The Beatles (Pt. 2): Kamikaze Assassins, Acid Smuggling, Suicide, Kidnapping, and the Breakup the Greatest Band of All Time
DISGRACELAND
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 13.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2021
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the height of their world-changing and culture-defining popularity, the Beatles faced death threats in foreign countries, an unfair tax rate in their own country that forced them to stash heaps of undeclared cash in brown paper bags, and the sudden suicide of their manager. But none of this could break up the band. Nor could LSD smuggling missions, drug busts, extramarital affairs or the deranged fans who came to their houses. Listen to learn what really tore the Beatles apart.
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This episode was originally published on March 2, 2021.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. |
| 0:16.7 | The Story of the Beatles, their meteoric rise from working class backgrounds to global icons in such a short time span, is so complex that two episodes were needed to properly tell this story. |
| 0:30.5 | If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest you hit pause and go back to the last episode of Disgraceland, part one of the Beatles story, |
| 0:38.7 | or if you're looking exclusively for a deep dive into John Lennon in his final days, |
| 0:44.1 | you should check out the two-part episode dedicated to the assassination of John from season two of |
| 0:49.2 | Disgraceland. In this episode, however, we get into earlier assassins, right-wing Japanese kamikazis trained on murdering the not-so-innocent mob tops. |
| 1:00.2 | We also get into the Beatles' continued exploration into drugs and the smuggling of cash and LSD from America, |
| 1:07.2 | a deranged woman's brief kidnapping by a beetle and the suicide of the band's manager. |
| 1:12.9 | Of course, we discussed the influence of Yoko Ono and tracked the demise of the greatest band of all time. |
| 1:19.4 | A band that made great music, like the greatest music in the history of the world. |
| 1:25.2 | Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, |
| 1:28.4 | that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Skies of Blazin, |
| 1:34.7 | MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to Ode to Billy Joe by Bobby Gentry. |
| 1:42.8 | And why would I play you that specific slice of Tallahatchie Bridge cheese could I afford it? |
| 1:48.9 | Because that was the number one song in America on August 27, 1967. |
| 1:55.6 | And that was the day the Beatles manager Brian Epstein killed himself and effectively pushed the Beatles into their third and final act as a group. |
| 2:05.2 | On this episode, Kamakazi assassins, acid smuggling, suicide, kidnapping, and the breakup of the greatest band of all time. |
| 2:14.3 | The Beatles. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Brian Epstein, manager of the biggest pop group on the planet, was afraid. |
| 2:49.5 | He was sweating profusely from the fluorescent lights |
| 2:52.1 | bearing down on him in London's Heathrow Airport. Maybe it was the pills, not the fear. Maybe he |
| 2:58.5 | was being paranoid. What did they know anyway? And how would they find the money without the |
| 3:03.7 | indignity of a search? They would never search him, not him, not now. |
... |
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