Latest / DISGRACELAND / The Beatles (Pt. 2): Kamikaze Assassins, Acid Smuggling, Suicide, Kidnapping, and the Breakup the Greatest Band of All Time

Transcript

The Beatles (Pt. 2): Kamikaze Assassins, Acid Smuggling, Suicide, Kidnapping, and the Breakup the Greatest Band of All Time · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story of
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the Beatles their meteoric rise from working class backgrounds to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: global icons in such a short time span is so
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: complex that two episodes were needed to properly tell this story.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you hit pause and go back to the last episode
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of Disgraceland, part one of the Beatles' story, or if
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you're looking exclusively for a deep dive into John Lennon
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in his final days, you should check out the two
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: part episode dedicated to the assassination of John from season
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: two of Disgraceland. In this episode, however, we get into
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: earlier assassins right wing Japanese Kamikazi's trained on murdering the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: not so innocent mob tops. We also get into the Beatles'
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: continued exploration into drugs and the smuggling of cash and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: LSD from America, a deranged woman's brief kidnapping by a Beatle,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and the suicide of the band's manager. Of course, we
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: discussed the influence of Yoko Ono and track the demise
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of the greatest band of all time, a band that
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: made great music like the greatest music in the history
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of the world. Unlike that music I played for you
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop for my melotron called Skies
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of Blazon MK two. I played you that loop because
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to ode to Billy Joe
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: by Bobby Gentry. And why would I play you that
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: specific slice of Tallahatchee Bridge Cheese. Could I afford it?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: August twenty seventh, nineteen sixty seven, And that was the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: day the Beatles manager Brian Epstein killed himself and effectively
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: pushed the Beatles into their third and final act as
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: a group. On this episode, Kamikazi Assassin's acid smuggling, suicide, kidnapping,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and the breakup of the greatest band of all time,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: The Beatles. I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgraceland Brian Epstein,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: manager of the biggest pop group on the planet, was afraid.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: He was sweating profusely from the fluorescent lights bearing down
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: on him in London's he Throw Airport. Maybe it was
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the pills, not the fear. Maybe he was being paranoid.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: What did they know anyway, and how would they find
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the money without the indignity of a search. They would
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: never search him, not him, not now the Beatles were
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the UK's greatest cultural export. Whatever confidence this lended the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: young pop manager, it didn't erase the fear. If customs
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: agents did search his luggage, all that cash would have
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: to be explained, and there was of course no explaining it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: He'd be through, and so too would his beloved Beatles.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Paul would never forgive him. Paul's judgment would be swift,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and Brian feared Paul had it out for him from
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the beginning, and John forget it. His dreams of one
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: day settling John down, Well, that would never happen, as
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: if it ever would, and the Beatles of Brian Epstein
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: would be no more. Brian was a long way but
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a short while removed from Liverpool's Cavern Club on that
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: day back in nineteen sixty one when he first saw
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: what would become this life's work, the Beatles. From that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: moment on, the Beatles became his obsession and he became
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: their manager. Bryan threw himself into the work of shepherding
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of the group's career with an intensity to drive that
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: made him the group fantastically rich. Just two years from
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the day he first met them, in early nineteen sixty three,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the Beatles completed their conquest of America. It was official.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: They were now the world's most popular group and top
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: selling pop group, and there was little to actually worry
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: about aside from all the money. More specifically, what to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: do with it. Bringing it home from America was particularly distressing.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The British Inland Revenue Service, the equivalent of the American IRS,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: was there in London waiting to collect its ninety four
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: percent ninety four percent of every dollar every pound made
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: by these four working class kids from Liverpool was to
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: go to the government, not into their own bank accounts
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: or to their families, but to the government ninety four percent.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: The fact that a large portion of this money was
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: generated outside of the UK and the United States made
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the collection of it even more onerous. The Beatles were
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: estimated to sell six million pounds worth of albums that year,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: their royalty rate was minuscule. Most of the gross money
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: went to their record label EMI. Whatever was left ninety
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: four percent of it went to the government. Then Brian
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: took his twenty five percent management fee. The balance was
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: then divided amongst John, Paul, George and Ringo, whereupon John
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and Paul received the lion's share for writing the songs.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Let's game this out. You're a working class kid named
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know George from the middle of bumpfuck nowhere
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in northern England. You don't have a cent to your name.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Your lot in life is determined at birth. You're to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: be a butcher's assistant, or drive a lorry, or work
