Turner, Steve. Louisville,
KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006. 254 pp., $19.95 (USD). ISBN: 0664229832
(cloth).
[1] The Beatles were spiritual
apostles of sorts who may not have explicitly sought converts, but they
evangelized a kind of gospel that resonated with numerous devotees across a
broad spectrum of beliefs. That is the essence of the richly detailed The
Gospel According to the Beatles, by veteran
British music writer Steve Turner. Turner provides remarkable depth and range
in exploring the individual spiritual sides of John, Paul, George and Ringo,
and their collective and confused religiosity that both reflected their culture
at the time and helped transform it.
[2] Turner is a prolific music
writer whose previous books include A Hard Day’s Write: Stories Behind Every
Beatles Song (Carlton, 1999?), The
Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend (Thomas Nelson, 2005), and Hungry
for Heaven: Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Search for Redemption (Intervarsity Press, 1995). In his latest work, he
offers a comprehensive look at the complicated personal and collective faith
struggles of each of the Beatles. Turner combines the investigative skills of
a reporter with the diligence of an historian as he cuts through some of the
myths and mysticism that surround any discussion of the Beatles and religion.
He traces the religious roots of each Beatle and painstakingly explores their
personal wanderings in and out of various Eastern religions with different
degrees of enthusiasm. He returns to familiar and oft-quoted comments about how
the group was regarded by conservative Christian groups after Lennon remarked
that the Christianity was dying and that Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
[3] LSD and other drugs get
considerable credit for the group’s spiritual awakening. Turner notes that the
Beatles were initially a bit prudish about psychedelic drugs—McCartney,
in particular—but seemed comfortable with pot, whose effects were not as
dramatic. Harrison and Lennon were the first of the group to experiment with
LSD. The occasion, Turner chronicles, was a dinner they attended with their
partners Pattie Boyd and Cynthia Lennon and dentist John Riley. After a meal at
Riley’s home, Riley gave the couples LSD-soaked sugar lumps in their coffee,
apparently without telling them. The impact was almost immediate, Turner
writes, and “it was initially a disturbing experience, with furniture
apparently shrinking and elongating before their eyes and colors burning with a
violent intensity” (115). The role of LSD was profound; in 1970, Turner
writes, Lennon said, “God isn’t in a pill, but LSD explained the mystery of
life. It was a religious experience” (111).
[4] The experience of having fame,
fortune, and all the drugs and material goods they desired sparked a religious
hunger in all four Beatles. In different ways, they felt emptiness, and Turner
chronicles their search for more and deeper meaning to their lives. He recounts
their visits with gurus and spiritual masters, and pilgrimages to India, San
Francisco, and other places where they sought some enlightenment. In many
cases, Turner writes, the Beatles found that others were looking to them for
spiritual guidance, a concept that both flattered and frightened them. “The
youth of today” says Lennon in 1967, “are really looking for some answers, for
proper answers the established church can’t give them, their parents can’t give
them, material things can’t give them” (134). In the most horrific expression
of this, Turner recounts, Charles Manson thought “the Beatles were addressing
him in their songs, urging him to bring on the end of the world” (167). Manson
perverted the message—or gospel, as it were—that the Beatles were
spreading. With songs such as “All You Need is Love” and “Let it Be,” for
example, they were expressing beliefs much closer to their Christian roots than
perhaps they would like to have acknowledged.
[5] Ultimately, during and after
their breakup, each of the Beatles continued his exploration for spiritual
meaning even as diverse groups of fans frantically scrutinized their songs for
guidance and direction. As they aged and matured, they wrestled with a great
restlessness that spurred them on past the fame and rancor to try to fill the
emptiness they felt. Said Harrison said in 1998, “Everything else can wait,
but the search for God cannot wait.”
Thomas M. Mullen
The University of
Richmond
tmullen@richmond.edu
