I'm also curious about this part from another ask: "the whole Apple thing where it seemed like brian and John were both on the same wavelength"
I had no idea Brian was involved in Apple, for some reason I just assumed they only created it after his death. What were his ideas around it, and where did he and John agree? I assume this differed from Paul's ideas and perhaps Paul took over after Brian's death?
Apple was actually Brian's idea! Per John, "Apple was presented to us as a reality by the Epsteins in '67 before Brian died. Brian and his furniture salesman brother, Clive." Cynthia Lennon, who also claimed that Brian came up with the idea of Apple, would later say it was probably Brian's way of reintegrating himself into the Beatles business.
He started out with this chain of stores that would include boutiques and sell Apple posters, Apple records, and the like, which makes sense given his NEMS background. Apparently the Beatles' idea of the brand—or at least Paul's idea—was completely at odds with his and he clashed a bit with Paul on this before his death. John sided with Brian in this case, agreeing that Paul's vision was too out there. It was Brian's belief that business should be handled by "experts," and that the boys should just stay artists.
I won't quote too heavily from this as it's a Patreon exclusive video, but Elliot Roberts made some great points in his ranking of why the Beatles broke up that Brian's death pretty much ensured that Apple would end in ruin. It might not have been a huge success under Brian's leadership—though when we look at what he did with the NEMS stores, that certainly remains a possibility—but it wouldn't have become the absolute cluster that it was.