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: on the docks, make a meager living, just enough to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: support your family so you don't starve. You'll break your
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: back working and die with little if any savings. But
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you decide that type of future is unacceptable because deep
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: down you're a dreamer. So you get your hands on
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: a guitar as a kid, and then probably teach yourself
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to play. Then you join a band with three older
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: kids from town and forsake your future and any security
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you might have, and plunge yourself into a true hand
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to mouth existence. You risk it all to make a
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: living doing something you love, and you work your ass off.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: It's fun but dangerous and low and behold hard work, intelligence,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: and grit amount to something, and your risk pays off.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: You create a job for yourself out of thin air.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Not only that you're the best at it in the world,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and as should be the case, you're paid handsomely for
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: your risk and your hard work and your ingenuity. You
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and your band. Oh I don't know, for the sake
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of easy math, earn, let's say six million pounds one year.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Your name and face are everywhere, as are the songs
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you play. You create a product that people can't go without.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: You create demand. You must be fabulously wealthy. Your family
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: can't believe it. Georgie boys struck it rich dreams will
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: all soon come true for a Georgie boy will surely
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: take care of them. Six million pounds. But wait a minute.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Of that six million, the record label takes their cut, which, unbelievably,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: due to the ridiculous contract signed by our assat manager,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: was for the sake of argument, generously understood to be
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: about ninety percent. Ninety percent of six million is five
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: point four million to the record label. So now you've
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: got six hundred thousand. Okay, even with the stupid contract.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Six hundred thousand and nineteen sixty three is the equivalent
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of about five million today, not bad. Not bad. At
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: least the record company did something to earn their cut.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: They put up the money for production, manufacturing, distribution and promotion.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: The government, on the other hand, they did nothing. But
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. They're taking ninety four percent, ninety four
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: percent of your six hundred grand, So now you've only
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: got thirty six thousand, and your manager has to take
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: his twenty five percent. So now you're down to twenty
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: seven thousand. But you've got to split that with your bandmates,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and you don't write the song, so most of that money,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: say seventy five percent goes to the two songwriters. Now
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you're down to six seven hundred and fifty that you
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: have to split with your non songwriting drummer, which means
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day that you get three
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy five pounds. Not bad, almost three
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: times what most Londoners took home in a year in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. But let's not forget you started by
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: generating six million, six million, and you get a little
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: more than three grand. Bad record company contracts, management fees,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and songwriters royalties. Aside, due to Britain's ninety four percent
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: tax rate, the paltry cut the Beatles took home after
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: all of their hard work was nothing short of criminal.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Brian Epstein, despite his twenty five percent, agreed a plan
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was hatched, fight fire with fire to feel their money
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: before the taxman got the opportunity to steal it first.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: In England, where they lived, there was little they could
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: do about the taxman, but in America it was a
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: different story. Whenever possible, Brian Epstein demanded payment for Beetles
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: live performances in cash. Oftentimes he demanded cash up front,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: sometimes as much as fifty percent. In the United States,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: whatever cash he collected was stuffed into brown paper bags,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and that cash, along with performance fees paid in checks,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: were deposited into small, local American banks. While the Beatles
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: scurried around the country playing concerts. Brian kept the books
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: while on the road, and upon re entering the UK,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the books would reflect an amount of gross income that
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: did not include the vast sums of money Brian had
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: left behind in the small American banks, thus keeping that
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: money safe from the taxman's clutches. Brian would return to
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the US a few weeks later by himself on quote
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: unquote business and make his withdrawals in cash and then
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: smuggle that cas back into the UK, or try to anyway.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: The customs agent was young, curious, a bit rough around
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the edges. Brian Epstein cut an impressive figure. He fought
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: back the fear and paranoia and charmed the boy, and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: he was allowed to pass through customs unsearched with his
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: luggage filled with cash, deduct his twenty five percent, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: distribute the rest of the band, ensuring that they'd properly
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: be compensated. Outside of the Queen's good graces, The Beatles
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: themselves were clueless of the major tax fraud perpetrated on
