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norrisrw OP t1_j53ywa2 wrote

Reply to comment by ReadRightRed99 in Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono embrace, following his "letter" to welcome John Lennon into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1994 by norrisrw

It amazes me how much animosity there still is over Yoko Ono and how she allegedly broke up the Beatles. According to information that I have read (and this has been confirmed by Breakfast With the Beatles host Chris Carter), it was on this night when Yoko handed Paul some demo tapes John had recorded before he died. Two of those songs, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", would be released with the 1995 Anthology box set.

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billyjk93 t1_j54brvv wrote

The Beatles broke up because of egos mostly. They were all basically doing their own things towards the end anyway and Abby Road and The White Album are basically solo songs from each member just mashed together. I also believe both Paul and Johns first solo records were full of songs meant for the last two Beatles albums.

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norrisrw OP t1_j56mz8b wrote

Absolutely true. By 1969, the band had pretty much reached a tipping point. Paul and John were barely speaking to each other.

George had traveled to the States, and he discovered there was SOOO MUCH more he could do musically away from The Beatles. By the time they tried to get together at Twickenham, he was already mentally out of the band. Meanwhile, it was Paul and Ringo who were trying to keep it together, because they had less than two weeks to crank out new material. But when John hired Phil Spector to produce the Let It Be album, it literally broke Paul. So, a band on the cusp of breakup with a short deadline? No pressure.

While John wanting Yoko present at band meetings did nothing but make a bad situation worse for the band, it is interesting to note that Paul McCartney correctly predicted the reductive reasoning of the fans ("In 50 years, they'll say The Beatles broke up because Yoko sat on an amp").

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billyjk93 t1_j56sikv wrote

On the subject of your last sentence, I think it's pretty sad that yoko being there probably caused a lot to be left unsaid. I think if they could've had any time in a room together to just talk and not trudge through production, they might've been able to be real with each other and at least salvage their relationships. Maybe even ironed out some issues and entered a new phase as a band.

It would've at least been cool to see them collaborate for songs on their solo albums. But we as fans will never know what all the issues were and if they could've ever worked through it. But I kind of think they all thought they would get back together in some way until John got assassinated

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Interesting_Act1286 t1_j577k2a wrote

Drugs played a part in it, too. I believe John had a heroin problem at the time, which was part of their problems.

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Empty_Cress8537 t1_j59t65i wrote

Good points! I also think that John knew bringing Yoko into meetings and recordings would annoy the rest of the band but did it anyway as if to say “what you gonna do about?!” I think like any other relationship, when you’re with people for so long, working together, they we’re probably just sick of each other. I also think Brian Epstein’s death was a big part in them breaking up too. May have been some tension on who would “lead” the band after.

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SpinningHead t1_j57n2ww wrote

Shes also hated for treating Julian like garbage and cutting him out of everything.

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