John Lennon's butler recounts Beatles' break-up

 

 

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's butler Dan Richter has shared his experiences with the couple and the last dark days of The Beatles in his new book, The Dream Is Over.
Richter started out as Yoko's personal assistant and ended up as Lennon's butler.
"I lived with Yoko and Lennon for four years; an insider witnessing their love affair and the break-up of The Beatles. It was a time of absolute freedom, a time when everything changed. The world was turning on, tuning in and dropping out, and all to the beat of rock 'n' roll," the Daily Mail quoted him as wrinting in the book.
The media might be ranting that Yoko was breaking up The Beatles, but the fact was they had fallen in love, Richter said.
John hung on Yoko's every word. He wanted to be a conceptual artist and Yoko wanted to be a rock star. This, of course, presented a lot of problems.
But their romance got The Beatles into trouble: John and Paul McCartney were drifting apart and most Beatles insiders saw Yoko as a gold digger who was exacerbating their own problems. As a result, she was openly insulted in front of John.
Richter also revealed that John and Yoko were heroin users and he had to take the train into London every day to look for work and buy heroin for himself and for them.
While they moved into Tittenhurst Park, their new 85-acre estate in Ascot, Yoko and John invited Richter and his wife Jill to join them.
One Friday in August 1969, The Beatles came to Ascot for a photoshoot to promote their Abbey Road album. It was one of their last meetings together and the atmosphere was tense. Paul and John were arguing over everything, Richter wrote in the book.
Paul had begun telling the others what to do, particularly during recordings and John was angry and disillusioned. The Beatle dream was just about over, he added.
John had discovered that Yoko was willing to be his foil: his lover, attendant, teacher, and prime minister.
John would not hear a word of criticism against Yoko, but the more she sang, the more the people at Apple couldn't stand her. To them, she was not only an interloper but a terrible singer to boot.
By late 1969, John and Yoko spent most of their time in bed. They slept, ate, had sex, worked the phones, read the post, planned their next outing, and whatever else that made up their day, according to the book.
"The Ascot days were a transition for all of us. I broke my dependence on heroin and started on the road to recovery. Yoko had established herself as more than just the woman who had 'broken up The Beatles'. And John had changed from a Beatle to the John Lennon that we understand today," he added.
The Dream Is Over is published by Quartet and priced 18 pounds.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com