FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 49 THE BEATLES (Part A, The Meaning of Stg. Pepper’s Cover) (Feature on artist Mika Tajima)

On the cover of SGT. PEPPER’S they are viewing the burial scene of the Beatles and  it represents according to  R. A. Sungenis the passing of idealistic innocence and the failure to find a rational answer and meaning to life, an answer to love, purpose, significance and morals. They instead were leaping into the irrational, whether it was by drugs, the occult, suicide, or the bizarre.

 

I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking and writing about them and their impact on the culture of the 1960’s. In this series we have looked at several areas in life where the Beatles looked for meaning and hope but also we have examined some of the lives of those  writers, artists, poets, painters, scientists, athletes, models, actors,  religious leaders, musicians, comedians, and philosophers  that were put on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. We have discovered that many of these individuals on the cover have even taken a Kierkegaardian leap into the area of nonreason in order to find meaning for their lives and that is the reason I have included the 27 minute  episode THE AGE OF NONREASON by Francis Schaeffer. In that video Schaeffer noted,  ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings.”

 Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album really did look at every potential answer to meaning in life and to as many people as the Beatles could imagine had the answers to life’s big questions. One of the persons on the cover did have access to those answers and I am saving that person for last in this series on the Beatles. 

Great Album

The Beatles are featured in this episode below and Schaeffer noted,  ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world.”

How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason)

It Was 20 Years Ago Today Documentary

Published on Jun 8, 2012

The beginning of the 1987 documentary that examines the Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967. This beginning is not included on the YouTube version that is already posted, so here it is.

_______________________

I really enjoyed this article by Dr. Robert A. Sungenis who was a personal friend of Francis Schaeffer and below I have included an excerpt he did on the Beatles. You want to know what the cover means? Sungenis tells us:

On the front cover are all the famous “Lonely Hearts” of the world who also could not find answers to life with reason and rationality, resorting to the existential leap into the dark (e.g ., Marlene Dietrich, Carl Jung, W.C. Fields, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Lenny Bruce). They are all viewing the burial scene of the Beatles, which, in the
framework we are using here, represents the passing of idealistic innocence and the failure to find a rational answer and meaning
to life, an answer to love, purpose, significance and morals. They instead were leaping into the irrational, whether it was by drugs, the occult, suicide, or
the bizarre.
Robert A. Sungenis, Ph.D.
My thanks to Christian philosopher, Dr. Francis Schaeffer, for
much of the information contained herein, and with whom I personally communicated
on these topics before his death in 1984.
We see similar existential expressions in groups such as the
Beatles. Although like Debussy their early music is catchy, innocent and
very melodic, after they had been through the phases of philosophical thinking and felt a necessity to teach it to the world, their later music became mystical, openly advocating the use of drugs to make the leap into the irrational, for they found that the innocent world of the rational that they had frolicked in previously, provided no real answers to life.
Man was a machine in the rational world. This philosophy was expressed on a popular level in the famous
album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in which LSD was openly
promoted as a religious answer to life. It has been ranked as the greatest
album of all time, by the Rolling Stone.

(   In 1997 Sgt. Pepper was named the number 1 greatest album of all time in a ‘Music of the Millennium’ poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4,The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998 Q magazine readers placed it at number 7, while in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 10;[26] In 2003, the album was ranked number 1 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.  )

On the front cover are all the famous “Lonely Hearts” of the world who also could not find answers to life with reason and rationality, resorting to the existential leap into the dark (e.g ., Marlene Dietrich, Carl Jung, W.C. Fields, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Lenny Bruce).
They are all viewing the burial scene of the Beatles, which, in the
framework we are using here, represents the passing of idealistic
innocence and the failure to find a rational answer and meaning
to life, an answer to love, purpose, significance and morals. They instead
were leaping into the irrational, whether it was by drugs, the occult, suicide, or
the bizarre.
Another form of this same theme appeared in the Theatre of the Absurd
developed by Marshall McLuhan (d. 1980). It goes way beyond the expressions of absurdity in Sartre’s philosophy. It
deliberately uses abnormal syntax and a devaluation of words to express
all the more loudly that everything is absurd. It then tries to have the
participant leap into a mystical world, just as the existentialists tried to
do with their irrational “Final Experience.” Leonard Bernstein
was also part of this movement. His Third Symphony
with the New York Philharmonic, sought the same leap into the irrational.
Although like Debussy and the Beatles, Bernstein’s early works
were somewhat entertaining (e.g., 1957 play West Side Story
of which Bernstein wrote the musical score), others were very mystical in style,
such as his 1963 Kaddish Symphony. The Kaddish was an ancient prayer for the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of his kingdom.  Bernstein, who is Jewish, calls the music hall where he performed the  concert “the sacred house,” and claims that it will “create you, Father, and you, me,” as if somehow God and our knowledge of of him is created by his music.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