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: their behalf. Brian never told them where the money came from,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and they didn't ask. Brian was taking care of them,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: as was his charge, a charge that was becoming increasingly difficult.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: As their popularity continued to skyrocket Throughout the early to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: mid sixties, Touring for the band had become a joke.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Aside from the brown paper bag money, touring offered little
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: to the band Beyond hassel. Playing music was next to impossible.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: The Beatles couldn't hear themselves on stage over the screaming audience,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: no matter what venues they played. And making matters worse
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: on the road, The Beatles were prisoners of their own fame,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: unable under the best circumstances to leave their hotel rooms
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: for fear of being torn to shreds by their adoring fans.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Now in a post Bob Dylan reality, the band were
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: stoned literally all the time and increasingly paranoid, and in
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six in Japan for good reason. For it
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't adoring fans looking to smother them with aggressive affection
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: that was the problem. It was assassin's hell bent on
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: shooting down the Anglo pop stars who'd come to their
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: country seemingly to disrespect their heritage. The Beatles were booked
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to perform at Budhakan, a sacred venue to the Japanese,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: a shrine to deceased war heroes, some of whom had
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: given their lives in the fight against the British and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: their allies the Second World War just two decades prior.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: The band was met upon arrival at the airport by
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Tokyo's Police Commissioner in several thousand armed Japanese troops. John Paul,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: George Ringobrian and their entourage were informed that a right
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: wing kill squad was determined to assassinate them for their
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: plans to desecrate Budakan with their music. If they were
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: to survive, they were to remain under the protection of
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: the Commissioner and do as he said, which meant they
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: were to go nowhere and see no one. And the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Commissioner was serious, as was the tone of the ten
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: thousand fans assembled upon the route to the Tokyo Hilton,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: where they'd be staying. And they were there ostensibly to
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: cheer the English pop stars on, but the crowd, compared
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to other crowds they it encountered, was less fanatic, more
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: stern Ominous signs with Beetles go home peppered the crowd,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and the air was marked by the nervous faces of
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: their outnumbered protectors. So alone, the Beatles sat in their
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: presidential of their hotel, racked with fear. Paul paced, John
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: made nervous jokes, and George was more quiet than usual.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: The ringo tried escaping more than once, and their rooms
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: were patrolled by armed guards, and the Beatles weren't going anywhere,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: so they waited in a collective state of deep paranoia,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: impatient to perform on stage. Where not one, but numerous
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: right wing assassins would be well positioned to take them
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: out while they toiled with instruments. The audience would never
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: hear for what for less than six percent, This fear,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: this paranoia, their lives. Was it worth it? The answer was,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: of course no. It was an easier way, assuming they
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: survived the concert at Budakhan. After this tour there would
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: be changes, no more live shows. John was all for it,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: He'd convince the others, and Brian would be forced to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: go along. The Beatles would make their way recording artists
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: inside the sanctum of EMI's Abbey Road studios, safe and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: free to pour all their efforts into creating music. As
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: opposed to running themselves ragged performing music. They double down
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: on expression, blow their own minds as well as the world,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: sell more records because of it, and increase their bottom
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: line in the process, despite the ninety four percent tax rate,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: despite the lack of brown paper bag money from ticket sales.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: But before that, they need to get back home again
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to London and get their hands on some American LSD.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Getting back home again in the figurative sense, back to
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: being just a great little band, nothing more. Nothing less
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: beyond the complications of top tier tax income in Japanese
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: assassins was proving harder for the Beatles by the minute.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: For at the moment, despite forsaking the road for the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: recording studio, John, Paul, George and Ringo were once again
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: on stage, but this time not in a stadium or
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a concert hall, but in a makeshift television studio in
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: front of a small a list crowd seated on the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: floor at their feet. Mick Jagger, Maryanne Faithful, Eric Clapton,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Keith Moon, British television personalities and various members of Swinging
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: London's smart set were all assembled in the newly fashionable
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Flower Power stylings and excited to hear the Beatles' performance
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: of their new single for the popular Our World international
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: television broadcast. Once again. John Lennon was afraid this performance
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: would be seen by two hundred million people worldwide, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: they were broadcasting live. One mistake, one flubb note, one
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: missed lyric and it would all be shot to shit.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And it was himself, Paul George and Ringo he had
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to worry about. There were other performers as well, a
