Beatles ’74 pt13

It's the end of 1974 - a year of productivity, transformation, music and the definitive ending for The Beatles partnership. After four long years of litigation, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr (plus a parade of their respective attorneys) put pen to paper on the document that would once and for all conclude the greatest pop music enterprise the modern world had ever seen before or since. But this ending wouldn't be without the trademark drama and heartache that marred the former Beatles' lives since their split in 1970. On December 19th, 1974, George Harrison and his Dark Horse tour took the stage for the first of three engagements at New York City's famed Madison Square Garden - and John Lennon was scheduled to appear with George to perform as a special guest. With Paul in the audience, and George and John on the stage, the old friends planned to return together to an afterparty that would see the signing of the dissolution papers completed, and conclude the Beatles partnership on a happy note. This was not to be. For reasons known only to to the man himself, John Lennon hatched an excuse, bailed on the concert and refused to sign the papers. It wouldn't be for another 10 days, with some arm-twisting by McCartney, for John Lennon to finally sign the documents that would end the project he began so many years ago. A project that carried he and his friends from scruffy lower middle-class teddy boys to the most famous, most successful musicians on the planet - leaving a mark not only on history, but on the lives of the countless millions touched by their music. And with that, both 1974, and the Beatles, were finished.

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