On the Bus

Epstein's death brought another problem. The Beatles knew nothing about business. 'We were in trouble then,' said John. Ringo has described the band as 'chickens without heads' at that time. In the middle of this difficult time, Paul had an idea. He wanted to make a television film. He was trying to help the band, but in John and George's opinion, Paul was trying to lead them. The idea for the film was simple. Forty-three people - with the Beatles - drove around the country in a bus. This time, they didn't have a story to act. They just filmed what happened. There was one problem - nothing really did happen.

Magical Mystery Tour was shown on television in Britain just after Christmas, 1967. Almost fifteen million people watched. They loved the songs, like Paul's The Fool on the Hill' and Johns 'I Am the Walrus'. But not many people liked the film. The color film was shown in black and white on television. But this wasn't the reason why it wasn't popular. For some people it was boring, for others it was too strange. For the first time, the Beatles really failed.

STORY BEHIND THE SONG

The idea for 'I Am The Walrus' came from Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland. John said, 'The words don't say a lot...' In February 1968, the Beatles travelled to India to study again with the Maharishi. The trip had a different meaning for each of them. Ringo went with two suitcases - one of clothes and one of English food in tins! He didn't stay long. Paul says that he enjoyed this time in India. But John and George stayed longer. George continued to defend the Maharishi, but John soon became angry at their old teacher. A song on the band's next album was an angry attack on him. Back in Britain, there were no simple answers in business for the Beatles. They opened the Apple shop in London. Paul called it 'a beautiful place where you can buy beautiful things.' The shop lost money almost immediately. But Apple was more than a shop. It was a big company that produced music and films. The Beatles began to produce other musicians. Paul was most interested in Apple's business. He was there more because he lived in London. But the others felt that Paul was trying to lead the band again.

Yellow Submarine

In July 1968, there was another Beatles film in cinemas. The band recorded a few new songs for Yellow Submarine, but they didn't even do the voices in the film. In the story, the band saved a strange place called Pepperland with their music.