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The Beatles · S3 E5
Stuart
Stuart Sutcliffe leaves the band to stay in Hamburg with Astrid and paint. On April 10, 1962, he collapses and dies of a brain haemorrhage at twenty-one
On April 10, 1962, John Lennon steps off a plane at Hamburg Airport, cracking jokes, buzzing to get back on stage. Astrid Kirchherr is waiting at the gate, and she is not smiling.
A John Lennon demo from 1979, completed by Paul, George, and Ringo fifteen years after his death. Three surviving Beatles finishing the work of the one who was gone. Stuart never got to finish his work either.
Real Love (1996)
'Real Love' started as a rough home recording John made at the Dakota in 1979: just his voice, a piano, and room noise. Jeff Lynne cleaned up the tape and the three surviving Beatles added their parts at Paul's studio. George played slide guitar, Ringo added drums, Paul sang harmony with a voice that wasn't there anymore. It reached number four in the UK as the second Anthology single.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Eduardo Paolozzi think of Stuart as a student?
Something Wrong
The headaches start as dull pressure behind Stuart's eyes. By late 1961, they are blinding, and he collapses during classes, unable to speak. Astrid takes him to doctor after doctor. Nobody can figure out what is happening inside his skull.
“I looked at John's face and I knew he understood. He went very quiet. I'd never seen him like that before.”
— Astrid Kirchherr, from Backbeat: Stuart Sutcliffe and the Beatles, 2001
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (The Beatles)
From Help! (1965). John's most stripped-back moment in the Beatles catalog. No electric guitars, no drums pushing it forward. Just a voice admitting defeat. John buried his grief over Stuart for years. This song sounds like someone who learned to hide everything and then accidentally let it slip.
Before joining the Beatles, how did Stuart Sutcliffe afford his first bass guitar?
Stuart dies of a cerebral haemorrhage at 21. The Beatles return to Liverpool changed forever, but they are not the same band that left. Next: how Hamburg turned five amateurs into the tightest live act in England.
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