GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE AND RINGO...

Good Time Rock & Roll Or Religion For The Undiscerning?


By Tony Rufo
Special to ASSIST News Service

They may not have realized what they were saying early on, but the Beatles most certainly understood their power before they broke up in 1970. Whether anyone realizes it or not, for a number of years the Beatles had a worldwide pulpit from which millions heard their "gospel." What was their message? Let's go back.

Picture this. The state of American music in the United States, circa 1963. Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers had returned from the Army more like pop singers than the rockabilly forces they had been before they left. Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran were dead. Chuck Berry was in prison. Little Richard was back in the pulpit. Bill Haley was too old and Jerry Lee Lewis was washed up after marrying his 13 year-old first cousin. Payola had taken the freshness and spontaneity out of rock & roll. President Kennedy was assassinated. Many fans had abandoned rock, weary of its blandness, and headed for jazz and folk. Although no one realized it, American rock & roll was in the process of being reborn in Liverpool, England.

The Beatles were fundamentalists. They took basic U.S. rock & roll and brought it back to the audience with which it began -- only they brought it back in a new package. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were all born in Liverpool in the early 1940's during Hitler's blitz against England. With the exception of John Lennon, each had a rather ordinary childhood. Lennon's father deserted the family early; John's mother was struck and killed by a car when he was 14. John grew bitter and began to rebel outwardly by showing contempt for adults, the establishment and the clergy. Paul, baptized as an infant, later called himself a "flabby Catholic." According to Paul, "If I wasn't so concerned about an afterlife, I'd be an atheist."

John and Paul met in 1955 and formed a skiffle group. For a short time, they were known as the Nurk Twins. They later became the Quarrymen. In 1958, fifteen year-old George joined the group and bassist Stu Sutcliffe was added in 1959. The group then changed its name to Johnny & the Moondogs, then to the Moonshiners, the Silver Beatles, and, finally, The Beatles. Stu Sutcliffe is credited with first thinking of the new name. They wanted a bug or animal name out of admiration of Buddy Holly & the Crickets, so Sutcliffe suggested the "Beetles." Everyone agreed. But it was John, who loved to play on words, who said, "Yeah, but it's B-e-A-t-l-e-s." In 1960, Pete Best was added as drummer.

Over time, John's dark side began to surface. A story is told of how one evening, he tried to summon the spirit of his dead mother during a séance. The boys cut their teeth by playing eight hours nightly in Hamburg, Germany. It was there that John would further display his rebellion through such antics as performing with his back to his audience, wearing a toilet seat around his neck onstage, and other unmentionable actions.

Brian Epstein, who was to become their manager, met the Beatles in 1962. When he appeared on the scene, the guys were scruffy teddy boys with pompadour hair and tight leather jeans, and they were as anti-establishment as another English group that would become famous by promoting that same image, the Rolling Stones. But Epstein dressed the Beatles in ties and jackets and introduced their "mop top" hair, making them more palatable to a mass audience.

It was also Epstein who fired Peter Best and hired Ringo Starr at the request of John and Paul. In 1962, Epstein told the media his group would someday be bigger than Elvis, becoming the only manager in music industry history to correctly make this claim. After their first Hamburg tour, they returned to England without Stu who had fallen for a German girl. It was when the four Beatles were back in Liverpool, playing at the Cavern, that they got word, in April 1962, that Stu had died of a brain hemorrhage at age 22.

After their first recording in 1962 - - the single "Love Me Do" backed with "P.S. I Love You" -- The Beatles were on their way. The rest is rock history of mythical proportions. The Beatles rescued American music from aging teen idols and unimaginative songs, and they brought us all back to the basics -- for a while anyway.

Although not great musically in 1964, Beatle music was fresh and simple. Their more complex melodies and lyrics came later. At the start, though, their music was good clean fun with a message no more complex than "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" and "She Loves You." It was so innocent, in fact, that everyone, parents included, immediately accepted them.

OLD TESTAMENT BEATLES

In February, 1964, the Beatles gained the unprecedented distinction of holding the top five spots on U.S. music charts with "Twist & Shout," I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "Please, Please Me," and "Can't Buy Me Love." Until they came along, the last American artist in the No. 1 position had been Leslie Gore with "You Don't Own Me."

