December 25, 1966

by Ken Pullen

ACP

Sunday, December 21st, 2014

When I was 13 years old I got three gifts that I recall for Christmas. A thick dark blue sweater, a large package of underwear, and a Bible. The tradition in the Pullen household forty-eight years ago was to open gifts on Christmas Eve. After a special supper. Something we rarely got to eat because of the cost.

Then my parents would drag it out as I, as the oldest, and my two sisters were antsy in anticipation of what gifts we were going to get. They were never extravagant — we weren’t those kind of people. My parents did the best they could. My mother stayed at home and took care of the house and us three children, and my father worked as a mailman.

After supper, after everything had to be cleaned, washed and put away — and there was no automatic dishwasher. I washed the dishes and my sister next in age dried them. Then we all put them away where they belonged. My mother attended to cleaning up the stove and putting away any leftovers.

Then, once enough time had passed according to my parents, we were permitted to begin opening gifts. We’d sort them out, each person handing something to someone else until all the gifts were near the person they were for. My parents would usually instruct us as to which one to save for last, as it was the special one they had picked out for us that particular year. And we always saved the one they said to open last to be the last.

There was no TV blaring. No cell phones to constantly check the illuminated  little screens of. Christmas carols played on an old console stereo. 33 and 1/3 rpm round sheets of black vinyl. Tennessee Ernie Ford, LP’S which contained various singing artists, Elvis Presley, Messiah by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Perry Como, Nat King Cole — of course, Andy Williams, and many compilation LP’S consisting of themes and various recording artists.

After we opened our gifts, which usually consisted of between three to five wrapped boxes each year, and we had thanked our parents, and we had cleaned up all the wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows, we would spend some time with what we received while my mother prepared my favorite part of the night, which was to set out a wonderful munchies snack table. A really nice one. Again, with some foods we only got to eat on Christmas Eve. There was always a platter of really fine lunchmeats — when the quality was so much better than it is these days, and that isn’t just nostalgia talking — and all sorts of wonderful savory and sweet things to eat.

We’d gather around the table when my mother announced everything was set — and she always made everything from scratch as far as deserts, or savory hot dishes on the table. No frozen, pre-made, heat ‘n serve, thaw ‘n serve, oh let’s pop it in the microwave gross and disgusting modern-day foods. No. Everything made by hand, in house — scratch made.

It was wonderful.

My father would pray aloud once we were all seated, and we’d calmly and quietly begin to reach and gather and ask for the foods we wanted to eat. It was one night of the year when the family had wonderful conversation around the table and we laughed a lot.

On December 25th, 1966, when I was 13 years old, the last gift I was handed and told to open last was a Bible.

On the presentation page it read: Presented to Kenneth Pullen by Mother and Dad, Date 12-25-66.

It was a compact yet hefty wonderful Bible. Published by Christian Herald Association, The Authorized King James Version — The Holy Bible containing the old and new testaments translated out of the original tongues and with the former translations diligently compared and revised.

It contained sixty-four “Master Art” Illustrations. Wonderful Old World Master prints made from original paintings by some of the worlds most talented artists. Events not usually thought of, preached about, or spoken of in these times — events such as; The Creation of Light, by Martin — Noah Derided by Ham, by Lumi — Ester Entertains Ahasuerus, by Franck — The Cup Found in Benjamin’s Sack, by Bacchiacca — and on and on with a total of sixty-four wonderful master art illustrations.

On the first inside blank page my father wrote;

“What doth the Lord, thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good.”

Moses counseling Israel — Deuteronomy 10: 12-13

In 1966 as a thirteen-year old American kid I was spending most of my time listening to The Beatles “Revolver” album which was released in August of that year. And as much modern music as I could ingest.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in 1966

Revolver album cover

I was beginning to rebel. To be totally enamored of and drawn in by modern American culture. And at that time in history culture was literally exploding. I worked part-time babysitting the next door neighbor’s baby, I did that every single weekend as the next door neighbor’s were young — in their early 20’s for the wife, late 20’s for the husband — and a number of days throughout the week I walked to the nearby stables of another neighbor and cleaned horse stalls, re-strawed the stalls, feed the horses — they owned a number of horses themselves and also boarded over 20 horses — and I got paid .50 cents an hour to do this job. Got paid more per hour babysitting.

