(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 31 October 2025 16:00, UK
Graham Nash once said that the universe brought The Beatles together, and there are millions of fans around the globe who would agree with him.
When discussing the track ‘A Day In The Life’, he said, “It’s one of the greatest songs ever written. It’s one of the most adventurous songs ever recorded.”
Detailing further, he continued, “I don’t think there’ll ever be another Beatles; I think that the universe put those four kids in the right place at the right time and gave them the right talent, to be able to move the hearts, minds and spirits of billions of people, and continue to this day.”
Sun Ra, the experimental jazz saxophonist, believed that he was sent from another planet by superior beings to bring otherworldly music to the people. While there aren’t a great deal of people who believed this side of Sun Ra, even those who were pessimistic believed that if the universe did try to send us a message, they would do so in the style of music, given that music is such a universal language.
“It makes sense to me that if the Creator sent anyone here, it would be a person who had mastered music, the planet’s universal language,” said Ahmed Abdullah, Sun Ra’s trumpeter, “Sound is the beginning of all creation, the Nomma, the Om, and the Nam that direct our lives, the basis for what Sun Ra called a Sound Government.”
No matter how much you agree or disagree with the idea that the universe is purposefully putting musicians together, there is no escaping the fact that The Beatles coming together and making such influential music in the way that they did is a great example of serendipity. All of them brought out the best in each other, for a period, which lasted long enough for them to make great music and develop into musicians who would change the world as we know it.
You couldn’t change an element of The Beatles and get the same outcome; however, when tensions were getting high within the band, certain members did want to tamper with the legendary line-up. An interview with John Lennon, which took place during a specifically tense period when the band was recording Let It Be, saw Lennon float the idea of replacing one of the band members. George Harrison had threatened to quit the band, and Lennon said they should fire him and replace him with Eric Clapton.
In the unearthed interview, John Lennon says that George Harrison’s attitude towards the band was a “festering wound” and that the band “allowed it to go deeper and we didn’t even give him any bandages”.
Harrison left the band because he felt as though his music was never given any attention and was constantly put on the back burner by band members. Rather than address his concerns, Lennon said, “I think if George doesn’t come back by [next week] we ask Eric Clapton to play.”
Harrison wound up returning to the band in six days, just before the deadline to bring Clapton on board. Clapton had worked with the band prior (recording the guitar on their classic ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’) but whether or not he would have been able to fill in for the remainder of Let It Be remains to be seen. Thanks to Harrison’s return, we will never know.
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