{"id":299974,"date":"2025-12-05T06:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/299974\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T06:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:21:09","slug":"the-truth-about-the-beatles-is-reducing-me-to-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/299974\/","title":{"rendered":"The truth about the Beatles is reducing me to tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ringo Starr<\/a> is sitting on a picnic rug in the paradisiacal gardens of George Harrison\u2019s mansion, with George and Paul, talking about the old days. Talking about\u2026 the Beatles.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s midsummer, circa 1994, and they are all still, well, not old. Fifties. McCartney\u2019s face is young enough to still have those round, puppyish Paul-cheeks. Ringo is lush-lipped. George\u2019s hair is long, brown and luxurious. This is what happens if you formed the Beatles when you were still in your teens, and had, in the case of Harrison, released Sgt Pepper by the time you were only 23. You can be discussing events from a quarter-century ago \u2014 a black and white world, which you then, personally, changed into colour \u2014 when you\u2019re just 50. Not old at all.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more by Caitlin Moran<\/a><\/p>\n

They\u2019re talking about the Beatles<\/a> \u2014 but it\u2019s a conversation you haven\u2019t seen before. Or, maybe, even considered. The conversation is about how, well, difficult it was to be a Beatle. Confusing. Overwhelming. How furious, hurt and sad they made each other. In brief, being a Beatle is basically ten years of people screaming and rioting at you, followed by a deeply wounding implosion \u2014 and then one of your best mates being shot on the street<\/a>, in front of his terrified wife. It\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

If you were only the guys who\u2019d done Please Please Me and Shea Stadium \u2014 the biggest pop band in the world; girls wailing like police sirens \u2014 it would still be much to process. But Rishikesh, and \u201cbigger than Jesus\u201d, and piles of burning records? Tomorrow Never Knows, Yellow Submarine, the rooftop? John, outside the Dakota? That could take a lifetime to understand. Maybe you never would.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ringo Starr: \u2018I only want to be in a band. You can\u2019t play Yesterday just on drums\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

A old clip of John Lennon appears: \u201cWe gave our whole lives to the Beatles.\u201d<\/p>\n

We cut back to Ringo, in the garden, talking about how John \u2014 who, in the end, died because he was \u201cBeatle John\u201d \u2014 isn\u2019t here any more: \u201cI\u2019m just going to pretend he\u2019s\u2026 gone away, on holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ringo looks at the remaining Beatles, Paul and George. Friends \u2014 brothers \u2014 he has not talked with since 1969. He\u2019s beaming. He\u2019s glad he\u2019s finally \u2014 finally \u2014 able to talk to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just\u2026 like hanging out with you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

And we like hanging out with the Beatles. Last week, Disney+ released the latest chance to hang out with the Beatles. The 1995 documentary series Anthology has been remastered<\/a>, and given a new, unexpectedly emotional episode: No 9. In the reels of footage from 1995 \u2014 where Ringo, Paul and George are interviewed together for the first time since the \u201969 bust-up \u2014 there\u2019s a new story about the Beatles, and one we probably weren\u2019t ready to hear until now.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Beatles Anthology \u2014 behind the scenes of their great reunion<\/a><\/p>\n

In previous eras, you would have needed a pretty tiny violin for a chat entitled \u201cIt was hard to be a Beatle\u201d. Hard to be hot, millionaire geniuses with psychedelic Rolls-Royces and great hair? Sure. Sure.<\/p>\n

But now it\u2019s 2025, and we\u2019ve seen a lot of biopics about fame<\/a> \u2014 the pressure; the loneliness \u2014 and learnt a lot about anxiety and trauma. Now, maybe, we are ready to see the melancholy in the story of the Beatles. That four men who defined being the best of friends \u2014 in larky press conferences; in the holidays they always took together \u2014 ended up turning on each other. Previously, we blamed this on Yoko, Linda, Paul, the lawyers \u2014 but episode 9 is clear: no friendship could withstand, as George puts it, \u201cthe weight and pressure of being a Beatle\u201d. If there are only four things in the centre of a decade-long cultural storm \u2014 John, Paul, George and Ringo \u2014 eventually, one would always have broken free of their moorings and smashed into the others. The centre cannot hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it was really stressful being a Beatle,\u201d Ringo says, of the break-up. \u201cWe all just wanted a bit of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve now watched episode 9 four times \u2014 each time, at some point, through tears. Since Anthology was filmed, we\u2019ve been reduced to just two Beatles. And there will be a time where there are no Beatles left on Earth at all.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Paul McCartney and the song that made him John Lennon\u2019s equal<\/a><\/p>\n

Theirs isn\u2019t a tragic story: their houses were beautiful. They were more loved than kings. And they were granted the highest of graces: the ability to create something that makes us feel like kings when we listen to it. The Beatles elevated us.<\/p>\n

But when Anthology shows the Beatles finishing each gig with their trademark low bows \u2014 at the Cavern, on The Ed Sullivan Show, at Candlestick Park \u2014 it seems like they are subconsciously acknowledging something obvious now, as, in turn, each generation comes to marvel over Strawberry Fields, Something and Hey Jude: ultimately, being a Beatle was an act of service. To make the world scream is actually terrifying, and has a cost. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ringo Starr is sitting on a picnic rug in the paradisiacal gardens of George Harrison\u2019s mansion, with George…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-299974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}