So I had my own pocket money all the time as a young kid of 13.

No allowance. My parents were truly taken aback and dumbfounded to hear of other kids actually being paid by their parents!

I grew up very strict. My parents became very conservative fundamentalist believers when I was around six years old. We did not have a TV. No Christmas tree — because it was pagan [and it truly is pagan and has absolutely nothing to do with the birth, life, death, teachings, or resurrection of God come to earth in the form of man, Jesus the Lord and Saviour].

But I was rebelling. Big time. The times they were a changin’.

War in Vietnam. Burgeoning of New Age thought and ideas going from the dormant seed stage to taking root and exploding in growth and influence.

Loosening or mores and morals. The sexual revolution was in full bore mode.

Young people were gathering, coming together in a theme, and doing something a lot different than recent young people had participated in. Violence increased. The cry was for peace and there was no peace [and there never will be and anyone who thinks there will be is totally delusional].

The times they were a changin’.

And when I unwrapped that Holy Bible as my last gift, my special gift — I totally forget what I had asked for that I thought I needed so much and wanted more than anything [within reason, we were not like the children of today who give no thought to economy or cost and only what they want no matter what] but when I unwrapped that Holy Bible my heart fell and I was sorely disappointed.

We were already going to church 2 times a week. All day on Sunday’s and all evening long on Wednesday’s. Except for my mother’s immediate family relatives [none of whom belonged to the church my parents did, although my mothers mom did belong to the same church], and the neighbor’s next door, and people from my parents church we didn’t see or visit anyone else. And the people we visited the most were people from my parents church. All the time.

So my heart dropped. I didn’t want a Bible! What was I going to do with a Bible!

And my father was so thrilled he had bought me this Bible, and he made sure he said, “Open the cover and read the first page, what I wrote to you on the first blank page!”

And I did.

Gee, thanks, dad.

I was listening to the sounds of the revolution unfolding each day — The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix had just released his first single in the UK.

I wasn’t interested in reading a Bible.

I was already sitting through Bible class prior to Sunday morning services, and then we’d go upstairs and have the first Sunday service. Songs would be sung — no rock band. No organ. No piano. The congregation sang. Period. And a minister would get up and preach for at least 30 to 40 minutes, sometimes longer, and then after the minister preached in English more songs would be sung, and then a different minister would get up and preach in either Hungarian, or Serbian, or German.

There were a lot of immigrants and folk’s from the Old World, Europe at my parents church.

For the past few days I had my mind pricked regarding that Bible I received on December 25th, 1966, and what my father had inscribed on the first blank page.

I didn’t know why that Bible was on my mind, but it was. It would come into my thoughts about 2, sometimes 3 times a day.

I had no idea where it was. I knew I still possessed it, but did not know its whereabouts.

I was checking one of the bookshelves late tonight — looking for a food / cookbook one of my instructors from when I was enrolled in culinary school has written. I wanted to make sure of the title and subject, as I am in the process of taking an online cooking course which she just happens to be teaching.

And I looked to the stack of books I knew hers was in, and on top of the stack was a Bible. A Bible of my wife’s, which she never reads [a topic for an entire series of articles, but we will not venture there at this point] and seeing that Bible made me look to my left, where I know other Bibles are on the bookshelf. Bibles I had acquired over the years, long, long ago, but I no longer reference of use them because of their particular translations, which I no longer desire to read and do not believe to be good translations.

And there, there right in the middle of the stack of about 5 Bibles I saw the old, beaten, tattered, covered in places with black electrical tape Bible my mother and father gave me that Christmas Eve 48 years ago.

And I refilled my iced green tea — which I brew myself by the gallon — and I pulled that old Bible from its place and set it on the kitchen counter, and I just opened it up and it opened to 1 Corinthians 9. And I began reading 2 verses I had underlined [for there came a time I no longer viewed that Bible with disdain, and a few years later, like when I was about 21, 22 years old I began to read that Bible and began to underline passages which I believed were important to underline at the time.]

This is what was underlined;

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth — 1 Corinthians 9: 23-27

And these God-breathed inerrant words struck my heart.

