For the better part of a decade, The Beatles reached unprecedented heights in the world of music and pop culture. But when the group's lead singer and songwriter John Lennon met avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, everything changed — for better or for worse.
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00:00For the better part of a decade, the Beatles reached unprecedented heights in the world
00:04of music and pop culture. But when the group's lead singer and songwriter John Lennon met
00:09avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, everything changed, for better or for worse.
00:151966 was an important year for the Beatles. After recording their landmark album, Revolver,
00:21the group would launch what would be their final tour. After three years of crazed fans
00:25following the group, the foursome had become discontent with touring. John Lennon sparked
00:30a massive controversy while touring by comparing the Beatles' popularity to Jesus, adding gasoline
00:36to a wildfire. The summer tour was a struggle, with even members thinking about life after
00:41the band. Returning to England, Lennon's life would soon change.
00:45Far Out magazine reports that on November 9th, 1966, Yoko Ono held an art exhibition
00:51in London, titled Unfinished Paintings and Objects, and at the behest of a colleague
00:56and art dealer John Dunbar, Lennon attended the exhibition. Ono approached Lennon and
01:01gave him a piece of paper that said,
01:03"...breathe."
01:04He followed the direction and soon was attracted to one of Ono's works, a ladder that led to
01:08a small word on the ceiling that required a magnifying glass. In 1971, he told Rolling
01:14Stone how cathartic the experience was, saying,
01:17"...and in tiny little letters it says, YES. So it was positive. I felt relieved. It's
01:23a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn't
01:27say NO. Or something. It said YES."
01:31By early 1968, the Beatles began work on the White Album. Much of the album was written
01:36while in India, with the group traveling to the country to find enlightenment, only to
01:40leave unsatisfied. According to Louder Sound, the album was recorded like four solo albums
01:46by each member, illustrating the continued separation between the Beatles. Producer George
01:51Martin said that the album's recording session was the first time Yoko Ono was in the studio,
01:56The Independent reports.
01:57Ono and John Lennon's relationship continued to blossom in the chaos, leaving the group,
02:02especially Paul McCartney, to question her presence in the studio.
02:05"...but actually sit in the studio with us, it was like, uh, no, excuse me, um, we're
02:12working."
02:13McCartney told Rolling Stone in 2016,
02:15"...we were kind of threatened then. When John got with Yoko, she wasn't in the control
02:20room or to the side. It was in the middle of the four of us."
02:23In a conversation with Paul McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney, and documentarian Michael
02:28Lindsay Hogg in January 1969, Paul expressed his frustration with Ono within the band as
02:33they struggled to find their bearings during a tense period. He dished,
02:37"...there's only two answers. One is to fight it, fight her and try to get the Beatles back
02:41to four people without Yoko. The other thing is to just realize she's there and he's not
02:45going to split with her just for our sakes."
02:48As an individual musician, George Harrison was just as talented as any of his bandmates.
02:53However, as Far Out Magazine explains, having the team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney
02:57taking up the spotlight in space on albums, Harrison's own creativity was usually stifled.
03:03Much of the resentment he already had at this reality was exacerbated by Yoko Ono's presence,
03:08leading her to become a target of his frustration.
03:11In one overly dramatic episode, recounted in Here, There & Everywhere by Jeff Emerick,
03:17Harrison snapped at Ono for taking one of his biscuits during a recording session. And
03:21by the time of their final album, Let It Be, Harrison reached his breaking point.
03:25According to iHeartRadio, Harrison left the band for a week after a dispute over plans
03:30for a performance he felt was very expensive and insane. Lennon would go on to compare
03:35Harrison's initial departure to a festering wound. The years of frustration with the band
03:39seemed to subside once the group ended. After the group's breakup, Harrison and Lennon had
03:45one of the closest relationships of any Beatle, which included having a close relationship
03:49with Ono.
