John Lennon first rose to fame as the founder, co-songwriter, and co-lead vocalist of the iconic rock band The Beatles. After he separated from The Beatles, Lennon continued his career as a solo singer and songwriter until his death in 1980.
Working together in The Beatles was never easy for John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. In fact, the four bandmates would often get into fights. In fact, on one occasion, things escalated so much that Lennon and Harrison almost got physical. Of course, things didn’t improve after the band split.
Years after The Beatles separated, John Lennon admitted that he always thought two members of the band were downright unnecessary, while him and another one of his bandmates were fully responsible for the group’s success.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon Were Responsible For The Beatles’ Foundation
The Beatles wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Paul McCartney and John Lennon. These two aspiring musicians met in Liverpool back in 1957. Lennon, who was 16 at the time, was playing with his skiffle group called The Quarrymen at a church garden party. A then-15-year-old McCartney saw the performance and decided to approach Lennon backstage to propose a collaboration.
“I turned around right then on first meeting and said, ‘Do you want to join the group?’ And I think he said yes the next day,” Lennon recalled in the documentary The Beatles Anthology.
So, McCartney joined Lennon’s band and, shortly after, invited his friend George Harrison to join too. Harrison would end up becoming their lead guitarist, and the band was renamed Johnny and the Moondogs. Shortly after, they changed the band’s name to Beatals, then Silver Beetles in 1959, but ultimately ended up sticking with The Beatles.
Although they had been playing together for a little over three years, The Beatles’ legendary line-up wasn’t finalized until 1962. That year, their manager, Brian Epstein, fired the band’s original drummer, Pete Best, and replaced him with Ringo Starr. With this line-up, The Beatles went on to become an international sensation. They wrote almost 200 songs, some of which made the group millions, and won many awards over the years.
John Lennon Split From The Beatles In The Late 70s
Even though the so-called Beatlemania took the entire world by storm, The Beatles were only together for a little over seven years. John Lennon announced his departure from the band on September 20, 1969.
This was the result of a series of issues, including money issues, their former manager’s death, and creative differences. After leaving the band, Lennon continued to write more songs and became a prominent anti-war activist along his wife Yoko Ono.
Despite Lennon’s split from the band, The Beatles released their album Abbey Road on September 26, 1969. This became one of their highest-grossing albums of all time, selling more than four million copies within three months and topping the charts all over the world.
In 1970, Paul McCartney filed for the dissolution of The Beatles’ contractual partnership. However, this decision was met with legal difficulties and internal fights, including McCartney suing his bandmates. Ultimately, the band didn’t get out of their contract until 1974, when Lennon finally agreed to sign the required paperwork.
John Lennon Didn’t Think These Two Members Of The Beatles Were Really Necessary
The Beatles became a worldwide phenomenon in a short span of time. Despite their success, John Lennon revealed that he always thought two members of the band didn’t contribute much to their success.
In a 1980 interview for David Sheff’s book, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon admitted that he and Paul McCartney were the only essential members of the band.
“Let’s say, I think it’s possible for John and Paul to have created the same thing with two other guys,” Lennon explained. “It may not have been possible for George and Ringo to have created it without John and Paul. OK?”
While it’s true that he and McCartney co-wrote some of The Beatles’ biggest hits, Lennon clearly downplayed George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s contributions to the band.
Despite his harsh comments, Lennon admitted that he still thought highly of Harrison and Starr’s talents, “That doesn’t take away from the individual talents that they have.” The ‘Imagine’ singer then went on to explain that his bandmates would have found success even if they’d never been part of The Beatles, “Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed and was in one of the top groups in Britain, but especially in Liverpool. So Ringo’s talent would have come out one way or the other.”
While fans don’t agree with Lennon’s comments, his dismissing of two of his bandmates provides a glimpse into what the band was like behind closed doors. It’s no wonder why The Beatles were said to have had many internal fights over the years.
Source: NewsFinale
