Ken McNab

My fascination with, and appreciation of, the Beatles goes back to the first time I heard them on radio in early 1964. I have vivid memories of their Ed Sullivan appearances, and even managed to see the first of two shows they did in Houston in August 1965. As I recall, that ticket cost me five dollars, but that was when minimum wage in the US was all of $1.25 an hour, so it’s all relative.

I recently spent about eight hours watching the Beatles documentary Get Back on Disney+, and I plan to watch it again in shorter chunks because there is just too much there to absorb in a single viewing. Something like fifty-six hours of old video and about 250 hours of audio produced during what became Abbey Road (album and movie), were used to produce the eight-hour, three-part documentary. Fans remember the film, and even the record album, as marking the end of the Beatles as a band. But why did it have to happen that way?

Ken McNab’s 2020 book And in the End chronicles what happened to the band after the cameras and microphones were turned off in January 1969. Via chapters dedicated to each month of 1969, McNab makes it clear that the timing of the breakup of the Beatles was inevitable, and that it happened for numerous reasons — not just because Yoko Ono became John Lennon’s shadow about that time. Ono certainly was a contributor to the band’s demise, but as it turns out, she gets more credit for the breakup than she deserves. In both And in the End and in the Get Back documentary, Ono comes across more as an irritating distraction and joke to Beatles fans than as a real reason the group decided to call it quits. The other three Beatles, who had to work with John every day, however, did find her to be more irritating than distracting - as evidenced by lots of eye-rolling and blank stares.

No, the real reasons the Beatles broke up are a lot more boring than the silliness and shallowness of Yoko Ono - and John Lennon’s utter infatuation with the woman. There were business problems: their company, Apple Corps, was almost bankrupt by 1969, and the group could not agree on whom to hire to manage their various interests. Paul McCartney insisted on one choice while John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr insisted on another. And it didn’t help that John and Yoko were now both heroin addicts, or that George Harrison was tired of having his own compositions ignored by the Lennon-McCarney songwriting team. Or that Ringo Starr was finally having some success in movies. Or that the band was terrified of performing live on stage anymore. Or that McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison were starting to enjoy creating music as individuals now that modern technology made it so easy for them to stay home and do exactly that.

No one person or event killed the Beatles, but when they reached their natural tipping point it was all over.

Bottom Line: And in the End is for Beatles fans, especially those still avid enough to spend eight hours watching the new Get Back documentary. The book picks up pretty much where the documentary leaves off and explains what happened during the rest of 1969 and beyond. It’s a sad story that will leave fans wondering, but doubting, if the band breakup could have some way been avoided. Sadly, to this fan at least, it just all seems to have been a matter of time.… (meer)

A chronicle of Beatle trivia for the year 1969. There was a lot more about the business angle than i was prepared to digest, and McNab does very little to clarify exactly what is going on (who the hell is "Nems"? what exactly is 'Northern Songs"?). I had little choice but to glaze over during some of the business dealing discussions; I TRIED to figure out the answers to my questions by using the index, thinking it was just my lazy inattentiveness that was the problem; but no, it's him. In fact he never really introduces Nems or Northern Songs properly; I guess we're just supposed to know who they are. I get that John, Paul, George, and Ringo need no introduction, and it was fine to throw us right in the middle of January 1969 with little backstory insofar as the personal angle. But I really felt like I had missed some prequel volumes.

It was also repetitive. E.g. I get what a great song "Something" was.

I learned plenty of fun facts though.

- The ending medley on ABBEY ROAD, probably my favorite Beatle "song", was recorded the week I was being born.

- "Because" is in 9-part harmony. Because they did not have 9 tracks available to tape on, John, Paul, & George had to sing three of the parts together on one track. They had not had to harmonize like that together in years, but they could still do it, even though they hated each other.

- George recorded the guitar solo to "Something" on the same track with the orchestra.

- John wanted "Cold Turkey" to be a Beatle song and actually thought it had great single potential.

- "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which I always liked and Xopher always hated ("It just goes on forever") just goes on forever because it's actually two different takes back to back. John couldn't decide which one he wanted so he used both of them.

I love learning tidbits about what went on behind the actual recording of the soundtrack to my brain.… (meer)