#candy leonard

Fans followed John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s peace campaign with great interest— a compelling spin- off that tickled fans’ Beatles- cultivated appreciation for spectacle. Lennon’s appearance was Christlike and larger than life, as he towered over Ono by nine inches. Lennon understood that modern media and demographics had given him the largest platform any communicator ever had in the history of the world, and his identification with Jesus may have fueled his responsibility to use it for good. This identification was also expressed in the chorus of “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” which once again asks fans to consider Lennon in a religionish, even if humorous, context. A male fan, 13 at the time, said, “Only Lennon would have the balls to sing about being Jesus and getting crucified.” Fans “appreciated that they were using their position to call attention to something, rather than just being celebrities,” and thought it was “brilliant.”

In the summer of ’66, the Beatles entered what Ian Inglis calls their “men of ideas” stage, when interviewers spent increasingly more time asking about the band’s views on issues of the day, such as the war in Vietnam, the decriminalization of marijuana, and the possibilities of religious exploration, and less time talking about their music. This progression demonstrates the band’s increasing cultural authority. In addition, the opinions they expressed would be embraced, or at least considered, by millions of young people around the world.

In Tomorrow Never Knows, Nick Bromell correctly observes that the significance of Beatlemania has been overlooked by a half century of (predominantly male) analysis, which “marvels” at its “orphic force” yet “condescends” to the girls who created it. It was, after all, fan experiences and perceptions that created Beatlemania and established the foundation for everything that came later. The “Beatlemania years” (1964– 1966) were the period of accruing authority and fan trust; the “studio years” (late 1966– 1970) were the period of acting on that authority as the acknowledged leaders of the counterculture. The transition between these periods occurred in the spring of 1966 with the release of “Nowhere Man” and the Jesus kerfuffle.

In Can’t Buy Me Love, Jonathan Gould notes that “the zeal of Beatlemaniacs” was compared to “that of religious devotees” and offers several examples of the religion- infused language surrounding early Beatlemania. In 1964, Newsweek said the Beatles were “a band of evangelists, whose gospel is fun.” Variety wrote, “Lo! Beatles Descend from the Sky for Apotheosis in Frisco.” Writing in the Partisan Review, albeit somewhat tongue- in- cheek, Jonathan Miller said that the Beatles “have become a religion in fact.” Al Aronowitz, writing in the widely read Saturday Evening Post, quoted press agent Derek Taylor’s reaction to the Beatles’ reception in Australia, saying, “it was as if some savior had arrived and all these people were happy and relieved.” Observing the fervor, Rev. David Noebel, a Baptist minister, authored a pamphlet called Communism, Hypnotism, and the Beatles, warning of the need to protect children and the nation from the “four mopheaded anti- Christ beatniks.”