Published on Apr 25, 2013

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / With A Little Help From My Friends
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” 1967

The Beatles- A Day in the Life

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds- The Beatles

__________________

T h e AGE OF NON-REASON

I. Optimism Of Older Humanist Philosophers:

The unity and true knowledge of reality defined as starting from Man alone.

II. Shift in Modern Philosophy

A. Eighteenth century as the vital watershed.

B. Rousseau: ideas and influence.

1. Rousseau and autonomous freedom.

2. Personal freedom and social necessity clash in Rousseau.

3. Rousseau’s influence.

a) Robespierre and the ideology of the Terror.

b) Gauguin, natural freedom, and disillusionment.

C. DeSade: If nature is the absolute, cruelty equals non-cruelty.

D. Impossible tension between autonomous freedom and autonomous reasons conclusion that the universe and people are a part of the total cosmic machine.

E. Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard and their followers sought for a unity but they did not solve the problem.

1. After these men and their followers, there came an absolute break between the area of meaning and values, and the area of reason.

2. Now humanistic philosophy sees reason as always leading to pessimism; any hope of optimism lies in non-reason.

III. Existentialism and Non-Reason

A. French existentialism.

1. Total separation of reason and will: Sartre.

2. Not possible to live consistently with this position.

B. German existentialism.

1. Jaspers and the “final experience.”

2. Heidegger and angst.

C. Influence of existentialism.

1. As a formal philosophy it is declining.

2. As a generalized attitude it dominates modern thought.

IV. Forms of Popularization of Nonrational Experience

A. Drug experience.

1. Aldous Huxley and “truth inside one’s head.”

2. Influence of rock groups in spreading the drug culture; psychedelic rock.

B. Eastern religious experience: from the drug trip to the Eastern religious trip.

C. The occult as a basis for “hope” in the area of non-reason.

V. Theological Liberalism and Existentialism

A. Preparation for theological existentialism.

1. Renaissance’s attempt to “synthesize” Greek philosophers and Christianity; religious liberals’ attempt to “synthesize” Enlightenment and Christianity.

2. Religious liberals denied supernatural but accepted reason.

3. Schweitzer’s demolition of liberal aim to separate the natural from the supernatural in the New Testament.

B. Theological existentialism.

1. Intellectual failure of rationalist theology opened door to theological existentialism.

2. Barth brought the existential methodology into theology.

a) Barth’s teaching led to theologians who said that the Bible is not true in the areas of science and history, but they nevertheless look for a religious experience from it.

b) For many adherents of this theology, the Bible does not give absolutes in regard to what is right or wrong in human behavior.

3. Theological existentialism as a cul-de-sac.

a) If Bible is divorced from its teaching concerning the cosmos and history, its values can’t be applied to a historic situation in either morals or law; theological pronouncements about morals or law are arbitrary.

b) No way to explain evil or distinguish good from evil. Therefore, these theologians are in same position as Hindu philosophers (as illustrated by Kali).

c) Tillich, prayer as reflection, and the deadness of “god.”

d) Religious words used for manipulation of society.

VI. Conclusion

With what Christ and the Bible teach, Man can have life instead of death—in having knowledge that is more than finite Man can have from himself.

Questions

1. What is the difference between theologians and philosophers of the rationalist tradition and those of the existentialist tradition?

2. “If the early church had embraced an existentialist theology, it would have been absorbed into the Roman pantheon.” It didn’t. Why not?

3. “It is true that existentialist theology is foreign to biblical religion. But biblical religion was the product of a particular culture and, though useful for societies in the same cultural stream, it is no longer suitable for an age in which an entire range of world cultures requires a common religious denominator. Religious existentialism provides that, without losing the universal instinct for the holy.” Study this statement carefully. What assumptions are betrayed by it?

4. Can you isolate attitudes and tendencies in yourself, your church, and your community which reflect the “existentialist methodology” described by Dr. Schaeffer?

