The history of rock and roll—filled with stories of sex, drugs, rebellion, more sex, and more drugs—appears rather divorced from religion. But rock and roll is also about religion. At least that’s what I tell my students. The Beatles’ music explored love and self-discovery as youth moved away from conventional religion. Speaking Words of Wisdom: The Beatles and Religion is an elegant attempt to explore how each member explored ultimate meaning. Within this curious mix of sex, drugs, and rock emerged a longing for truth, spirituality, and the fast road to stardom. Throughout these essays, each author examines the inner lives of four musicians who became the reluctant sages of a generation. In short, the Beatles represent “the most significant artistic expression of the search for meaning amid the decline of traditional Western Christianity” (16).
Edited by Michael McGowan, the collection begins by situating the Beatles within a larger history marked by religious anxiety and upheaval. The introduction references how Dionysian culture, pluralism, Timothy Leary’s chemical quest, and Nietzsche’s “death of God” all developed into a secular gospel. McGowan foregrounds the discussion with a brief nod to Transcendental Meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, Krishna consciousness, and the growing disenchantment with systems of . . . anything. Contributions by Millia Davis and David Bedford offer a journey into the Beatles’ childhood, setting the stage with the medieval history of Liverpool, a city later steeped in squabbles marked by immigration, poverty, and sectarianism. Despite having been raised in a traditional environment, members of the group developed their own sensibilities, ranging from agnosticism to pluralism.
In the third chapter, Kenneth Campbell offers insight into Paul McCartney, whose cheery demeanor echoed throughout his bouncy pop hits. We are then reminded of the band’s journey into marijuana, LSD, and the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (71). Here Campbell gets into the weeds as he interprets the music, Paul’s bout with existential angst, and his mother’s passing. “See, the prayers didn’t work!” the fourteen-year-old McCartney cried when his mother died, the pain of loss then revisited with the passing of his wife, Harrison, and Lennon, each occurrence playing a part in McCartney’s evolving spirituality (74).
In chapter 4, Eyal Regev examines Lennon’s life as recapped in songs and statements, many of them entangling Lennon in a barrage of public controversies. Regev's account of the infamous “we’re more popular than Jesus” quip is used to remind us that Lennon’s faux pa was intended as commentary on the state of religion among British youth, though it still led to album burnings, protest, and ultimately his assassination (83). The author elegantly includes Max Weber and William James as analytical wingmen to interpret Lennon’s emerging gospel of love (21, 89, 166-167). “All I’m saying is peace . . . We are trying to make Christ’s message contemporary. We want Christ to win” (90, italics in the original). The depiction of Lennon’s worldview is consistent with the sentiment of various “spiritualities” that seemed commonplace among counter culturalists.
In the fifth chapter, John Covach recounts George Harrison’s lifelong intrigue with Eastern philosophy and its slow leakage into the mainstream. Throughout chapter 6, McGowan’s account of Ringo Starr’s addiction and recovery go hand-in-hand with religious rhetoric, and Starr’s story is a curious contrast to the other three members. Starr’s time spent in Alcoholics Anonymous places him in a different category, as he embraced what McGowan calls “metaphysical dualism” (124).
In chapter 7, Scott Freer argues that the music of the Beatles offered a kind of “self-emptying,” a concept that attempts to connect Christ to the countercultural ethos explored through “psychedelic drugs, psychotherapy, mysticism, medication, and mind expansion” (134). And this leads to what seems to be his point. Dropping Friedrich Nietzsche into the mix, Freer makes a compelling point about the band, suggesting they represented a “reintegration of the Apollonian and Dionysian duality necessary for a social organism” (150). Freer rightly contends that the band seemed to trigger an intense mania (“clinical Dionysian mass hysteria”), though I am not sure I agree that they reestablished the British Empire as a “modern force,” as Sean MacLeod suggests in chapter 8. However, MacLeod’s contribution makes a compelling case that the Beatles “perfectly reflected the soul of the new society,” culminating in what is noted as “androgyny and the new Adam” (152, 157, 159).
It comes as no surprise that pop stars are often viewed as religious luminaries. In the case of the Beatles, according to Grant Maxwell (chapter 9), there was a “convergence between rock and roll and religion” (166), as they were “disciples of Elvis . . . missionaries for the return of affective intuition mediated by rock and roll” (167). This leads to Mark Duffett’s exploration (chapter 10) of the dark history surrounding Charles Manson’s interpretation of the White Album, recounting apocalypticism, racism, and the “Paul is dead” conspiracy, ending with Freudian theories of family dynamics about Oedipal entrapment (191, 192). Christiane Meiser’s coverage of the film Yesterday is captivating. In chapter 11, she explores a film about a global blackout that erases the Beatles from history, leaving only the protagonist with knowledge of their songs.
The text winds down with a ghost story and the editor’s conclusion. Murray Leeder’s compelling title “Necrolennonolarty: The Postmortem Adventures of John Lennon” in chapter 12 foreshadows what is an investigation into spiritualism and speculations about Lennon’s political evolution in the afterlife, a titillating final essay, followed by Michael McGowan’s conclusion; a bit anticlimactic, but it stays with the general theme. While the ending is not a summary of the previous chapters, McGowan gestures toward the greater thematic impact of the band. With an inestimable cultural impact, the Beatles exemplified religion and anti-religion and—along with the world’s great wisdom traditions—encouraged us to live “all together now” (230).
This collection provides a fascinating insight into one of the most interesting musical groups of all time. The essays are strong enough to launch a curious reader in the direction of the important sources.
Shawn David Young is an associate professor of music at York College of Pennsylvania.
Shawn Young
Date Of Review:
December 27, 2024