As 1969 came around the beatles relationships with each other was becoming more and more strained. There were many factors to The Beatles breaking up, Yoko of course being blamed by many fans as the main reason. This however if far from true, even though her constant presence in the studio had not been appreciated by the other members of the band. Paul McCartney, was very much in the driving seat, trying to keep the band together, and in trying to do so his suggestions and attempt at leadership seemed very controlling to the rest of the band. George Harrison was feeling left out, and not appreciated, as he bloomed into a very promising song writer, her believed that the partnership of Lennon and McCartney would never let him fulfill his talents. with albums still being mainly Lennon or McCartney songs. And of course by 1969 Ringo Starr had already left the group, and then returned shorty afterwards.
(photo from, meet the beatles for real blog)
But one of the biggest factors was that of hard drugs, and mainly Lennon’s addiction, what made him distant to the rest of the group. Even though all the members or the groups were regular users of a selection of drugs for many years, 1968 and into 1969 would bring much more dangerous drugs into the beatles world, starting with Paul McCartney and his dalliance with cocaine, but it was Lennon’s next addiction that was one of the final nails in The Beatles coffin. Yoko Ono would joke that during the ‘let it be’ sessions, that her and John’s own form of exercise was taking Heroin, a fact that the other beatles knew. “this was a fairly big shocker for us because we all thought we were far-out boys, but we kind of understood that we’d never get quite that far out!” Paul McCartney said about Lennon’s use of the drug.
(photo from google image search)
In 1968 John Lennon’s house had been raided in a drugs bust, and he believe it contributed to the miscarriage of his and yoke’s unborn child. It was after this event that, he said, that he and Yoko were in a lot of mental pain, and paired with the fact that none of the rest of the band had accepted Yoko, turned them to start snorting heroin. John blamed this choice he made all by himself, on the opinions of the other beatles and those around him, pushing him into doing it. However it it believed that he had starting sniffing the drug some time before this, and that he had been dabbling in it during his whole relationship with Yoko.
(photo from google image search)
It was during 1969 that Lennon went from dabbling to a full on junky, and it became a problem, he just had to have it. A man who already had and would still in the future suffer with addictions to many things, he was possible about to endure his most dangerous one of all. His behavior was all over the place, while being interviewed during early 69, he appeared stoned, his voice deep, and his manners sleepy, before he asked to stop for a minute because he didn’t feel to well. Not long after he crashed his car in Scotland while on holiday with his son Julian, Yoko, and her daughter. Once they were given the all clear at hospital he and Yoko would return to Abbey Road Studio with a bed (that he is said to have brought from Harrods) for Yoko to sleep on while he was busy recording the Abbey Road album. So now the band had a sleeping Yoko to contend with as well as a Heroin addicted Lennon. He suffered mood swings and ups and downs in his behavior at the studios.
(photo from google images)
Until this point, the beatles did very little drugs in the actual studio, but now Yoko and John had to get their fix wherever they were. But once The Beatles had finished the album (what would turn out to be their last) Lennon and Ono made up their mind to quite the drug. They could have gone to a hospital to get clean in a safe and controlled environment, but they instead decided to go cold turkey. It was this experience that John would later tell of in a solo song also named ‘Cold Turkey.’ To find out exactly what John went through during his attempt to kick the habit, you only need to hear the lyrics of the song, as he describes himself “Rolling in pain” as the drugs got out his system for the first time in months. It took him a few attempts to actually overcome this addiction, But as most things in his life, it was quickly replaced with another drug.
(photo from google images)
It is said that he was still on this drug during the ‘live in Toronto’ concert along with Eric Clapton who was also there at the time. But was this drug addiction the straw that broke the camels back, in the case of the beatles break up…. Probably not, no one thing was, it was just a mixture of 101 things, that just brought the end of the biggest group in history. It is believed that John would still dabble in the drug in later years, during the time he was said to be at home being a ’house husband’ and ‘baking bread.’
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