Key Events and Persons

Rousseau: 1712-1778

Kant: 1724-1804

Marquis de Sade: 1740-1814

The Social Contract: 1762

Hegel: 1770-1831

Kierkegaard: 1813-1855

Paul Gauguin: 1848-1903

Whence, What Whither?: 1897-1898

Albert Schweitzer: 1875-1965

Quest for the Historical Jesus: 1906

Karl Jaspers: 1883-1969

Paul Tillich: 1886-1965

Karl Barth: 1886-1968

Martin Heidegger: 1889-1976

Aldous Huxley: 1894-1963

J.P. Sartre: 1905-1980

Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper: 1967

Further Study

Unless already familiar with them, take time to listen to the Beatles’ records, as well as to discs put out by other groups at the time.

Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942).

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954).

Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762).

J.P. Sartre, Nausea (1938).

Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be (1952).

Following Rousseau, the exaggeration of the delights and the pathos of nature and experience which marks Romanticism may be sampled in, for example, Wordsworth’s poems, Casper David Friedrich’s paintings, and Schubert’s songs.

J.G. Fichte, Addresses to the German Nation (1968).

J.W. von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1962).

Erich Heller, The Disinherited Mind (1952).

The Beatles:

How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason)

She’s Leaving Home- The Beatles

Uploaded on Jan 19, 2009

She’s Leaving Home
The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper’s

Wednesday morning at five o’clock as the day begings
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief
Quietly turing the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (We gave her most of our lives)
is leaving (Sacraficed most of our lives)
home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that’s lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby’s gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me.
She (We never though of ourselves)
Is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Friday morning at nine o’clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She What did we do that was wrong
Is having We didn’t know it was wrong
Fun Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. Bye, Bye
She’s leaving home bye bye

__________________

Francis Schaeffer pictured below:

_______________-

Francis Schaeffer has written extensively on art and culture spanning the last 2000 years and here are some posts I have done on this subject before : Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation”episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” episode 6 “The Scientific Age” , episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” episode 4 “The Reformation” episode 3 “The Renaissance”episode 2 “The Middle Ages,”, and  episode 1 “The Roman Age,” . My favorite episodes are number 7 and 8 since they deal with modern art and culture primarily.(Joe Carter rightly noted,Schaefferwho always claimed to be an evangelist and not a philosopher—was often criticized for the way his work oversimplified intellectual history and philosophy.” To those critics I say take a chill pill because Schaeffer was introducing millions into the fields of art and culture!!!! !!! More people need to read his works and blog about them because they show how people’s worldviews affect their lives!

J.I.PACKER WROTE OF SCHAEFFER, “His communicative style was not that of a cautious academic who labors for exhaustive coverage and dispassionate objectivity. It was rather that of an impassioned thinker who paints his vision of eternal truth in bold strokes and stark contrasts.Yet it is a fact that MANY YOUNG THINKERS AND ARTISTS…HAVE FOUND SCHAEFFER’S ANALYSES A LIFELINE TO SANITY WITHOUT WHICH THEY COULD NOT HAVE GONE ON LIVING.”

Francis Schaeffer’s works  are the basis for a large portion of my blog posts and they have stood the test of time. In fact, many people would say that many of the things he wrote in the 1960’s  were right on  in the sense he saw where our western society was heading and he knew that abortion, infanticide and youth enthansia were  moral boundaries we would be crossing  in the coming decades because of humanism and these are the discussions we are having now!)

There is evidence that points to the fact that the Bible is historically true as Schaeffer pointed out in episode 5 of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? There is a basis then for faith in Christ alone for our eternal hope. This link shows how to do that.

Francis Schaeffer in Art and the Bible noted, “Many modern artists, it seems to me, have forgotten the value that art has in itself. Much modern art is far too intellectual to be great art. Many modern artists seem not to see the distinction between man and non-man, and it is a part of the lostness of modern man that they no longer see value in the work of art as a work of art.” 

Many modern artists are left in this point of desperation that Schaeffer points out and it reminds me of the despair that Solomon speaks of in Ecclesiastes.  Christian scholar Ravi Zacharias has noted, “The key to understanding the Book of Ecclesiastes is the term ‘under the sun.’ What that literally means is you lock God out of a closed system, and you are left with only this world of time plus chance plus matter.” THIS IS EXACT POINT SCHAEFFER SAYS SECULAR ARTISTS ARE PAINTING FROM TODAY BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED ARE A RESULT OF MINDLESS CHANCE.

