The Beatles Breakup ~ by Ben

It was back in 1970. The shouting was intense. I couldn’t even hear myself think. It was a little difficult trying to keep myself from freaking out. They were really mad. Paul’s face was red as he clobbered the records of their own music by throwing them and stomping on them. He even broke George's sitar! “Love Me Do” and “Come Together” crashed against the wall as he threw the records. It was appalling! I thought that it was definitely the day that the Beatles would break up. Ringo seemed disappointed about that, as I could tell, he thought they would break up today too.

I was bummed; I would have to go back to looking for jobs in the newspaper if they broke up.I hated looking for work ,and I would miss them. I didn’t know how to stop this fighting. I felt myself going insane. The fighting was too much for me to handle. Discombobulated by all the shouting, John finally agreed with Paul that it was time to break up.

Finally I couldn’t take it. “ Stop! Everyone! One at a time!” I shouted frustrated. The words were flying projectiles. They stopped shouting and started being reasonable. “ Okay Ringo, you can talk first.”

“Thank you,” said Ringo surprisingly calm. "Remember when we were so much happier at the Beatlemania phase? Remember when 3,000 fans showed up at the airport and spent the night to see us land in America?” They all remembered that time and a grin grew on their faces. “Someone even cut off my hair for a souvenir!” They all laughed at the memory. I was glad to see that they still had a sense of humor.

Some fans were so crazed they’d faint at the sight of them. I sometimes screamed when I heard them perform! You probably wouldn't blame me if you heard them. I knew that Ringo wanted to keep the group together. I hoped he did. He was off to a great start.

There was a long pause. They were in a trance, stuck in their memories. They all stared off into the distance. I didn’t want to interrupt, but I prompted “Your turn, John.” He jerked, as if being woken up from a nightmare, by someone grabbing his shoulder.

“Thank you,” he said still looking kind of stunned. “I want to go back to the time when I said: We’re more popular than Jesus! I didn’t mean it! The Christians over reacted! I don't think we deserved the tomatoes!"

“I don’t think the Christians overreacted,” I said. That’s the reason the Beatles did so badly on the American tour. The Christians were mad at them “I personally don’t blame them.”

“I know it wasn’t very smart but we all make mistakes, right?”

“Wrong!” blurted Paul.

“George,” I said, hastily gesturing him to talk before John gets even more blamed.

“Why did Stu Sutcliffe have to die? He always kept us together!” said George, sprinting out of the room with tears in his eyes. This was a lot for him to say. He usually said nothing (he was known as the silent Beatle) but I knew that he and Stu were really good friends. He was probably hurt the most from Stu’s death. Empathy filled me.

. They shouldn’t have started drugs. That’s probably the reason that they were spazzing out like this. It’s weird how people start drugs just to try to do better on the charts. I'm glad I didn't start to take drugs when they did.

“We’re Breaking up!” said Paul, storming out of the room. Probably what George said caused him to break out. All the Beatles were sad when Stu died, but Paul and George were the worst. They were his best friends. Later on, He said that the reason the he broke up with the Beatles was that he just got married and his personal business was too much to be in the band. A few nights after they broke up I saw one of his shows; he meant it. I knew the band was over. Disappointment filled me and made my throat tight. I couldn’t believe that the most popular band in Britain and American history was breaking up right in front of me.

Finally the Beatles broke up leaving Ringo and I broken, and going on their own solo tours. They were great musicians alone and Pual was the first to go on an extracurricular recording project… I was left wondering if they were ever going to get back together? Then, I realized that the real reason they broke up was that there were too many egos for one band. Alone there was only one. I knew that they were not going to come back together. They still helped Ringo a couple of times but never got together again.
There were too many chefs in the kitchen or too many coaches on the team. Either way, there were too many people who thought they were the best in the band. They may have needed to break up, even though I would have to start looking for jobs I the newspaper. Maybe next time I’ll find a job with less drama.


TWO YEARS LATER: “I’m glad you decided to join,” I said, now the teacher of the drama club at the Liverpool High-school. I might be attracted to drama for some reason. I kind of like it. If I get fired here I hope I’ll get to be an actor of some-kind.

By - Ben