'Holy War' on against Beatles 1966

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On Friday, March 4, 1966, John Lennon’s statement “we’re more popular than Jesus now” was published in the London Evening Standard by Maureen Cleave under the title ‘How Does a Beatle Live’. The article drew little attention in Britain, but when part of the interview was published in the US Magazine Datebook on July 29, 1966 it set off a wave of protest in the Southern US Bible Belt that eventually spread around the US. Here are a few newspaper articles from 1966 and the fallout from John’s ‘we’re more popular than Jesus’ statement: see at nonnelnhoj.com

Marc Bolan (T-Rex) Ballrooms of Mars

I received an email to check out the song Ballrooms of Mars by Marc Bolan of T-Rex. The lyrics are quite interesting. How did Bolan know in 1972?

You gonna look fine
Be primed for dancing
You're gonna trip and glide
All on the trembling plane
Your diamond hands
Will be stacked with roses
And wind and cars
And people of the past

Demonic Possession and Exorcism

“This is a story ripe with religious overtones.”
Rev. Charles McGowan from Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church

It was through the act of demonic possession that Satan used Mark Chapman to collect John Lennon’s soul. Mark’s pastor, the Rev. Charles McGowan from Chapel Woods Presbyterian church in Decatur, Georgia, USA, commented after visiting Chapman in prison, “I think spiritual forces of darkness distorted his whole world view—almost whispering to him that this was God’s ordained plan for him to take this evil out of the world. And I attribute that to the devil himself quite frankly.” Mark continually refers to ‘the spiritual matters behind Lennon’s murder’. It is a story that goes to the heart of the Christian faith, one man tempted by self fulfillment and the gains of the material world would stop at nothing to obtain his dream, makes a pact with the devil, all his wishes granted, he is now owed to the Devil. The Devil finds a vehicle to obtain John’s soul in the possession of a child.

As a child only a few months old, Mark had signs of deep agitation within him as though he placed into this world laden with an ancient grudge. As an infant, his body would violently and involuntarily shake and rock, back and forth at times so severe the casters had to be removed from his crib to prevent it from rolling across the room. His mother recalls the rocking behavior carried on into his teenage years. “He would just be rocking back and forth all the time” she said. As a teenager Mark felt the presence of an evil spirit residing in his body. One night while sleeping at a friend’s house he sensed the presence of evil giving him

FINNEGANS WAKE May 4, 1939

On May 4, 1939, the book Finnegans Wake by James Joyce was published, about a year and a half before the birth of John Lennon. In celebration of its publication and mysterious verse we toy with a few of the words, and there are many.

Have you heard of one Humpty Dumpty (1)
How he fell with a roll and a rumble (2)
And curled up like Lord Olofa Crumple
By the butt of the Magazine Wall, (3)
(Chorus) Of the Magazine Wall,
Hump, helmet and all?

He was one time our King of the Castle (4)
Now he's kicked about like a rotten old parsnip (5)
And from Green street he'll be sent by order of His Worship (6)
To the penal jail of Mountjoy (7)
(Chorus) To the jail of Mountjoy!
Jail him and joy.

He was fafafather of all schemes for to bother us
Slow coaches and immaculate contraceptives for the populace, (8)
Mare's milk for the sick, seven dry Sundays a week,
Openair love and religion's reform,
(Chorus) And religious reform,
Hideous in form.

He Beetles Backwards

Backward masking is a sound recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a recording that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process. It was made popular by the Beatles, specifically John Lennon. In his book “Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses (page 170-71), R. Gary Patterson describes:

“It is appropriate that we begin with the Beatles. After all, they were the first to introduce the technique known as backward masking. It was during the recording of “Rain” that John Lennon first became inspired to try a backward vocal track. Lennon mentioned to David Sheff in The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, “I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backward and I sat there transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, ‘I know what to do with it, I know … listen to this?’ So I made them play it backward. The fade is me actually singing backward with the guitars going backward. ‘Sharethsmnowthsmeaness.’””

The technique used by Lennon in the song ‘Rain’ was an intentional reversal. There are other reverse messages in Beatles material that are unintentional – phonetic reversals. It was the Beatles backwards that sparked the worldwide phenomenon Beatles’ death clues (Paul-is-Dead). Backmasking and phonetic reversals have been deemed demonic and Satanic by some. It is another John Lennon generated phenomena.

