It began with Strawberry Fields Forever in November, 1966. George Martin and Brian Epstein couldn't believe what John was playing. They still had a ton of the equipment around the recording wing of the studio from "Tomorrow Never Knows", and so would make dozens and dozens of different renditions of Strawberry Fields. Paul McCartney was able to conjure up Penny Lane in the same span of time. It would be released as a double single leading up to June 1, 1967, the day that the Mickey Mouse psychadelic album came out that everyone just spilled their load over -- Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Some say it changed music forever, maaaan.

Some say it was revolutionary, that the...that Sergeant Pepper anchored in the revolution, maaaaaan!!!

Some even have gone so far as to say it's the most important album in the last 30 years.

Well those people are crazy.

In reality, Sergeant Pepper had a perfect, perfect, perfect A-side...but then the crappiest B side ever. For all who have never owned a cassette tape, the A side went like this -- "Sergeant Pepper", "With A Little Help From My Friends" "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Getting Better", "Fixin' A Hole", "She's Leaving Home", and "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Then the B-side had George Harrison opening with a great big uneventful fart in "Within You Without You", and then "When I'm Sixty-Four" that sucks, then "Lovely Rita" which sucks, and then "Good Morning Good Morning" which was okay, and then "Day In The Life" which was overrated but pretty good. But that's it. One and a half songs.

Unfortunately most people in charge of writing about the Beatles were the kinds that saw the album cover and realized that most album covers were boring compared to it. And thus they noticed it. You wouldn't have missed it if you were looking at it from space. It featured a wide assortment of famous personas, a beautiful blue sky background, and plenty of words spelled out in colorful vegetation. It's estimated that to tattoo Sergeant Pepper Lonely Hearts Clubs Band's album cover on their backs would be the first ever one-million dollar tattoo.

It was however, how beatniks became hippies. They might have gotten the dress and attire from other bands, but Sergeant Pepper catapulted the movement. It featured a wide array of emotions that would get heightened with the taking of psychadelics. In She's Leaving Home...she doesn't return. Mr. Kite was a step-by-step guide to illustrating a circus in your mind. Lucy in the Sky. Getting Better triggered optimism. Many people across the country became homeless due to the Beatles as they attempted their own art. Many people who had experimented with drugs during this time were addicts in the 70s. This was hardly something that Paul and John didn't see coming. Up until now, the subject of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was always a uniform one. They were a tag team. Philosophically identicial. But when it came to whose fault lay in the fact that millions of people were throwing away their best shot at security due to their influence, John thought it was the Beatles fault, particularly his own. Paul...he blamed the people themselves. If you're thinking in terms of who you'd elect to the presidency, that's one thing, but when you think about it, Paul was kind of onto something in this case, for it was the people who were in it only for the drugs and the escape of responsibility that were ruining both the Beatles family friend image, and the message of peace and love that was legitimatizing their whole excuse to slack off and drop out in the first place.

About a month after Sergeant Pepper came out, the Beatles performed "All You Need Is Love" from their upcoming album. How many people saw it broadcasted and rebroadcasted by the BBC? 275 million people.

But something of even far greater emotional proportions would take place that summer as well -- the suicide of Brian Epstein. He had been blackmailed by a man who was willing to go and tell the public he had a homosexual affair with him. John and the others always knew Brian was gay and accepted it. (You notice how angry Beatles fans get when you call something "gay" when you mean it's "lame"?) This is what "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", as it turned out, was really about.

His father being killed in a car accident when he was a child, his best friend taken in his adolescence, and now his founding father perishing, John Lennon was officially gone. He was grieving with a new sense of creative independence. The Beatles competitors would never have a chance again...

Next up came the album Magical Mystery Tour. This album was twice as good as Sergeant Pepper. Along with All You Need Is Love, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, it had Paul's amazing "Your Mother Should Know" and "Fool On The Hill" and then John vastly overrated "I Am The Walrus" and the crappy "Baby You're A Rich Man:. It had "Hello Goodbye", and it had George Harrison's latest WTF? in the instrumental "Flying".

Then came time for a single. And what was it -- "Hey Jude". Paul wrote it to make John's oldest son Julian (Sean he had with Yoko)., feel better about the fact that his parents were divorcing. Cynthia had caught John with Yoko. According to Lost Beatles Interviews. Yup.

With cameras on the Beatles all the time, their new lack of totalitarian supervision due to Epstein's passing was evident. Their hair growth and tight jeans had become fashion staples by early 1968. John and Yoko were urged to keep their relationship on the downlow. No public displays, none of that. George Martin, who didn't approve of their antics but nonetheless loved the Fab Four deeply, would become their full-time manager. The head guy. He missed Epstein too. And the Beatles wholeheartedly trusted George Martin to helm them. And he did.

