Published on September 05, 2011
The Beatles had come to the end of their world-transforming run by 1969 and within a few months the "Fab Four" had gone their separate ways. Most of us who are fans of popular music surely have some vague idea of why the most popular band in history broke up.
Some of the usual theories, then, are these:
1. Yoko Ono was the primary reason for the break-up of the group. Not only did she turn John Lennon’s head away from his mates but she literally sat down with The Beatles (gasp!) in the recording studio (something which the other Beatles women before her had never dared to do).
2. The lads from Liverpool had grown apart and were no longer best friends with each other. Different business and artistic interests and myriad distractions now claimed their attention. George Harrison was into Eastern music and philosophy; Lennon was blindly following Yoko’s lead in her madcap artistic schemes; Ringo was, after all, Ringo – always the camp follower, never the leader. Paul McCartney was the only one valiantly attempting to keep the various factions together but, as the Let It Be documentary shows us, his dictatorial ways were irritating the hell out of his fellow bandmates.
3. Beatles manager Brian Epstein had died a couple of years before and with his passing one key factor that had held The Beatles together in the glory days was gone.
These, then, are the standard theories – even though McCartney rather unconvincingly has tried to argue over the years that Yoko did not break up the group on her own.
I was mulling over some of these matters the other day when the missus suddenly spoke up – according to her, it was Ringo’s hat that caused the final break-up of the legendary foursome! Now this was a stunning piece of news. I was so taken aback that I switched off the live cricket telecast on TV and gave her my full attention.
Me: “What did you say just now? Ringo’s hat caused the world’s most famous group to break up?”
The missus: “Yes.” (She is not much for small talk, if you know what I mean – one word is enough for her when two or three would have done for others).
Me: “Right – now, from where did you get this amazing bit of news from?”
The missus: “Oh, I read it in an inflight magazine the other day.”
Me: “Whew! For a moment I thought you were serious. But I think we can safely disregard this story since it is from some unknown magazine.”
The missus: “No, no – they were quite categorical about that. It seems Lennon sat down heavily on Ringo’s hat while they were touring some place in Africa in 1969 and that made the latter so furious that he immediately broke his drumsticks and said enough was enough. Ringo’s departure was such a shock that his mates decided that they had better call it a day. That’s the only reason they broke up.”
Me: “But The Beatles have never toured Africa, you know – and their last live performance was in 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, years before this reported incident ever happened. And you are telling me that the world’s greatest pop music group broke up over such a silly incident?”
The missus: “Yep – I read about it in this magazine and it seemed very sound to me. It was a glossy magazine with some nice photos of the band in their prime.”
Me: “Well, at last count I have read about 75 books and at least 1,200 articles on The Beatles and I have never heard of this story anywhere. So how can I believe this?”
The missus: “Well, you better start believing it. The whole story has the ring of truth around it. It sounds pretty ironclad to me – solid stuff, in fact.” (Although she normally hates to talk much, once she gets going she does manage to come up with some colourful terminology like the above).
Me: “If that is the case, then I have to alert the millions of Beatle maniacs around the world immediately. They have to quit hating poor Yoko and instead start hating Ringo right away. Is there any way we can verify this? I mean, do you remember the name of this magazine? Maybe I can do a Web search and find out the relevant article?”
The missus: “Oh, I am sorry but I cannot remember the name of the magazine now, but I remember it had a picture of a plane on the cover.” (As you can see, she is always rather fuzzy about names and dates and other essential details. She still thinks, for example, that Abraham Lincoln lived in the 16th century and that he was Shakespeare’s neighbour; she also believes that World War II happened just before the Battle of Waterloo).
Me: “Ok – how about the name of the airline? Maybe that will give us a clue.”
The missus: “Oh, it was some flight I took from Changi Airport the other day. But I cannot remember what flight it was or to where I was flying to.”
Me (I was starting to lose my patience a wee bit by this time, though I was still keeping things under control): “Oh I see – maybe it was all in your dreams?”
The missus: “No, no, no – I definitely remember reading it, you know.” (My sarcasm was evidently lost on her).
Me: “Ok, then maybe we should check WikiLeaks – maybe they might have some serious intel on this.”
We let it go at that for then but I now Google every inflight magazine on a regular basis and search keywords like “Beatles tour”, “Beatles break-up” and “Ringo’s hat” but, so far, not a single story has come up to prove the missus’ pet theory.
But she is totally convinced about it and I have the feeling that nothing in the world will ever make her think otherwise. Not even if Ringo himself came up and told her this hat story was not true … she would probably ask the poor fellow to go and read the (fictitious?) inflight magazine as soon as possible. It is enough to make anyone break his drumsticks and call it a day, you know.