There is evidence that points to the fact that the Bible is historically true as Schaeffer pointed out in episode 5 of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACEThere is a basis then for faith in Christ alone for our eternal hope. This link shows how to do that.

The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)

You want some evidence that indicates that the Bible is true? Here is a good place to start and that is taking a closer look at the archaeology of the Old Testament times. Is the Bible historically accurate? Here are some of the posts I have done in the past on the subject: 1. The Babylonian Chronicleof Nebuchadnezzars Siege of Jerusalem2. Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription. 3. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib Hexagonal Prism)4. Biblical Cities Attested Archaeologically. 5. The Discovery of the Hittites6.Shishak Smiting His Captives7. Moabite Stone8Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III9A Verification of places in Gospel of John and Book of Acts., 9B Discovery of Ebla Tablets10. Cyrus Cylinder11. Puru “The lot of Yahali” 9th Century B.C.E.12. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription13. The Pilate Inscription14. Caiaphas Ossuary14 B Pontius Pilate Part 214c. Three greatest American Archaeologists moved to accept Bible’s accuracy through archaeology.

__________________________________

Lovely Rita- The Beatles

Uploaded on Jan 22, 2009

Lovely Rita
The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper’s

Lyrics
Lovely Rita meter maid
Lovely Rita meter maid

Lovely Rita meter maid,
Nothing can come between us.
When it gets dark I tow your heart away.

Standing by a parking meter,
When I caught a glimpse of Rita,
Filling in a ticket in her little white book.
In a cap she looked much older,
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man.

Lovely Rita meter maid,
May I inquire discreetly,
When are you free to take some tea with me?
(Rita!)

Took her out and tried to win her.
Had a laugh and over dinner,
Told her I would really like to see her again.
Got the bill and Rita paid it.
Took her home I nearly made it,
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two.

Oh, lovely Rita meter maid,
Where would I be without you?
Give us a wink and make me think of you.

September 19, 2011

By Elvis Costello

My absolute favorite albums are Rubber Soul and Revolver. On both records you can hear references to other music — R&B, Dylan, psychedelia — but it’s not done in a way that is obvious or dates the records. When you picked up Revolver, you knew it was something different. Heck, they are wearing sunglasses indoors in the picture on the back of the cover and not even looking at the camera . . . and the music was so strange and yet so vivid. If I had to pick a favorite song from those albums, it would be “And Your Bird Can Sing” . . . no, “Girl” . . . no, “For No One” . . . and so on, and so on. . . .

Their breakup album, Let It Be, contains songs both gorgeous and jagged. I suppose ambition and human frailty creeps into every group, but they delivered some incredible performances. I remember going to Leicester Square and seeing the film of Let It Be in 1970. I left with a melancholy feeling.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band- The Beatles

Uploaded on Jan 18, 2009

Title- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Band- The Beatles
Album- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Lyrics
It was twenty years ago today,
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
They’ve been going in and out of style
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The act you’ve known for all these years,
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
We’re Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
We hope you will enjoy the show,
We’re Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
Sit back and let the evening go.
Sgt. Pepper’s lonely, Sgt. Pepper’s lonely,
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It’s wonderful to be here,
It’s certainly a thrill.
You’re such a lovely audience,
We’d like to take you home with us,
We’d love to take you home.
I don’t really want to stop the show,
But I thought that you might like to know,
That the singer’s going to sing a song,
And he wants you all to sing along.
So let me introduce to you
The one and only Billy Shears
And Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

60

‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
John Downing/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: February 1 and 2, March 3 and 6, 1967
Released: June 2, 1967
Not released as a single

The Beatles were looking for a way to kill their old Fab Four image altogether by late 1966, and McCartney had an idea: “I thought, ‘Let’s not be ourselves,'” he said, and suggested that they invent a fake band. “Everything about the album,” McCartney said, “will be imagined from the perspective of these people, so it doesn’t have to be the kind of song youwant to write, it could be the song they might want to write.” McCartney proposed the mock-Victorian-era “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (the name came from a joke with roadie Mal Evans about salt and pepper packets), and he wrote a title song to introduce the premise at the album’s outset: a fiery piece of psychedelic hard rock. The Beatles were all fans of Jimi Hendrix; McCartney saw Hendrix play two nights before they recorded “Pepper.” Hendrix was paying attention right back: He played “Pepper” to open his live show in London two days after the album’s U.S. release.