Like Phil Jackson of Lakers basketball, George Martin would turn out to be the best decision maker one could possibly have when handling egomaniacal superstars. George's accuracy at saying the right thing when needed was impeccable, something absolutely essential in this situation.

In early winter 1968, the Beatles would head out to the Himalyas on a retreat with several other noted celebrities such as Mia Farrow. They would meditate with the Maharishi Yogi Yoga, see what kind of "secret" they could pick up. The problem was that the Maharishi would sleep with Mia Farrow -- something any mortal man would want to do. The Beatles were crushed. This was like hearing the perfect internet pitch just to be scammed. The Maharishi's indescretions had absolutely crushed John Lennon, who had invested alot of spiritual painstake in the idea that he could possibly be a higher being who spoke fluentally with, at long last, the real God.

Nope.

That's what "Sexy Sadie" is about.

The tifts between the Beatles started here. The Beatles, whether consciously knowing it, were judging each other based on how they acted on this very trip. Here was a situation where they were stuck with eating the spicy vegetarian food provided and taking their membership as the world's most acclaimed creative citizens as a ticket to try to connect with God, as if God specifically created them to be special like the Maharishi. If you truly had confidence in your creative aura, it was like saying you were confident that all of this was worth enduring because you would surely get contacted by your creator. Well Ringo left early, Paul left with him, and George, who DID stay, spent his time essentially raiding the gift shops.

Probably never before had John felt so alone. There was no denying that he was different then these other three. Even from Paul. Fundamentally different. There was something that made John stand alone. When it came down to it, once John and Paul got beyond the impulses of creative minds at rest to act giddy and goofy and do do do do do do...Paul in John's eyes was really the very best he could hope for...out of the sellouts. Yet Paul didn't believe in being overrated like most men who try to get as many girls with their music as Paul. Paul McCartney was an absolutely justified rock n roll star. He was just never willing to go throughly off the deep end for the sake of creative expressiont the way John was.

But Yoko,,,she was.

When he met her at that fair, John must have seen a younger version of himself when he saw Yoko presenting her works. She had a chessboard with all the pieces lined up and of the same color. It was called "Play It By Trust".

It was around spring 1968 when the government announced that the Beatles owed 4 million dollars in taxes, and either they pay them, or put it into a business that would help the community. Sure enough, plan B was what the Beatles would choose. They began a company called Apple Records, and the idea was that they would be a talent agency. Anyone out there who "had dreams, just come on, submit your stuff, we'll do our best to help."

The very next day, they walked into Apple to discover that their mailroom had been filled with over 250,000 manuscripts, demotapes, paintings, sculptures and fashion designs...

When they returned to England, George Martin helmed the Beatles as they made the White Album together. And if you thought Sergeant Pepper employed alot of sound tricks with machines, you ain't seen NOTHING yet.

The White Album has been criticized because it represents the very first time that each of the members were writing their own songs without the other one's input, and due to this it was their least organized and focused effort yet. But it was simple -- Sergeant Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour were like a colorful circus, while the White Album was a tranquil camping trip through the uncivilized but lake-and-tree-heavy forest perserve.

During the recordings, Ringo would quit.

Ohhhhhh, Ringo's gone? Oooooooo.

But the Beatles would win him back, and they would keep going.

Once the sea of experimentation had condensed, each of the Beatles would be stuck with some form of addiction. Perhaps it was very very telling of their rift that each of the four had a different addiction. John Lennon had started getting into heroin. Paul into cocaine. George into LSD. And Ringo...he was a drunk.

Following the White Album, the Beatles next idea was a film/album package that documented the beginning-to-end of their auditions and training for the next album. Everybody does it today. Back then this was wild.

Or rather...this alone was wild.

Nobody knew that the Let It Be sessions would mark the first ever episode of reality trash television. George couldn't stand Paul, and was being continuously hyped up for the EXPLICIT purposes of being a pawn in a fight John and Paul were having with EACH OTHER. They only appreciated "Piggies" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" when trying to make a point against "Lady Madonna" and "I Am The Walrus". John was bringing Yoko around all the time now. They were recovering heroin addicts and trying to clean their bodies in order to have a healthy child. This is where the song "Cold Turkey" came from. People in this situation often want to be together all the time, huddled together if they can. But the other three took it as a slight. John, doubting the sincerity and talent of the other three, wouldn't give a damn how they felt.

And it was all on tape for the world to see later.

To ease the situation and put a more positive spin on it for fans, George Martin hired Billy Preston, a musical swiss army knife. He was a bassist, an electrical guitarist, an organist, a woodwinder, and a natural engineer when it came to the mixing table. He made everything easier for everybody.