I need, we all need to run the race to win, to obtain the incorruptible crown. But in so doing we must be temperate in all things, as an example. Not in following rules or living as a robot — to be holy because God and Jesus Christ are holy and we are to live and strive to be pleasing and acceptable unto Them, and if we desire to get closer to Them we cannot have any part of the world and its sin, because God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour can have no part of sin. Our sin repels Them. Our obedience and love and abiding by their instruction attracts.

And if we do not bring ourselves into subjection, bring our bodies, our hearts, our minds under control and subjection to the ways and instruction of the Lord our God, and we tell others of God? And Jesus? And the way? Yet we do not abide by such and we are not in subjection? Then we are to be cast away. Period. Inerrant word of God.

I also looked through that old Bible I received as my special gift on 12-25-66 and read some of the things I inscribed on the many blank front pages. About 99% of what is inscribed are Bible verses which struck me to the point of rewriting them in the front of this Bible by my own hand.

But there are two things said, or written by men of that time. Christian men at that time. And this is what I inscribed on 2 of those once blank front pages;

“Christians must not let the world defile them. If the world sees us as conforming to its standards and its relativism, it will not listen to what we say. It will have no reason to.”

Francis A. Schaeffer

The gift of that wonderful, now creased and torn and leather cover cracked Bible of 48 years ago is the greatest gift I could receive this night.

I realize I have not been living the word. I have been lax. I have lived in error. I have not been living as I preach. I have not been living as I ought according the to inerrant word of God. There is no excuse and to make any only leads me to more ruin and being cast away! I need, as a great thirst of a man parched, I need the Living Water of the word of God! More and more, and to live it! Not merely read it!

And I must allow the Spirit of God to dominate — DOMINATE — in the rightful role in my heart, in my mind, in my life. So I am not cast away, and I can live as the true salt of the earth, enhancing the true word of God, spreading its true purifying flavor! And that I must be a light unto the world, separate of and from this world, a peculiar person, a true disciple of Yeshua, Jesus the Lord, Messiah, and Saviour, so that those I come in contact with can see the light within me — and thus glorify the Father!

It may have taken a while.

But I finally got here.

Both my parents are dead in the flesh, but thank you mom, and thank you dad. You knew the perfect gift I needed for my life, in order to truly have LIFE! I must now surrender and allow the Spirit of God to work in me to be how the Lord needs to form me, hone me, sharpen me, mold me, cast me, fire me, refine me — so that I am not, and cannot be  confused as being of this world. Seeing that  I live a life pleasing to God, so that I am not castaway, and so that I win the race and receive the incorruptible crown!

HALLELUYAH!

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The Beatles:

The

If Ken was 13 in 1966 then he is coming up in the next couple of years on his 64th birthday. He should appreciate this song from the Beatles:

When I’m Sixty-Four- The Beatles

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

Francis Schaeffer pictured below:

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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, “Schaeffer—who 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 RACE? There 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 Chronicle, of Nebuchadnezzars Siege of Jerusalem, 2. Hezekiah’s Siloam Tunnel Inscription. 3. Taylor Prism (Sennacherib Hexagonal Prism), 4. Biblical Cities Attested Archaeologically. 5. The Discovery of the Hittites, 6.Shishak Smiting His Captives, 7. Moabite Stone, 8. Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, 9A Verification of places in Gospel of John and Book of Acts., 9B Discovery of Ebla Tablets. 10. Cyrus Cylinder, 11. Puru “The lot of Yahali” 9th Century B.C.E., 12. The Uzziah Tablet Inscription, 13. The Pilate Inscription, 14. Caiaphas Ossuary, 14 B Pontius Pilate Part 2, 14c. Three greatest American Archaeologists moved to accept Bible’s accuracy through archaeology., 

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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)

Great Album

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

Uploaded on Aug 24, 2009

A Day in the Life is a song by the English rock band The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, based on an original idea by Lennon. It is the final track on the group’s 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since its original album release, “A Day in the Life” has been released as a B-side, and also on various compilation albums. It has been covered by other artists including The Fall, Bobby Darin, Sting, Neil Young, Jeff Beck, The Bee Gees, Mae and since 2008, by Paul McCartney in his live performances. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the 26th greatest song of all time.

