the new Mrs. Lennon, Yoko Ono, who was at fault. Two
years later, in a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, John
was still trying to set the record straight: “She didn’t
split the Beatles. The Beatles were drifting apart on
their own,” he said. (He couldn’t resist adding that, if
his wife were to blame, “could we please give her the
credit for all the nice music that George made and
Ringo made and Paul made and I’ve made since they
broke up?”) Whether fans understood the truth, the
rumors persisted. “Yoko’s taken a lot of s---, her and
Linda, but the Beatles’ breakup wasn’t their fault,”
Ringo was still saying in 1995. “It was just that sud-
denly we were all [approaching] 30 and married and
changed. We couldn’t carry on that life any more.”
But fans, in their bereavement, embraced denial,
pleading against hope that the split was only tempo-
rary. “It’s like asking a divorced couple, ‘Are you get-
ting back together?’ ” McCartney said in 1984, “when
71
Though it was Lennon who
called it quits privately
with the band in 1969,
McCartney’s solo album and
the headlines of April 10,
1970, indicated that he was
the Beatle to blame.LET IT BE: THE ALBUM
The Beatles’ last studio LP,
Abbey Road, was out before
its swan song, which was
recorded in early 1969 but
released on May 8, 1970.‘THE BEATLES HAVE LEFT
THE BEATLES BUT NO
ONE WANTS TO BE THE ONE
TO SAY THE PARTY’S OVER.
I SAID, “ISN’T IT ABOUT
TIME WE TOLD PEOPLE?” ’
—PAUL McC ARTNEY