The Beatles are such an important part of history that it’s hard to imagine them ever having a traditional rise to fame. In fact, it’s even hard to imagine their initial taste of success, especially since it feels like they were always destined to make it to begin with.
But maybe that’s because they didn’t have a traditional rise to fame at all. After all, the Fab Four were one of the most innovative groups in all of music history, with countless so-called ‘turning points’ that shaped their success in a more gradual, organic way than the typical pattern of achieving global success and remaining in the same spot the entire time they’re at the top.
Instead, the Liverpudlian quartet constantly changed and evolved, and were never all that concerned with longstanding commercial success as much as they were ambitious to alter the musical landscape in a more forward-thinking and boundary-pushing way. After all, they could’ve continued their tried and true progressions and processes from their earlier records, but instead, they put out Revolver and Sgt Pepper, taking major risks that changed music forever.
That said, the reason behind The Beatles’ constant evolution was more than a simple desire to raise new artistic standards. Other reasons included matters occurring in their personal and professional lives, and the natural direction each member was taking when it came to the creative things they wanted to pursue, as well as lifestyle changes and shifts in broader mindsets.
Of course, one of the biggest changes was when some members discovered the beauty of the substance-induced altered mindset. In 1965, George Harrison and John Lennon were the first to embark on an acid trip, which happened sort of accidentally one night while having dinner with a dentist who offered them the substance for the first time. According to Harrison, it was a spiritual moment that opened his eyes to many things, and an experience that held more meaning in 12 hours than he’d had in 20 years.
Suffice to say, then, that Harrison also credits this experience with being the moment that everything changed for The Beatles. It might’ve seemed like some sort of harmless one-off at first, but it ultimately set multiple things in motion, namely, certain members branching off into different paths and the subsequent collapse of their dynamic in their final moments as a group.
Discussing that fateful night in an interview with WNEW, Harrison said “the whole thing was a sign”, recalling how it was the first time he properly noticed his physical surroundings – “the sky, grass… things like that” – and most of it had more meaning than he’d ever come across in his life. Obviously, he was tripping on acid, so it’s clear that his mindset was also heavily warped, but his sense of something big shifting wasn’t entirely artificial.
After all, back with the group, Harrison struggled to win over Paul McCartney when it came to acid, and it took him two whole years to finally cave and try it for himself. Harrison even recognised the significance of this himself, claiming that “a lot of gaps started happening there”, but that it was ultimately worth it because it “changed me for the better” and made him “less opinionated and more humble”. Perhaps, then, that’s when he also officially solidified his place as ‘The Quiet One’.
Regardless, although the band wouldn’t split for another good handful of years, this was a definitive moment of clarity, particularly when looking at all the ways that each of them started acting less like a unit in the following years, and more like separate musicians who wanted to follow the threads of whichever personal endeavours caught their eye at any given moment. After all, they’d then take their famous trip to India, which was yet another turning point when their paths began to diverge even more.
