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...
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00:00All the little tidbits you thought you knew about John, Paul, George, and Ringo and their
00:04journey from Liverpool to superstardom might just be a little off.
00:08This is the untold truth of The Beatles.
00:11The Beatles' lyrics were unlike most other pop music of the time, but that doesn't mean
00:15they were intentionally writing profound poetry.
00:17Case in point?
00:18I Am the Walrus, perhaps the most lyrically obtuse Beatles song of them all.
00:23As it turns out, it's almost completely gibberish, put out by John Lennon as a poke at people
00:28taking his pop music too seriously.
00:30Lennon was working on the song when he received a letter from a student at his old school,
00:34Quarry Bank.
00:35The student told Lennon that his teacher was having them read Beatles lyrics and analyze
00:38them for deeper meaning.
00:40Lennon was deeply amused by the idea, so to mess with his teacher, he decided to take
00:44the absurdity of I Am the Walrus completely over the top.
00:47He recalled a playground chant from his childhood, and then warped that into completely meaningless
00:52lyrics, like yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye.
00:57Ever since the Beatles broke up, people have laid the blame on Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.
01:02According to this story, everything was fine in the band, then Yoko showed up, convinced
01:06John he was better than his bandmates, and the two went off to record weird music together.
01:10Except it's just not true.
01:12The Beatles were almost certainly going to break up anyway, and anyone who blames Yoko
01:16is simply angry at the wrong target.
01:18Paul McCartney himself has argued as much.
01:20"...and he didn't break the group up.
01:22The group was breaking up, and I…"
01:24In McCartney's mind, Lennon was ready to leave anyway, having grown tired of the unhealthy
01:29rivalry between the band members.
01:31As far as McCartney's concerned, all Ono did was provide Lennon with the courage and inspiration
01:36to leave, and to embrace his own creativity full-throttle.
01:40Most Beatles songs feature the writing credit Lennon-McCartney.
01:43That's due to an early agreement between the two musicians and Brian Epstein, the band's
01:47manager.
01:48Epstein and Lennon proposed that any song Lennon or McCartney wrote would be credited
01:52to Lennon-McCartney.
01:54McCartney was initially fine with that, but he suggested that the credit be reversed if
01:58he were the primary or solo writer.
02:00Epstein and Lennon supposedly agreed, but it never happened.
02:04Sometimes, McCartney seems fine with the arrangement.
02:06In a 2015 interview with Esquire, he said,
02:09"...it's a good logo, like Rodgers and Hammerstein.
02:12Hammerstein and Rodgers doesn't work."
02:14Other times, he's irked by being the second guy in the name, particularly on songs like
02:19Yesterday, which he wrote entirely by himself.
02:21He tried to get his alternating-credits idea going after the band broke up.
02:25Yoko Ono allegedly agreed, but then backtracked for unexplained reasons.
02:30Decades later, we're not likely to see McCartney-Lennon on anything official any time soon.
02:35Approximately one second after the Beatles broke up, the public began clamoring for a
02:40reunion.
02:41Amazingly, we almost got just that on April 24th, 1976, and it would have taken place
02:47on the first season of Saturday Night Live.
02:49During the evening's episode, SNL producer Lorne Michaels appeared on camera to offer
02:54the Beatles a comically low $3,000 to reunite on his show and sing a paltry three songs.
02:59"...we've heard from the Monkees, Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman's Hermits, Peter
03:04and Gordon, the Cow Sills, and Lulu.
03:08But still, no word from the Beatles."
03:10Obviously, Michaels had no reason to believe the group would actually take him up on the
03:14offer, but it actually almost happened.
03:17As it turns out, John and Paul were in New York City, hanging out and watching the show
03:21together.
03:22As Lennon recounted in the book All We Are Saying, the pair actually considered taking
03:26a cab down to the studio and accepting Michaels' offer, just to be funny.
03:30Ultimately, they chose not to, but not because the money wasn't right or because they were
03:34worried it would be detrimental to their legacy, but because they were just too tired.
03:38However, later that year, George Harrison appeared on the show and attempted to take
03:42Michaels up on the offer.
03:44The Yesterday & Today album cover is safe and pedestrian, with the band posing around
03:49an empty suitcase.
03:50But when the album first hit shelves in June 1966, it was to feature an entirely different,
03:56far more controversial image, the Fab Four posing with dead babies.
04:00The babies were actually just doll parts, but it's still a little shocking that the
04:04lads tried to pull off the stunt.
04:06The idea came from one of the band's favorite photographers, Robert Whitaker.
04:10He was fed up with taking squeaky-clean pictures of the Beatles and decided to revolutionize
04:14what pop idols are.
04:16Most of the Beatles were down for it, with McCartney claiming that it was their comment
04:20on the Vietnam War.
04:21But ultimately, a wide release of the cover didn't happen, for the same reason behind
04:26most things in life money.
04:28The Beatles were negotiating a new record deal and didn't want to alienate any potential
04:32suitors, so they okayed the new, inoffensive cover.
04:36In March 1966, John Lennon sparked more controversy than he ever intended to.
04:42During an interview with the London Evening Standard, he claimed,
04:45"...Christianity will go.
04:46It will vanish and shrink.
04:48We're more popular than Jesus now.
04:50I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity."
04:53Few in England were bothered by the comments, but then it was republished in the American
04:57magazine Datebook, which led to outrage, prompting Lennon to clarify his comments.
05:02"...We meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion, at that time.
05:06I wasn't knocking it or putting it down, I was just saying it."
05:10Radio stations called for Beatles boycotts.
05:12There were public record smashings, concerts were picketed, the Vatican condemned the band,
05:17and they even started receiving death threats.
05:19Eventually, after a cherry bomb went off during a concert and spooked the band into thinking
05:23someone shot at them, they quit touring completely.
05:26This story has an even more unfortunate coda.
05:29One of the people outraged by Lennon's quote was a born-again Christian named Mark David
05:34Chapman, once one of Lennon's biggest fans.
05:37Chapman admitted that the Jesus comment sent him into a spiral of hatred, which eventually
05:41culminated with him assassinating Lennon.
05:44While Lennon's life ended very tragically, we can take solace in the fact that the music
05:48he and his bandmates created continues to inspire the world.