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: thirteen piece orchestra. John had no control over that. In
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the pre recorded backing track they were all performing on
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: top of to round out the mix. Didn't make the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: event any less nerve wracking. They still had to nail
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the vocals. Couldn't fix everything in post two hundred million people.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: How the fuck did this happen? This pressure, this success,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: this influenced, this exposure. John tried calming his nerves pre
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: show by thinking about the party they were attending after
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the broadcast. Brian was hosting at his flat. Most here
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: at the studio would be there, and so too would
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Alsley's acid. John had arranged for the American chemist to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: create a batch especially for them, and great efforts were
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: made in getting the illegal substance from the States to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the Beatles in London. June eighteenth, nineteen sixty seven, one
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: week prior to the Beatles Our World broadcast, John had
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: arranged for a film crew to arrive in Monterey, California,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a couple miles away from Bear Osley's laboratory. Monterey was
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: chosen on this day because it was the date of
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the Monterey Pop Festival, a first of its kind, an
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: outdoor music festival with major axe otis Redding Jennis Chaplin,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: The Who, and Jimmy Hendrix performing, among others, an occasion
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: if there ever was one, that was worthy of documenting
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: on film, which is why the Beatles sent the film crew.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: But the Beatles knew full well that the film rights
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: for the festival had been granted to someone else, their
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: crew was denied access to shoot. So off to Olesley's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: lab went the Beatles' film equipment, where it was stuffed
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: with files of liquid LSD and inconspicuously shipped back to
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: London with its illicit contraband undetected by authorities, as was
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the plan all along. Sitting on his stool on stage
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: waiting the countdown to the broadcast, John Lennon knew that
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the LSD was now carefully arranged in pint sized files
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: on Brian Epstein's bookshelf in his flat, waiting for him
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: and his guests, and he couldn't wait to get his
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: hands on it. But first there was the matter of
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the two hundred million people on the other end of
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the lenses currently pointed at him five four three two.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: To John's relief, the band settled in nicely to the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: beginning of the song All You Need Is Love. It
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: was written especially for this moment, so simple, so childlike, innocent,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: direct it's simplicity tempered by the complex orchestral accompaniment. Nineteen
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: sixty seven, five years a gazillion record sold, a global
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: audience of a couple hundred million people and thirteen orchestral members.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Removed from the simplicity of the Cavern Club, the Beatles
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: were never further from being just a great little band,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: but they were somehow immune to the pressure of it all.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Whatever fear John had, you could hear hardly tell from
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: his performance. He and the band were locked in together,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: four minds as one. In the studio audience, like all Beatles' audiences,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: was enraptured, as was the audience at home. By the
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: time the second chorus hits, it's clear that the show
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: is a success, and when the song breaks down toward
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: its end, you can hear the band breaking free of
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the pomp. The inner showmen in them start to bust,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: loose from the banal pretentiousness of the statement all you
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: need is love, and the song and dance men start
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: to muscle their way past the orchestra to take their
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: place center stage. As the tunes chorus plods on, Paul
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: can't help himself and starts to ham it up. John's
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: nervousness begins to slip away. It's as if they are
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: no longer playing to two hundred million people, and they're
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: back at the Star Club in Germany, back at the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Cavern Club in Liverpool to two hundred teenagers. John is
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: clearly jazzed by Paul's sled improvisations. He smiles noticeably and
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: begins to rock back on his stool. Now he's enjoying
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: himself more than he is performing, and Paul is spurred
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: on by John sleevestting up. All you Need is Love
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: chorus continues. Paul, then, out of nowhere, fills in the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: ends of the vocal refrain with she loves you, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: and that same famous melody, and John quickly notices what
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: he's doing and hits the early Beatles chorus with Paul
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in unison. As confetti rains down upon the assembled television
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: studio audience, John and Paul ride the nostalgic melody over
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: their utopian refrain and out to the commercial break. In
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: their minds, they are partially back where they belong, if
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: only for a moment, a moment that will be short
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: lived and quickly obscured by more drugs, unexpected death, arrests,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a kidnapping in the witchy influence of a tiny avant
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: garde artist from Japan named Yoko. We'll be right back
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: after this word, word word. Yoko Ono was born on
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: February eighteenth, eighteen ninety four. When she first met John
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Lennon in nineteen sixty six, at the age of seventy two,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: she was most certainly the oldest woman he would ever