The Beatles charmed because they didn't seem to take themselves seriously -- they were fun. To parents, they were harmless and cute, seemingly unaware that some girls had slashed their wrists for them and others had offered themselves as sexual slaves. The Beatles were so idolized, most of us would have bought into anything they were selling. One press report from 1964 likened Beatlemania to a "religion of teenage culture" whose main characteristic "insisted that the gods be approximately the same age as the worshippers." It is ironic that many people who didn't believe Christ's words of personal relationship with Him and salvation by faith would want personal relationships with the Beatles. In the exhaustive work, "The Compleat Beatles," it is said, "By the end of 1964, most American teenagers figured that if the Beatles were not God incarnate, they certainly knew a lot about working miracles."

Cracks eventually appeared in the Beatles' fortress. Just before the start of their last U.S. tour in 1966, the press reported a statement by John Lennon that exploded like a bombshell. "Christianity will go," Lennon said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and 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's statement resulted in many radio stations suddenly banning the Beatles' music. Teens burned Beatles albums. There were death threats. John was shaken and made a "slight retraction" when it appeared that the group's financial status might be threatened. John Lennon had taken on God. But he hadn't been all wrong. It seemed that more people were interested in the Beatles than were interested in Jesus Christ.

This may have bothered some people in the church community because the response from certain segments was not Christian love, but condemnation. And millions of teens simultaneously wore two buttons saying "I Love Jesus" and "I Love the Beatles."

Things happened rapidly from then on. The "Yesterday and Today" album, which had preceded their last U.S. tour, contained good rock & roll -- as well as the famous "butcher" cover showing the Fab Four wearing white butcher's jackets and covered with pieces of dismembered dolls and bloody chunks of real meat. In response to many complaints, and at great cost, the cover was quickly changed. Dispelling any doubt as to whose brainchild the cover had been, a bitter John Lennon said the banned album jacket "was as relevant as Viet Nam."

Thereafter, the outward appearance of the Beatles changed. They no longer hid their use of marijuana. In a celebrated meeting with Elvis Presley, they rebuked him by asking why he no longer sang the way he used to. Elvis countered by asking the Beatles why they sang about drugs. Nor was John Lennon the same person from that point on. It was with "Tomorrow Never Knows" that the new John Lennon emerged. He took LSD as casually as other people smoked cigarettes. He used his music to recreate visions he saw on his trips. This was also the time when he met Yoko Ono. John went from questions and visions to riddles and causes, but there were never any answers.

George, too, was taking LSD regularly. His trips led him to mystic India. He devoured books on meditation and yoga, and he sought "perfect enlightenment and peace." The components of this prescription totaled one gigantic movement - - psychedelia. In early 1967, "Strawberry Fields Forever" was released and hailed as psychedelic thanks to a backward music fade at its end. 

NEW TESTAMENT BEATLES

1967. In June of that flower-power year came the arrival of a monumental event in the history of popular music - - the release of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." That album changed the face of music marketing forever. Nowhere was there a single release to be found. The entire album was conceptual, with little or no separation of individual cuts on the vinyl. The music didn't end; it kept going. The four months and then unheard of $100,000 that went into producing the record staggered and surprised the industry.

From "Sergeant Pepper" came drug meanings, secret messages, backward tracking, nonsense, and bizarre sounds and words. It was as though the Beatles were painters who had suddenly gone from depicting bowls of fruit to exhibiting surrealism, then cubism, then Dadaism. The opening words of "Strawberry Fields Forever" are "...let me take you down..." They did. In a big way, the Beatles opened the door to mass proliferation of drugs, eastern religion, the occult, hedonism, anti-establishment attitudes, pacifism, and a fault-ridden belief in the brotherhood of man.

From there, things went downhill. By 1970, Brian Epstein was dead and the Beatles had broken up. Among the many reasons given for their break-up: drugs, Epstein's absence, religion, John's political causes, financial hassles, and Yoko. One thing we do know, however, is that the Beatles' albums grew increasingly eclectic. Some songs were bizarre and nonsensical, some showed evidence of the greatness of their talent, and some were pure rock & roll.

Religious messages multiplied after their parting. George Harrison, by then a Hare Krishna follower, recorded his "All Things Must Pass" album, which contained the haunting and deceptive "My Sweet Lord." George claims he intentionally recorded the chorus which changes "Hallelujah" to Hare Krishna" in honor of the deities he worshipped. He later produced other songs about eastern religion and produced the film, "The Missionary," which demeans Christianity and casts missionaries in a negative light. Coincidence?

