When was the last time the Beatles were happy as a band?

Just before George realised his digestive biscuits were missing.

 

I’ll go with Epstein’s death. Once he was gone it was a fight over who would replace them. A manager like Epstein who helped shape their image and did so much is not somebody you can just go out and replace.

 

Probably occasionally for five minutes in 1969.

 

“The connection between John and Paul was amazing. There was just so much energy between them. To be honest, there was a unique and almost divine energy between all four of them. I am sure there were many difficulties within the band creatively, but you never got a sense of that during the shoot. They were really tight with each other. You could tell why they were so successful.” – Tom Murray, Mad Day Out photographer

 

I’d say they had some last happy moments during the recording of Abbey Road, when George Martin told them they’d record his way, like they used to. And I think this is reflected on such an optimistic, summery record as Abbey Road, as opposed to the “winter of discontent” of the Let It Be sessions.

 

I think that Brian's death set them on a downward spiral where things changed dramatically. John:

"I knew that we were in trouble then. I didn’t really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought, ‘We’ve fu****’ had it’.”

 

two years later they were done

 

speaking of Brian
Another Brian Epstein movie # The Beatles

 

George Martin has commented on this many times.
He said it was always good when two or three of the Fabs were in the studio but when the four of them were together it was pure alchemy.

 

This is such a lovely quote. Peter Jackson said a similar thing. He even used the same word 'divine' although he applied that to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. It just goes to show they clearly weren't an ordinary bunch of lads who just so happened to create really good songs. There was definitely something more to them. There's a reason they stood out. The Mad Day Out shoot is among my favourites. They seemed so carefree for that one. Plus, I love what they were wearing.

 

Based on Geoff Emerick's observation about Hey Bulldog being the last session he felt they were "all together" on and in the moment in its production I guess I would pinpoint it to be right around that time.

 

Really wish we had more video footage from this shoot. I wonder what the idea was behind the fan blasting wind at them though? I can't imagine that was very comfortable! lol

 

Apparently a rumor started by Magic Alex.

 

It was that divine charm that sold Beatlemania that John later tried to dismiss, “we were just a band that made it very very big that’s all” which seems to overlook their musical impact somehow.

Did The Beatles Know Just How Good They Were?

 

Just a cumulative thing really. Watch the Anthology. Read the books.
There is a decidedly unsettled dark tone underlying everything Beatle related post late 1966.
Just a philosophical feeling or observation.

I feel that the Fabs finally realized, maybe for the first time in their own minds. There really was nothing else to accomplish as a group.
Besides changing themselves. They had inadvertently changed pop music, then the nature of celebrity, then tangentially society itself.

Manila was the final straw that showed them the truly ugly side of fame and celebrity, in a very easy to perceive way. And they didn't like it, covet it or want it any longer. They just wanted to retreat.
Retreat back into simply making pop music and a sense of normalcy, for them, at least a sense that they had some control over, their own lives, as much as possible for figures in that position.

 

Sorry. But i have to say it - Yoko. It destroyed what was left of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration except for a little on Abbey road. Created friction in studio, at meetings. Got into his head that the Beatles were holding him back and Beatles music was crap. It wasn't all Yoko's fault, as John wanted it to happen obviously.

 

A really thoughtful post. I enjoyed reading that! In threads of a speculative nature, I think it should be all right on occasion to form an opinion about something based on feeling. As fans, we tend to be quite demanding about evidence and sources - rightly so - but sometimes, when you’ve been a fan long enough, or you’ve read enough and seen/heard enough (including the music itself) you might develop an intuition, or hunch about a thing. You’ve got no real proof but you just have an inkling.

Slightly related, I often pick up some darkness or sadness in their music, either lyrically or musically, no matter how joyous the tune. In fact, sometimes the lively ones send out the stronger ‘dark clouds hovering’ signals. Like All You Need Is Love...also Hello Goodbye. They were a mysterious band in some ways. Many facets to them. No wonder they’re so interesting! This is why there’s always so many Beatles threads!

 

I've always viewed John bringing Ono into the Beatles creative circle in the way he did as a massive provocation. What reaction he wanted from Paul remains unknown but it seems to me that something broke inside John after India.

That aside I think there were times when they were happy together right up til the end, just a kind of cumulative weight of things eventually caught up with them and overtook them after 'abbey road'. Remember they were still talking and planning working together even up to that point.

 

Wasn’t it Wednesday morning at 5:00?

 

In the case of John, I see it as self-fulfilling prophecy to some degree.

 

Paul split before John.

 

Abbey Road is a very happy record.

 

The Beatles if nothing else, were so very interesting on so many levels that it is truly very hard quantify or contextualize. I find them as a cultural phenomena, truly baffling and endlessly fascinating.

Yes part of the appeal in 'studying' the Beatles as phenomena is that the dark clouds are just under the surface from their very beginnings, and it is quite easy to see if you just look a little deeper.

I can readily find plenty of evidence to support my little pet theory going all the way back to their four individual childhoods. There are plenty of signposts all along their career.

 

8/29

8/29/66

 

I think they were happy being together, and with one another, but were extremely tired and dissatisfied with their mega fame going forward from Magical Mystery Tour and Pepper. Can you imagine that kind of popularity with almost no private life and the management and public's desire for them to continue producing and touring. They must have been close to complete exhaustion by the time The White Album came to fruition.