John Lennon said, "I suppose now what I'm interested in is Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven. I don't know much about it, or really understand it enough to explain it. George knows more. Studying religion has made me try to improve relationships, not to be unpleasant. . . .Drugs have probably helped the understanding of myself better, but not much. . . . But there are much better ways of getting there. I've nothing really against the ideas of Christianity and their ways. I suppose I wouldn't make that remark about Jesus today [the one where he said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus and this caused a great outcry here in the U.S. Even the Klu Klux Klan demonstrated against him]. I think about things differently. I think Buddhism is simple and more logical than Christianity, but I've nothing against Jesus. I'll let Julian [my son] learn all about Jesus when he goes to school, but I'll also tell him there have been lots of other Jesuses. I'll tell him about the Buddhist ones; they're good men as well."

         When John married sculptor and filmmaker Yoko Ono he became politically active for peace. His interest in religion and things spiritual gave way to a broad focus only on this world and its problems. He wrote the widely acclaimed "Imagine". (Note: We sang it as our second hymn.)

Sermon

         I wonder how many of you remember the 1960's and what you think of that time then and in retrospect. In 1962, I was in my mid-teens. Every Saturday night we went with our friends to our local dance hall in the Town Hall. There was a new rock group each Saturday. One night, we were dancing-we called it "bopping" in England-and at first it seemed liked any other Saturday dance. But little by little, we all stopped dancing and just stood on the dance floor and listened. There were three cute guitarists and a drummer. Unlike other groups, they all sang. The songs were simple and when they repeated a song, we found we were able to sing along. I think they were called the Silver Beatles. They may well have been The Beatles who would soon become too famous to come to such a small city ever again. Let's have a look at the story of their success and their personal development that spanned an action-packed phenomenon of only eight years.

         Who would have thought that John, Paul, and 15 year-old George had begun as a 1950's "skiffle" group using a wash board and brush with a string for instruments? They spent hours and days practicing and tried to get paid gigs. They were only one of hundreds of Merseyside rock groups who were trying to make it big. When George left school the following year, they went on tour as backup to more famous acts. They worked hard for very little money and sometimes got no pay at all on the whim of the club owner.

         They went to Hamburg, Germany to earn five times what they were earning in England and Scotland. So, in 1960, they packed up and went to Hamburg. They had to play 18 hours straight each day. They ate lunch and dinner on stage. Hamburg is where they were introduced to pills that kept them awake. Nevertheless, their musical ability greatly increased and John and Paul began writing songs collaboratively. A young German photographer and poet, Astrid, persuaded the four to cut their hair into what they called a mop top. This gave them the distinctive look we know so well. They returned to England late in 1960 after the German police forced them to go home.

         In December 1961, a record storeowner, Brian Epstein, offered to be their manager for 25% of their future earnings. Brian immediately set about changing their image. First, they were to always wear identical, good quality suits on stage. Next, they were to bow to the audience after every song. They were to be very polite in public and to the fans. And they were to never eat on stage! He gave them a "clean cut" image. Brian worked hard to find a recording studio in London that would give the Beatles a chance. These were the days when artists recorded songs on a single small disc called a 45; one song on side A and one on side B.

         Finally, in September of 1962 The Beatles recorded "Love Me Do." (Track #1, We listened to about 1 minute.) At first, there was little response from the public in the U.K. but the more the song was played on the radio, the more were sold. The record company risked a second recording in January 1963, this time the song was "From Me to You". This was a greater success. (Track #02, again, we listened to about 1 minute). And in April 1963, an album was made with songs like Twist and Shout, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and I Saw Her Standing There. What characterized these first songs in my opinion are that they were sweet, happy, and romantic, and most important--singable for us. Paul said this was their Cute Period.

         By the time Ed Sullivan had the Beatles on his show for three consecutive weeks in 1964, they were already the most popular group in the world. But a strange thing was beginning to happen-screaming. Young girls in countries across the world would scream throughout their performances. I recently watched the video of these Sullivan shows and it was amazing to see the obvious hysteria. Was this response the turning point from one cultural period to another, culminating in the pulling away from tradition? Where I lived, there was no such behavior.

         The Beatles' concert schedule across the world was grueling for the next two years. They all became tired of the screaming for they could no longer hear one another play.

         In 1965, a shift took place in their lyrics. They were melancholy and thoughtful. John wrote a song called "Help" and in retrospect felt it was his own cry for help. (Track #10, we played this through.)

