WHY DOES MODERN MAN TAKE THIS LEAP INTO THE AREA OF NONREASON TO ATTEMPT TO FIND MEANING IN HIS LIFE? The answer is very simple and it is found in the makeup of man that is found in Romans 1:18-22 and in the writings of Carl Gustav Jung.
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.
How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason)
The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
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1 Sri Yukteswar Giri (guru) 2 Aleister Crowley (dabbler in sex, drugs and magic) 3 Mae West (actress) 4 Lenny Bruce (comic) 5 Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer) 6 W. C. (William Claude) Fields (comic) 7 Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist) 8 Edgar Allen Poe (writer) 9 Fred Astaire (actor)
During this long series on the Beatles it has become quite evident that there were reasons why certain writers, artists, poets, painters, scientists, athletes, models, actors, religious leaders, musicians, comedians, and philosophers were put on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and that is the Beatles had made it to the top of the world but they were still searching for purpose and lasting meaning for their lives. They felt they were in the same boat as those pictured on the cover and so they called it appropriately Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In his article “Philosophy and its Effect on Society Robert A. Sungenis, notes that all these individuals “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.”
(Francis and Edith Schaeffer below)
The Beatles just like modern men are searching for a hope of meaning for their lives. The website Bible.org noted concerning Francis A. Schaeffer:
Francis August Schaeffer IV (1912-1984) was one of the most beloved Christian apologists of the twentieth century. His influence was so great that Newsweek once called him “the guru of fundamentalism.”21
Schaeffer argues that modern man, having crossed the line of despair, takes a leap of faith to affirm that life has meaning and purpose because human beings cannot live without such meaning (1:61). This “leap” results in a two-storied view of the world. The “downstairs” is the world of rationality, logic, and order; it is the realm of fact, in which statements have content. The “upstairs” is the world of meaning, value, and hope; it is the realm of faith, in which statements express a blind, contentless optimism about life (1:57-58, 63-64). “The downstairs has no relationship to meaning: the upstairs has no relationship to reason” (1:58).
WHY DOES MODERN MAN TAKE THIS LEAP INTO THE AREA OF NONREASON TO ATTEMPT TO FIND MEANING IN HIS LIFE? The answer is very simple and it is found in the makeup of man that is found in Romans 1:18-22 and in the writings of Carl Gustav Jung.
Carl Jung
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Front row: Sigmund Freud, Granville Stanley Hall, Jung; back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi.
Today we are looking at the life of Carl Gustav Jung and asking the simple question why the Beatles chose to put him on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Album. The answer may have been because he identified two things (according to Schaeffer) that “cut across man’s will; first of all, the external world; and secondly, those things that well up from inside the person. Jung, though he has no real solution, exactly identifies the two basic things that confront man–man himself, and the external universe.”
Charles Darwin was confronted by these two things too (Charles Darwin: his life told in an autobiographical chapter, and in a selected series of his published letters).
Darwin, C. R. to Doedes, N. D., 2 Apr 1873
“But I may say that the impossibility of conceiving that this grand and wondrous universe, with our conscious selves, arose through chance, seems to me the chief argument for the existence of God; but whether this is an argument of real value, I have never been able to decide.”
Francis Schaeffer observed:
So he sees here exactly the same that I would labor and what Paul gives in Romans chapter one, and that is first this tremendous universe [and it’s form] and the second thing, the mannishness of man and the concept of this arising from chance is very difficult for him to come to accept and he is forced to leap into this, his own kind of Kierkegaardian leap, but he is forced to leap into this because of his presuppositions but when in reality the real world troubles him. He sees there is no third alternative. If you do not have the existence of God then you only have chance. In my own lectures I am constantly pointing out there are only two possibilities, either a personal God or this concept of the impersonal plus time plus chance and Darwin understood this . You will notice that he divides it into the same exact two points that Paul does in Romans chapter one into and that Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) will in the problem of existence, the external universe, and man and his consciousness. Paul points out there are these two steps that man is confronted with…
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Here below is the Romans passage that Schaeffer is referring to and verse 19 refers to what Schaeffer calls “the mannishness of man” and verse 20 refers to Schaeffer’s other point which is “the universe and it’s form.“Romans 1:18-22Amplified Bible (AMP) 18 For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative. 19 For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], 21 Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile andgodless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves]
“Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting, I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist. This conclusion was strong in my mind about the time, as far as I can remember, when I wrote the Origin of Species, and it is since that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker. But then arises the doubt…”
Francis Schaeffer commented:
On the basis of his reason he has to say there must be an intelligent mind, someone analogous to man. You couldn’t describe the God of the Bible better. That is man is made in God’s image and therefore, you know a great deal about God when you know something about man. What he is really saying here is that everything in my experience tells me it must be so, and my mind demands it is so. Not just these feelings he talked about earlier but his MIND demands it is so, but now how does he counter this? How does he escape this? Here is how he does it!!!