03:50Yoko Ono became the press' whipping girl shortly after the group's breakup, calling her a dragon
03:56lady, according to The AP News. Both John Lennon and George Harrison attempted to set
04:01the record straight about the group's demise. In a November 1971 interview on The Dick Cavett
04:06Show, Harrison admitted he was still in contact with the couple and cleared up the rumor that
04:10Ono was the cause of the group's demise. He elaborated,
04:13"...some people can't understand because the Beatles were such a big deal. But there's
04:16a time when people grow up and they leave home or whatever they do and they go through
04:21change."
04:22Two months prior, Lennon and Ono were on the program, and Lennon gave his take on the end
04:26of the band and his wife being scapegoated by fans and reporters, saying,
04:30She didn't split the Beatles because how can one woman split the Beatles? The Beatles were
04:34drifting apart on their own.
04:36In spite of past anger, the end of the Beatles in a lot of ways helped Lennon's and Harrison's
04:41relationship. As told by Guitar World, Harrison played guitar throughout Lennon's Imagine
04:46album, seemingly accepting Ono as a part of the recording process. According to Far Out
04:51Magazine, part of Harrison's initial anger towards Ono was jealousy, as he and Lennon
04:56had grown especially close after experimenting with LSD before Lennon met Ono.
05:01In spite of portraying themselves as a loving couple, John Lennon's own relationship with
05:05his wife was not always happy. Fred Seaman, Lennon's personal assistant, told Anna's Beatle
05:10Hour,
05:11It wasn't easy being married to Yoko Ono. It wasn't a fairy tale that they later portrayed
05:16to the media, which was really propaganda to sell the record.
05:19By 1973, the relationship had reached its final stages. The couple separated in July,
05:25and Lennon soon began an affair with their personal assistant, May Peng. Surprisingly,
05:30Ono was fine with the relationship, seemingly apathetic towards her husband's relationships
05:34by that time. In 2012, she told The Telegraph,
05:38The affair was not something that was hurtful to me. I needed a rest. I needed space. I
05:43started to notice that he became a little restless on top of that, so I thought it's
05:47better to give him a rest and me a rest.
05:49During his 18 months with Peng, Lennon reconnected with his first wife and their son, Julian.
05:54He also performed again with Paul McCartney and continued to make albums. Eventually,
05:59he returned to Ono, in part thanks to McCartney. McCartney acted as a middleman between the
06:03two separated spouses as they worked through their issues. Whether it being a case of time
06:08healing all wounds or a friendship that was always there, Lennon and Ono got back together
06:13and had a son named Sean.
06:15Out of all the Beatles, drummer Ringo Starr was the only one who maintained a good relationship
06:19with each member after the breakup. And unlike George Harrison or Paul McCartney, Starr was
06:24friends with Yoko Ono during the group's final years together. In a 1977 interview,
06:30Starr addressed the drama surrounding Ono's unwanted presence in the studio. He recounted,
06:34"...I was saying to John, what is going on here? You're always together all the time.
06:38You're freaking me out a bit. And he told me what they were trying to do. It has nothing
06:42to do with you or the listening public. So I was fine after that. That's fine with me
06:46and then I sort of relaxed a lot around Yoko. I think she's hysterical. I played on an album
06:51with her."
06:52According to Globe Media Live, Starr repeated that after he had a conversation with Lennon,
06:57he understood why Ono needed to be in the studio and said her presence did not interfere
07:01with the music or the group's eventual split.
07:03Any hopes of a reunion ended the night of December 8, 1980, when John Lennon was fatally
07:09shot four times in the back by crazed fan Mark David Chapman. Immediately upon hearing
07:14the news of his friend's death, Starr flew to New York to be with Ono and 5-year-old
07:18Sean.
07:19"...Sean Lennon was shot and killed at about 11 o'clock last night outside his apartment
07:24building."
07:25According to Ultimate Classic Rock, at Ono's insistence, the drummer played with Sean to
07:29distract him from losing his father.
07:32Yoko Ono's relationship with Paul McCartney has been a roller coaster, putting it mildly.