Appears On: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles-I Want You (She’s So Heavy) [HD]

Uploaded on Mar 15, 2010

The Beatles
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Abbey Road
Remastered 2009
The Beatles©

59

‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Simpson/Express/Getty Images

Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: February 22, April 18 and 20, August 8 and 11, 1969
Released: October 1, 1969
Not released as a single

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was the first track started for Abbey Road and one of the last completed. It’s a mass of overdubbed guitars, with a slow-building wall of white noise generated by Harrison’s brand-new Moog synthesizer (“I had to have mine made specially,” he said, “because Mr. Moog had only just invented it”), supplemented with Starr spinning a wind machine found in the studio’s instrument closet.

Lennon’s lyrics were an experiment in minimalism — for much of the song, he just repeats the lines “I want you/I want you so bad” over and over. “‘She’s So Heavy’ was about Yoko,” he told Rolling Stone. “When you’re drowning, you don’t say, ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me.’ You just scream.” At the mixing session, Lennon told stunned engineer Geoff Emerick to abruptly cut the tape in the middle of a bar, creating the startling end to the first side of Abbey Road.

Appears On: Abbey Road

58

‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: June 14, 1965
Released: December 6, 1965
Not released as a single

McCartney once described “I’ve Just Seen a Face” as “a strange uptempo thing.” There’s no tune quite like it in the Beatles catalog. Just over two minutes long, it’s both a pretty love song and a breathless race to the finish, with an all-acoustic arrangement (McCartney, Lennon and Harrison on guitars, Starr on percussion) and Appalachian-style harmonies that give it an almost bluegrass feel.

Its lyrics sound effortless and conversational, but they also contain a complex sequence of cascading rhymes (“I have never known/The like of this/I’ve been alone/And I have missed”) that is responsible for the song’s irresistible propulsion. As McCartney noted, “The lyric works: It keeps dragging you forward, it keeps pulling you to the next line, there’s an insistent quality to it that I liked.”

McCartney wrote “I’ve Just Seen a Face” for the Help! soundtrack, but in the U.S. it appeared as the lead track on Rubber Soul — part of Capitol Records’ attempt to make that album more appealing to American folk-rock fans.

Appears On: Help!

Related
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Help!’
Paul McCartney on ‘Beatles 1,’ Losing Linda and Being in New York on September 11th
The Lost Beatles Photos: Rare Shots From 1964-1966

57

‘I’m Only Sleeping’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Keystone Features/Getty Images

Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: April 27 and 29, May 5 and 6, 1966
Released: June 20, 1966
Not released as a single

Though some hear “I’m Only Sleeping” as another drug ode, Lennon may have simply been expressing irritation at being woken up by McCartney for a songwriting session. Lennon was known to be a sedentary sort. In March 1966, he confessed that “sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with anymore.”

Harrison’s eight-measure guitar solo on “I’m Only Sleeping” was inspired by a mistake — after an engineer threaded the multitrack tape incorrectly, the musicians heard that now-familiar blurred, slurping sound. McCartney recalled later that everyone was floored: “‘My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?'”

Harrison played a line inspired by Indian music and asked George Martin to transcribe it in reverse. Martin had to conduct Harrison beat by beat, resulting in what engineer Geoff Emerick described as “an interminable day,” lasting nine hours. “I can still picture George hunched over his guitar for hours on end,” Emerick wrote in 2006, “headphones clamped on, brows furrowed in concentration.”

Appears On: Revolver

Related
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Revolver’
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: George Harrison
The Beatles’ Albums: From “Please Please Me” to “Let It Be”

56

‘I’m Down’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: June 14, 1965
Released: July 19, 1965
Did not chart (b side)

“I’m Down” is one of the Beatles’ most energetic tracks, a simple rocker that they captured in three hours the same day they recorded “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and began recording “Yesterday” — a session that demonstrates McCartney’s extraordinary range. “I’m Down,” the B side to “Help!,” reflects McCartney’s fondness for Little Richard-style ravers. “I used to sing his stuff,” McCartney said, “but there came a point where I wanted one of my own, so I wrote ‘I’m Down.'”

The song became a live favorite, serving as the concert closer throughout the group’s 1965 American tour. The performance of “I’m Down” at Shea Stadium is a collage of indelible images: McCartney growing so excited that he starts to twirl; Lennon and Harrison laughing so much that they muff their background vocals; Starr bashing away — even though you can barely hear his drums amid the screams — and Lennon playing electric piano with his elbow. It’s the Beatles free of Beatlemania — four guys in a band, rocking their asses off and loving it.

