How The Media Failed To Destroy The Beatles

[Grassy Knoll]

[DeSwiss]

1. Hahahahahahaha!!!!

- Some of those original Beatles' albums they were stomping on in the vid, are now going for over $2000 on Ebay!

It seems they were right, stupidity is it's own punishment.

K&R

[msongs]

2. first they were more popular than jesus at the time and, second, as george said...

to burn the records they have to buy them first lol

[WCGreen]

3. I remember that distinctly and the uproar JL's comments created...

It's amazing how violent the followers of the Christ, a symbol of peace, can get when someone makes an intelligent point about religion.

This was how it looked to the German Jews when they saw all the violence that could be ginned up by propagandists.

[FiveGoodMen]

19. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."

-- Matthew 10:34

Kind of a dubious symbol of peace.

[Mojorabbit]

20. I remember it also.

My father always told me to run the other way if anyone around me started burning books or records.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. And, of course, throwing stuff you don't like in a big fire isn't "Nazi" at all....

I guess it's just more of that "Southern Heritage" stuff.

[robbob]

5. My big disappointment with John

...who always seemed like such an intelligent, articulate fellow, was how poorly he phrased his thoughts in this case, and how inadequately his follow-up explanation seemed to be. Of course, they were all over worked, stressed out and probably stoned at the time, but my understanding of what he meant to say was more along the lines of "Look; right now among young people it seems we are more popular than Jesus Christ! Isn't that CRAZY? Isn't that a sign of how sick or culture is right now?"

I don't think he was ever trying to brag about the Beatles being better than Jesus, or anything like that; it was a wry observation (and very ahead of it's time) about where our society was heading with it's commercial idol worship.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. "isn't that a sign of how sick our culture is right now?"...

First, why should he have said what he didn't mean? And second,, why is it sick that they were more popular than a mythical being?

[deutsey]

9. It was apparently just an off-the-cuff remark

The Brits barely took notice of it, but it blew up among fundies in the American South as the media here latched on to it.

Lennon continued, "When it came out in England it was a bit of a blab-mouthed saying anyway... A few people wrote into the papers, and a few wrote back saying, 'So what, he said that. Who is he anyway,' or they said, 'So, he can have his own opinion.' And then it just vanished. It was very small. But... you know, when it gets over here and then it's put into a kid's magazine, and just parts of it or whatever was put in, it just loses its meaning or its context immediately... and everybody starts making their own versions of it." John would be asked many times during the 1966 tour to clarify what he had intended to say. Lennon explained in Chicago: "My views are only from what I've read or observed of christianity and what it was, and what it has been, or what it could be. It just seems to me to be shrinking. I'm not knocking it or saying it's bad. I'm just saying it seems to be shrinking and losing contact."

In some cities, reporters would ask Lennon to explain the Jesus comment repeatedly -- even multiple times within a single press conference -- baiting him to become upset or to say something even further inflammatory. Knowing their game, John kept his cool.

http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1966.0304-beatles-john-lennon-were-more-popular-than-jesus-now-maureen-cleave.html


On edit: I think Lennon wrote later in the posthumously published Skywriting by Word of Mouth that the backlash in America to what he said was a major reason he stopped touring and preferred creating music in the studio.

[maddiemom]

16. Agree. This backlash against the Beatles never gained traction in my area of the country.

This was before Lennon set out to be controversial, however. I was a college student, rather than a young teenybopper at the time and thought it was an unusually thoughtless statement for him to make. I felt that, perhaps, he wasn't considering peculiarly American sensibilities at the time. Most frightening is that if he made this statement today, he could well be fearing for his life in the modern "Christian" U.S.A.

[Grassy Knoll]

6. Fux Noiz And Their Low Informed Voters..

Didn't get to crucify John Lennon, the way they do Obama.

[4bucksagallon]

7. One thing is clear, even though the Beatles were rich.........

In Jesus's name more money has been stolen from the people than the Beatles earned. Time to tax all religious cults.

[corkhead]

10. Fascinating

the more things change, the more they stay the same. The propaganda Wurlitzer has been in operation longer than many can remember. Fox News keeps it maintained and in operation to this day.

[dipsydoodle]

11. They were English

and back in the day I don't recall anyone here not thinking that the US wasn't completely daft in the head harping, whining , fucking moaning, whatever about something so trivial.

Most people with half a brain understand there really is no such thing a bad publicity.

[jimlup]

12. Just think of the monetary value today of the stuff in that bonfire

[sulphurdunn]

13. I'd forgotten about this flap.

Since thinking about it again, I recall the Beach Boys being cast as the American, cultural anti-thesis to the foreign, anti-Christ Beatles.

[trof]

14. Ha! Doug Layton and Tommy Charles. Birmingham drive time DJs.

I remember listening to them.

[wtmusic]

15. From a PR standpoint a better tack might have been

to simply say, "My comments have been taken out of context," and refuse to answer further questions.

Don't feed the press.

[CanSocDem]

17. He was correct...

...and in todays culture it is probably still true.

The boomer generation was enlightened by the music of the Beatles. As a generation, the values we gleaned from 'the music' were much more valuable in shaping the culture than those espoused by the christians, of the day.

People wanted to dance, wear bright clothes and get high. The Beatles showed us how...

Christianity wanted us to be............quiet.


.

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

18. Well said.....

.....Yeah, yeah, yeah!