Charles Darwin went on to observe: “—can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?”
Francis Schaeffer asserted:
So he says my mind can only come to one conclusion, and that is there is a mind behind it all. However, the doubt comes because his mind has come from the lowest form of earthworm, so how can I trust my mind. But this is a joker isn’t it? Then how can you trust his mind to support such a theory as this? He proved too much. The fact that Darwin found it necessary to take such an escape shows the tremendous weight of Romans 1, that the only escape he can make is to say how can I trust my mind when I come from the lowest animal the earthworm? Obviously think of the grandeur of his concept, I don’t think it is true, but the grandeur of his concept, so what you find is that Darwin is presenting something here that is wrong I feel, but it is not nothing. It is a tremendously grand concept that he has put forward. So he is accepting the dictates of his mind to put forth a grand concept which he later can’t accept in this basic area with his reason, but he rejects what he could accept with his reason on this escape. It really doesn’t make sense. This is a tremendous demonstration of the weakness of his own position.
Darwin, C. R. to Graham, William 3 July 1881
Nevertheless you have expressed my inward conviction, though far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the Universe is not the result of chance.* But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?
Francis Schaeffer observed:
Can you feel this man? He is in real agony. You can feel the whole of modern man in this tension with Darwin. My mind can’t accept that ultimate of chance, that the universe is a result of chance. He has said 3 or 4 times now that he can’t accept that it all happened by chance and then he will write someone else and say something different. How does he say this (about the mind of a monkey) and then put forth this grand theory? Wrong theory I feel but great just the same. Grand in the same way as when I look at many of the paintings today and I differ with their message but you must say the mark of the mannishness of man are one those paintings titanic-ally even though the message is wrong and this is the same with Darwin. But how can he say you can’t think, you come from a monkey’s mind, and you can’t trust a monkey’s mind, and you can’t trust a monkey’s conviction, so how can you trust me? Trust me here, but not there is what Darwin is saying. In other words it is very selective.
Now we are down to the last year of Darwin’s life.
* The Duke of Argyll (Good Words, April 1885, p. 244) has recorded a few words on this subject, spoken by my father in the last year of his life. “. . . in the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilisation of Orchids, and upon The Earthworms,and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature—I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin’s answer. He looked at me very hard and said, ‘Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,’ and he shook his head vaguely, adding, ‘it seems to go away.'”
Francis Schaeffer summarized :
And this is the great Darwin, and it makes you cry inside. This is the great Darwin and he ends as a man in total tension.
Francis Schaeffer noted that in Darwin’s 1876 Autobiography that Darwin he is going to set forth two arguments for God in this and again you will find when he comes to the end of this that he is in tremendous tension. Darwin wrote,
At the present day the most usual argument for the existence of an intelligent God is drawn from the deep inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by most persons.Formerly I was led by feelings such as those just referred to (although I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me), to the firm conviction of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul. In my Journal I wrote that whilst standing in the midst of the grandeur of a Brazilian forest, ‘it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, admiration, and devotion which fill and elevate the mind.’ I well remember my conviction that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body; but now the grandest scenes would not cause any such convictions and feelings to rise in my mind. It may be truly said that I am like a man who has become colour-blind.
Francis Schaeffer remarked:
Now Darwin says when I look back and when I look at nature I came to the conclusion that man can not be just a fly! But now Darwin has moved from being a younger man to an older man and he has allowed his presuppositions to enter in to block his logic. These things at the end of his life he had no intellectual answer for. To block them out in favor of his theory. Remember the letter of his that said he had lost all aesthetic senses when he had got older and he had become a clod himself. Now interesting he says just the same thing, but not in relation to the arts, namely music, pictures, etc, but to nature itself. Darwin said, “But now the grandest scenes would not cause any such convictions and feelings to rise in my mind. It may be truly said that I am like a man who has become colour-blind…” So now you see that Darwin’s presuppositions have not only robbed him of the beauty of man’s creation in art, but now the universe. He can’t look at it now and see the beauty. The reason he can’t see the beauty is for a very, very , very simple reason: THE BEAUTY DRIVES HIM TO DISTRACTION. THIS IS WHERE MODERN MAN IS AND IT IS HELL. The art is hell because it reminds him of man and how great man is, and where does it fit in his system? It doesn’t. When he looks at nature and it’s beauty he is driven to the same distraction and so consequently you find what has built up inside him is a real death, not only the beauty of the artistic but the beauty of nature. He has no answer in his logic and he is left in tension. He dies and has become less than human because these two great things (such as any kind of art and the beauty of nature) that would make him human stand against his theory.
