The Beatles

[[File:The Fabs.JPG|right|thumb|165px|The fabulous mop-topped Scousers minutes away from their first American lays in New York in 1964.]]{{music|1}}
'''The Beatles''' were a [[British]] [[rock music|rock-and-roll]] band that had a pretty good run during the bulk of the 1960s. The lineup consisted of [[John Lennon]] (1940-1980), a highly talented visionary asshole who contradicted himself at every possible turn, which the world decided to tolerate because he was writing some of the most beautiful and original music of all time), [[Fun:Sir Paul McCartney|Paul McCartney]] (born James Paul McCartney in 1942), a prettyboy, fantastic and often overlooked bassist, singer, and pretty-much-everything-ist with an obsession with corny love songs, George Harrison (1943-2001), a late-blooming great songwriter and singer who was probably the most grounded member of the band, despite becoming a bit of a religious nut, and Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey in 1940), the drummer, a solid and glorified session musician who's often the butt of a lot of peoples' jokes.

==Stuff relevant to RationalWiki==
==="Paul is dead" rumor===
{{main|Paul is dead}}
In 1969 a group of 
idiots
 students put forth the possibility that [[Fun:Sir Paul McCartney|Paul McCartney]] had died in a car accident in 1967 and the Beatles were [[Conspiracy theory|covering it up]], having replaced Paul with a look-alike. They cited hundreds of points of [[bullshit|evidence]], including alleged [[Backward masking#Forward masking|forward masking]] on ''Strawberry Fields Forever'', in a clear-cut non-[[science|scientific]] case of finding evidence to fit a theory.  
<!-- There were reportedly hundreds of clues that point to this; here is some of more of the oft-cited "[[bullshit|evidence]]":

* The cover of ''Abbey Road'' appears to be a funeral procession
* The words "Turn me on, dead man" being heard when you play ''Revolution 9'' backwards
* The cover of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' shows Paul holding the only wooden instrument (somehow, wood = coffin)
* On the same cover, Paul has a hand over his head, a sign of death among religious officials
* On the interior of the same album, one picture of the four Beatles has Paul facing away from the camera (the only place where you see the back of a Beatle's head)
* On the lyrics page of the same album, George Harrison points to lyrics of ''She's Leaving Home'' officiating his Paul's time of death ("Wednesday morning at five o'clock") -->

Despite his death, he went on to form the band Wings, has a very successful solo career, smoked a lot of [[marijuana|weed]], recorded the theme to ''Live and Let Die'', got married a few times, produced a few animated films, wrote a few children's books, became a [[vegetarian]], and was knighted by [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] in 1997. His son, James Louis McCartney (b. 1977), is also a musician. Sort of.  

===Tax protest===
The Beatles, being incredibly wealthy, were taxed 95% on their income from sales and performances. This inspired George to write the song "Taxman", which became the theme song of the [[tax protest]]er. Somehow they still managed to scrape by.

==="Let It Be"===
The single "Let It Be" gained something of a periphery demographic amongst [[Christian]] audiences as a gospel song for its apparent reference to the [[Virgin Mary]]: "When I find myself in times of trouble/Mother Mary comes to me/Speaking words of wisdom/Let it be." While it is widely interpreted as such (and was covered by Filipino singer Maxine in the 2002 all-star Christian album ''Mother of All''<ref name="MoA">{{Cite web |date=2002-01-06 |title=Mother Of All |url=https://open.spotify.com/album/5xzBQf2HJEANdb8XCVDqVh |access-date=2024-10-16 |website=Spotify |language=en-GB}}</ref>), Paul McCartney typically replied the song's interpretation is all up to the listener;<ref name=uoooao>[http://catholicstand.com/a-lesson-on-text-criticism-and-the-beatles-let-it-be/ A Lesson on Text Criticism and the Beatles’ Let it Be] Jeff McLeod, Catholic Stand, 30 July 2013, Accessed 9 February 2014</ref> he actually came up with the song after a dream he had of his late mother Mary McCartney, whom according to an interview spoke to Macca in his dreams "It will be all right, just let it be." Perhaps incidentally, a similar passage can be found in {{bible|Luke|1|38}}, where in some versions is rendered as "Let it be unto me according to your word."<ref name="Kaczor">{{Cite web |last=Kaczor |first=Christopher |date=2023-11-16 |title=Paul McCartney, Times of Trouble, and “Let It Be” |url=https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/paul-mccartney-times-of-trouble-and-let-it-be/ |access-date=2024-10-17 |website=Word on Fire}}</ref>

