Fans of the legendary rock band The Beatles believe there’s a crucial reason why the band didn’t announce their break-up when John Lennon left.
Though the Imagine hitmaker would leave the band in September 1969, the end of the Fab Four was not confirmed until April 1970. In those six months, fans believe the remaining three Beatles, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, were waiting to see if Lennon was serious. McCartney would suggest as much on The Beatles: Anthology, saying he and the remaining Beatles wanted to give it “a couple of months” to make sure Lennon was certain on leaving the band. Starr and Harrison had also left the band, though temporarily, when recording The White Album and during the Get Back/Abbey Road sessions, respectively. A post to the r/Beatles subreddit saw one fan ask: “Why didn’t The Beatles immediately announce their break-up after John left?”
Fans seem to think they have the answer, with one person writing that uncertainty at the time prevented any immediate announcement. One person wrote: “Same reason they didn’t announce the breakup after Ringo left, or after George left. They didn’t know for sure it was going to stick.”
Another agreed, adding: “Yeah, there’s an interview with Paul on the Anthology Revisited podcast where Paul says that after John gave notice in September 1969 that he was leaving, the other three ‘gave it a couple of months’ just to see if John would come back and they could patch the whole thing up.
“I think the ensuing combination of the Let It Be mixing fiasco with trying to bump McCartney (1970) off of Paul’s preferred release date pushed Paul over the line, hence the press release Q&A. And the rest, as they say…”
A third suggested that new contract meetings with Capitol Records could have made Lennon’s decision to leave The Beatles permanent. They wrote: “They were also negotiating a new contract with Capitol. I think John directly told Paul that he wanted a ‘divorce’ essentially right after they signed the contract.
“Ultimately, I think they kept things hush, because they wanted to preserve their image, while also maximising any future profits and interest in the band. That’s my hunch, anyway. Once John privately announced the breakup, I don’t think he stepped into the studio with all four Beatles again.
“I think the restrictions to Paul’s creative freedom, and his inability to release his own project on his preferred timetable, prompted him to go “public.” And by public, I mean he essentially wrote his own Q&A, and sent it along to the press with advance copies of McCartney.
“In the Q&A, Paul alludes to the breakup in rather vague terms, but anyone with any sense at the time would have interpreted the Q&A as a sort of public announcement of the breakup. And indeed, most folks interpreted the Q&A as a sort of official communique regarding the breakup of the Beatles.”
According to Philip Norman’s biography, John Lennon: The Life, the four Beatles agreed to delay announcing their break-up as they were worried it would affect the sales of Abbey Road.
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