All the little tidbits you thought you knew
about John, Paul, George, and Ringo and their journey from Liverpool to superstardom might
just be a little off. This is the untold truth of The Beatles. The Beatles' lyrics were unlike most other
pop music of the time, but that doesn't mean they were intentionally writing profound poetry. Case in point: "I Am The Walrus," perhaps
the most lyrically obtuse Beatles song of them all. As it turns out, it's almost completely gibberish,
put out by John Lennon as a poke at people taking his pop music too seriously. Lennon was working on the song when he received
a letter from a student at his old school, Quarry Bank. The student told Lennon that his teacher was
having them read Beatles lyrics and analyze them for deeper meaning. Lennon was deeply amused by the idea, so to
mess with this teacher, he decided to take the absurdity of "I Am the Walrus" completely
over the top. He recalled a playground chant from his childhood
and then warped that into completely meaningless lyrics like "Yellow matter custard/Dripping
from a dead dog's eye." Ever since the Beatles broke up, people have
laid the blame on Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. According to this story, everything was fine
in the band, then Yoko showed up, convinced John he was better than his bandmates, and
the two went off to record weird music together. Except, it's just not true. The Beatles were almost certainly going to
break up anyway, and anyone who blames Yoko is simply angry at the wrong target. Paul McCartney himself has argued as much. "But she certainly didn't break the group
up. The group was breaking up." In McCartney's mind, Lennon was ready to leave
anyway, having grown tired of the "unhealthy rivalry" between the band members. As far as McCartney's concerned, all Ono did
was provide Lennon with the courage and inspiration to leave, and to embrace his own creativity
full-throttle. Most Beatles songs feature the writing credit
"Lennon/McCartney." That's due to an early agreement between the
two musicians and Brian Epstein, the band's manager. Epstein and Lennon proposed that any song
Lennon or McCartney wrote would be credited to "Lennon/McCartney." McCartney was initially fine with that, but
he suggested that the credit be reversed if he were the primary or solo writer. Epstein and Lennon supposedly agreed, but
it never happened. Sometimes, McCartney seems fine with the arrangement. In a 2015 interview with Esquire, he said, "It's a good logo, like Rodgers and Hammerstein. Hammerstein and Rodgers doesn't work." Other times, he's irked by being the second
guy in the name, particularly on songs like "Yesterday," which he wrote entirely by himself. He tried to get his alternating-credits idea
going after the band broke up. Yoko Ono allegedly agreed but then backtracked
for unexplained reasons. Decades later, we're not likely to see "McCartney/Lennon"
on anything official anytime soon. Approximately one second after the Beatles
broke up, the public began clamoring for a reunion. Amazingly, we almost got just that on April
24, 1976, and it would've taken place on the first season of Saturday Night Live. During the evening's episode, SNL producer
Lorne Michaels appeared on camera to offer the Beatles a comically low $3,000 to reunite
on his show and sing a paltry three songs. "We've heard from The Monkeys, Freddie and
the Dreamers, Herman's Hermits, Peter and Gordon, The Cowsills, and Lulu, but still
no word from the Beatles" Obviously, Michaels had no reason to believe
the group would actually take him up on the offer, but it actually almost happened. As it turns out, John and Paul were in New
York City, hanging out and watching the show together. As Lennon recounted in the book All We Are
Saying, the pair actually considered taking a cab down to the studio and accepting Michaels'
offer, just to be funny. Ultimately they chose not to, but not because
the money wasn't right or because they worried it would be detrimental to their legacy, but
because they were just too tired. However, later that year, George Harrison
appeared on the show and attempted to take Michaels up on the offer. The Yesterday and Today album cover is safe
and pedestrian, with the band posing around an empty suitcase. But when the album first hit shelves in June
1966, it was to feature an entirely different, far more controversial image: the Fab Four
posing with dead babies. The "babies" were actually just doll parts,
but it's still a little shocking that the lads tried to pull off the stunt. The idea came from one of the band's favorite
photographers, Robert Whitaker. He was fed up with taking "squeaky-clean pictures
of the Beatles" and decided to "revolutionize what pop idols are." Most of the Beatles were down for it, with
McCartney claiming that it was their comment on the Vietnam War. But ultimately, a wide release of the cover
didn't happen, for the same reason behind most things in life: money. The Beatles were negotiating a new record
deal and didn't want to alienate any potential suitors. So they okayed the new, inoffensive cover. In March 1966, John Lennon sparked more controversy
than he ever intended to. During an interview with the London Evening
Standard, he claimed, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink … We're more popular
than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n'
roll or Christianity." Few in England were bothered by the comment,
but then it was re-published in the American magazine Datebook, which led to outrage, prompting
Lennon to clarify his comments. "We meant more to kids than Jesus did or religion
at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down, I
was just saying it." Radio stations called for Beatles boycotts,
there were public record smashings, concerts were picketed, the Vatican condemned the band,
and they even started receiving death threats. Eventually, after a cherry bomb went off during
a concert and spooked the band into thinking someone shot at them, they quit touring completely. This story has an even more unfortunate coda. One of the people outraged by Lennon's quote
was a born-again Christian named Mark David Chapman, once one of Lennon's biggest fans. Chapman admitted that the Jesus comment sent
him into a spiral of hatred, which eventually culminated with him assassinating Lennon. While Lennon's life ended very tragically,
we can take solace in the fact that the music he and his bandmates created continues to
inspire the world.