Through all this were Paul and Ringo. They wanted to remain Beatles. John wanted causes. George wanted religion. John's behavior grew increasingly bizarre. In the 1970's he was often in the news for creating various disturbances, once by carrying a vial containing thousands of dollars worth of cocaine into a Los Angeles restaurant. Another time, he entered a Hollywood cafe with a feminine hygiene product on his forehead.

Sadly, John's end came when he was even deeper into the occult. In his last days he is purported by have mocked Bob Dylan's "You Gotta Serve Somebody" (The Lord) by singing, "You gotta serve yourself...." He also claimed he was a "born again pagan." Lennon was deep into the writings of Helena Blavatsky, a theosophical new-ager, and he had experimented with alternate states of consciousness by spending hours in an isolation tank.

When he became rock's first assassination victim, it was no surprise to hear that Mark David Chapman uttered that it was Satan who drove him to kill John Lennon. As a martyr, John's religious messages lived on when even some churches played "Imagine." The tune is the perfect secular humanist anthem containing one-worldism, Marxism, and atheism. A young man attending a Lennon memorial service said, "I came here for John. I can't believe he's dead. He kept me from dying so many times."

The Beatles were incredibly talented, attaining levels of success, prestige, and influence beyond their wildest dreams. They ruled the rock roost but paid an incredible price. Often those we idolize most seem to be screaming of emptiness. What has all the Beatles' success brought them? Vast wealth, power, drug abuse, broken marriages, spiritual emptiness, and the early deaths of two members and their manager. With such a huge supply of the best the world had to offer, it seemed the Beatles left us holding an empty bag. Today, the players in rock are different people, but the road seems to be the same. It seems not a month goes by without news of another tragic or premature death of a music superstar. Many of them, too, were on top of their league.

The Beatles were immensely gifted artists emulated and envied by some, patronized and pitied by others. In the end, they are victims of the message of their own music, lifestyle, religion and politics. Were they good time rock & roll, or religion for the undiscerning? The fact is they were both. And they knew it. But it's up to us hearers to discern whom we will follow. When it comes to selecting messiahs, we must choose them wisely. The ultimate tragedy for anyone, Beatle or not, is choosing the wrong one.

Editor's note:

Additional information on Tony Rufo and this article:

This article, first published in True Tunes News in the summer of 1994, is part of a book proposal containing a comprehensive look at the Beatles from a Biblical perspective. It would be the first book to trace the spiritual lives and influence of the super group. In addition to taking a look at the Beatles from a Christian perspective, it mixes historical accounts with interesting and colorful music trivia. The timing is excellent for such a book as interest in the Beatles remains high by both Christians and non-Christians. They remain such a powerful cultural influence that delving into the group's spiritual significance can only serve to increase discernment and spread the gospel, giving instruction to believers and hope to unbelievers. Just as the apostle Paul used the culture of the day as a launch pad for the gospel, the Beatles' significant impact on modern society can be used in the same way. These Bible verses describe the intent of the book [NIV]:

Acts 17:16-34: [Paul on Mars Hill in Athens, v. 17] "So he reasoned in the synagogue...as well as in the marketplace day by day..." [v. 22-23] "Men of Athens! I see that you are very religious...I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship..."

1 John 4:1: "...do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

2 Timothy 2:24-25: "The Lord's servant must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful...to those who oppose him he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will."

1 Peter 3:15: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do so with gentleness and respect."

There are at least several highly promotional aspects of the book for the Christian market. One is that the author has discovered new research indicating that John Lennon made a commitment to Jesus Christ before he died. Another is research that traces a dark trail leading from Satanist Alistair Crowley to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Charles Manson, and Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman. The author has also conducted a heretofore unpublished interview with former Beatle drummer, Pete Best.

Some of the material in the book is new, even to the Beatle market. In addition, Tony Rufo possesses a large archive of American music, including original photos. He is employed by the Moody Broadcasting Network and has an extensive background in radio, TV, music and marketing. He foresees the book as a component in a number of projects under consideration that will include this book [and others], a radio series and special, and printed study guides. These projects lend themselves well to underwriting and publisher interest.

According to Tony Rufo, "The Beatles have been condemned and chastised by many within and without the Christian community. Much of this has been justified because their actions run so counter to Scripture. In whatever manner we exercise discernment of the Beatles [or anything else], we should do so with love and respect. Not confining ourselves to a "Christian ghetto," we must learn the truth and then share it, regardless of what is being sold or pitched to us."

Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the book proposal should contact Tony Rufo at tony.rufo@moody.edu or TCRufo@aol.com.