There is some dispute about the inspiration for the first verse. Many believe that it was written with regard to the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune and close friend of Lennon and McCartney, who had crashed his Lotus Elan on 18 December 1966 when a Volkswagen pulled out of a side street into his path in Redcliffe Gardens, Earls Court. In numerous interviews, Lennon claimed this was the verse’s prime inspiration. However, George Martin adamantly claims that it is a drug reference (as is the line “I’d love to turn you on” and other passages from the song) and while writing the lyrics John and Paul were imagining a stoned politician who had stopped at a set of traffic lights.

The description of the accident in “A Day in the Life” was not a literal description of Browne’s fatal accident. Lennon said, “I didn’t copy the accident. Tara didn’t blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song — not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene — were similarly part of the fiction.”

The final verse was inspired by an article in the Daily Mail in January 1967 regarding a substantial number of potholes in Blackburn, a town in Lancashire. However, he had a problem with the words of the final verse, not being able to think of how to connect “Now they know how many holes it takes to” and “the Albert Hall”. His friend Terry Doran suggested that they would “fill” the Albert Hall.

McCartney provided the middle section of the song, a short piano piece he had been working on independently, with lyrics about a commuter whose uneventful morning routine leads him to drift off into a reverie. He had written the piece as a wistful recollection of his younger years, which included riding the bus to school, smoking and going to class. The line “I’d love to turn you on”, which concludes both verse sections, was, according to Lennon, also contributed by McCartney; Lennon said “I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn’t use for anything.”

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds- The Beatles

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Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Vocal Complete

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100 Greatest Beatles Songs

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.

The Beatles Helter Skelter

Uploaded on Aug 2, 2007

A picture of the beatles with the song helter skelter.

Charles Manson – The man who killed the 60’ies (Documentary)

Charles Manson Helter Skelter 1969-2013

52

‘Helter Skelter’

Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: July 18, September 9
and 10, 1968
Released: November 25, 1968
Not released as a single

With the raucous “Helter Skelter,” the Beatles set out to beat a heavy band at its own game. McCartney had taken issue with a review of the Who’s 1967 single “I Can See for Miles” that referred to the song as “a marathon epic of swearing cymbals and cursing guitars.” “It wasn’t rough [or full of] screaming,” he said of the song. “So I thought, ‘We’ll do one like that, then.'”

The Beatles recorded “Helter Skelter” on a night when, as engineer Brian Gibson recalled, “they were completely out of their heads.” Lennon played out-of-tune bass and saxophone, and Starr was serious when he screamed, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”

Despite its association with Charles Manson — “Helter Skelter” was written in blood at the site of one of the Manson Family murders — the title has an innocent meaning: A “helter skelter” is a playground slide. “I was using the symbol as a ride from the top to the bottom — the rise and fall of the Roman Empire,” McCartney said. “This was the demise, the going down.”

Appears On: The Beatles

Related
• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Beatles’ White Album
• Paul McCartney Revisits Beatles Classics, Solo Gems at Hollywood Bowl Marathon
• Photos: Linda McCartney’s Shots of Paul and Other Iconic Musicians

The Beatles – If I Needed Someone 25 June 1966

Uploaded on Mar 5, 2009

The Beatles – Live at the Grugahalle Essen, 25 June 1966
Bravo Beatles Blitztournee in Germany 1966

51

‘If I Needed Someone’

K & K Ulf Kruger OHG/Redferns

Writer: Harrison
Recorded: October 16 and 18, 1965
Released: June 20, 1966
Not released as a single

This twangy jewel was the result of a remarkable exchange of influences between the Beatles and one of their favorite new bands, L.A.’s psychedelic folkies the Byrds. When guitarist Roger McGuinn saw Harrison playing a cherry-red Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar in A Hard Day’s Night, he recalled, “I took my acoustic [12-string] and five-string banjo down to the music store and traded them in for an electric 12-string.” Lennon and McCartney attended one of the Byrds’ first British shows in early 1965, and that August, on a day off from their U.S. tour, McCartney and Harrison attended a Byrds recording session in L.A.

Two months later, Harrison paid McGuinn the ultimate compliment with “If I Needed Someone,” a striking blend of cool dismissal and crystalline riffing adapted from McGuinn’s lead lick in “The Bells of Rhymney,” from the Byrds’ debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man. “George was very open about it,” says McGuinn, who was then going by his given name, Jim. “He sent [the record] to us in advance and said, ‘This is for Jim’ — because of that lick.”

