Yes, they were. After all, (and to paraphrase Ron Nasty of The Rutles) “How many No. 1’s has Jesus had?”1
The Midas Touch
In 1966, The Beatles could do no wrong. They had conquered the world at a canter. Everything they touched turned to gold. Especially their records. Until John Lennon opened his big gob. In all fairness when he did, it was to an Evening Standard reporter who was a friend of the band (and so perhaps he spoke with a little less caution). But what he said would have ramifications for The Beatles until they eventually split in 1970.
This is what happened.
Breakdown
In a previous post I alluded to a statement made by Lennon in 1966 that the Beatles were “Bigger Than Jesus.”
But what did he say exactly, why did he say it and why did the USA go into full on meltdown because of it?
Well, to start with Lennon wasn’t a particularly religious person; no more nor less than any other average young man in 60’s Britain.
Admittedly it was St. Peter’s Church in Woolton that provided a religious backdrop for the most important meeting of his life, when he met Paul McCartney in July 1957 but, church halls aside, Lennon’s circumspect attitude to religion was fairly nascent in that it didn’t ordinarily figure that much in his thinking.
Time Off
In late 65, The Beatles were treated to some rare downtime, since a film project they were booked to star in, fell through at the last minute. Around this time Lennon had begun to read up on religion and perhaps it is this that led him to his conclusion regarding The Beatles and Christianity.
Lennon wasn’t raised in a household where love, happiness and positive religious attitudes abounded. He has said as much himself. And, perhaps as a direct result of this, he became a truculent, subversive, controversial character who felt compelled to court attention, be it negative or otherwise. Usually this was achieved through either his acerbic wit or his harsh, abrasive and critical attitude.
His father left home when John was four, and his mother Julia, found she couldn’t cope with looking after him and his sisters, so John went to live with his aunt. The fearsome Aunt Mimi.
And the more Mimi restricted his need for attention, the more he rebelled.
“The worst pain is of not being wanted, of realising your parents do not need you in the way you need them. I was never really wanted.”
John Lennon (1971)2
Beatlemania
By the end of 1964, The Beatles had been catapulted from total obscurity (other than the Cavern dwellers on Mathew St. Liverpool), into full-on Beatlemania.
5-4-3-2-1
They’d successfully toured the USA (unheard of by a British band), they’d had several US No.1 albums (also unheard of), they’d had numerous US No.1 singles (equally unheard of) and at one point even held the Top 5 positions in the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart (surprisingly unusual too). And just for good measure, they also had another seven singles in the Top 100 chart that week too.
Then, in early ’66 Lennon, the other Beatles and manager Brian Epstein, did a series of interviews with Maureen Cleave, a friend and journalist for the London Evening Standard.
In something of a light-hearted boast Lennon suggested that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus (he was probably right). He said later that he could’ve mentioned anything popular (such as TV), but he just happened to mention Jesus, as if it had just popped into his head.
“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock & roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
John Lennon – March 1966
Jesus and The Beatles
I feel sure Lennon said a lot of things that just ‘popped’ into his head but the Jesus one? I imagine by 1966, he knew exactly how to court controversy and also that his words would be repeated and analysed, over and over by a frenzied media that lapped up and dissected everything he said and did, so a sly dig at religion would definitely create the desired response.
But it didn’t. Not in England anyway.
In Britain, it never got a mention and disappeared into obscurity as quickly as it had arrived. But across the pond it was a different matter. Although it took five months for the US to catch up, when they did, they were ready and they were keen to make up for lost time.
Matching Collar and Cuffs
And Lennon soon discovered his ‘off-the-cuff’ remarks weren’t treated with the same frivolous disdain in the US as they were at home. Over there, people took him seriously and they didn’t care about context either.
Datebook
The interview was printed in full in a publication called Datebook and…nothing happened. Until it was sent to a Radio DJ in the Deep South Bible Belt, who was “outraged”. Or perhaps sought to make a name for himself on the back of his faux-flavoured piety. Either way, he wanted everyone else to be outraged too.
Tommy Charles of WAQY Radio (wacky) decided enough was enough and began a series of broadcasts designed to inflame the delicate balance between religion and anger.
Charles wanted to teach The Beatles a lesson, even though his own arguments were poorly constructed and as a result he appeared to contradict himself over his opinions on The Beatles and more importantly, on John Lennon.
In addition to this, Datebook, the magazine that printed the article, didn’t come in for any anti-religious scrutiny for running it, and Charles agreed that everyone was entitled to have their own opinion…even Lennon.
Bizarre
At one point he states The Beatles have never been challenged about their remarks “where it might count”. And that “you never know whether Lennon is telling the truth or not” as his answers are “so bizarre”. But of course if Charles really felt their interviews were merely flippant, immature nonsense, why was he so angered by them?
Clearly there was more to his anger than he was willing to admit. In his interview he appears envious of the fact that anything The Beatles said was treated like a missive direct from the heavens above, whereas he wasn’t afforded the same luxury. This disagreement then, was about something more than an offhand reference to God.