         The group's enthusiasm around working together was beginning to disintegrate. Paul, too, expressed his concern in music in the song called "We Can Work It Out." (Track #13, we listened to most of this.) Good record sales meant they didn't have to give as many concerts as before and so they were able to work on more satisfying music. They also did a few movies, which was a good change of pace for them all. During a movie, George became interested in the sitar that an Indian musician was playing. He also became interested in Indian philosophy and spiritual practices. He excitedly told the group that Swami Dayananda "Opposed the whole idea of having borders between countries and even issued us all with Planet Earth passports." George became vegetarian and went to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar in India.

         John said that he suffered from depression but work kept it at bay. Work gave life meaning. He seems to have been rather cynical while also needing to find a deeper place within himself. He said, "It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer. . .My first expression of it was a song called The Word. The word is 'love'. . . .It seems like the underlying theme to the universe. Everything that was worthwhile got down to this love, love, love thing. And it is the struggle to love, be loved and express love that's fantastic. . .Even though I'm not always a loving person, I want to be that; I want to be as loving as possible." (p. 193, Anthology)

         Paul said, "The Word" could be a Salvation Army song. The Word is 'love' but it could be Jesus; it isn't but it could be. They began to write less for their fans than for themselves. (p. 193, Anthology.

         By their own admission, they were taking too many pills-uppers, too much pot, and beginning to drop acid (LSD). By 1968, they were all spiritually bereft and decided to go to India with George to visit the Maharishi Mahesh to learn Transcendental Meditation. They intended to learn it and teach it to the world. They trekked into the Himalayas and stayed in meditation huts. Ringo and his wife left after two weeks with upset stomachs. (He had taken two suitcases of Heinz Baked Beans with him. Paul and John benefited from the daily meditation and the alone time. John meditated for five days and wrote hundreds of songs. He felt many were his best songs and they were about melancholy and loneliness and suicide. He said, "That's how I felt up there trying to reach God and feeling suicidal. You can take drugs or get drunk, do whatever, but you're just suppressing the feelings…There is no contentment, joy or pain. There's just this dream of constant joy…Pain, is something like food in a way…[Painful feelings] go into your body and unless you feel it or express it, it remains there…There's no escape from it, it's there, in your body somewhere. It'll come out in your nerves or how many cigarettes you smoke or what you do…I think we all go through heaven and hell every day. To feel is to live… There was a competition [in the camp in the Himalayas] to see who would get cosmic first. (What I didn't know was I was already cosmic.)" (p.284, Anthology) John and Paul left after one month. John wanted to get back to Yoko. George stayed longer. They all felt meditation was good and they all practiced it to some degree.

         Their dissatisfaction with being a group grew and there was constant talk of disbanding. They made their best songs at this time with greater depth, complexity, and feeling. In their last album together in 1970, Paul wrote and sang "Let It Be". (Track #26, we listened to most of this. John was already doing his own recordings, including the song "Imagine," which we sang earlier (the second hymn).

         What made the Beatles so very popular-not just their music but their personalities. There was barely a time during 1964 to 1970 when they weren't front-page news. Their official biographer, Hunter Davies said, "By some mysterious alchemy, their differing talents and personalities intermingled [in a way] that was so much finer and stronger and more original than the sum of their parts…. They prided themselves on being uneducated, untouched, uninfluenced." (p. 376-377 Anthology)

         Personally, I think it was also equally their freshness, their honesty, and their willingness to let us see clearly their growth. As to their theology: I believe they were very much like Unitarian Universalists-they claimed the freedom to make it up as they go along while reflecting on their current experience and understanding. Their scriptural source was our first source-Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures... They each in their own way turned to a mystical way of being religious. John dedicated his final years to political activity for a more peaceful world. Perhaps he said it all when he said, "I am already cosmic."

         Being "cosmic" after all is seeing the oneness in all life. May we also continue our individual search for truth and meaning and listen openheartedly to one another's views, no matter how diverse for in this shared listening, we will hear the oneness that underlies our search.

References

         The following informed and inspired this sermon

         An Anthology

         Davies, Hunter. The Beatles, New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.

         Hertsgaard, Mark. A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles, New York, N.Y: Delacourt Press, 1995.

         Pritchard, David & Lysaght, Alan. The Beatles: an Oral History, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, 1998.

         "1 The Beatles", a CD of the Beatles' top 21 hits by EMI Records Ltd., released in 2000. Note that this is the CD I used during the delivery of this sermon.

         Videotape: "The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit" (borrowed from the Fairhaven Library.