tern Religions. He and therest of the Beatles went on a retreat with Maharishi Yogi to study his teachings. This retreat wascalled "Rishikesh." The Beatles got so wrapped up in magic and mysticism that they began to use asitar, a giutar-like stringed instrument from India in their music. They also discussed producingJ.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit with Paul as Frodo the Dwarf, Ringo as the dwarf Sam, Georgeplaying the wizard Gandolf, and John as the antagonist, Gollum. This endeavor fell through,however. Just before this they had begun to experiment with LSD. This mind-warping drug wassaid to give them ideas for their music. Many people believe the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"was about LSD, but this has been adamantly denied by all four Beatles. They did use acidfrequently, and one of their employees recalls, "one of the most bizarre scenes I have everwitnessed. There, in front of the television set, were the highest paid pop group in the world andtheir manager, bowing down and salaaming, chanting and dancing with one another." (Schaffner,76). Vice President Spiro Agnew was so upset with the Beatles experiments and references todrugs that he proposed a ban of "With a Little Help From My Friends" and "Lucy In the Sky WithDiamonds" from American radio. Once the Beatles became very interested in the Maharishi'steachings, they stopped taking LSD (Schaffner, 84-87). Eventually the Beatles created a record label. They called it Apple Records and all theirfuture music was produced for this label. This soon became Paul's project, and John becamepreoccupied with Yoko Ono. John soon became bored with his current wife Cynthia, and with theBeatles. John was divorced in 1968, and married Yoko on March 20. This began the end of theBeatles (Lewisohn, 120). Paul McCartney quit the Beatles on April 9, 1970. John and Paul were not getting along intheir song writing partnership, and it was time to call it quits. Their last full length ...