Jesus 1 – The Beatles 1
Jesus had provided him with a golden opportunity to even the score. And if you believed in the unquestionable sanctity of the Lord then here he was providing for the faithful, as he always did. And Charles took full advantage.
Funeral Pyre
First he banned all Beatles records from the airwaves and then requested all Beatles fans bring their Beatles records and memorabilia to the radio station where they would organise a large bonfire to burn it all. Other “Christian” Radio stations followed suit and before long other towns and cities were getting in on the act.
When Lennon was asked for his opinion on the statement DJ Tommy Charles wouldn’t lift the ban on playing their records until he had “grown up a little”, his withering response was typical of his attitude at the time.
“Well, I don’t mind if he never plays them again.”
John Lennon
If he gave the impression he couldn’t really care less about the row, he was soon to discover it wouldn’t last.
Sunday Schools organised bonfires and children brought in their Beatles toys and records and burned them.
It seemed the basic principles of Christianity: forgiveness, compassion, love and redemption, were suddenly in short supply in The Bible Belt as marches, demonstrations, protests and bonfires took place across the Mid-West. Then the Ku-Klux-Klan got involved and the death threats began.
Furore
Initially The Beatles were unconcerned by the furore.
“We just thought, ‘Yes, well, you can see what it is. It’s hysterical low-grade American thinking.’” They were quick to point out that one had to purchase their albums in order to burn them. “No sweat off us, mate. Burn ’em if you like. It’s not compulsory to play ’em. So we took a balanced view of it.”
Paul McCartney
George Harrison had his own take on religion.
“If Christianity is half as good as they say it is, it should be able to stand up to a little scrutiny.”
George Harrison
It wasn’t and it didn’t.
Then the burning of effigies began and the protests intensified.
All this would’ve been ok except The Beatles were about to start a US tour, which included the southern states and their manager Brian Epstein was unable to cancel it due to the enormous cost of doing so. The tour, it was decided would go ahead, and to diffuse the growing anti-Beatles vitriol, John would have to make a very public, grovelling apology.
If you’ve ever seen The Rutles parody of The Beatles, “All You Need Is Cash”, you may remember that Ron Nasty (Lennon) was misquoted by a deaf journalist and actually said The Rutles were bigger than Rod (Stewart) who wouldn’t have a hit single for another eight years.
Lennon unfortunately couldn’t use the deaf journalist routine and so had to make his own obsequious TV apology.
Elvis
Eleven years later almost to the day, Lennon was asked about his reaction to the news Elvis Presley had died, and he said, “Elvis died the day he went into the Army. That’s when they killed him.”
And watching Lennon, being forced to make his demeaning apology, it appeared much the same was happening to him. A piece of him was dying. Because the only weapons he ever had were his words and his thoughts. And now they were being taken away from him.
Apology
John made the apology, begrudgingly it appears and the tour went ahead. But the US and The Beatles never had quite the same appeal for each other again.
Cherry Bomb
On the 19th August 1966, at an afternoon show in Memphis, where there was an all pervading sense of tension, a teen with a poor sense of humour but a great sense of theatre, chucked a cherry bomb firecracker at the stage, ironically during the song “If I Needed Someone”.
The Beatles, hearing what they thought was a gunshot, stopped, looked at each other, realised no one had been hit and continued the show.
One night on a show in the South somewhere somebody let off a firecracker while we were on stage. There had been threats to shoot us, the Klan were burning Beatle records outside and a lot of the crew-cut kids were joining in with them. Somebody let off a firecracker and every one of us – I think it’s on film – look at each other, because each thought it was the other that had been shot. It was that bad.
John Lennon, 19743
Candlestick
Ten days later, they played their last ever tour gig (29th August 1966) at Candlestick Park in a cool, foggy San Francisco, where The Beatles decided to take photos of themselves on stage.
At the end of the gig, the band were unceremoniously dumped in the back of a meat waggon to escape the hoards of fans.
It had no seats, and nothing to hold on to, so every time the van went round a corner, the four of them would be thrown across the vehicle.
When they got out, battered and bruised they looked at each other and shrugged. They didn’t have to say anything, they were all asking the same question. Why are we doing this?
And so their touring days came to an abrupt end. Lennon left the religious quotes behind and focussed on messages of Love and Peace, as can be seen in many of his later song lyrics.
Escape!
In 1968 in an interview about the start up of Apple Corps, Larry Kane (the reporter who covered The Beatles first American Tour in 1964), asked them what was the highlight of their career in the US, to which Lennon sardonically replied, “Escaping from Memphis!”
“At the end it became quite complicated. But at the beginning it was really very simple.”
Paul McCartney4
But were The Beatles bigger than Jesus and does it really matter? Well no it doesn’t. All I know is The Beatles did once exist. The jury is still out on the existence of God.
December 1980
Ironically Lennon grew to love America once again and lived in New York until his untimely death at the hands of the disturbed Mark Chapman on the 8th December 1980. Lennon was 40 years old.
“And so this is Christmas, and what have we done?”
Thank you for your time.
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