The Beatles in 1966

After The Beatles released the Rubber Soul album at the end of 1965, they recorded their follow up album Revolver then embarked on a world tour. But in making these two albums, the group recorded music that had become increasing difficult to reproduce on stage. But that problem only scratched the surface of problems the band would face in 1966.

Japan

The Asian leg of the tour began with controversy as right-wing Japanese nationalists protested the staging of their concerts in Tokyo at the Nippon Budokan in June and July which was built for the staging of The Martial Arts rather than MusicAL performances. The performances were held without a hitch but there was heavy security to protect the group from both fans and protesters.

The Philippines

Later in July, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected the group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace. When presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group, as it had never been the group's policy to accept such "official" invitations. The group soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer. After the snub was broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all of The Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own. At the airport, road manager Mal Evans was beaten and kicked, and the band members were pushed and jostled AbOUT by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered off, and Evans (fearing he would be imprisoned or executed) said, "Tell my wife that I love her." Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the band had earned while they were there before being allowed back on the plane.

Religion

Almost as soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier comment by Lennon made in March that year launched a backlash against The Beatles from religious and social conservatives in the United States. In an interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now". As the British public was used to Lennon's often caustic comments, it didn't create a stir. The controversy began when the interview was reprinted in the American teenage fan magazine DATEbook with a front cover story. Afterwards, a radio station in Birmingham, Alabama, ran a story on burning Beatles records, in what was considered to be a joke. However, many people affiliated with rural churches in the American South started taking the suggestion seriously. Towns across the United States and South Africa started to burn Beatles records in protest. Attempting to make light of the incident, Harrison said, "They've got to buy them before they can burn them."

Epstein held a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in New York on 6 August 1966, reading a statement by Lennon, and then answering questions from the press. Epstein: “The quote which John Lennon made to a London columnist nearly three months ago has been quoted and misrepresented entirely out of context... Lennon didn't mean to boast about The Beatles' fame. He meant to point out that the Beatles' effect appeared to be a more immediate one upon, certainly, the younger generation. John is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended.” Under further pressure from the American media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press conference in Chicago on 11 August 1966, the eve of the first performance of what turned out to be their final tour. The controversy was on everyone's mind when the tour went through the region. There was minor panic when a firecracker was set off on stage at a concert at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee on 19 August.

In November, 2008, The Vatican publicly announced that it had forgiven John Lennon for his remarks, saying it was a "boast" by a young man grappling with sudden fame.

The Yesterday and Today cover

On 25 March 1966, The Beatles took part in a photo session in a London studio (1 The Vale, Chelsea). The studio was rented by Oluf Nissen, but Robert Whitaker took the photographs, as he had also photographed the covers for the albums, With The Beatles, Beatles For Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul. The publicity shots were used for the Yesterday and Today album and a poster promoting the UK release of "Paperback Writer" in the United States. The photgraph created an uproar, as it featured the band dressed in butchers' overalls, draped in meat and mutilated plastic dolls. A popular, though apocryphal, rumour said that this was meant as a response to the way Capitol had "butchered" their albums. Thousands of copies of the album had a new cover pasted over. Whitaker later explained that he was trying to create a satirical commentary on The Beatles' fame, and that the images of dismembered doll and mannequin parts had been inspired by the German surrealist Hans Bellmer. Uncensored copies of Yesterday and Today command a high price today, with one copy selling for $10,500 at a December 2005 auction. Unpeeled copies of the pasted over sleeve are also collectable.

[...] use

McCartney's attitude about [...] was made public in the 1960s, when he added his name to an advertisement in The Times, on 24 July 1967, which asked for the legalisation of [...], the release of all prisoners imprisoned because of possession, and research into [...]'s medical uses. The advertisement was sponsored by a group called Soma and was signed by 65 people, including The Beatles, Epstein, RD Laing, fifteen doctors, and two MPs. McCartney was the first Beatle to openly admit using [...], in an interview in the now-defunct "Queen" magazine. His admission was followed by a TV interview in the UK on Independent Television News on 19 June 1967, when McCartney was asked about his admission of [...] use, he said:

Elvis and Nixon

Elvis Presley apparently disapproved of The Beatles's anti-war activism and open use of drugs, later asking President Richard Nixon to ban all four members of the group from entering the United States. Peter Guralnick writes, "The Beatles, Elvis said, [...] had been a focal point for anti-Americanism. They had come to this country, made their money, then gone back to England where they fomented anti-American feeling." Guralnick adds, "Presley indicated that he is of the opinion that The Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music while entertaining in this country during the early and middle 1960s." Despite Presley's remarks, Lennon still had some positive feelings towards him: "Before Elvis, there was nothing." McCartney later remarked that he "felt a bit betrayed [by Presley's views] ... The great joke was that we were taking drugs, and look what happened to [Elvis]. ... It was sad, but I still love him. ..." Bob Dylan however, recognised The Beatles' contribution, stating: "America should put up statues to The Beatles. They helped give this country's pride back to it."

The Beatles say goodbye to the road

After the group finished the tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966, they announced that they have performed their final concert in front of paying fans. The Beatles from this point on would only make music to be heard on their subsequent record releases.

A visit by Lennon to the Indica Gallery in London on 9 November would shape the future of The Beatles as it was there that Lennon met Yoko Ono for the first time.

Because the group did not record a new album for the Christmas season as they did the previous three years, Parlophone Records issued the group's first compilation album titled A Collection of Beatles Oldies on 10 December, four days after The Beatles began work on their next album.