The only thing that could outshine the news of The Beatles breaking up was the swirling, speculative rumors of whether they would ever get back together—something that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison had to answer to often in the years that followed the Fab Four’s split. The public’s curiosity was understandable. They were the biggest rock band in the world in the latter half of the 1960s (bigger than Jesus, so they say). Their dissolution was the end of a movement, not just an era.
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As one might expect from four distinct personalities, each of The Beatles had a different explanation for why the band was no more. During a 1981 Good Morning America interview, Harrison put it in familial terms. “The simplest way of saying it is like when you grow up in a family and everybody grows up, and they all leave home, and the brothers and sisters all go and get married and lead their own lives, you know. It’s like really asking them all to go back and live with their mom and dad again.”
He continued, “For us, as individuals, we all had our own lives to lead. We had a lot of experiences, other than being four people stuck in the same hotel room together, that we had to live out.”
George Harrison’s Explanation Harkens to the Beatles’ Early Days
Given their immense fame at the time of their breakup, it’s easy to imagine that The Beatles were always successful. But what the public didn’t see (because they weren’t famous yet) were the months of long hours, sleepless nights, shoddy accommodations, shady venues, cramped car rides, poor pay, and other lousy experiences they endured when they were just starting out. The Beatles’ infamous Hamburg years come to mind as some of the worst. And it’s important to remember: these were young adults facing these hardships. Emphasis on young. For as talented and hungry as these four lads from Liverpool were, they were also incredibly green (with the exception of Starr, who was already an established pro).
From providing backing music for strippers to playing in clubs so empty that the musicians solicited attendees from the street before they got on stage, The Beatles certainly put in their time cutting their teeth with one another. Their early years obviously turned them into the performers that we know them as today. But the idea of continuing on with the same people for the rest of your life (when they themselves had only just entered their late 20s and early 30s) was undoubtedly unpleasant. Their breakup proved it to be so.
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of their entire tenure as a band is its brevity. Despite the immense influence they had on the rock ‘n’ roll world and pop culture as a whole, The Beatles only existed in the public eye for about a decade. (In the American public eye, that number is closer to seven years.)
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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