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selenakJohn Lennon's so-called "bigger than Jesus" (which, like "beam me up, Scotty" is actually a misquote from the actual phrasing that entered popular perception nonetheless) quote became such a model for the "pop star makes controversial quote, public fury ensues" event - when watching the Dixie Chicks Shut up and sing documentary about the uproar following their "we're ashamed the president of the US is from Texas" quote, I was particularly reminded of it - , and became one of several reasons why the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, that it's worth looking back at the exact hows and wherefores.
In on each Friday in March 1966, the London Evening Standard ran a successive series of profiles of all four Beatles written by Maureen Cleave under the heading "How does a Beatle live?" She'd been covering the Beatles since their national emergence in 1963 and was arguably John Lennon's favourite journalist (as he was her favourite Beatle). Leaving aside the Jesus statement for a moment, all four portraits are very interesting to read and show that the four were talking to a journalist they were familiar with and relaxed around; for example, Ringo opens up about feeling like "the new boy" in the group until 1964, George compares prime minister Harold Wilson to the Sheriff of Nottingham and raves about Ravi Shankar, his fasicnation with Indian music a recent and as it turned out life long arrival, and Paul, against his reputation as the group's PR man specialising in generic statements, is highly critical of the US in regards to race relations ("it's a lousy country to be in where anyone who is black is made to seem a dirty nigger") and general conservatism ("there they were in America, getting house-trained for adulthood with their indisputable principle of life: short hair equals men, long hair equals women. Well, we got rid of that little convention for them"). But it was the John profile that was destined to become a ticking time bomb. If you read the entire article, what sticks to mind isn't actually the religious statement at all but Maureen Cleave's description of John Lennon in early 1966 (what he himself later called "my fat Elvis period"): He looks more like Henry VIII than ever now that his face has filled out - he is just as imperious, just as unpredictable, indolent, disorganised, childish, vague, charming and quick-witted. Not least because of John's subsequent weight loss and the fact he remained thin for the rest of his life, the Henry VIII comparison is not one that anyone else made that I can think of, but it's one that I couldn't unsee once I had read it. There is something to it, both in looks and personality, especially the spectacular moodswings and incredible possessive jealousy. (Henry would certainly been behind "Run for your life" but wouldn't have been honest enough with himself for "Jealous Guy".) In this particular interview, John also sounds very smug, and, belying Cynthia's statement the pontificating mode came with Yoko, not a little lecturing when he comes to the statement that was to cause all the trouble: 'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; 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 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.'
When published by the Evening Standard in March, this caused absolutely no reaction whatsoever. (Nor did the statements by the other Beatles in their respective portraits.) In August, however, the American teen magazine Datebook decided to put both this quote of John's and Paul's remark on America's treatment of its black population on the cover. And all hell broke loose. About the Jesus quote, not the "it's a lousy country..." quote, which is interesting in itself. Radio boycotts in Texas and Alabama, public bonfires for Beatle records, city countil of Memphis voting to cancel the upcoming Beatles concert, Grand Dragons of the Ku Klux Clan photographed nailing Beatles records to crosses - it was their first experience of public adoration turning into hatred, as well as an illustration about the massive difference between England and America when it comes to reactions to statements about religion. Brian Epstein, as any good manager would, tried to mollify (American) public feeling by declaring John had been quoted out of context and then by making John give a press conference to apologize. (He didn't exactly apologize but tried to clarify and sounds a bit shaken; you can watch it here.) This did not mollify anyone as their 1966 World Tour concluded in the US. The Washington, D.C. concert was picketed by members of the Maryland Ku Klux Clan. The concert in Memphis was put back on schedule, but was momentarily interrupted when a firecracker exploded in the audience because all four Beatles at that moment thought someone was shooting at them. Paul, once they were safely back in England: "There is high-grade American thinking, which we know and appreciate: we like Lenny Bruce, we like Jack Kerouac, we like the painters, et cetera, we see the free thinking. But we know there's this Elmer Gantry undercurrent. And of course that's exactly who got hold of it all, so there were record burnings. We always used to point out that to burn them you've got to buy them, so it's 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, but I will never forget in one of the places down South, we pulled in there in the coach and there was this little blond-haired kid, he could have been no older than eleven or twelve, who barely came up to the window, screaming at me through the plate glass, banging the window with such vehemence. I thought, Gosh, I wonder how much he knows about God? He's only a young boy. It can only be what he's been fed, but he's been fed that we are the anti-Christ or something. This was the face of a zealot!"
There were several other factors as well - the screaming during concerts had gotten to the point where they couldn't even hear themselves, and once mimed performances without the audience noting, and there was the somewhat frightening Imelda Marcos versus Beatles experience in Manila - but after their last American concert, they decided to stop touring for good, and with the exception of the Apple Rooftop Concert, never performed in public again. The postscript to all of this, many years later, couldn't have been more grim. Because one of those kids burning their Beatles records, talking with his friends about what a blasphemy the statement had been, was Mark David Chapman, whose mixture of obsession and hate with and for John Lennon would culminate in his murdering Lennon on December 8th 1980.