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Can one still look at God’s beautiful creation and say that it just appears to be the work of an intellect? If so then that person is like Darwin and can say, “I am like a man who has become colour-blind.”
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IF WE ARE LEFT WITH JUST THE MACHINE THEN WHAT IS THE FINAL CONCLUSION IF THERE WAS NO PERSONAL GOD THAT CREATED US? Take time and listen to the song DUST IN THE WIND by Kerry Livgren of the group KANSAS. That song was a hit in 1978 when it rose to #6 on the charts because so many people connected with the message of the song. It included these words, “All we do, crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see, Dust in the Wind, All we are is dust in the wind, Don’t hang on, Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky, It slips away, And all your money won’t another minute buy.”
Kerry Livgren himself said that he wrote the song because he saw where man was without a personal God in the picture. Solomon pointed out in the Book of Ecclesiastes that those who believe that God doesn’t exist must accept three things and it is Francis Schaeffer that pointed this out. FIRST, death is the end and SECOND, chance and time are the only guiding forces in this life. FINALLY, power reigns in this life and the scales are never balanced. The Christian can face death and also confront the world knowing that it is not determined by chance and time alone and finally there is a judge who will balance the scales.
Both Kerry Livgren and the bass player Dave Hope of Kansas became Christians eventually. Kerry Livgren first tried Eastern Religions and Dave Hope had to come out of a heavy drug addiction. I was shocked and elated to see their personal testimony on The 700 Club in 1981 and that same interview can be seen on You Tube today. Livgren lives in Topeka, Kansas today where he teaches “Diggers,” a Sunday school class at Topeka Bible Church. DAVE HOPE is the head of Worship, Evangelism and Outreach at Immanuel Anglican Church in Destin, Florida.
The answer to find meaning in life is found in putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible is true from cover to cover and can be trusted.
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.,
Kerry Livgren below:
You can hear DAVE HOPE and Kerry Livgren’s stories from this youtube link:
(part 1 ten minutes)
(part 2 ten minutes)
Dave Hope below:
Dave Hope today:
Kansas – Dust in the Wind (Official Video)
Pre-Order Miracles Out of Nowhere now at http://www.miraclesoutofnowhere.com
About the film:
In 1973, six guys in a local band from America’s heartland began a journey that surpassed even their own wildest expectations, by achieving worldwide superstardom… watch the story unfold as the incredible story of the band KANSAS is told for the first time in the DVD Miracles Out of Nowhere.
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Adrian Rogers below:
Adrian Rogers on Darwinism
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In the article below Elvis Costello picks out 5 songs today from the Beatles and he discusses them. You will notice you have the song BABY YOU’RE A RICH MAN and it talks about being beautiful and having a lot of money. Then the three love songs, OH! DARLING, JULIA, AND I LOVE HER, and then Elvis discusses the ballad NOWHERE MAN. This also reminds me of the search that the Beatles were on concerning finding meaning and satisfaction in their lives and they were getting nowhere and it reminded me of Solomon’s search in the Book of Ecclesiastes in what I call the 6 big L words. He looked into learning (1:16-18), laughter, ladies, luxuries, and liquor (2:1-3, 8, 10, 11), and labor (2:4-6, 18-20). During his search for the meaning of life I am sure there were times that Solomon felt like singing the Beatles’ song NOWHERE MAN.
He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man, please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command
He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Nowhere Man, don’t worry
Take your time, don’t hurry
Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand
He’s a real Nowhere Man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
AT THIS POINT THE BEATLES HAVE TRIED EASTERN RELIGIONS, PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC, DRUGS, WOMEN and many other things to bring meaning to their lives and all have failed. Placing these individuals on the cover of the album is just another attempt to leap into the area of nonreason to find a meaning to life. Ironically, only one person on the cover has the answer to the meaning of life and I will share that person’s name at the conclusion of this series and by the way that person came to the same conclusion that Solomon did in the find chapter of Ecclesiastes!!!
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.
Julia The Beatles
‘Julia’ performed by The Beatles from the album ‘The Beatles’ (Lennon/McCartney)1968.
“Julia” was written by John credited and features him on vocals and acoustic guitar.It was written during the Beatles’ 1968 visit to Rishikesh in northern India,where they were studying under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.It was here where John learned the song’s finger-picking guitar style (known as ‘Travis-picking’) from the musician Donovan.This is the only time that John played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatle track.