Appears On: Past Masters

55

‘Taxman’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Writer: Harrison
Recorded: April 20-22, 1966
Released: August 8, 1966
Not released as a single

McCartney played the screeching-raga guitar solo, and Lennon contributed to the lyrics. But in its pithy cynicism, “Taxman” was strictly Harrison’s, a contagious blast of angry guitar rock. His slap at Her Majesty’s Government landed the prized position on Revolver: Side One, Track One.

“‘Taxman’ was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes,” Harrison later wrote. “The government’s taking over 90 percent of all our money,” Starr once complained. “We’re left with one-ninth of a pound.”

“Taxman” represents a crucial link between the guitar-driven clang of the Beatles’ 1963-65 sound and the emerging splendor of the group’s experiments in psychedelia. The song is skeleton funk — Harrison’s choppy fuzz-toned guitar chords moving against an R&B dance beat, but the extra hours he and engineer Geoff Emerick spent on guitar tone onRevolver foreshadowed Harrison’s intense plunge into Indian music and the sitar on later songs such as “Within You Without You” and “The Inner Light.”

Appears On: Revolver

Related
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Revolver’
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: George Harrison
George Harrison Gets Back: Rolling Stone’s 1987 Cover Story

54

‘Two of Us’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: January 31, 1969
Released: May 18, 1970
Not released as a single

This sweet, mostly acoustic number seems to be McCartney’s tribute to his long-standing friendship with Lennon — especially when you look at the rehearsal clip of the song that appears in the Let It Be movie, showing Lennon and McCartney reprising their old habit of singing into the same microphone. In fact, it’s about McCartney and Linda Eastman, who were married six weeks after the song was recorded. “We used to send a lot of postcards to each other,” she said. The two of them liked to go for long drives together, with McCartney’s sheepdog, Martha, in the back seat, heading off for nowhere in particular.

The session that yielded the album version of “Two of Us” (as well as the basic tracks for “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”) was held the day after the Beatles’ rooftop concert and wrapped up the Get Back experiment — a messy month of filming and recording. The “bass” part of “Two of Us” is actually played by Harrison on the low strings of an electric guitar, and the whistling at the end is provided by Lennon.

Appears On: Let It Be

Related
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Let It Be’
The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time: The Beatles
The Real Story Behind the Beatles’ Last Days

53

‘It Won’t Be Long’

the beatles 100 greatest songs
Michael Ward / Rex Features

Writers: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: July 30, 1963
Released: January 20, 1964
Not released as a single

“It Won’t Be Long” is the kind of song Bob Dylan had in mind when he wrote that Beatles chords were “outrageous, just outrageous.” It was around the time the track was released that high-minded critics also began to realize how unique the Beatles were. “The guy in the London Times wrote about the ‘Aeolian cadences of our chords,'” Lennon said, “which started the intellectual bit about the Beatles.”

In addition to its unusual chord changes, the song also had a muscular aggression, storming out of the gate with call-and-response shouts of “yeah!” McCartney, though, was most proud of the lyrics. “I was doing literature at school, so I was interested in plays on words and onomatopoeia,” he said. “‘It won’t be long till I belong to you’ was the high spot of that particular song.”

Lennon’s assessment of the song was typically harsh. “It was my attempt at writing another single,” said Lennon, adding that “it never quite made it” — possibly because the “yeah-yeah” parts too closely recalled “She Loves You.”

Appears On: With the Beatles

Mika Tajima’s art below:

Behind the Scenes with Mika Tajima | “New York Close Up” | Art21

Published on Dec 6, 2013

What happens when back stage becomes front stage? At her Bushwick Brooklyn studio, artist Mika Tajima discusses the processes and ideas behind her two installational-performative works “Today is Not a Dress Rehearsal” (2009) and “The Pedestrians” (2011). Tajima describes how her fascination with the “immaterial labor” of film production—the constant behind the camera activity that’s not visible in a final film—led her to create a fully crewed, film set in the lobby of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Collaborating with artist Charles Atlas and the New Humans collective, Tajima conceived of “Today is Not a Dress Rehearsal” (2009) as “production as performance.” A crew of cameramen, audio operators, production assistants, and Tajima herself were all on public view in the museum as they shot philosopher Judith Butler and the amateur public speaking group Golden Gate Toastmasters perform. For “The Pedestrians” (2011), Tajima and her collaborators created an even more ambitious project that featured a larger film crew and ten days of performances centered around the theme of walking. At the South London Gallery, a dollying cameraman circled the perimeter of the exhibition space, recording footage of the performers, crew, and viewers that was then live projected back into the space. For Tajima, these hybrid performance productions question conventional distinctions between talent and crew, artist and audience, and public and private space. Also featuring work from the exhibitions “Deal or No Deal” (2008), “The Double” (2008), and “The Architect’s Garden” (2011) and the ongoing series “The Extras” (2011).

