed the point where they could move in the same direction without giving up what they wanted to do.

They were a strange combination. Paul was (and is) an insecure boy who craves recognition despite having nothing to prove to anyone. Lennon was an arrogant ass who hated to be overshadowed or misunderstood. So in addition to their different goals, each started getting jealous of the other, and neither understood the other. Lennon was constantly attacking Paul's music, and Paul seemed to just take it in stride, but really got his digs in when he could. Remember when Lennon was shot and Paul's only comment was "Yeah, it's a real bummer, man." And Lennon, even when he praised Paul, got in his digs. I read an interview about the line "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." Lennon admitted Paul wrote that, but rather than just compliment him, said something like "Just proves he could write intelligent stuff if he ever tried."

Yoko was just there at the wrong time.

[old mark]

15. No. Ego broke up the Beatles. They became known as creative

wonderboys, and believed all the press BS, and just got tired of being around each other. They stopped hanging out together even when they were still touring, and never goe together again except to record.

I think they used to like each other, but the pressure really got to all of them.

Same thing with the Eagles. They took a vacation from the band and each other. For 14 years.

mark

[MilesColtrane]

17. Billy Shears broke up the Beatles.

He, of course, replaced Paul McCartney when he died, and Shears continues to make mediocre records under his name to this day.