===Drugs===
[[File:4fabs.png|right|thumb|400px|The Fab Four in a still image from Peter Jackson's "Get Back" documentary: Paul, Ringo, John and George]]In the song "Get Back", Paul McCartney sings about Jojo leaving his home in Tucson, [[Arizona]], to buy "some [[California]] [[marijuana|grass]]".<ref group=note>The estate in Tucson is called "Camelot" and it's 
only a model
 a pretty nice house.</ref>  

Fans of the psychedelic age have long suggested that the song "'''L'''ucy in the '''S'''ky with '''D'''iamonds" is about and was inspired by a rather crazy trip on [[LSD]].  While the implication is definitely in the title of the song, the inspiration actually came from a child's drawing.<ref group=note>That child, Lucy Vodden, died in 2009.</ref>

George Harrison's "Savoy Truffle" was written about Harrison's friend  [[Eric Clapton]]'s sweet tooth, but is possibly a [[metaphor]] for his [[cocaine]] addiction.

The song "Happiness is a Warm Gun" was inspired by a gun advertisement that Lennon saw with the title "Happiness is a Warm Gun", which refers to the heat that is produced after a gun is fired. Some critics claim that the song is about shooting [[heroin]], one of the drugs that Lennon was addicted to.

Ringo singing "I'll get high with a little help from my friends" is pretty self-explanatory.

"Got to Get You Into My Life"  according to McCartney: “It’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.”<ref>[https://archive.ph/BMo2S 100 Greatest Beatle Songs] ''Rolling Stone'' (April 10, 2020)</ref>

==== LSD as a bonding experience ====

McCartney and Lennon would come to use LSD as a bonding experience.

{{cquote|McCartney eventually caved to the peer pressure — or “fear pressure,” as he called it — in December 1965. Interestingly, he took his first trip without any of the Beatles. Instead, he preferred to explore the outer limits of his consciousness with {{wpl|Tara Browne||,}} the heir to the Guinness brewery fortune and a fixture in the highest echelon of London’s social scene. (Following his fatal car wreck the next year, Lennon and McCartney immortalized Browne as the man who “blew his mind out in a car” in their song “{{wpl|A Day in the Life||.}}”) 

McCartney would admit that he was “never that in love” with the psychedelic. “For a guy who wasn’t that keen on getting that weird, there was a disturbing element to it,” he’d say. Still, this evening with Lennon felt like a rare opportunity. Perhaps eager to reclaim a sense of intimacy that had been fading in their relationship since the band stopped touring the previous year, or mere just to keep his friend company, he decided to drop acid too.

“I thought, maybe this is the moment where I should take a trip with him,” McCartney recalled in the book Many Years from Now. “It had been coming for a long time. It’s often the best way, without thinking about it too much, just slip into it. John’s on it already, so I’ll sort of catch up. It was my first trip with John, or any of the guys.”

The experience was powerful for them both. “That night, John and Paul did something that the two of them practiced quite a few times during this period: they gazed intensely into each other’s eyes,” Leslie writes. “They liked to put their faces close together and stare, unblinking, until they felt themselves dissolving into each other, almost obliterating any sense of themselves as distinct individuals.” McCartney would later describe it, with classic understatement, as “a very freaky experience… John had been sitting around very enigmatically and I had a big vision of him as king, the absolutely Emperor of Eternity. It was a good trip.” <ref>[https://archive.ph/CQv3E How John Lennon's Accidental LSD Trip During a Beatles Recording Session Strengthened His Bond with Paul McCartney] Jordan Runtagh ''People'' April 8, 2025 (Retrieved April 22, 2025)</ref>}}

===Helter Skelter===
[[Charles Manson]] claimed that he heard a message from [[God]] which inspired him to build a family of murdering sociopaths while listening to the song "Helter Skelter".  It couldn't possibly have been [[Schizophrenia|the voices in his head]] or the drugs he was taking.

===Eastern philosophy===
Ravi Shankar's influence inspired George Harrison to learn to play the sitar, and the influence is evident in several songs expressing Eastern philosophies, including "Within You Without You". Halfway through their career together, and having discovered that they were more popular than [[Jesus]], the Beatles proceeded to take inspiration from [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]], and the temporary endorsement boosted his popularity.  The song "Sexy Sadie" later served as John's denunciation of Mahesh Yogi after learning he'd sexually harassed women. 

