Paul McCartney Said John Lennon Went on Vacation With The Beatles’ Manager to Assert Dominance in the Band
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were behind many of The Beatles’ hits. Though the pair often worked together and the band didn’t have a clear leader, they vied for a modicum of control over the group. McCartney believed that early in their years as a band, Lennon took a trip with the band’s manager as a way to establish himself as the leader.
The Beatles hired Brian Epstein as their manager despite his lack of experience
In the early 1960s, Epstein was working in the music department of his family’s store when he heard about The Beatles. Curious about the group that so many people had recommended to him, he went to see a live performance. Though the act wasn’t very polished — they ate and drank on stage — he saw their potential.
“I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and their sense of humor on stage,” he said, per Biography. “And even afterward, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm and it was there that it all started.”
He didn’t have experience as a band manager, but he convinced the group to hire him. With Epstein’s help, they became the biggest musical act in the world.
Paul McCartney believed John Lennon’s vacation with Brian Epstein was partly a power play
In 1963, shortly after releasing their debut studio album Please Please Me, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr went on vacation together. At the same time, Lennon and Epstein took a separate trip to Spain. McCartney believed Lennon did this to establish himself as the leader of The Beatles.
“Brian Epstein was going on holiday to Spain at the same time and he invited John along,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “John was a smart cookie. Brian was gay, and John saw his opportunity to impress upon Mr. Epstein who was the boss of this group. I think that’s why he went on holiday with Brian. And good luck to him, too — he was that kind of guy; he wanted Brian to know whom he should listen to. That was the relationship. John was very much the leader in that way, although it was never actually said.”
Though McCartney alluded to the belief that Epstein would have given Lennon preferential treatment because of his sexuality, Lennon’s ability to spend time with the manager without the rest of the band would have been what helped him. The Beatles were, for the most part, a package deal. By building a friendship with Epstein as an individual, Lennon may have stood out to the manager.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon said The Beatles fell apart after Brian Epstein died
After Epstein’s premature death in 1967, The Beatles were left reeling. He had managed everything for them. They mourned their manager and also found that they struggled to function as a band without him.
“I mean, we’ve been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away,” McCartney said in The Beatles: Get Back. “And that’s why all of us, in turn, have been sick of the group. It’s [the] discipline we lack. We’ve never had discipline. We’ve had a sort of slight, symbolic discipline. Like Mr. Epstein.”
Though they remained together for several more years, Lennon said that Epstein’s death marked the end of The Beatles.
“After Brian died, we collapsed,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970. “Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles? We broke up then. That was the disintegration.”
