The Gospels According to St. John, St. Paul, St. George, and St. Ringo?
A couple of years ago, I was browsing in a bookstore and noticed a fat history of the Beatles, hard cover, sitting near the check-out, really cheap (about 5 bucks). At almost 900 pages, the book (“The Beatles,” by Bob Spitz, Little, Brown & Company, 2005), I figured, would either be incredibly cheap entertainment or would make a good bookend. It turned out to be a great read.
Having come into this world in the late 50s, I was aware of The Beatles, first as a kid and later as a young teen. I remember their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, my older brother being sent home from school because he was wearing “Beatle pants,” and the live global television performance of “All You Need is Love”. But I never really knew much about them – where they came from, how they got their start, how they went about composing their songs, and how, as a group, they came to an end. It is quite a story: four lads from the rougher parts of Liverpool (the “Nazareth” of England), none of whom had any musical training, coming together and rapidly rising to become the greatest rock and roll act that the world had ever seen (sorry Elvis), only to fall apart after a few short years at the top and go their own ways.
Great, great, music, but could you make a Sunday School class about The Beatles? My initial reaction was “No.” After all, none of them were practicing Christians. They certainly were not saints. And, of course, there was that John statement about being more popular than Jesus. But . . . . there is the music . . . .
I have always believed that great works of art – Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple, Moby Dick, Michelangelo’s David – offer some of the strongest proofs that the Divine resides with us and within us. I place the wonderful music and lyrics of Paul McCartney and John Lennon in this category. Paul himself believed that perhaps he had “nicked” his most popular song, Yesterday, from someone or something else. Downloading the lyrics and reading them closely for the first time while listening to the music, it became evident that The Beatles touched upon many universal truths about humans, their relationships with each other, and their search for spiritual meaning. Thus was born the idea of a Sunday School class for teens, entitled The Spiritual Mystery Tour.
I began to see a progression to the Beatles’ music and their lives that parallels the faith journeys of many youth. The Beatles’ musical canon is organized much like gothic architecture: an early period, followed by a middle period, a high period, and a late period. In the early period, the music is upbeat and the lyrics focus on one thing: “relationship love”: as Silas Cabarle so eloquently described it. Listen to “She Loves You,” “Please, Please Me,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and you will see what I mean. Oftentimes, early teens focus on their friends and relationships. However, in the “middle period,” the music of the Beatles becomes more complex and less optimistic. The simple plea of “Love me Do” has been replaced by “Help,” “I’m a Loser,” and “Nowhere Man.” Or, as Ringo put it, “The four of us have had the most hectic lives. We have got almost anything money can buy. But when you can do that, the things you buy mean nothing after a time. You look for something else, for a new experience.” Teens typically have a similar epiphany at some point: it is not all about grades and getting into college and where you stand with your friends.
The Beatles music enters its high period when the group abandons the grind of the touring altogether and exists only in the studio. The search for spiritual meaning becomes a prominent theme. At one extreme is the preacher’s bane, Eleanor Rigby (Father McKenzie’s sermon that no one will hear”), with its rejection of organized religion as a means of spiritual growth. But at the other extreme is All You Need is Love, a resounding vote for peace and understanding. The message to be gained from this period, when George is exploring Eastern religions, John is writing poetry, and Paul is experimenting with all forms of instrumentation, is that each person must find his or her own path to spiritual fulfillment.
And then there is the late period. When the paths of the four musical wonders that make up the Beatles became too divergent, the group could no longer continue. In their final few albums, the Beatles provide use with some of their most poignant expressions of spiritual insight. There is Hey Jude, Across the Universe, Get Back, and Let it Be. And then there is The End:
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make
If the Beatles have a Gospel, or “Good News,” then this is it. Maybe there is a Sunday School class here.