In on each Friday in March 1966, the London Evening Standard ran a successive series of profiles of all four Beatles written by Maureen Cleave under the heading "How does a Beatle live?" She'd been covering the Beatles since their national emergence in 1963 and was arguably John Lennon's favourite journalist (as he was her favourite Beatle). Leaving aside the Jesus statement for a moment, all four portraits are very interesting to read and show that the four were talking to a journalist they were familiar with and relaxed around; for example, Ringo opens up about feeling like "the new boy" in the group until 1964, George compares prime minister Harold Wilson to the Sheriff of Nottingham and raves about Ravi Shankar, his fasicnation with Indian music a recent and as it turned out life long arrival, and Paul, against his reputation as the group's PR man specialising in generic statements, is highly critical of the US in regards to race relations ("it's a lousy country to be in where anyone who is black is made to seem a dirty nigger") and general conservatism ("there they were in America, getting house-trained for adulthood with their indisputable principle of life: short hair equals men, long hair equals women. Well, we got rid of that little convention for them"). But it was the John profile that was destined to become a ticking time bomb. If you read the entire article, what sticks to mind isn't actually the religious statement at all but Maureen Cleave's description of John Lennon in early 1966 (what he himself later called "my fat Elvis period"): He looks more like Henry VIII than ever now that his face has filled out - he is just as imperious, just as unpredictable, indolent, disorganised, childish, vague, charming and quick-witted. Not least because of John's subsequent weight loss and the fact he remained thin for the rest of his life, the Henry VIII comparison is not one that anyone else made that I can think of, but it's one that I couldn't unsee once I had read it. There is something to it, both in looks and personality, especially the spectacular moodswings and incredible possessive jealousy. (Henry would certainly been behind "Run for your life" but wouldn't have been honest enough with himself for "Jealous Guy".) In this particular interview, John also sounds very smug, and, belying Cynthia's statement the pontificating mode came with Yoko, not a little lecturing when he comes to the statement that was to cause all the trouble: 'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; 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 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.'
When published by the Evening Standard in March, this caused absolutely no reaction whatsoever. (Nor did the statements by the other Beatles in their respective portraits.) In August, however, the American teen magazine Datebook decided to put both this quote of John's and Paul's remark on America's treatment of its black population on the cover. And all hell broke loose. About the Jesus quote, not the "it's a lousy country..." quote, which is interesting in itself. Radio boycotts in Texas and Alabama, public bonfires for Beatle records, city countil of Memphis voting to cancel the upcoming Beatles concert, Grand Dragons of the Ku Klux Clan photographed nailing Beatles records to crosses - it was their first experience of public adoration turning into hatred, as well as an illustration about the massive difference between England and America when it comes to reactions to statements about religion. Brian Epstein, as any good manager would, tried to mollify (American) public feeling by declaring John had been quoted out of context and then by making John give a press conference to apologize. (He didn't exactly apologize but tried to clarify and sounds a bit shaken; you can watch it here.) This did not mollify anyone as their 1966 World Tour concluded in the US. The Washington, D.C. concert was picketed by members of the Maryland Ku Klux Clan. The concert in Memphis was put back on schedule, but was momentarily interrupted when a firecracker exploded in the audience because all four Beatles at that moment thought someone was shooting at them. Paul, once they were safely back in England: "There is high-grade American thinking, which we know and appreciate: we like Lenny Bruce, we like Jack Kerouac, we like the painters, et cetera, we see the free thinking. But we know there's this Elmer Gantry undercurrent. And of course that's exactly who got hold of it all, so there were record burnings. We always used to point out that to burn them you've got to buy them, so it's 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, but I will never forget in one of the places down South, we pulled in there in the coach and there was this little blond-haired kid, he could have been no older than eleven or twelve, who barely came up to the window, screaming at me through the plate glass, banging the window with such vehemence. I thought, Gosh, I wonder how much he knows about God? He's only a young boy. It can only be what he's been fed, but he's been fed that we are the anti-Christ or something. This was the face of a zealot!"
There were several other factors as well - the screaming during concerts had gotten to the point where they couldn't even hear themselves, and once mimed performances without the audience noting, and there was the somewhat frightening Imelda Marcos versus Beatles experience in Manila - but after their last American concert, they decided to stop touring for good, and with the exception of the Apple Rooftop Concert, never performed in public again. The postscript to all of this, many years later, couldn't have been more grim. Because one of those kids burning their Beatles records, talking with his friends about what a blasphemy the statement had been, was Mark David Chapman, whose mixture of obsession and hate with and for John Lennon would culminate in his murdering Lennon on December 8th 1980.
