Pictured above: Logo of Apple Corps.
During the production of Merseyside Summers: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles' accountants had informed the group that they had two million pounds that they could either invest in a business venture or else lose to the Inland Revenue because corporate/business taxes were lower than their individual tax bills.
"Our accountant came up and said 'We got this amount of money. Do you want to give it to the government or do something with it?' So we decided to play businessmen for a bit because we've got to run our own affairs now. So we've got this thing called 'Apple' which is going to be records, films, and books - which all tie up."
- John Lennon, 1968
Despite being founded by The Beatles, the company was mostly run by their manager Brian Epstein (who was appointed CEO), who initially had ambitious plans for the company, beyond just records and films: electronics, book publishing, and retail. Among these plans, thanks to some convincing from Beatle George Harrison, only the record label, film producing and book publishing fronts came into fruition.
After some time without a proper office, the company finally found a base in London at a four-story building at 94 Baker Street.
Pictured above: The Beatles in India, 1968.
After planning and officially founding Apple Corps, The Beatles took off to Rishikesh in India for a Transcendental Meditation course with the guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in February of 1968, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants, many reporters, and multiple other high profile celebrities like Donovan, Mike Love and Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, and Paul Horn.
Ringo Starr left in only ten days, likening the experience to the British seaside resort chain Butlins. Paul McCartney eventually grew bored and left only a month later. For John Lennon and George Harrison, they started questioning the Maharisi's integrity when an electronics technician and close friend of the band known as Magic Alex suggested that he was attempting to manipulate them.
When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues.
"We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."
- Paul McCartney, 2000
Despite none of The Beatles completing the course, it was one of their most creatively prolific periods. The Beatles came together in May 1968 at George Harrison's house in Esher, called Kinfauns, to record several acoustic demos of said songs.
Having a great abundance of quality songs to work with (around 40), The Beatles decided to go all out, releasing two separate albums on the ELP format, both recorded at the same time. With the two album format, John Lennon had an idea in mind of a concept the album was to follow.
"So, the idea was one of contrast: a white album and a black album... at first I didn't have any ideas beyond that, but that's when it hit me, what were two of the main, but contrasting, ideas of all time? Love and hate, order and mayhem, peace and chaos."
- John Lennon, 1972
Sessions for the albums, titled Peace and Chaos, started in May. Despite the great abundance of songs to work with, and a plan for the album's concept, the recording sessions weren't without tension.
With irregular session hours, an unorthodox form of working out songs involving recording every rehearsal and jamming and later adding overdubs to the best take, the band's collective ever-growing ego, and the presence of John Lennon's girlfriend Yoko Ono in the studio, it was no surprise tensions were high with the albums' recording, with Ringo Starr going as far as leaving the band for 10 days.
Despite this, the band pulled through, finishing recording on October 14th, with both albums released the next month on November 22nd, 1968, with the single Hey Jude / Revolution being released previously on August 26th, 1968.
They were The Beatles' most eclectic albums by far, with songs such as the Beach Boys-inspired Back in the U.S.S.R., the country-esque Ringo Starr composition Don't Pass Me By, and McCartney's ballad Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, the latter causing some minor fighting within the group, with John calling it "more of Paul's granny music shit".
Another notable track in the albums was George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which had two versions, one on each album. The version on Peace was acoustic and had a string orchestra, much like their 1965 hit Yesterday, while the version of Chaos was more "electric" with a guitar solo by Eric Clapton on it.
With all these different genres and the unusual "double song" of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, two tracks that stick out especially are the avant-garde What's The New Mary Jane? and Revolution 19. The former featuring former Pink Floyd member and friend of Lennon Syd Barrett on it.
"John actually invited me to come over and lay out some odd noises for his song, which sounded like it was inspired by Piper."
- Syd Barrett, date unknown
Revolution 19 was a combination of two separate songs with a similar origin, Revolution 1 and Revolution 9.
"Well, the thing was that for a specific take of Revolution 1... take 18, I think, we kept on jamming for several minutes as an extended coda of sorts. I took that extended coda and worked with Yoko (Ono) to use it as the basis for this avant-garde sound collage I dubbed Revolution 9. When the rest of the band heard it, they thought I was insane for wanting it on the record. Eventually, we reached a compromise, George Martin would combine the regular Revolution 1 with Revolution 9, to make - you guessed it - Revolution 19"
- John Lennon, 1972
Peace
01. Back in the U.S.S.R. (2:43) [1]
02. Dear Prudence (3:55) [1]
03. Glass Onion (2:17) [1]
04. Sour Milk Sea (3:53) [2]
05. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (3:12) [1]
06. Los Paranoias (1:56) [2]
07. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Peace) (3:22) [3]
08. Martha My Dear (2:28) [1]
09. I'm So Tired (2:07) [1]
10. Blackbird (2:18) [1]
11. Rocky Raccoon (3:33) [1]
12. Child of Nature (2:35) [4]
13. Mother Nature's Son (2:47) [4]
14. Honey Pie (2:41) [1]
15. Sexy Sadie (3:15) [1]
16. Long, Long, Long (3:06) [1]
17. Cry Baby Cry (2:38) [3]
18. Can You Take Me Back? (2:13) [3]
19. I Will (1:45) [1]
20. Julia (2:56) [1]
21. Good Night (3:15) [1]
Released: November 22nd, 1968
Track sources:
[1] - The Beatles, 1968
[4] - Custom mix by Auran
Chaos
01. Helter Skelter (4:46) [1]
02. Yer Blues (4:02) [2]
03. Not Guilty (4:08) [3]
04. Wild Honey Pie (0:53) [2]
05. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (3:14) [2]
06. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Chaos) (4:45) [2]
07. Birthday (2:42) [2]
08. Piggies (2:04) [2]
09. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? (1:41) [2]
10. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (2:24) [2]
11. Savoy Truffle (2:54) [2]
12. Don't Pass Me By (3:59) [2]
13. What's the New Mary Jane? (6:02) [4]
14. Circles (2:13) [4]
15. Revolution 19 (10:32) [5]
16. Happiness is a Warm Gun (2:45) [2]
Released: November 22nd, 1968
Track sources:
[1] - Custom mix by me
[2] - The Beatles, 1968
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