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: become romantically involved with, but far from the most entertaining.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: That distinction belongs to Joan biaz but I Digress. Remarkably,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Yoko Ono is still alive today, living comfortably on New
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: York's Upper West Side, where she spends her time managing
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the Ono Lenin estate and with a diminutive, uncut Italian
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: servant named Paco, and watching apples decompose in real time
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: for fun. At the spry age of one hundred and
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: twenty seven, Yoko Ono, whose name in Japanese means ocean child,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: is believed to subsist on a partial diet of raw
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: sea turtle and vampire bat tears. Yoko is expected to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: survive the remaining beatles save for Ringo Star, the world's oldest, finest,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and last remaining true song and dance man I Kid.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Of course, Yoko Ono is not some sort of ageless vampire.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: She did not break up the Beatles. A bad mix
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of greed, distrust, and Alan Klein's hubris broke up the Beatles.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Yoko Ono saved John Lennon from the trappings of fame,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: the boredom of being a Beatle at a time when
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: being John was more interesting to him, and saved him
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: from himself, propelled him personally and creatively. But nevertheless, according
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: to Beatles lore, Yoko Ono did have a vampire grip
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: on John Lennon. To the public, to the fans, Yoko's
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: influence on John was true horror. But back in nineteen
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: sixty six, when Yoko Ono first met John Lennon, the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: real screams of horror were thankfully going unnoticed from John's
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: suburban Kenwood estate. The giant's snake from the backyard was coming.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: John cared to the extent that her screams would attract
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the local cops, and if they were to search his home,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the amount of illegal drugs had fined would surely have
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: him locked up. For ye, but that didn't matter to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the young female HouseGuests he dosed with acid. She was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: in a state of panics, sprinting in circles, trying to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: outrun the giant snake. John and his friend Magic Alex
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: gave chase. The girl's fear was real, her pace inspired.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: She screamed non stop, and the LSD John was on
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: took its cue from the screaming HouseGuest and started to
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: send him reeling into paranoia. What if she doesn't stop screaming.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: What if the cops come to the house. What if
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: that thing really was a giant snake? What if it
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: caught her and swallowed her hole? How would he explain
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that to Cynthia. Cynthia, his wife, could accept a lot
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of things, but a murdered young woman in her home
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: was likely not one of them. Said woman was on
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the side of John's home at the moment, attempting to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: scale it to the roof. The giant snake, no doubt,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: nipping at her heels, she managed to hoist herself up
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: under the windowsill and from there on the low roof
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: above John's sun room. Christ what if she went higher
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and jumped to her death? Suicide? At Beatle John's Waybridge
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: mansion is what the paper would say. John and Magic
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Alex sprinted giant snake be damned and slithered wildly between
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: their frantic footfalls more screams. The duo hit the windowsill,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: hoisted themselves up to the low roof, grabbed the screaming woman,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: pulled her down. She screamed some more, and the giant
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: snake taunted them all. The three of them quickly made
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: it inside, and the woman's screams were relentless. John thought
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: she was possessed. He and Magic Alex found the guest
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: room and locked her inside to cool off, perhaps even
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: sleep off her dost high. Then John went back to
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: his drugs. At home, he kept a mortar and pestle
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: containing a powdery mixture of speed, barbituates and LSD. John
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: took to it casually, looking and swiping his finger into
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the mixture and sucking it down whenever he felt his
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: primary high starting to fade. As a result, he was
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: perpetually stoned, and at the moment, given the buzzkill circumstances,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: his high was in need of a boot. He and
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Magic Alex settled themselves. The screams had stopped the giant snake.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: In reality, John's vacuum cleaner hose from his pool had
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: been slay it seemed. Then the doorbell rang. Magic Alex
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: leaped up and frantically set about to hide the drugs. John,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: never wanted to pass up an opportunity to entertain an audience,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: quickly found his top, hat and cape, donned them shirtless,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and answered the door. The two Waybridge police officers took
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: one look at John and cut up with laughter. But
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: when the last died down, they asked John about a
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: call they'd received from John's residence from a young woman
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: claiming to have been kidnapped by a John Lennon impersonator.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Was this too some sort of joke? John assured them
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: that it was, and they were content to believe their
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: local pop star and resident and split. Of all the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: things that took place at Cynthia Lennon's Waybridge home, the
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: discovery of a young woman dosed on LSD and effectively
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: kidnapped by her husband would not be the most distressing. No,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the most distressing would be discovering John in her kitchen
