60's era DUers: When the Beatles broke up, was there the feeling that they would get back together?

[Taverner]

Someday?

Maybe during Lennon's Rock 'n Roll days?

[lunatica]

1. We went into total denial of what was happening. We still think they'll get back together

It doesn't matter that John and George are dead. We're in semi-denial over that too.

Some things are just too difficult to face.

[Taverner]

7. Definitely - I'm 40

I was living my first year when the Beatles broke up

It affected all of our parents

I remember in Cub Scouts we had a talent show, and in between sketches they did an interlude, where two kids went on the stage - one with a sheet of cardboard. One said 'We're the Beatles'

The other said 'Oh yeah?'

Then the other said ' Yeah - we're breaking up!' and then tore that sheet of cardboard and both kids walked off. This was somewhere between 76-78

Stupid joke, I know

But I really got the feeling that the Beatles breakup was something akin to Jesus and Jehovah having an argument

It hurt a lot of people - not just fans

Because their music brought people together

Everyone at the time knew 'this is great music!'


Now that there is obviously no chance, we can only home that semi-supergroup of a new McCartney scion, Julian and Sean Lennon, Dhani Harrison and Zak Starkey with some loose idea what to do, and then do it

[blue neen]

2. There was a lot of animosity between them at the time.

John was very involved with Yoko, Paul and Linda had gotten married...it seemed that they were moving on with their lives.

No, it didn't really feel that they would get back together.

[Bossy Monkey]

3. I was just a kid, but it was the end of the world.

There was hope that they would get back together right up until Lennon's murder, but I don't think anybody really believed it would happen.

[Taverner]

10. Lorne Michaels did

And the funny thing is Paul and John, watching together, considered going down to the studio

Imagine if that had happened!

And then imagine if the Beatles announced a tour 1 week later

And then imagine a twelfth album out in 1977

And imagine Lennon on tour with the Beatles the day Chapman wanted to kill him

Ahh...I want to visit THAT parallel universe

[Iggo]

16. Fuck yeah!

[graywarrior]

4. I'm still waiting

[MorningGlow]

5. I was very young when they broke up

But I remember that the hope they'd get back together never, ever went away until John was killed.

I distinctly remember in the mid '70s the rumor that the band Klaatu (biggest hit: "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft") was the Beatles operating under another name, because the band never put their photo on any of their albums.

[Taverner]

8. I remember that! And I also remember 'The Knack' as being some product of the Beatles

Ah the times....

[MorningGlow]

9. And the joke offer for them to reunite on SNL

Wasn't it some pittance, like a couple thousand dollars? Still, people wondered if they'd do it.

[Taverner]

11. 3K - yes. And by chance Lennon and McCartney were watching that day

And they considered it

[Tikki]

6. No.....

Tikki

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. +1

felt like the end of an era. they and we had moved on. then came disco and I went country.

[Iggo]

17. YOU DID WHAT?

Oh wait. I went metal.

[abq e streeter]

13. Can only speak for myself, but no...

it seemed pretty final. Never seemed like the end of the world, or whatever, to me. Most people I knew didn't really think about the whole will they or won't thy get back together "issue" much.

[likesmountains 52]

14. I felt like it was final..and I think a lot of us wanted to blame Yoko for the split.

[Taverner]

18. And she was an innocent bystander

If she ever seemed anti-Beatle, it came from John

[Iggo]

15. I was only 9-ish...

...and my feeling was "Can they do that?"

At that age, I hadn't really realized yet that bands break up. In fact, probably from watching the movie Help! and the TV series The Monkees, I kinda thought that bands were families and all the members lived together in the same house. Later on in life I found that last part is not necessarily untrue...heh.

At first anyway, I assumed they'd get back together. But as I got older, probably mid-teens, it became clear it was never going to happen.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

19. Lennon & McCartney "almost" crashed a live taping of SNL

Remember Lorne Michaels' on-air pitch to the Beatles to get back together (He offered them $3000..."750 each, and if you want, you can pay Ringo less"}.

McCartney was visiting Lennon in New York and they were watching the show. Just as quickly as they talked themselves into showing up unannounced, they talked themselves out of it.

Months later George was the musical guest on the show and did a bit where he asked Lorne for his $3000, to which he replied "No, thatw as for all FOUR of you," and George pulled of a straight-faced pout that was hilarious.

Other than that, I think true Beatles fans knew it was over, and after listening to the solo albums that followed the breakup, no one wanted a crappy reunion album.

Granted, all four of them came roaring out of the gates with some pretty stron material, but after the first few albums from each of them, the weaker material progressively found its way onto their albums.

EVERYONE who claims to be a Lennon fan talks about "Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine" and "Mind Games," but how many of them OWN and LISTEN TO "Sometime In New York City?" And George's last album before an extended time off and re-grouping for "Cloud Nine" and the Wilburys was "Gone Troppo," a really wretched, phoned-in affair.

So no. The occasional joint passed between friends while listening to "The White Album" or "Abbey Road" might have encouraged someone to say "Wouldn;t it be great of they got back together," but I think the real Beatles fans knew that "Abbey Road" had to stand as them going out in a blaze of glory...just as they intended.

:toast:

[GReedDiamond]

20. I never thought so, although I never thought about it, 'cuz...

...I never thought it would ever happen to begin with.

[rurallib]

21. not really

It was time to move on.
As time went on, I hoped more and more they wouldn't cause I didn't want them to come back as a shell of their old selves.

[mulsh]

22. Let it be is what my Irish grandmother said when she wanted us to

leave something alone. So when that song came out my brothers & I got a very different message than most people.

Also between the release of Let It Be and Abbey Road one of my buddies started collecting Beatle bootleg albums. If you listened chronologically you could hear the energy evaporate. Lennon described it as "that dead Beatle sound" in a number of interviews. Try it sometime if you have access to that stuff.

By the time they announced the break up I thought they would probably never get back together. By the mid 70's when Lennon sometimes came to the bay area and DJ'd on KSAN he made it clear the Beatles as a band was history. As Paul aptly put it "one can not re-heat a soufle".