Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Article from 1967
The overall theme of drugs is no coincidence
All four
Beatles have admitted taking LSD at least occasionally. Yet it is not clear
whether their songs are meant to proselytize in behalf of drugs or simply to
deal with them as a subject of the moment. In the most recent Beatle
pronouncement about LSD Paul McCartney said: "I don't recommend it. It can open
a few doors, but it's not any answer. You get the answers yourself."
Some segments of the Beatles' audience read messages into the songs that may
never have been intended. The hippie brigade, for example, has adopted as an
anthem of sorts She's Leaving Home, which tells of a runaway girl whose parents
gave her everything money could buy but no happiness. "Man, that's the story of
the hippies," says one of them. A 15 year-old boy who left home to become a
hippie interprets the Beatles' songs as a put-down of his parents: "They're
saying all the things I always wanted to say to my parents and their freaky
friends."
Blowing Away Cobwebs. Even the Beatles' nonmusical utterances tend to take on
the tone and weight of social prophecy. "Only Hitler ever duplicated their power
over crowds," says Sid Bernstein, who organized their three New York concerts.
"I'm convinced they could sway a presidential election if they wanted to." If
that is far-fetched, the fact remains that when the Beatles talk--about drugs,
the war in Viet Nam, religion--millions listen, and this is a new situation in
the pop music world.
It is not altogether a bad situation, either. And it could be worse. At least
the fact that nobody ever bothered to ask Elvis Presley about anything indicates
a certain level of discrimination. In any case, callow as their ideas sometimes
are, the Beatles exemplify a refreshing distrust of authority, disdain for
conventions and impatience with hypocrisy. "I think they're on to something,"
says their friend Richard Lester, 35, who directed their two films. "They are
more inclined to blow away the cobwebs than my contemporaries."
Kids sense a quality of defiant honesty in the Beatles and admire their freedom
and open-mindedness; they see them as peers who are in a position to try
anything, and who can be relied on to tell it to them straight--and to tell them
what they want to hear. As for the parents who are targets of the Beatles'
satirical gibes, they seem to be able to take a large number of direct hits and
still come up smiling. Says Chicago Public Relations Man Walter Robinson, 39,
father of three boys: "The Beatles are explorers, trusty advance, scouts. I like
them to report to my kids."
Within the Maze. Characteristically, the Beatles are uncomfortable on their
pedestals and soapboxes. They have always insisted, as Paul McCartney says, that
"the fan at my gate knows really that she's equal to me, and I take care to tell
her that." John Lennon's remark that "we're more popular than Jesus," which set
off an anti-Beatle furor last year, was not a boast but an expression of
disgust. Though he phrased it ineptly, he was posing the question: What kind of
world is it that makes more fuss over a pop cult than over religion?
Page 6
Page 1,
Page 2,
Page 3,
Page 4,
Page 5,
Page 6,
Page 7,
Page 8,
Page 9,
Page 10
The Beatles Lyrics
Page Views:
