The Beatles parted ways back in 1970, after years of growing tensions and musical differences, but the music industry never stopped trying to get the Fab Four back together.
Musical reunions are part and parcel of the modern music industry; it seems as though every year brings another beloved band from decades ago setting their differences aside for huge cheques and sell-out tours. While these reunion tours are a fairly modern phenomenon, The Beatles were among the very first groups to be hounded to get back together, almost from the very moment that they first broke up.
The Beatles parted ways back in 1970, after years of growing tensions and musical differences, but the music industry never stopped trying to get the Fab Four back together.
making records”: What would a Beatles reunion have looked like?
Musical reunions are part and parcel of the modern music industry; it seems as though every year brings another beloved band from decades ago setting their differences aside for huge cheques and sell-out tours. While these reunion tours are a fairly modern phenomenon, The Beatles were among the very first groups to be hounded to get back together, almost from the very moment that they first broke up.
By the end of the Abbey Road sessions, The Beatles were at their wits’ end. After years cooped up in a studio together, tensions had reached an all-time high, and small differences started driving a huge wedge between band members. What’s more, the recruitment of infamous manager Allen Klein to sort out the band’s finances separated Paul McCartney from the rest of the band, as the only member who could see through Klein’s facade. In other words, the break-up of the band was an inevitability.
As soon as it was made public knowledge that the world’s biggest band were no more, fans and industry figures alike demanded a reunion. In many cases, the group were offered eye-watering sums of money to reform The Beatles. Sid Bernstein reportedly put up $230million at one point, but all calls for a reunion were refused. After all, each band member quickly established their own distinctive solo career, which allowed them to explore their own personal influences without answering to the rest of the band.
What’s more, John Lennon and Paul McCartney devoted a part of their early solo material to criticising each other, most famously in Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep’, which attacked Macca for apparent complacency and lack of songwriting genius. It is no surprise, therefore, that the pair weren’t desperate to get back in the studio together. However, the musicians did hint at the potential for a reunion on a few occasions.
In the years after the break-up, tensions began to ease between the former band members, and they would routinely meet and collaborate on each other’s solo albums, too. So, why not get together again?
During a 1974 radio interview with Dennis Elsas, Lennon was asked that very question. “We never talk about it because the four of us have never gotten into a room together,” the songwriter explained.
“Because of green cards and immigration and all that jazz. George and Paul have a little trouble getting in and out of this country [the United States], too. So the four of us have never sat in a room together for three years.”
Seemingly, the prevailing reason for the band not getting together again was merely scheduling conflicts and travel difficulties. In essence, Lennon was not opposed to the idea of reforming the band at all, sharing, “There’s always a chance we’d work together because, you know, if we see each other we tend to fall into that kind of mood.”
He did caveat this by adding, “I can’t see us touring or anything like that, we’ve never discussed it,” which should come as no shock since The Beatles retired from performing back in 1966 anyway.
“I could see us making records, you know, why not?” He added, providing fuel to the fire of hopes for a reunion. “But that touring bit, I don’t quite fancy that.”
Further, Lennon explained that there were indeed monetary influences at play, too. “We’d be stupid to give away anything new at the rate we get paid now,” he said, declaring that the band would have to wait a few years before getting back together anyway, in order to bypass certain contracts and fetch the highest possible price.
Tragically, time ran out for the reunion hopes shortly thereafter. In 1980, John Lennon was fatally shot outside his apartment building in New York City, becoming one of the most tragic, gut-wrenching losses in music history, and making a Beatles reunion an impossibility. Harrison, McCartney, and Starr collaborated on various occasions in the following years, appearing on each other’s solo albums here and there, but ultimately, you cannot have The Beatles without John Lennon.
Still, Lennon’s 1974 claim that The Beatles could have produced new material during that period is the basis of an incredible ‘what if?’. Each band member had developed their songwriting credentials and stylistic choices tenfold by then, so what would the new material have sounded like?
If the band were to revert to their old ways, of being largely dictated by Lennon and McCartney, it seems as if they could have delivered a bizarre mix of jaunty, kitsch pop and moody political anthems, akin to a far less psychedelic ‘A Day In The Life’. I suppose we will never know.