The Birthplace of Beatlemania

Why the mayhem started and why it was occurring around The Beatles is a question asked from the very beginning of their success. What could possibly explain the rapid, spontaneous, widespread worldwide overreaction to the Beatles? Nothing before or since comes close to equaling the emotional epidemic surrounding the Beatles. Girls went to their concerts and wept uncontrollably; they covered their ears and screamed at the mere sight of the Beatles. Boys as well were lured by their charm. Their audiences were described as hypnotic, spellbound, transfixed and in ecstasy in their presence. The hysteria and mania they evoked left the world dumbfounded. Everywhere they traveled they created bedlam. Their lives were the center of a continuous unrestrained uproar.

The media continually pressed them for an answer:

New York City, February 7, 1964. Q: "What do you think your music does for these people?"

Washington DC, February 11, 1964. Q: "Tell me this. Why do you think you're so popular all of a sudden?"

Melbourne, Australia, June 14, 1964. Q: "In view of the fact that you've had so much experience now with crowd hysteria, are you still at a loss to put your finger on the reason why?"

Q: "Can we ask you to amplify the point, how this hysteria generates? Nobody seems to be able to put their finger on a reason why. It seems to be a combination of things. What do you believe it is?"

New York City, August 28, 1964. Q: "As seriously as you can, how do you account for the type of reception you get?" PAUL: "We can't account for it, you know. We..."

The Beatles Latter-Day Druids

American writer Jean Shephard travelled with the Beatles during their 1964 British tour and described Beatlemania:

“I joined the Beatles in Edinburgh in the midst of a wild, swinging personal appearance tour they were making throughout the British Isles. The first glimpse I had of them was in a tiny, overheated, totally disorganized dressing room backstage between their first and second shows. I had taken the night flight up from London and suddenly found myself face to face with one, or rather four, of the 20th Century’s major living legends. All of them looked up suspiciously as I walked in, then went back to eating, drinking and tuning guitars as though I didn’t exist. Legends have a way of ignoring mere mortals. I looked hard at them through the cigarette smoke, and they began to come into focus, sprawling half-dressed and self-involved amid the continuous uproar that surrounds their lives. They had been playing one-night stands in Glasgow and Dundee, and I went with them from Edinburgh to Plymouth, Bournemouth and half a dozen other towns. They were all the same: wild, ravening multitudes, hundreds of policemen, mad rushes through the night in a black Austin Princess to a carefully guarded inn or chalet for a few fitful hours of sleep. And then the whole cycle started all over again. It became impossible to tell one town from another, since to us they were just a succession of dressing rooms and hotel suites. The screams were the same. It all assumed the ritual quality of a fertility rite. Latter-day druids, the Beatles sat in their dressing room – a plywood Stonehenge-surrounded

IMAGINE The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

The album Imagine was released on September 9 (9th month; 9th day), 1971 (1 + 9 + 7 + 1 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9) of a 9 year. John Lennon admitted the song was "an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted." But not everyone accepted it. When it was released in 1971, Mark Chapman had just gone through a religious conversion and had become a ‘Jesus Freak’. He told his friend Miles McManus that Imagine was a communist song and that Lennon’s message ‘imagine a world with no heaven or religion’ was blasphemy. Mark grew up in the southeastern US Bible belt, Decatur, Georgia, and still held John’s ‘more popular than Jesus’ statement in contempt. He said, “Who the hell are they to compare themselves to Jesus.” Chapman would play the song Imagine on his guitar and sing, "Imagine John Lennon is dead!"

I like the song Imagine, but it is ‘flaming pie in the sky’.

In 1990, William F. Buckley wrote a editorial about the song. He refers to John as ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’.

Sgt. Peppers Album Cover OVERSIGHT?

James Joyce appears on the cover of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album but not officially recognized by The Beatles. On the evening of Thursday, March 30, 1967, The Beatles assembled at Chelsea Manor Studios in London for the photograph. The cover was designed by Peter Blake and includes a collage of people, many selected by The Beatles themselves. There has always been wonder as to who the people on the cover are. In June of 1987, The Beatles released the Sgt Pepper album CD (“it was 20 years ago today” anniversary edition). Along with the CD was a 28 page booklet. On page 2 of the booklet is a black and white drawing of the album cover and numbers denoting persons and items included on the cover. On page 3, under the title, “The crowd assembled…..” is a list of 87 persons and items. Why was James Joyce excluded from the ‘official list’ when his picture is recognizable on the cover? The Lennon Prophecy explores a mystical connection between James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, John Lennon and The Beatles. Joyce’s picture on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album only strengthens that association and it’s rather curious why he is not officially recognized by The Beatles. But apart from the Joyce-Lennon theory, Dublin born James Joyce, on the cover of the Sgt Pepper album, deserves recognition.