"The death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein in 1967 was a blow from which the group was never able to recover. Although the band continued to evolve artistically, business concerns that Epstein had always taken care of so efficiently were now left for the four to fight over. By the time of The Beatles (1968) double album, which came to be known as the "White Album" because of its plain white cover, the beginning of the end was clearly in sight. The Lennon-McCartney songwriting team was mostly writing apart, and George Harrison's own compositional style had evolved to a point where one or two tracks per album were no longer adequate to contain his talents. The creation of Apple Records, which was so mismanaged that the Beatles began hemorrhaging money, and Lennon's refusal to be anywhere—including Beatles recording sessions—without his future wife Yoko Ono, all added significantly to group tensions.
The low point came in early 1969 with sessions for the film Let It Be (1970), which showed the group literally coming apart at the seams. The band came back together that summer to record Abbey Road (1969), which turned out to be the last time the group would work together. John Lennon had privately indicated his intention to leave the group, but had hoped that the band members could continue to pool their individual creative efforts as Beatles projects. Without Lennon as a direct collaborator and with the group still unwilling to perform live, McCartney wanted to move on completely, and beat Lennon to the punch in "officially" quitting the group the following spring with the release of his McCartney (1970) album. Lennon was livid, as were Harrison and Starr, that the album was released mere weeks before the Beatles' long-dormant Let It Be(1970) was due out. Bitter litigation began, which lasted nearly a decade beyond Lennon's 1980 assassination by an obsessed fan outside of his New York apartment, and which effectively prevented any real possibility of a group reunion even while Lennon was still alive."
The low point came in early 1969 with sessions for the film Let It Be (1970), which showed the group literally coming apart at the seams. The band came back together that summer to record Abbey Road (1969), which turned out to be the last time the group would work together. John Lennon had privately indicated his intention to leave the group, but had hoped that the band members could continue to pool their individual creative efforts as Beatles projects. Without Lennon as a direct collaborator and with the group still unwilling to perform live, McCartney wanted to move on completely, and beat Lennon to the punch in "officially" quitting the group the following spring with the release of his McCartney (1970) album. Lennon was livid, as were Harrison and Starr, that the album was released mere weeks before the Beatles' long-dormant Let It Be(1970) was due out. Bitter litigation began, which lasted nearly a decade beyond Lennon's 1980 assassination by an obsessed fan outside of his New York apartment, and which effectively prevented any real possibility of a group reunion even while Lennon was still alive."