07:37For a time, the death of John Lennon brought the pair closer together, with McCartney even
07:41admitting to his own fault in the relationship in an interview. However, the pair still struggled
07:46to find common ground and returned to each other's throats when McCartney desired to
07:50alter credit for songs he and Lennon wrote.
07:53According to the Irish Examiner, McCartney wanted to change the credit for a number of
07:57songs from Lennon-McCartney to McCartney-Lennon. The songwriting duo had agreed their writing
08:03credits would give Lennon top billing for all Beatles tracks, even if the other had
08:07little involvement. While songs like Nowhere Man and Come Together were written by only
08:11Lennon, as Far Out Magazine reports, McCartney's name is still credited. When McCartney released
08:17the live album Back in the U.S. in 2002, he switched the billing on Beatles songs he wrote
08:22himself. Ono and her legal team fought to prevent the name switch. Her lawyer, Peter
08:27Shuchat, said,
08:28"...this was done against her wishes. It's ridiculous, absurd, and petty. Paul is hurting
08:33his own legacy with this. John's not here to argue."
08:37According to Billboard, McCartney pushed back at Ono and her legal team, arguing,
08:41"...I think it is fair and accurate for the songs that John declared were mine to carry
08:45my name first."
08:47In spite of the threats, Ono did not file a lawsuit.
08:50Widowed, grieving, and now a single parent, Yoko Ono became the voice for John Lennon's
08:55legacy. An artist in her own right, Ono has overseen and has given the thumbs up — or
09:01down — to Lennon's music, art, and image in different campaigns and projects. According
09:06to the Tampa Bay Times, Ono's net worth is somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion.
09:12This in part came from her defending her husband's name, image, and music like a hawk.
09:16Bella Online reports that Ono, as well as the remaining Beatles, filed lawsuits against
09:22Apple Computers for their Apple logo that was taken from the band's Apple Records. The
09:26group also filed suit against a bootleg recording of the group's early Hamburg shows.
09:32In 1988, the Fab Four was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While George Harrison,
09:37Ringo Starr, and Ono were in attendance, Paul McCartney was absent. In a statement, he explained,
09:43"...after 20 years, the Beatles still have some business differences which I had hoped
09:47would have been settled by now. Unfortunately, they haven't been, so I would feel like a
09:52complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion."
09:56Six years later, Ono and McCartney met at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when Lennon
10:00was inducted as a solo artist. Seemingly on better terms, Ono worked with the three
10:04remaining Beatles on an anthology documentary and album.
10:08Time and tragedy tend to heal all wounds. With George Harrison's death in 2001, the
10:14two remaining Beatles have seemed to make peace with Yoko Ono and their past feuds.
10:18At the same time, Ono has seemed to have forgiven the ill feeling once held against her by her
10:23husband's bandmates. In 2015, when Ringo Starr was inducted as a solo artist to the Rock
10:28and Roll Hall of Fame, Ono said that, quote, "...he was the most influential Beatle," and
10:33he, quote, "...embodies peace and love," as told by Rolling Stone.
10:37With Paul McCartney, Ono has had a number of public fights. However, the past few years
10:42have seen the two be less litigious and more supportive. Speaking to Howard Stern in 2018,
10:48McCartney reminded the public it was Lennon's decision, not Ono's, to end the band.
10:52There was a meeting where John came in and said,
10:56Hey guys, I'm leaving the group."
10:58He also said he came to an understanding that he and Ono wanted to work together, recalling,
11:03"...John had met up with Yoko and even though we thought it was a bit of an intrusion,
11:08looking back on it, the guy was totally in love with her and you just gotta respect that.
11:12And we did. And I do."
11:14In 2021, McCartney told the BBC once again that it was Lennon's decision to end the band.
11:19Ono told The Guardian in 2012 that McCartney was very brave, and that she loved him after
11:23McCartney first went on record to say that Ono was not to blame for the band's demise.