SCHIZO

Part 1

After their initial launches, the Seven stars enjoyed a fame unprecedented in cultural history. Elvis and the Beatles even eclipsed Sinatra who called the King’s work “a rancid-smelling aphrodesiac.” The Chairman of the Board was correct: Heartbreak Hotel and Love Me Do did in fact turn girls into the Bacchae, and the world to hysteria. 

“We felt like fucking gods!” said McCartney after the Beatles did Albert Hall. Lennon noted that they were bigger than Jesus. Soon afterwards, he told his bandmates he was Jesus and needed a press conference. Paul was unsurprised: while tripping on acid with John, he had flashed on the Clever One as “the absolute Emperor of Eternity.” 

In 1969, the King reclaimed his throne in his Aloha from Hawaii comeback performance, viewed via satellite by 1 billion people worldwide. Back at Graceland he moved clouds with his mind, watched the leaves of trees “tremble with my vibes,” and he preached to his “disciples” – the Memphis Mafia. “He was Moses with a cane coming down the mountain or John the Baptist greeting the Savior,” recalled Priscilla.

But, even at his peak, the poor bullied hillbilly boy from Tupelo wasn’t far below the surface. Said his Man Friday, Lamar Fike, “Elvis was the most insecure human being I’ve been around in my life. He took the cake. He was destiny’s child, but he was never prepared to be what he was.” His original producer, Sam Phillips, had been among the first to see it: “He felt so inferior. His insecurity was so markedly like that of a black man.” 

Likewise, Lennon could never quite bury the orphan from Liverpool. “I was just a weird, psychotic kid covering up my insecurity with a macho façade,“ he later confessed. 

After his divination as a Beatle, he went on: “Part of me suspects I’m a loser and part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.” 

After the Fab Four break up, he called Beatlemania a “nightmare.” With constant rumors of a reunion, he raved: “Do we have to divide the fishes and the loaves for the multitudes again? Do we have to  get crucified again? Do we have to do the walking on water AGAIN?” 

Nowhere Man’s composer reached hit bottom during his separation from Yoko in 1975. He confessed to nearly drugging himself to death with Ringo, Moon, and Neilson. Out of his mind, he cried to Phil Spector who had lashed him to a bed, “Nobody loves me!”