“Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.”
― The Beatles
Let me tell you a story of four individuals who found each other and formed the most phenomenal band in the history of the music industry. The Beatles, comprising John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are still loved and cherished by people all around the world. It was sixteen-year-old Lennon in 1957 who formed a skiffle group with his school friends in Liverpool called Blackjacks before changing their name to the Quarrymen. Later, McCartney came into the picture followed by his friend George Harrison. After some serious deliberations, Lennon enlisted Harrison as the lead guitarist and from 1959 the three guitarists called themselves Johnny and the Moon dogs before they met Starr and ‘The Beatles’ finally came into existence.
Their arrival was significant as it was the end of a period marked by conservatism. Their ability to influence the youth made them an integral part of the music industry. The songs they performed seemed to be a British invasion of American pop as people started obsessing over the band like never before. Their ability to mix old elements with new ones was widely enjoyed and they changed the face of the music industry during their time by introducing a new genre called the psychedelic. Lennon’s remark where he said that the band was more popular than Jesus stirred a lot of controversies, but it is safe to say that The Beatles influenced the youth and were the dominant youth-centered pop act on the sales chart. The band got dissolved in 1970 which led to numerous heartbreaks ( like the ones we saw when One Direction was dissolved), but this did not stop the influx of songs that were released individually by the artists.
“‘A world without the Beatles is a world that’s infinitely worse”- this particular phrase has been beautifully painted in the movie Yesterday directed by Danny Boyle. We see a struggling musician Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) who is tired of his failed music career. When he is on the verge of giving up, he comes in contact with an accident. Subsequently, there is a power cut in the country which leads to some cosmic events. When he wakes up and meets his friends after an accident, he plays the song ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles which makes everyone teary. When he mentions that the song is by the Beatles, everyone gets confused and Jack goes into a frenzy realizing that he is the only person aware of the existence of The Beatles. He uses this opportunity to promote their music as his own and, long story short, he attains unprecedented levels of success. There are two other people aware of the band’s existence and they thank Jack for bringing their music back. As a small token of gratitude, they give Jack a piece of paper with an address.
After witnessing a knocking on the door, we see septuagenarian Lennon answering the door with a confused look and a shocked Jack on the other side. It’s an overwhelming scene as Lennon tells Jack about how he lived with the love of his life ( we don’t know if it was Yoko Ono) and how he was living the postcard life by the beachside. In the end, Jack shuns away from the stardom that surrounds him and comes clean by finally confessing that the songs were not composed by him. He gets back with the love of his life, Ellie ( played by Lily James). Paul McCartney himself loved the movie and gushed about how he still dreams of Lennon.
Forbes reported that The Beatles hit 1.7 billion streams on Spotify when Abbey Road hit its 50th Anniversary proving once again, how loved they still are. Amidst the chaos, the falling out they had and all the cliched stories about them, their real story is about four friends attempting to hang on to one another during dark and difficult circumstances, looking for means to keep shining on till tomorrow. John, Paul, George and Ringo, like everyone else, observed the Beatles’ end in astonishment and dismay, with no clue on how to put a stop to it. None of them expected this to be the end.
The world is composed of stories and the story of The Beatles was like a roller-coaster ride. Even though it has both happy moments and sad ones, the mark that they left will never fade away.