When did John decide to leave The Beatles/what was the "final straw"?

Macca quit after John though didn't he? John in 9/69, Paul in April 70?

 

The Beatles Bible suggests thinking of what band he wanted for the Toronto Rock n Roll festival did it. Some good quotes. John Brower broke up the Beatles!!

 

A part of me wishes they could've just either:

A) Put The Beatles on hold for a year and taken a break from each other

or

B) Kept The Beatles going as a side thing they'd revisit every couple of years to reduce the pressure

I do have mixed emotions though. I wouldn't have wanted to have seen a 1977 Disco Beatles album....

 

I'm not sure I follow; Paul played bass, drums, piano, maracas and provided vocals on The Ballad of John & Yoko while George was out of the country and Ringo was filming The Magic Christian.

 

NEVER LEFT...

 

It was just time. The band was standing at the beginning of a huge minefield. Stepping on any one of them was gonna do it. I personally think the "not playing live" thing was gonna be a deal breaker for Paul. George was never going to be seen as an equal so he had already spiritually cut out. The manager thing was a real wedge sowing mistrust. . . There were tons of issues, the one that did it was John wanted Yoko more that he wanted Beatles. It's just that simple, really.

 

I’m willing to bet the writing and recording of “Hey Jude” probably planted the seeds of ultimate discontent in John’s mind. Here’s his writing partner and buddy writing a song to console Julian’s sadness over John and Cyn’s breakup. I don’t think John made much of it at the time, but I can’t imagine that would sit well and simply go away.

 

Alternate timeline - meaning not this one - meaning if Pail didn’t do that John would have left the Beatles at that point instead of later

 

I'm assuming there was no enthusiasm within the group to perform at a festival, versus performing by themselves on their own terms (although we saw how well that worked out in regards to the aborted Get Back concert plans).

Wouldn't be surprised if they nixed it in part due to John's probable insistence on Yoko performing with them as well.

 

Parts of Abbey Road and what became Let It Be were strung together segments of unfinished or not fully realized songs. McCartney would occasionally continue to use this technique, most famously in Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey.

 

I modified that statement just a bit

 

He seems like he liked it! But he did think Macca wanted to give him the go ahead to leave. He really thought about it for a while huh

 

The greatest Beatles song that wasn't put out by The Beatles as a group IMO.

 

I’ve always seen him as more of a Winston Ono character.

 

Would have been interesting to see her perform She Loves You

 

Yeah, I don't think they were against performing - the opposite for certain members! I think perhaps the Toronto thing was a bit strange sounding and not strictly their own terms?

 

Winston Leg-Thigh.

 

I imagine a Beatles arrangement would be closer to the hard version of Revolution rather than what John did solo.

 

Well, both George and Ringo had already quit, but they came back, so if everybody else in the band had already quit before Paul made the announcement, that's a pretty clear indication that the band had run its course.

The alternative, though it was extremely unlikely as I don't think there was any precedent for it at the time even though it's common enough nowadays, would have been for everybody to take a break and do their own projects for a while without formally dissolving the band, then get back together at some later date when they all felt like working together again. (If so, I believe that the artistic and commercial success of All Things Must Pass would have required a substantial shift in the balance of creative power within the band for it to continue, and who knows if that could have been accommodated by John and Paul?) But the musical, legal and financial pressures on the band in 1969 / 1970 instead pushed everything to a conclusion that they couldn't easily walk back from.

 

Better than Lies?

 

in the modern era thats exactly what would have happened but at the time parking bands was very unusual, if you didn't have a record out every 6 months you were regarded as done.

 

Not if Yellow Submarine has anything to say about it!

 

i think this post more of less nails it ( no pun intended ), but i think the goings on at Apple in early 69 and the need to solve it and the discord that made ref Klein vs Eastman may have been the final straw that broke the Lennon back, but the seeds were already well sown as this post perfectly documents

 

That's a strange way to spell Ballad of John and Yoko!

 

Aw, that's a GREAT song!