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: casually drinking tea with a bizarre Japanese conceptual artist. After
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: obviously just having had sex, and this was exactly what
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Cynthia Lenna discovered one morning after returning home from vacation
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: with friends. John's casual indifference to her discovery only made
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the betrayal sting more. Oh hi, he said to her,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Yoko was wearing Cynthia's robe. John didn't care what Cynthia
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: thought about his tryst with Yoko Ono. As far as
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: he was concerned, the marriage was over. He split, filed
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: for divorce, and he and Yoko rented a flat, where
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: they quickly took up a heroine habit and an extreme
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: interest in each other's art. John encouraged Yoko's wildest experimentation,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: and turn, Yoko encouraged John to embrace the inner artist
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in him, the one he left behind at art school
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: before the Beatles took over his life life. The two
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: stage confounding experimental art demonstrations and quickly garnered the whitehawk
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: glare of a celebrity couple. This new kind of attention
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: led to their flat being raided by the notorious detective
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Norman Pilcher, the same Norman Pilcher who famously brought
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: eighteen officers with him to conduct a ray to Keith
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Richards Redlands Estate. John and Yoko were arrested for possession.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Two hundred grams of hashish were confiscated, along with a
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: cigarette rolling machine with traces of marijuana and half a
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: gram of morphine, the rest John had successfully flushed down
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the toilet. The bus was an international media sensation. The
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: fact that the press and the public should have seen
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: it coming due to a previous, very clumsy public statement
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: from Paul McCartney about LSD, where he answered an interviewer's
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: question honestly and stated that he had in fact tried
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the hallucinogetic drug didn't make the reality that their beloved
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Beatles were seemingly consumed by drugs any easier to digest
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: for the public. Then John lennmpoured gas in the flames
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of controversy. In November, a month after his in Yoko's arrest,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he released his first music without the Beatles, an experimental
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: album with Yoko entitled Two Vergins. On the cover, John
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: and Yoko posed fully nude, and the press freaked the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: fuck out, and so did the Beatles fans. In addition
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: to the cover of full frontal Nudity in nineteen sixty eight,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the music was way too out there for the record
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: buying public at the time or at any time. Really.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: What happened to John the Beatle? What had this woman
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: done to him? Surely he was mad, and Paul too,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: with the LSD and the rumors of the band weren't
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: getting along. The news from the Beatles was plentiful, and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: not a lot of it good, and the bad press
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: dwarfed most of the good will the Beatles recent run
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: of successful albums had generated revolver in Sergeant Pepper's Lonely
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Hearts Club Band in particular. The Beatles may have been
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: below and inventive recording artist, but increasingly they were being
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: seen as dangerous, drugged out hippies. The pressure of it
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: all pulled at John, Paul, George and Ringo internally, and
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: by the time nineteen sixty nine rolled around, the Beatles
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: were a long way from home and looking down the barrel.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: At the end of their career as a band, Brian
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Epstein was dead. Suicide, pills, pressure, whatever it was, it
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: hardly slowed down the Beatles. They remained set on their
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: paths to either continued world domination or self destruction, even
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: they didn't know either way. Each path was not the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: path back home again. Paul tried with Let It Be
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: up until January nineteen sixty nine, when rehearsals for Let
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: It Be started, and, beginning in nineteen sixty six, the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: year the Beatles stopped touring, the Beatles albums progressed as follows.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Revolver was a psychedelic dipping of the toes that showed
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the world the promise of creative expression on both long
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: playing albums as well as on short form single releases.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a fully realized
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: psychedelic masterstroke that nailed nineteen sixty seven's collective cultural conscience,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: an album so consequential its bonded its own successful spinoffs,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. And of course, there
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: was the Beatles' nineteen sixty eight self titled album, known
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: simply as the White Album, which of all the Beatles'
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: albums prior best encapsulated the band's genius artistry as individuals.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Simplicity is hardly a factor on any of these albums.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: The band's roots are always present, but the weight of
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the beatles creative ambition moved in lockstep with the weight
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of the band's personal and business problems. The bigger and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: better the Beatles became, the further they strayed from being
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: just a great little band, nothing more, nothing less, and
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the further they drifted from each other. Paul McCartney was
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: set to do something about it. Let it Be was
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to be the band's next album, and artistically, the whole
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: point of Let It Be was to get back to
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the band's roots, back to where they once belonged. It