Appears On: Rubber Soul

Paul McCartney & Wings – Got To Get You Into My Life [‘1979]

Uploaded on Mar 7, 2008

This concert took place on 29th december ‘1979 in London…it was charity concert intended to help pour people in Kampuchea

The Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life

THE BEATLES

LYRICS:
I was alone, I took a ride,
I didn’t know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I could see another kind of mind there

Ooh, then I suddenly see you,
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

You didn’t run, you didn’t lie
You knew I wanted just to hold you
Had you gone, you knew in time, we’d meet again
For I had told you

Ooh, you were meant to be near me
Ooh, and I want you hear me
Say we’ll be together every day

Got to get you into my life

What can I do, what can I be,
When I’m with you I want to stay there
If I’m true I’ll never leave
And if I do I know the way there

Ooh, then I suddenly see you,
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

Got to get you into my life
Got to get you into my life

I was alone, I took a ride,
I didn’t know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I could see another kind of mind there

Then suddenly I see you,
Did I tell you I need you
Every single day…

Artist; The Beatles
Album: Revolver
Year: 1966
Song: Got To Get You Into My Life

50

‘Got to Get You Into My Life’

Keystone/Getty Images

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: April 7, 8 and 11, May 18, June 17, 1966
Released: August 8, 1966
Not released as a single

A drug song masquerading as a love song, “Got to Get You Into My Life” was written after McCartney’s first experiments with marijuana. “It’s actually an ode to pot,” he explained, “like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.”

Lennon described the song as the Beatles “doing our Tamla/Motown bit.” But at first, “Got to Get You Into My Life” was an acoustic number. An early take (available on Anthology 2) has McCartney singing in falsetto where the brass eventually shows up in the chorus.

The horns were a remnant of the band’s idea to record Revolver in Memphis. They had long emulated the bass and drum sounds found on American soul records, so they recruited guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG’s to produce and dispatched Brian Epstein to scout potential recording locations. All the studios wanted an exorbitant fee to host the Beatles, so they ended up back at Abbey Road.

Appears On: Revolver

The Beatles – The Night Before

Uploaded on Dec 12, 2009

“The Night Before” scene from the Beatles “Help!” movie.

49

‘The Night Before’

Fiona Adams/Redferns

Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: February 17, 1965
Released: August 13, 1965
Not released as a single

For any other band, a pop gem as magnificent as “The Night Before” would have turned into a career-making hit single, if not the foundation of a legend. But for the Beatles, it was just another great album track, slipping through the cracks as they sped from A Hard Day’s Night through Help! on their way to Rubber Soul. The band was writing and cutting masterpieces faster than fans could even absorb them.

The band’s love of Motown was never more apparent, resulting in a hard-driving twist number that could have passed for prime Marvin Gaye at his most uptempo. In his double-tracked lead vocal, McCartney yowls about a lover’s betrayal, while Lennon plays a rollicking electric-piano riff. “That sound was one of the best [we] had got on record,” said McCartney.

In the movie Help!, the Beatles perform the song on England’s Salisbury Plain, in the shadow of Stonehenge. Harrison mimes the terse, stabbing guitar solo — but it was McCartney who played it on the record.

Appears On: Help!

Related
• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Help!’
• Photos: Inside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Beatles Exhibit
• Fricke’s Picks: Baby’s in Black – The Beatles Covered in Soul

FEATURED ARTIST TODAY IS WALLACE BERMAN

Brad Cole of USU Shows the Wallace Berman Seminas

Uploaded on Apr 2, 2011

Brad Cole, Associate Director for Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University, shows me some of the school’s Wallace Berman Seminas.

Wallace Berman
Artist

Wallace Berman in an abandoned building on the Speedway (an alleyway running parallel to the beach) in Venice, California, ca. 1955–57. The Getty Research Institute, Charles Brittin papers, 2005.M.11. © J. Paul Getty Trust. Photo by Charles Brittin

Wallace Berman (1926–1976) was born in Staten Island, New York, and moved to Los Angeles as a child. He enrolled at the Jepson Art Institute and at Chouinard Art Institute, but did not finish studies at either; instead he became entrenched in the city’s jazz and Beat scenes. In 1949 he began to make assemblage sculptures. He showed these at the Ferus Gallery in 1957, but the exhibition was closed prematurely by the L.A. Police Department’s vice squad. Disheartened, Berman moved his family to the Bay Area, where he established the makeshift Semina Gallery and continued his loose-leaf magazine Semina, before returning to L.A. in 1961. In 1964, Berman began to make Verifax collages, embarking on a path that he would follow for over a decade, until his death in Topanga Canyon in 1976.

