It’s a debate that has lasted the better part of 50 years and one that will never really have a definitive answer. The split of The Beatles, the biggest and most influential band in the history of music, has been directed in more directions than one can conceivably pin down. However, at the height of his fame, the group’s original founder, John Lennon, would make his famed appearance on The Dick Cavett Show (1971) alongside Yoko Ono in a bid to clear up some of the misconceptions about inner-band relations.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s appearance on the show in 1971 was of significant importance to their fans. The wide-ranging conversation would see the musician finally settle the score with his old group and the media by revealing his understanding as to why The Beatles called it a day. In doing so, Lennon left no stone unturned in the process by dispelling the biggest myth surrounding their break up.
This interview came shortly after Lennon had released his album Imagine, and each member of the Beatles was firmly motoring along in solo gear. There was no bitterness regarding the split from Lennon’s point of view, knowing that the group had struggled for some time, and you could tell by his conversation with Cavett that he was feeling creatively challenged again — a factor which had seemingly handed him a new lease of life.
It was a stark contrast to the final years with The Beatles, a position in which it was clear Lennon felt as if he was being held back or stifled in some way. Now though, the bespectacled Beatle was in fine form, as charming and caustic as ever.
Delving straight into the biggest talking points of the day, Cavett wanted to know more about Yoko Ono’s influence on Lennon and, more poignantly, whether she was the catalyst for the split of The Beatles. The true reason, of course, is a lot more nuanced than Cavett’s suggestion. Lennon would inform the presenter later in the interview but first, he had a joke in mind.
Instead of answering directly, Lennon turned his attention behind the host and playfully asked the audience to thank her for theoretically causing the split, saying: “If she took them apart, then can we at least give her all the credit for all the nice music that George made, Ringo made, and Paul made and I’ve made since they broke up”, This comment was greeted with rousing applause by the studio audience.
Ono then made the shocking revelation that she wasn’t previously a fan of the Beatles or Lennon before she met him, with the musician comically adding: “She didn’t really know about any of us, the only name she knew was Ringo because it means Apple in Japanese”. While that’s still rather difficult to believe, Ono had been in New York for some time before she met Lennon, and there’s little chance the band’s name wouldn’t have come up in casual discourse.
Lennon then brought the conversation back around to the Beatles’ split and refuted that Ono was the reason behind the breakup, then implying that they were already hanging on by a thread: “Anyway she didn’t split The Beatles because how could one girl or one woman split The Beatles, they were drifting apart on their own.”
Dick Cavett, querying Lennon if there was one specific moment where he knew it was over, saw the musician poignantly and rather accurately respond: “No, it’s like saying do you remember falling in love? It just sort of happens,” he said solemnly. “Everything is fun on and off y’know so it could have carried on being fun on and off or it could have got worse, I don’t know,” Lennon said in reflection of their split. “It’s just that when you grow up we don’t want to be The Crazy Gang which they may not know over here as they are British or the Marx Brothers which is sort of being dragged on stage playing ‘She Loves You’ when we’ve got Asthma and Tuberculosis when we’re 50.”
He then further added: “A long time ago, I said I don’t want to be singing ‘She Loves You’ when I’m 30, I said that when I was about 25 or something which in a round about way meant that I wouldn’t be doing whatever I was doing then at 30. Well, I was 30 last October, and that’s about when my life changed really.”
It’s a fascinating insight into the psyche of Lennon at this point in his career, where he is eternally grateful for the time he spent with the Beatles, but they all drifted, not just on a personal level. More importantly, each member had drifted on a creative level. All four no longer wanted to make the same kind of music as they did at 21 as their lives changed, and so did the musical path that they wanted to follow.
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