"Let It Be" turned out to be amazing. It was loaded with great songs, and tons of background goofiness and half-done takes. If you used your imagination the way you did with St. Pepper and beyond, you would think you were at the studio. The album is extremely distinct in showing you the way most free-association jam sessions between takes would be.

But the prints wouldn't be ready by the projected release date. It became the start of Paul McCartney's complete and total disassociation from the group. They overruled him on the idea that his version of "Let it Be" was even halfway competent. In to fix it in the most neutral manner possible at the behest of Martin was a guy I think you might have heard alot of lately -- Phil Spector.

Spector is the reason why the Long and Winding Road has a horn section.

Paul hated him, at least what he did to the album.

February 12, 1969. Paul got married and George was busted by drug cops on the exact same day. George was hit by the infamous Sergeant Pilcher who had busted several other rock stars to get his name in the papers. Harrison had a huge brick of weed in a boot in his wardrobe closet.

Even later that February, the Beatles put on a performance on the roof of Abbey Road Studios. On the songlist included their new hit "Don't Let Me Down".

Then around spring, Apple Records would go bankrupt. They had racked up huge bills, employees had stolen basic amenities, they themselves had filled the studio with lavish expensive furniture, it was a mess. And to handle the finances, Paul wanted his new wife Linda's father...while the other three wanted a man named Allen Klein who was going to be twice as expensive. Paul was incensed, and LEFT THE GROUP!!!!

But Paul understood what he and John had done. He understood what they meant to millions. It broke their hearts to end the Beatles the way they did. And so they got back together for one last time, George Martin the producer instead of Phil Spector, no more live shots of them rehearsing, and they would make a happy album like they used to. For the fans. For their place in history. And so on September 11, 1969 would come the legendary "Abbey Road", the highest selling Beatles album for nearly forty years, until the collection of #1s (2005). Not only were the takes beautiful and flawless end to end, (except for Maxwell Silver Hammer), but there was NO FIGHTING. That was the rule. They would hold their tongues and get along as much as it took. And sit through each other's nonsense.

And with "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight" and "The End", what Phil Taylor referred to as "The 20th Century's Greatest Romance" would say farewell to the tearful fans who grew up with them. We had been to the circus. We had been to the colorful rainbow-clad lakes with newspaper taxis and marmalade skies. We were in the forest. We were in the smoky nightclub with Let it Be. And now with Abbey Road...the Beatles had put us in a myriad of astrology. There were suns, pisces, silver hammers...even an octopus.

Let It Be would finally be released the way Spector wanted it. A late edition was a recording of George Harrison's "I Me Mine" in complaining about Paul. It was recorded on May 1, 1970, the VERY LAST RECORDING of the VERY LAST SONG of the Beatles 220-tune songbook.

May 11, 1970 -- Paul quits the Beatles, officially ending it. No Paul, No Beatles.

December 8, 1980 -- Around 1975, Mark David Chapman had read an article in which Lennon expresses his hatred for the very peace movement he started. He called it "fake" and a "total sham." And so Chapman...decides that Lennon is the worst type of personality there is. That Lennon, after all he did and said and was, was a fake. Huge signs that said "WAR IS OVER" and then in tiny quotations "if you want it". Sitting in bed with paper bags over their heads so that "people can finally have a fair and decent and understanding conversation with each other without judging their appearance." Lennon hit on issues like world peace that people were really really counting on him at least being sincere about and Chapman took this to mean that all this time was a waste of time for himself. AND the world. But the fact was that Lennon was only using his fame for causes he believed in. He very honestly believed that world peace attached to his fame could BRING ABOUT world peace. And for ten years, this message sunk in alot more then people give him credit for. As Vietnamization was put into effect in the 70s, nobody in the history of time at that point had ever booed their soldiers upon returning from a war whether it was a loss or not.

Women now have the right to work in an occupation they wanted.

Affirmative action.

It's illegal to hurt someone due to being gay.

People can't just beat you up and take your girl anymore, because your girl with recognize that there's millions of cool traits that this guy just demonstrated he doesn't have.

But it didn't matter to Mark David Chapman.

Around 5 P.M. that day, Lennon is finishing up the album that has "Watching the Wheels" and "Just Like Starting Over" and "God" on it. Chapman manages to get his autograph within a sea of younger fans who spotted him and mobbed him outside the building.

At around 10 P.M. Eastern time, Lennon was coming back home. He was outside the Dakota Building when Chapman said "Lennon". Lennon and Yoko turned around. and Lennon was shot six times. Right in front of Yoko. The greatest of all time, the greatest there was, the greatest there ever will be...died in her arms almost instantly.

THE END

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