Harrison got heavily into [[Hare Krishna]] advocacy, as evidenced in 
"He's So Fine"
<ref>http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/mysweet.htm</ref> "My Sweet Lord".

While the Beatles were away learning [[woo]], their manager Brian Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose.

===Yoko Ono===
[[File:Yoko Ono 2007.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Yoko Ono in 2007.]]
Yoko Ono (married name Yoko Ono Lennon) is a <strike>pretentious</strike> [[Japan]]ese <strike>dilettante</strike> artist, musician, and the widow of the late [[John Lennon]].

Yoko is a well-known political activist, promoting peace while denouncing [[sexism]] and [[racism]] (although some may find that hypocritical, given her and Lennon's 1971 visit to the controversial [[Yasukuni Shrine]]<ref>[https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Tvn9kg7sU/?hl=en John Lennon official Instagram, showing 1971 photo shot at shrine]</ref>). She was a part of the [[feminism|feminist culture]] that emerged in the UK and the US in the 1960s, challenging perceptions of women and their roles, and their need to fit into standards of appearance.

Yoko Ono has been accused in the popular press, and by Beatle fans (and Beatle haters) of "breaking up the Beatles." The truth is simple &mdash; the Beatles were already growing apart, growing up, and growing in different directions, and so [[schism|schisms]] within the band that had existed since before their first hit singles were now gaping chasms. Yoko just happened to meet their "lead singer and rhythm guitarist" around the time the band was imploding.

But, because her chosen styles of art and music were difficult &mdash; almost impossible &mdash; for those used to suckling at the teat of 4/4 time and the I-IV-V chord progression (to say nothing of the tempered scale!), she became a handy [[scapegoat]] for Beatle-lovers to hate and ridicule,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwOwZP6JBP4 A part of Yoko Ono screaming but with HL SFX]</ref> and subsequently, for uninformed Beatle-haters to love (in a twisted sort of way).<ref group=note>Or not so twisted. Ono has collaborated with well-established jazz musicians, and many jazzers have an axe to grind with the Beatles after they stole the public's attention from jazz and replaced it with rock.</ref>

==Other Beatles==
When the band first began achieving popular notoriety when performing in [[Germany]], they were a quintet. Stuart Sutcliffe was the band's original bassist despite not being able to play bass, but left the band to pursue a career as a painter. He died unexpectedly in 1962 from a brain aneurysm at age 21.

The Beatles' original drummer was Pete Best (born Randolph Peter Scanland in 1941), but was dismissed from the band by manager Brian Epstein at the insistence of the other members and replaced with Ringo Starr. After working with a number of commercially unsuccessful groups, Best worked as a civil servant for 20 years, and then started the Pete Best Band, with which he still performs.

James George "Jimmie" Nichol (b. 1939) substituted for an ailing Ringo Starr on the band's 1964 tour. After Starr's recovery and return to the band, Nichol worked with a number of other bands, but left the entertainment industry in 1967 to become an entrepreneur. He has chosen to stay out of the spotlight and doesn't discuss his brief time with the Beatles, nor apparently try to profit from it.

A [[DAESH]] cell became known as {{wpl|The Beatles (terrorist cell)|"The Beatles"}} because its four members had English accents. Unsurprisingly, neither the surviving members of the namesake band nor their fans were pleased with the nickname;<ref>Watts, Matt (4 September 2014). [https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ringo-starr-takes-on-is-over-beatles-nickname-its-bullst-we-stood-for-peace-and-love-9711463.html "Ringo Starr takes on IS over Beatles nickname: 'It's bulls**t... We stood for peace and love'"]. ''Evening Standard''. Retrieved 17 September 2014.</ref> however, the hostages whom "The Beatles" kidnapped named them as such in a sardonic reference to the band by way of their accents and not necessarily as a mockery of the band itself.<ref>Moore, Jack (8 February 2016). [http://www.newsweek.com/members-jihadi-john-beatles-execution-cell-named-alexe-kotey-aine-davis-423907 "Two Members of Jihadi John's 'Beatles' Execution Cell Named as Alexe Kotey and Aine Davis"]. ''Newsweek''. Retrieved 30 May 2019.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Frank Zappa]]

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Musicians]]

Categories: Musicians