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Credit: Far Out \/ ABKO Films<\/p>\n
Sun 5 July 2026 19:30, UK <\/p>\n
There was no doubting the stardom of The Beatles<\/a> when they emerged on the scene in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n The Fab Four were stars, not least John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who, with their widening grins and endless bank of original songwriting, were ready-made superstars for this bright new era. And they were up for it initially, soaking up every ounce of stardom their music was offering them.<\/p>\n But then for Lennon at least, things quickly changed. The more people universally loved him, the more he felt perennially alone and viewed the world from an isolated state of disillusion. Fame wasn\u2019t everything it was cracked up to be<\/a>, and the music industry wasn\u2019t much better \u2013 the one place that would provide solace soon became a hidden trap for bureaucracy and corruption.<\/p>\n Lennon soon realised that with success came greed, and ultimately greed, was counterintuitive to the sort of artist he wanted to be. The simple vision of writing and releasing songs felt worlds away from the bureaucratic trap he found himself in at the tail end of The Beatles.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cWhen we came along there was only Decca, Philips and EMI who could really produce a record for you. You had to go through the whole bureaucracy to get into the recording studio. You were in such a humble position, you didn\u2019t have more than 12 hours to make a whole album, which is what we did in the early days.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n There was a tinge of fondness to his memory of those days. While the big labels still ruled the roost, he acknowledged that at least him and The Beatles were given the opportunity. He believed that as the 1960s moved on and labels saw what was possible in music, largely at the hands of bands like The Beatles, they became money hungry and obsessed with success, to a point where they would overlook songs that could provide it.<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cIf you\u2019re an unknown artist, you\u2019re lucky to get an hour in a studio \u2013 it\u2019s a hierarchy, and if you don\u2019t have hits, you don\u2019t get recorded again. And they control distribution. We tried to change that with Apple, but in the end, we were defeated. They still control everything.\u201d<\/p>\n But Lennon didn\u2019t see himself as immune from the bureaucracy. He felt like he too, had become a product being shipped by the labels themselves. Years of being put to the grindstone for the greater good of a label had hardened Lennon to a point where he saw through the bulllshit, and wondered if there was any good beyond the studio.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n He felt the pinch even tighter when he tried to deviate from The Beatles in \u201868 and release a more daring project with Yoko Ono. His artistic difference was immediately shut down on the basis that he wasn\u2019t painting by the numbers they had assigned and so came the sobering reminder that money comes before art.<\/p>\n \u201cEMI killed our album Two Virgins because they didn\u2019t like it,\u201d he said, adding \u201cWith the last record they\u2019ve censored the words of the songs printed on the record sleeve. Fucking ridiculous and hypocritical \u2014 they have to let me sing it but they don\u2019t dare let you read it. Insanity.\u201d <\/p>\n Lennon\u2019s battles with labels, management and publishers would roll on for another decade, largely at the expense of his friendship with McCartney<\/a> and thus proved what they were beginning to fear: that music and business simply didn\u2019t work together.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n