Quote:
Originally Posted by bartender_man
Beatles closest bond....U2 up there tho
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I think people are mislead with how close the bond between The Beatles was. Or at least how long it lasted. It was certainly very close for the first half of their career, but it went down hill in the late sixties. I'm a huge Beatles fan and have "studied" their history quite a bit for 20 years. Some may be surprised to hear that there was very little collaboration on albums like the White Album. They basically all wrote their own tunes and threw them on an album. Most of the members of the band can't even remember who is playing what on what song. They couldn't stand each other during the Let It Be sessions. They came back together for the recording of Abbey Road and had a pretty positive experience, but after that they pretty much went their separate ways. Paul was really the only reason they stayed together as long as they did. He tried to force something that just wasn't really there anymore and it caused a lot of friction within the band. They may have been better to separate around 67/68, let everyione do their thing for awhile, and maybe eventually come back together, but Paul just didn't want to let it all go.
Once the band went separate ways John pretty much went into seclusion and focused on his family. Paul and George did their own thing musically and Ringo bounced around here and there. I think Ringo was really just in the middle of a lot of stuff and went with the flow, but John and George became closer and even recorded a song that was pretty much a middle finger to Paul. There were even law suits that took place between them post Beatles.
U2 has had a much longer career than The Beatles, so just the length of time together without any split ups would debunk the claim that The Beatles had a closer bond. U2 came together as teenagers (not much later in their lives than when John, Paul and George came together) and are still great friends and bandmates in their mid 50s. The Beatles toured and had been playing together prior to their hitting it big, but they really weren't together that long as a relevant act. Please Please Me came out in 1963 and their last album was released in 1970, and that was released after the band split. That would be the equivalent of U2 splitting up between Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby.
I love The Beatles, and there's no denying their importance to music and pop culture, but I think things tend to get blown out of proportion when it comes to them because they're THE BEATLES.