Why Did the Beatles Break Up?

"Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain..
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies..
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers..
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore..
Waiting to take you away..
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds..
And you're gone." - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, The Beatles

The thing about the Beatles is that they're extremely old school. They don't hit me in the right spot musically, and if anyone knows Paul McCartney's musical style now, they'd know that he was better off singing in a group, than solo. The band consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. No doubt, they did have epic tracks that even I find commendable - it got the masses going, and fans all charged and pulsing to their tracks.

They sang about people coming together in peace - including tracks on love, drugs, liberation, revolution and more. They fueled the 'British invasion', a period where people were getting influenced by rock n roll and pop rock - genres that were slowly gaining fame among a worldwide audience, because of the Beatles's influence to begin with.

The Beatles had been appointed as Members of the order of the British Empire, by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, and won themselves 7 Grammy Awards and a stream of 15 Ivor Novello Awards. With 39 Platinum Albums and 45 Gold Albums in the USA, the Beatles had an insurmountable array of awards and recognitions over the years tracing their ever-growing success.

Some of their infamous tracks range from 'Hey Jude', with different artists still doing their own renditions of the song, including tracks like 'Help!', 'Yesterday', 'Imagine' (my favorite rendition of this song is from vocalist Maynard James Keenan,

from the album 'Emotive'), ''Love Me Do', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Come Together', 'Let It Be' and a plethora of other tracks that are unmatchable when it comes to songs hitting the British scene during the 1960s.

They've left fans worldwide with a legacy and an infectious aura, that got fans wanting to do more, be more and imitate what is now their individual prime source of talent. The question that most people wonder about is, why the Beatles broke up in 1970, and what sort of rift wedged itself in between the foursome to split this talented group apart? We dig in deeper to figure out what may have been the stemmed cause.

There are many versions of this answer splattered all over the Internet, where we cover some of the main problems that shadowed the band for a while. Yoko Ono, the wife of the late John Lennon (who was shot and killed on 8th December 1980), came forth and revealed that she was on writing a book about life with Lennon, and the reasons why the band split up; scheduled for release in the near future.

Brian Epstein who was the band manager for the band, handled the Beatles' finances, also intervening between feuds between the members, often the one to maintain the peace. He was the one who launched the Beatles to stardom, urging them on as they soared to rising heights of fame.

When he died of a drug overdose on August 27th, 1967 - it left the band feeling lost and unguided. This is when Paul McCartney stepped in and took on the role of group leader, heading the band's projects. This caused the band to feel agitated with his domineering behavior.

It then propelled McCartney to make the band get involved with a film, that suffered both financially and artistically, titled - Magical Mystery Tour. Due to Brian's absence, and lack of managerial presence, Apple Corp and the Beatles had a lot of tense moments, due to the members' lack of leadership to manage the band, as well as Apple Corp's finances being flushed with the band's failed experiments.

The band started to develop individual music styles and plans, that led them to clash on a musical and artistic platform. Their album title, 'The White Album', suffered due to the Beatles's constant feuds, since one's artistic preferences would want to come to the fore, while the other tried to snuff it.

Due to John Lennon's avant-garde art interest, it made him get involved in the art scene, ultimately hooking up with Yoko Ono, who dealt with art. They started off as acquaintances, and later took it to the next level once that bond fused over time. He tried to get the band involved in art projects, but they refused to, so he carried on without them.

George Harrison wanted more for himself as a songwriter, and was allotted a maximum of two songs per record. Due to his growing frustration, and lack of songwriting involvement, he pursued solo ventures, and came out with an album titled 'Wonderwall', in 1968, as the first solo album by a Beatle.

The band continued to wage wars right through to their album release 'Let It Be', on what songs to include in the album, and what not to.

John Lennon tried to get the band to involve Yoko in as an equal, but the band didn't want to agree on this proposition, so they'd give both John and her, the cold shoulder. Ultimately the band split towards the end of 1970, where McCartney claims to have been the first to leave the band in 1969, in later interviews.

It has been said though that he did leave the band first in 1970 and not a year prior to that, after the release of his solo album 'McCartney'. After suing the band to sever partnership ties, talk of another album quieted down.

Fans worldwide were hoping for a reunion, that in the end never took form. The Beatles after the split, ended with George Harrison dying of cancer in 2001, and John Lennon meeting his end by a gunshot outside his apartment building in NY city. Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney still continue to compose and release music.

It has been an exhausting journey for anyone who's followed the line of success and differences within the Beatles, but in spite of it all, they were able to come through. So the answer ends up with one mulling over if all those reasons were the only ones, that led the band to separate. Who knows, if Yoko Ono does come out with the much-anticipated write-up on Life with Lennon; we'll just have to wait and watch I suppose.