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Wallace Berman (Los Angeles artist)
Most of my discoveries are from a few years ago so to have so many additions within one week is remarkable progress. We may succeed in tracking down some (hopefully all) of the others but they are surely becoming more difficult? Oddly enough, I am more confident of finding the more obscure images, like the Petty Girls, than those of legendary figures such as Marilyn Monroe. That could take a while

Jim’s close-up of this part of the cover includes the best views so far of Aldous Huxley (to the left of Dylan Thomas), Wallace Berman (next to Tony Curtis) and, beside him, Tommy Handley (with cap) and Dr. David Livingstone (moustache). Below them are the partially-obscured Tyrone Power and the equally-elusive Larry Bell:

I’ve search

Wallace Berman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wallace Berman
Wallace Berman, Self Portrait Crater Lane, 1955
Born	February 18, 1926 Staten Island, New York
Died	February 18, 1976 (aged 50) Topanga Canyon, California
Nationality	American
Known for	Assemblage art

Wallace Berman (February 18, 1926 – February 18, 1976) was an American visual and assemblage artist. He has been called the “father” of assemblage art^[1] and a “crucial figure in the history of postwar California art”.^[2]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Personal life and education
• 2 Artistic career
  • 2.1 Legacy
• 3 Notable exhibitions
• 4 Notable collections
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading
• 7 External links

Personal life and education[edit]

Wallace Berman was born in Staten Island, New York in 1926. In the 1930s his family moved to Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.^[3] Berman was discharged from high school for gambling in the early 1940s and became involved in the West Coast jazz scene. Berman wrote a song with Jimmy Witherspoon.^[4] He attended classes at Jepson Art Institute and Chouinard Art Institute in the 1940s. For a few years from 1949 he worked in a factory finished furniture. It was at the factory where he began creating sculptures from wood scraps. This led to him becoming a full-time artist by the early 1950s, and an involvement in the Beat Movement. He moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco in late 1957 where he mostly focused on his magazine Semina, which consisted of poetry, photographs, texts, drawings and images assembled by Berman. In 1961 he came back to L.A., then moved to Topanga Canyon in 1965. He started creating his series of Verifax Collages in 1963 or 1964.^[1] Director Dennis Hopper, a collector of Berman’s work, gave Berman a small role in his 1968 film Easy Rider.^[5] He produced work until his sudden death in a car accident caused by a drunk driver,^[6] in 1976.^[1] Interestingly, Berman had said to his mother as a child he would die on his 50th birthday, and indeed he did die February 18, 1976…his fiftieth birthday. ref. Lost and Found California, Four decades of assemblage art, Corcoran, Wayne, Pence, 1988 pg.119.

Artistic career[edit]

Semina 4, ca. 1959 . Wallace Berman papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

“His art embodied the kind of interdisciplinary leanings and interests that, in time, would come to help characterize the Beat movement as a whole.”
-Andy Brumer^[4]

Berman has been called the “father” of assemblage art. He created “Verifax collages”, which consist of photocopies of images from magazines and newspapers, mounted onto a flat surface in a collage fashion, mixed with occasional solid areas of acrylic paint .^[1] Berman would use a Verifax photocopy machine (Kodak) to make copies of the images which he would often juxtapose in a grid format. Berman sought influence in not only those of his Beat circle, but in Surrealism and Dada as well as the Kabbalah.^[4] The influence of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism is seen in his collages and other works such as his later inscriptions in-situ in Hebrew letters, and his only film, Aleph, a silent film that explores life, death, politics, and pop culture.^[7] His involvement with the jazz scene allowed him opportunities to work with jazz musicians, creating bebop album covers for Charlie Parker.^[8]

Wallace Berman and other artists with 2 undercover Vice Squad officers, looking at Wally Hedrick‘s sculptureSunflower (1952), during the now-famous LAPD obscenity arrest at Ferus Gallery in 1957.

