The Beatles are the best selling rock band in history. The Bible is the best selling book in history. Put these two together, and you have the best selling blog in history…or maybe not.
Whether this blog matches the success of either The Beatles or the Bible is up for debate. Regardless, over the next few weeks I want to focus on how the Bible, and spiritual teachings in general, helped shape the music of the most influential music group of my generation, and likely of all time. Though no one would ever confuse the music of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, or Richard Starkey (better known as Ringo Starr) as Sunday sermon material, we do find that spiritual issues, and the search for life meaning, are infused in much of their music – particularly in the latter four years. I have no intentions on criticizing the message behind the music. (Again, no one labels The Beatles as choir boys.) Instead, I will discuss how the music reflected spiritual thought, and do a little critiquing of the songs’ artistry along the way.
In these first two installments, we’ll take a brief look at the early years of The Beatles. We'll then move on to the more ground-breaking (and spiritually significant) albums of the mid-sixties.
The Early Years
On February 11, 1963, John Lennon completed a marathon recording session by shredding his sort-throat stricken vocal chords screaming out the ultimate rendition of Twist and Shout. Thus was born the album Please Please Me and the revolution had begun. Recorded in just under 10 hours, this album ranks at number 39 on the “Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” (from here on referred to as the RS500). Once Paul starts the album shouting, “One, two, three, four…”, and I Saw Her Standing There gets us going, the music world would embark on a three-year journey that would bring us such classics as Help!, A Hard Day’s Night, Yesterday, and (one of my personal favorites) Ticket To Ride.
From 1962 to early 1965, The Beatles would commercially release a total of five albums and 87 songs, including singles – a pretty significant feat in and of itself. (By the way, I am only going to refer to the original UK Beatles album releases. The Capital US releases are far inferior and compromised the artistic intent of The Beatles.) As classic as these songs are, anyone vaguely familiar with them would realize (as my 12-year old daughter quickly figured out) that they were pretty much “silly love songs”. Despite their resounding beats and beautiful harmonies, the early Beatles works lacked the depth of their future efforts. Consequently, we are hard pressed to find much spiritual significance to anything The Beatles released during this time. Beyond the occasional reference to “spiritual” things in Devil In Her Heart and prayer mentioned in Mr. Moonlight (both renditions from other artists), we are left with a seemingly unintentional reference to Proverbs 16:18 in I’m A Loser – “And so it's true pride comes before a fall”.
“Beatlemania” – a term used to describe the hysteria at Beatles concerts – drove the Fab Four to quit touring after their final concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. Without the pressures of an intense traveling schedule and with minds focused solely on the music, the latent artistry of the Fab Four could now be realized to its fullest. It was around this period, consequently, that the music of The Beatles began to take on a deeper, and often more spiritual, significance.
Rubber Soul – A Newer, Growing Beatles
George Martin, the famed producer often referred to as “The Fifth Beatle”, spoke of Rubber Soul as "the first album to present a new, growing Beatles to the world.” Ranked at number 5 on the RS500, Rubber Soul (released December 1965) moved past the genre of teen love songs into the adult world of confusion, drugs, disillusionment, contemplation, and even infidelity. It presents the mood changes, instrumental experimentation and lyrical depth that would become the hallmark for subsequent albums. Here, we find classics from Paul such as Michelle and I’m Looking Through You. George’s contributions begin to take on a more significant role, and even Ringo co-wrote the finger-pickin’ What Goes On. But it is John who makes this album his personal art gallery. His songs Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Nowhere Man, and In My Life are the types of songs, as one person put it, that seem to have been a part of our lives as far as we can remember.
It is my least favorite song on Rubber Soul, though, that demonstrates the growing spiritual development of The Beatles. The Word was John’s initial plea for peace and love. While monster hits like All You Need Is Love and his solo effort Give Peace A Chance would become John’s anthems for his cause, The Word was his first attempt to declare love as the means for global tranquility. Coincidently, it was also his first release that revealed a growing detachment from religion, which he would later declare as blatant atheism in his solo efforts.
The Word is pretty much a goofy pop song with simple and somewhat juvenile lyrics. Yet, what makes it interesting is that it seems to contain some very clear references to the Bible, though presented in a secular context. Ironically, John the atheist seems to be recalling passages (possibly learned from childhood) from John the Apostle, who wrote the Gospel of John and three biblical letters. Virtually the entire song seems to reflect John the Apostle’s writings. I doubt this was accidental. Take a look at the comparisons taken from both The Word and the writings of John the Apostle:
So why is this significant? Was John Lennon trying to slight the Bible? Was he attempting to sway people from Christianity into secular reasoning? I’m not sure what John’s intents were, since his world view was still taking shape at this time. I do believe, though, that John Lennon’s understanding of spiritual truth began and ended with love for one another. Not a bad thought, after all, on solving the problems of war, strife and poverty. If we could only love one another, our world would be a much better place. (By the way, Lennon would later regret writing his threatening tone towards an unnamed “little girl” friend in Run For Your Life.)
Unfortunately, John’s message of love only provided half the solution for the human condition. Jesus Christ makes it clear that love is the answer. Yet, this love is not only horizontal in nature (man-to-man), but vertical as well (man-to-God). It’s the two-fold story that Jesus presents to a biblical scholar recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:
"[A teacher asked] which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? Jesus replied, '"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: "Love your neighbor as yourself." The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.'" (Matthew 22:36-40)
It seems that John Lennon’s spiritual journey started in the right vehicle, but he was using the wrong map. The vehicle called love truly is the way to curing human ills, but his map failed to mention that the most important love relationship is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. John Lennon would strive to love his fellow man. Yet, in failing to first love God (whom the Bible called love personified), John would find that his efforts often instead lead to strife and disenchantment. (We’ll examine this in a later article.)
Love Is the Answer?
Larry Norman wrote in his comical song Reader’s Digest, “The Beatles said ‘All you need is love’ and then they broke up.” It seems that we often try to love, yet things don’t always end up in a loving way. You marry the one you love, but then need to learn how to love the one you married. You love your children, but they run off and do the very thing that breaks your heart. You try and love your enemies, yet they continue to stab you behind the back and sometimes even smack you right in the face.
Well, to quote Lennon’s Mind Games, “love is the answer”. It doesn’t, though, start with love for one another. That’s the framework. The foundation is love for God. If you want to learn the way of love, you need to start with the source for love, God Himself. You do this by developing a love relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Then, the more you learn to love God, the more you’ll learn to love your neighbor.
In the next article, we’ll see how The Beatles' message of love began to take a more spiritual meaning as both John and George take a supernatural journey that would eventually lead to the “Summer of Love” and the new youth counterculture.
Check out my book God Is Closer Than You Think at http://www.biblicalrelevancy.com.
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