Beatles ’74 pt4

Yesterday and Today - A podcast by Wayne Kaminski

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It's a time of challenges and changes for the four former Beatles in the summer of 1974, with some lives on the rise, some on the mend, and some hitting rock bottom. With his new label Dark Horse Records, George Harrison sought to turn the creative page in a positive direction from the ashes of the Beatles' split, but what should have been a happy time for the launch of this new endeavor soon turned to bitter sadness. After many months of substance abuse and unabashed infidelity, George's marriage to Pattie Boyd was in ruins, and Pattie sought refuge with the man who had fallen in love with her in that time: George's good friend Eric Clapton. Wasting no time, George continued headlong into his latest album project, though the same sorrows and substance abuses that had haunted Harrison throughout the decline of his marriage would remain intact and begin to take a physical toll on the former Beatle. John Lennon, meanwhile, was busy finding a new creative voice outside of his own crumbling marriage to Yoko Ono - only without the excesses that had plagued his life earlier in the year. No, John was in a good place - enjoying his new relationship with girlfriend May Pang and knee-deep in the development of a joyous, spirited follow-up to 1973's Mind Games LP. Paul McCartney and his newly #1 band Wings were hard at work on sessions of their own, wrapping up their summer-long stay in Tennessee with an eye toward their next destination...