In 1957 Wallace had his first exhibition of his artworks at the newly opened Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. His friends were the curators/owners of the Gallery, Ed Kienholz andWalter Hopps. After the opening the L.A. vice squad got a telephone tip from an anonymous caller and during the raid they found what was deemed to be a pornographic image by Cameron Parsons entitled “Peyote Vision”^[9] at the bottom of one of Wallace’s assemblage works. He would later be convicted of displaying lewd & obscene materials. At the summation in the courtroom Wallace wrote on the blackboard “There is no justice, only revenge” ^[10] His actor friend Dean Stockwell would pay the $150.00 fine. That would be the last public gallery show for Wallace.

His mail art publication, Semina, was a series of folio packages that were limited edition and sent or given to his friends. Semina consisted of collages mixed with poetry by writers Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, David Meltzer, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jean Cocteau, John Kelly Reed^[11] and by Berman himself, which he published under the pseudonym Pantale Xantos.^[3][8] Semina was published from 1955 to 1964.^[2]

Legacy[edit]

His likeness appears in the second row of the Beatles’ 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. The portrait is from a photograph taken by Dean Stockwell. It is directly above John Lennon, two rows up, next to Tony Curtis.^[12] In 1992 Berman’s papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by his son, Tosh Berman.^[1]

Notable exhibitions[edit]

• Looking for Mushrooms, 2008; Ludwig Museum^[13]
• Trace du Sacre, 2008; Centre Pompidou^[13]
• Los Angeles 1955-1985 2006; Centre Pompidou
• California Modern, 2006; Orange County Museum of Art^[13]
• Subway Series: The New York Yankees and the American Dream, 2004; Bronx Museum of the Arts^[13]
• Evidence of Impact: Art and Photography 1963-1978, 2004; Whitney Museum of American Art^[13]
• Solo exhibition: Exodus Gallery, San Pedro, 1957
• Solo exhibition: Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1957

Notable collections[edit]

• Untitled, 1967; Norton Simon Museum^[14]

Further reading[edit]

• Glicksman et al. Wallace Berman: Retrospective. Otis Art Institute Gallery, Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Fellows of Contemporary Art (1978).
• Support the Revolution. Institute of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam. New York: Distributed Art Publishers (1992). ISBN 90-800968-3-0
• Sophie Dannenmüller: “In Fac Simile Veritas, les Verifax Collages de Wallace Berman,” Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, n° 92, summer 2005, p. 130-143
• Fredman, Stephen and Michael Duncan. Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle. Santa Monica: Santa Monica Museum of Art (2005). ISBN 1-933045-10-8
• Dannenmüller, Sophie. Wallace Berman – Verifax Collages. Paris: frank elbaz gallery (2009)
• Dannenmüller, Sophie. Wallace Berman – Be-Bop Kabbalah. Paris: frank elbaz gallery (2010)
• Bradnock, Lucy. “”Mantras of Gibberish”: Wallace Berman’s Visions of Artaud”. Art History, vol. 35 (3), June 2012, pp. 622-643

External links[edit]

• Works by or about Wallace Berman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• City of Degenerate Angels: Wallace Berman, Jazz and Semina in Postwar Los Angeles by Ken D. Allan in Art Journal
• galerie frank elbaz: Wallace Berman
• Wallace Berman at Kadist Art Foundation
• [1]

Authority control VIAF: 40188363 ISNI: 0000 0000 6676 838X BNF: cb15517692r (data) ULAN: 500025293 RKD: 103563

Categories:

• 1926 births
• 1976 deaths
• People from Staten Island
• People from Los Angeles County, California
• Beat Generation
• Jewish American artists
• Assemblage artists

Wallace Berman: Mail Order Beat

May 10, 2011

Amidst the car culture and surf culture of Los Angeles, Wallace Berman lived a more rustic, Beat vibed existence, zigzagging from Topanga to Beverly Glen to Larkspur and San Francisco.  His body of works contains sculpture, photography,  film to early forms of mail-art.  His interest in mysticism, and in the power of typography as symbols, can be seen in the Kabbalah imagery layered into his work:

In 1957, Berman had his first gallery show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.  After two weeks it was shut down for alleged obscenity, and the artist was arrested by the LAPD.  In his subsequent career Berman avoided the formal confines of the art world.  In 1955 he created a pioneering mail art publication called SEMINA, and in 1960 he opened the Semina Gallery on a houseboat near his home in Larkspur, California.

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