The Beatles’ breakup in the tail-end of the 1960s and the earliest part of the 1970s was a shocking blow to the musical community at large, but it was an even more devastating blow to bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon. After becoming one of the biggest bands in the world together, the musicians parted ways, finally free to pursue their own interests (and even scarier: to sit with the silence when there was nothing they felt like chasing).
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For some members of the Fab Four, their coping mechanism was the bottle. McCartney would later say that this was his go-to method of emotional soothing until his wife, Linda McCartney, snapped him out of the vicious cycle. Harrison chose comedy.
George Harrison Reflects On What Saved Him In The 1970s
As the old adage goes, the higher you fly, the harder you fall. One could apply this idea to many facets of the 1960s, from the disillusionment of the Summer of Love movement to an increase in political turmoil both at home and overseas to the changing of the musical vanguard of the time. The Beatles’ breakup in the final moments of the ‘60s almost served as another period, another ending, another definitive conclusion. Some things couldn’t last forever. Not the Summer of Love. Not the Fab Four.
In addition to an overarching sense of cultural and social shifting, the ex-Beatles were also at a unique point in their respective careers. They could do anything they wanted now. The only question was: what? For George Harrison, he turned to a type of performance art that had always spoken to him, even when he was still a member of the Beatles. With all his newfound free time, Harrison started pursuing a collaborative relationship with the English comedy troupe, Monty Python.
During a 1981 appearance on Good Morning America, Harrison compared Monty Python’s approach to comedy to the Beatles’ approach to music. “We were trying to be something new,” Harrison said of his former band. “We were trying to give some alternatives. And likewise in the comedy situation. Everything was pretty boring, I thought. It was pretty much the same for years and years. Then, Python came along with this totally off-the-wall type of humor. They were laughing about most of the things which should be laughed about. Governments and the way we all are. They didn’t really leave many stones unturned.”
He continued, “It got a bit depressing, I think, after the ‘60s. It’s good to have a laugh. It’s good if there’s something to keep you smiling.”
The Musician Felt Like It Was a Natural Transition
George Harrison left the Beatles with a considerably large chip on his shoulder. And how could he not? The music business swept him up at a young age and introduced him to just how wide (and suffocatingly small) the world could really be. He got a front-row seat to some of the greatest spiritual movements of the 20th century and to the worst corruption, greed, and egos the industry had to offer. As he began to find his footing in the world without the rest of the Fab Four by his side, Harrison found solidarity—both creatively and intellectually—in Monty Python.
“I think after the Beatles, Monty Python was my favorite thing,” the “Quiet Beatle” told Rolling Stone in 1979. “It bridged the years when there was nothing really doing, and they were the only ones who could see that everything was a big joke.”
“We started the year the Beatles quit,” Monty Python actor Terry Gilliam said, per Joshua Green’s Here Comes the Sun. “He was absolutely convinced whatever that spirit was that animated the Beatles just drifted across to Python. George relished the Python group’s scathing send-ups of Britain’s upper class and their ribald slashes at people who took themselves too seriously, especially religious types.”
Photo by Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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