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: was a disaster. The writing was clearly on the wall.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: A film crew documenting the recording captured what was obvious.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: The Beatles could no longer stand being in the same
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: room together, never mind be forced to make music together
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: under the suffocating glare of the film crew's cleague lights.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: The lighting seemed to be a real life metaphor for
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the slew of pressures driving the Beatles apart. Band disagreements
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: over new management, the pressure of stewarding the band's diversified
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: creative business Apple Core, a bare knuckle business brawl over
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: ownership of the Lennon McCartney publishing company Northern Songs. And
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: there was Paul's overbearing school marm attempts at controlling the band,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the distraction and sometimes embarrassment over John's now very public
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: social activism, and of course, there was the moody, omnipotent
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: presence of Yoko Ono, who, since the beginning of the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: White Album sessions, was constantly at John's side, literally sitting
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: next to him in the studio while he sat in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: with the band for rehearsals and tracking. It was all
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: too much, too big, too heavy, and the band failed
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: to finish recording Let It Be, and the album was shelved.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: After some time off, the Beatles returned to Abbey Road
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Studios to take another swing at recording one last time,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: but this time there would be no film crew, and
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Yoko would of course be at John's side throughout the process,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: but she'd be distracted by a complicated pregnancy, one that
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: would end in miscarriage. Yoko, in her mid thirties, had
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: had multiple miscarriages, one of which John recorded in the hospital,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: capturing his in Yoko's dying babies last heartbeats on tape.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Some time later, when John was to provide a special
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: personalized Christmas recording for a magazine as part of a
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: promotional obligation, John sent the magazine the recording of the
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Last Heartbeats of His Dying Son Dark, But for the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: most part, that darkness is absent from John and the
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: rest of the Beatles' contributions to what would become abbey Road,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: the band's final album, and so is most of the
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: pomp and individualism of the Beatles' previous recorded efforts from
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the second half decade, Unlike the recording of the White Album,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: when band members were so alienated from one another, they
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: basically transformed themselves into solo artists working within a group
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: of side musicians, wherein each would bring into the studio
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: a song they'd written, play as much of the instrumentation
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: as they could by themselves, and rely on others to
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: fill and where necessary. Most of Abbey Road's seventeen tracks,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the Beatles perform together as a band, a good little band,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and the results are undeniable. Abbey Road is the Beatles'
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: greatest album. It showcases the group's collective strength, their power
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and inventiveness, and unrivaled creativity as a band in a
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: way that is unmatched on any of their previous efforts.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: The moody groove of Come Together, the staggering beauty of Something,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the rawness and vulnerability of Oh Darling and the Weed Hayes, Jamminess,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: If I Want You, She's So Heavy, and the hope
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: of Here Comes the Sun, respectively. Paul, John and George's
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: lead singers on each track are supported by the power
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: of the group at their backs and encouraged to bear
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: their souls in the name of creative risk and ultimately
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: artistic greatness. Even Ringo's vocals on Octopus's Garden are nothing
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: short of classic, and toward the end of the medley
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: of songs on side too of Abbey Road, you can
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: practically hear the strains of excitement from the Cavern Club
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: as the band transitions from Paul Pam till she came
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: in through the bathroom window. Oh look out. The Beatles
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: were back for a moment. Anyway. Despite the immediate and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: massive critical and commercial success of Abbey Road, the relationship
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: between Paul and John had suffered irreparably. Ringo had already
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: quit once and so had George, and both eventually returned,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: but nevertheless, rumors persisted that a breakup was imminent. But
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: then the phone rang at the office of Apple Corps
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and there was bad news. The Apple Core representative who
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: answered the phone couldn't believe what he was hearing. His
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: hand trembled, the cup of tea was holding, fell to
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the floor and shattered. His eyes went wide. The fear
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: gripped him, and then shock set him. He was overcome
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: by it. Not because the Beatles were breaking up. He
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: knew that everyone who worked for the Beatles knew that,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: but he didn't think the end would come like this. Now.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: He was shocked because the voice on the other end
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: of the line told him that Paul is dead. I'm
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Jake Brennan. In This episode of Disgraceland is to be continued.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: going to disgracelamppod dot com slash Membership members can listen
• 36:49
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• 36:53
  Speaker 1: one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes,
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• 37:02
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• 37:06
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• 37:20
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