The Beatles had come to the end of their world-transforming run by 1969 and within a few months the "Fab Four" had gone their separate ways. Most of us who are fans of popular music surely have some vague idea of why the most popular band in history broke up.
Some of the usual theories, then, are these:
1. Yoko Ono was the primary reason for the break-up of the group. Not only did she turn John Lennon’s head away from his mates but she literally sat down with The Beatles (gasp!) in the recording studio (something which the other Beatles women before her had never dared to do).
2. The lads from Liverpool had grown apart and were no longer best friends with each other. Different business and artistic interests and myriad distractions now claimed their attention. George Harrison was into Eastern music and philosophy; Lennon was blindly following Yoko’s lead in her madcap artistic schemes; Ringo was, after all, Ringo – always the camp follower, never the leader. Paul McCartney was the only one valiantly attempting to keep the various factions together but, as the Let It Be documentary shows us, his dictatorial ways were irritating the hell out of his fellow bandmates.
3. Beatles manager Brian Epstein had died a couple of years before and with his passing one key factor that had held The Beatles together in the glory days was gone.
These, then, are the standard theories – even though McCartney rather unconvincingly has tried to argue over the years that Yoko did not break up the group on her own.
I was mulling over some of these matters the other day when the missus suddenly spoke up – according to her, it was Ringo’s hat that caused the final break-up of the legendary foursome! Now this was a stunning piece of news. I was so taken aback that I switched off the live cricket telecast on TV and gave her my full attention.
Me: “What did you say just now? Ringo’s hat caused the world’s most famous group to break up?”
The missus: “Yes.” (She is not much for small talk, if you know what I mean – one word is enough for her when two or three would have done for others).
Me: “Right – now, from where did you get this amazing bit of news from?”
The missus: “Oh, I read it in an inflight magazine the other day.”
Me: “Whew! For a moment I thought you were serious. But I think we can safely disregard this story since it is from some unknown magazine.”
The missus: “No, no – they were quite categorical about that. It seems Lennon sat down heavily on Ringo’s hat while they were touring some place in Africa in 1969 and that made the latter so furious that he immediately broke his drumsticks and said enough was enough. Ringo’s departure was such a shock that his mates decided that they had better call it a day. That’s the only reason they broke up.”
Me: “But The Beatles have never toured Africa, you know – and their last live performance was in 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, years before this reported incident ever happened. And you are telling me that the world’s greatest pop music group broke up over such a silly incident?”
The missus: “Yep – I read about it in this magazine and it seemed very sound to me. It was a glossy magazine with some nice photos of the band in their prime.”
Me: “Well, at last count I have read about 75 books and at least 1,200 articles on The Beatles and I have never heard of this story anywhere. So how can I believe this?”
The missus: “Well, you better start believing it. The whole story has the ring of truth around it. It sounds pretty ironclad to me – solid stuff, in fact.” (Although she normally hates to talk much, once she gets going she does manage to come up with some colourful terminology like the above).
Me: “If that is the case, then I have to alert the millions of Beatle maniacs around the world immediately. They have to quit hating poor Yoko and instead start hating Ringo right away. Is there any way we can verify this? I mean, do you remember the name of this magazine? Maybe I can do a Web search and find out the relevant article?”
The missus: “Oh, I am sorry but I cannot remember the name of the magazine now, but I remember it had a picture of a plane on the cover.” (As you can see, she is always rather fuzzy about names and dates and other essential details. She still thinks, for example, that Abraham Lincoln lived in the 16th century and that he was Shakespeare’s neighbour; she also believes that World War II happened just before the Battle of Waterloo).
Me: “Ok – how about the name of the airline? Maybe that will give us a clue.”
The missus: “Oh, it was some flight I took from Changi Airport the other day. But I cannot remember what flight it was or to where I was flying to.”
Me (I was starting to lose my patience a wee bit by this time, though I was still keeping things under control): “Oh I see – maybe it was all in your dreams?”
The missus: “No, no, no – I definitely remember reading it, you know.” (My sarcasm was evidently lost on her).
Me: “Ok, then maybe we should check WikiLeaks – maybe they might have some serious intel on this.”
We let it go at that for then but I now Google every inflight magazine on a regular basis and search keywords like “Beatles tour”, “Beatles break-up” and “Ringo’s hat” but, so far, not a single story has come up to prove the missus’ pet theory.
But she is totally convinced about it and I have the feeling that nothing in the world will ever make her think otherwise. Not even if Ringo himself came up and told her this hat story was not true … she would probably ask the poor fellow to go and read the (fictitious?) inflight magazine as soon as possible. It is enough to make anyone break his drumsticks and call it a day, you know.