Mika Tajima (b. 1975, Los Angeles, California, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about the artist at:
http://www.art21.org/newyorkcloseup/a…

CREDITS | “New York Close Up” Created & Produced by: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Cinematography: Don Edler, John Marton & Wesley Miller. Sound: Nicholas Lindner, Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Associate Producer: Ian Forster. Design & Graphics: Crux & Open. Artwork: Mika Tajima. Additional Camera & Sound: Jarred Alterman, Howie Chen, John Davis, Jim Granato & Eric Tsai. Thanks: Charles Atlas, Gina Basso, Andrew Bonacina, Judith Butler, Howie Chen, Joon Choi, Anne-Sophie Dinant, Eclipse Cheerleading Squad, Diana Gameros, Ben Gao, Golden Gate Toastmasters, Margot Heller, Vy Le, Carter McRee, Simon Parris, Beau Safken, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Frank Smigiel, John Smith, Kim Smith, South London Gallery, Southwark Volunteer Police Cadets, Alice Theobald & Eric Tsai. An Art21 Workshop Production. © Art21, Inc. 2013. All rights reserved.

“New York Close Up” is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; The Lambent Foundation; Toby Devan Lewis; the Dedalus Foundation, Inc., The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and by individual contributors.

w. Mary Ping

____________________________
Related posts:

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 1 0   Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode X – Final Choices 27 min FINAL CHOICES I. Authoritarianism the Only Humanistic Social Option One man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. A. Society is sole absolute in absence of other absolutes. B. But society has to be […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 9 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IX – The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence 27 min T h e Age of Personal Peace and Afflunce I. By the Early 1960s People Were Bombarded From Every Side by Modern Man’s Humanistic Thought II. Modern Form of Humanistic Thought Leads […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 8 “The Age of Fragmentation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 8 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VIII – The Age of Fragmentation 27 min I saw this film series in 1979 and it had a major impact on me. T h e Age of FRAGMENTATION I. Art As a Vehicle Of Modern Thought A. Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 7 “The Age of Non-Reason” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 7 Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode VII – The Age of Non Reason I am thrilled to get this film series with you. I saw it first in 1979 and it had such a big impact on me. Today’s episode is where we see modern humanist man act […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 6 “The Scientific Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 6 How Should We Then Live 6#1 Uploaded by NoMirrorHDDHrorriMoN on Oct 3, 2011 How Should We Then Live? Episode 6 of 12 ________ I am sharing with you a film series that I saw in 1979. In this film Francis Schaeffer asserted that was a shift in […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 5 “The Revolutionary Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

E P I S O D E 5 How Should We Then Live? Episode 5: The Revolutionary Age I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Francis Schaeffer noted, “Reformation Did Not Bring Perfection. But gradually on basis of biblical teaching there […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 4 “The Reformation” (Schaeffer Sundays)

Dr. Francis Schaeffer – Episode IV – The Reformation 27 min I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer makes three key points concerning the Reformation: “1. Erasmian Christian humanism rejected by Farel. 2. Bible gives needed answers not only as to […]

“Schaeffer Sundays” Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance”

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 3 “The Renaissance” Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 3) THE RENAISSANCE I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer really shows why we have so […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 2 “The Middle Ages” (Schaeffer Sundays)

  Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 2) THE MIDDLE AGES I was impacted by this film series by Francis Schaeffer back in the 1970′s and I wanted to share it with you. Schaeffer points out that during this time period unfortunately we have the “Church’s deviation from early church’s teaching in regard […]

Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 1 “The Roman Age” (Schaeffer Sundays)

Francis Schaeffer: “How Should We Then Live?” (Episode 1) THE ROMAN AGE   Today I am starting a series that really had a big impact on my life back in the 1970′s when I first saw it. There are ten parts and today is the first. Francis Schaeffer takes a look at Rome and why […]

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer | Edit | Comments (0)

____________

Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.