Twenty years ago today, or thereabouts, the members of Sgt. Pepper's band packed up their instruments and marched away . . . "in different directions at the same time," as veteran Salt Lake disc jockey "Skinny" Johnny Mitchell puts it.
Many fans found the news devastating; to others the breakup of the Beatles wasn't all that surprising. But what's most interesting in 1990 is the undimmed glow of the Beatles' legend, the pleasurable durability of their music - and the fascination a new generation of musicians has been revealing for the magical, mystical sounds the Fab Four pioneered.Need a little Pepper-period "All You Need Is Love" fix? Check out Tears for Fears' chart-topping "Sowing the Seeds of Love," or lend an ear to the McCartney-esque "Let Love Rule" by Lenny Kravitz. Prefer the "Rubber Soul" era? Give a listen to the Smithereens' "Yesterday Girl." Yearning for a little romantic sweep, a la "The Long and Winding Road"? Track down the German band Freiheit's "Keeping the Dream Alive."
"For some of these groups, it's almost like paying homage of some sort to the Beatles," says Craig Rackley, assistant manager of Starbound Compact Discs, Tapes and LPs in West Valley City. "I don't think they're out to copy the Beatles. The groups are saying like, `This meant so much to us, we want to give back some in our music.' "
And of course there are the Beatles themselves. John Lennon is gone, but definitely not forgotten - your local bookstore can provide ample evidence of that. George Harrison has rekindled his music career with the Traveling Wilburys and his No. 1 hit "Got My Mind Set on You"; Ringo Starr went on the wagon, then on tour (with a little help from his friends); and Paul gave us the album "Flowers in the Dirt," a news-making world tour, and got a special Grammy recognizing a lifetime of achievement.
Who would have thought that the Beatles would be having this much of an impact two decades after those dark days in 1970?
BEATLES DOING OWN THING: PAUL QUITS, the Billboard magazine headline said on April 18. And the story, tucked into a bottom corner of the cover, read:
"The Beatles, the symbol of the British influence on the global music industry and the catalyst of what came to be known as `The British Years,' are no longer a group. Paul McCartney issued, through Apple in London, a statement saying he was leaving the Beatles for personal, musical and financial reasons - preferring home life."
"It was one of the worst things to happen in my life," admits one Utah fan, now the mother of teens.
But Mitchell - a popular KCPX disc jockey in 1970, now spinning oldies for KRSP-AM - says the wildfire gossip and hysteria only months earlier over Paul's urban-legendlike "death" seemed more potent than the shock over the breakup announcement. And he, for one, wasn't all that surprised by the disintegration of the world's most popular band.
The once-Fab Four had already ceased being a single fascinating entity and were, as the headline said, "doing their own things": John with Yoko, noisily pursuing various causes and avante-garde music; Ringo parlaying his charm as a celebrity/actor; Paul ensconced somewhere in Scotland, recording on his own; George, as Mitchell put it, "off with his hippy dippy friends."
In fact, the release of McCartney's first solo album precipitated the announcement of the group's dissolution: He'd been feuding with his mates over the hiring of Allen Klein to head Apple and was displeased with Phil Spector's lush overdubbing of strings and choirs on the new album "Let It Be." When "McCartney" was released, he decided to publicly underline his solo status.
The press release, written by Derek Taylor, the Beatles' longtime PR man, and quoted in Chris Salewicz's biography of McCartney, fudged, "They do not want to split up, but the present rift seems to be part of their growing up . . . at the moment they seem to cramp each other's styles. Paul has called a halt to the Beatles' activities. They could be dormant for years."
Which turned out to be quite an understatement.
Later, John Lennon said he actually left the group first - about a year earlier - but had been asked to say nothing for a while. His Plastic Ono Band singles, "Give Peace a Chance" and "Cold Turkey," were released in late 1969, and the solo hit, "Instant Karma," rose to No. 3 the week before McCartney shocked the world.
Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine editor Jann Wenner that Paul had learned of his decision to bow out of the Beatles during a meeting with Klein. It just sort of slipped out as Paul was talking about possible Beatle projects.
"Allen was saying, don't tell. He didn't want me to tell Paul even," Lennon said. "So I said, `It's out,' I couldn't stop it, it came out. Paul and Allen both said that they were glad that I wasn't going to announce it, that I wasn't going to make an event out of it. . . . I was a fool not to do it, not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record."
Indeed, "McCartney," the album, rocketed to No. 1. But on the very week the news of the breakup was announced, the Beatles' single "Let It Be" hit the top of Billboard's Hot 100, and the "Hey Jude" anthology zoomed to No. 2 on the album list - in its second week of release.
"I don't doubt record sales went up at that time," Mitchell says. "I know they sold a lot of them in Salt Lake." People were buying both the latest - and last? - singles and albums, and "filling out their Beatles collections."
Twenty years later, fans around the world still treasure, and purchase, Beatles records. So many have been sold since the '60s, even a tabulator at Capitol Records couldn't give a creditable number.
"We've been trying and trying, and it's so astronomical I can't even give you a round figure," he said, asking to remain nameless. "I don't think anyone's surpassed them worldwide. But I can tell you that they still sell, especially now that they've been put on CDs."
The music was, and is, great. Yet the Beatles, the most visible figures in a time of great change, were more than a successful pop and rock band from Liverpool. Their mini-diaspora in 1970 really did drop the curtain on an era. The four Beatles went on to individual solo successes as musicians but couldn't maintain the consistency and acclaim they enjoyed as a team.
"They totally changed our way of life," Mitchell says, "our mode of dress . . . glasses - everybody wore black frames, and then John Lennon came along with wire-rimmed glasses; even I wore them . . . hair length. . . .
"They changed the whole entire world."