Check out my Lennon page on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/fbsiteworldofjohnlennon
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‘Julia’
Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: October 13, 1968
Released: November 25, 1968
Not released as a single
Julia Lennon had encouraged her son’s interest in music and bought him his first guitar. But after splitting with John’s father, she started a new family with another man and left John to be raised by her sister; though she lived just a few miles from John, Julia did not spend much time with him. In 1958, when John was 17 and on better terms with her, Julia was struck and killed by a car. “I lost her twice,” Lennon said. “Once as a five-year-old when I was moved in with my auntie. And once again when she actually physically died.”
The only solo Lennon recording in the Beatles’ catalog, “Julia” was the final addition to the White Album, recorded just three days before the album was sequenced. His original demo, recorded in May, had included harmonies from McCartney, but this version was just Lennon’s voice and guitar. “Julia was my mother,” Lennon said. “But it was sort of a combination of Yoko and my mother blended into one” — the “ocean child” in the lyrics refers to Ono’s name, which is Japanese for “child of the ocean.” To the end of his life, he often called Yoko “Mother.”
Appears On: The Beatles
Related
• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Beatles’ White Album
• Photos: The Beatles Romp Through London in 1968
• Lennon’s Music: A Range of Genius
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‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’
Writers: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: May 11, 1967
Released: July 17, 1967
5 weeks; No. 34 (B side)
The title came from McCartney, but the spirit was pure Lennon. The working-class hero loved nothing better than tweaking the moneyed class: “The point was, stop moaning — you’re a rich man, and we’re all rich men, heh heh, baby!” he said. When Lennon sang, “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?” he was talking to himself.
The Beatles built the track around a thumping mix of piano, bass and hand claps; the braying sound is Lennon playing a clavioline keyboard, which imitated the swirl of a Middle Eastern woodwind. Mick Jagger was a guest at the session and may have contributed backing vocals (one of the tape boxes mysteriously reads “+ Mick Jagger?”).
Lennon’s deeply stoned delivery and abstract questions about “the beautiful people” captured the playfully spaced-out mood of the summer of 1967 — a spirit the Beatles were more tapped into than anyone. “At the back of my mind,” McCartney said that year, “there is something which tells me that everything is beautiful.”
Appears On: Magical Mystery Tour
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‘Oh! Darling’
Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: April 20 and 26, July 17, 18 and 22, August 11, 1969
Released: October 1, 1969
Not released as a single
Harrison described this doo-wop-style rocker to Rolling Stone as “a typical 1955 song. . . . We do a few ooh-oohs in the background, very quietly, but mainly it’s Paul shouting.” That belting, which took McCartney back to the Little Richard throat-shredding of his early days, did not come easily. “I ended up trying each morning as I came into the recording session,” he said. “I tried it with a hand mic, and I tried it with a standing mic, I tried it every which way and finally got the vocal I was reasonably happy with. If it comes off a little bit lukewarm then you’ve missed the whole point.” Engineer Geoff Emerick recalled that McCartney sang while the backing track played over speakers, instead of headphones, because he wanted to feel as though he were singing to a live audience.
Lennon liked the song but thought that he was better suited to take the lead. “It was more my style than his,” Lennon argued. “If he’d had any sense, he would have let me sing it.”
Appears On: Abbey Road
Related
• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Abbey Road’
• The Real Story Behind the Beatles’ Last Days
• Photos: The Art of Music: Paintings and Photos By Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Patti Smith
66
‘Nowhere Man’
Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: October 21 and 22, 1965
Released: February 21, 1966
9 weeks; No. 3
One of the pivotal songs of Lennon’s early Beatle years arrived when he least expected it. “The whole thing came out in one gulp,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970. “I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out, so I just lay down and tried not to write and then this came out.” What emerged was an expression of the boredom and frustration Lennon was feeling in his cocoonlike existence as a Beatle. The references to a man who’s “making all his nowhere plans for nobody” and “knows not where he’s going to” were, Lennon admitted, “probably about myself.”
In the studio, the weariness in Lennon’s voice and the dirgelike melody didn’t deter the band from reaching for new sounds. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison stacked a wall of sumptuous harmonies, and the beautifully spare solo — played in unison by Lennon and Harrison on their Sonic Blue Fender Stratocasters — cut through the ennui like a machete.
“‘Nowhere Man’ is such a beautiful pop song with a groundbreaking, existential lyric,” says Billy Corgan, who covered it with the Smashing Pumpkins. “It lets you see that moment of discovery.”
Appears On: Rubber Soul
Related
• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: ‘Rubber Soul’
• The Lost Beatles Photos: Rare Shots From 1964-1966
• The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: John Lennon
65
‘And I Love Her’
Main Writer: McCartney
Recorded: February 25 and 27, 1964
Released: June 26, 1964
9 weeks; no. 12
McCartney called “And I Love Her” “the first ballad I impressed myself with.” Lennon called it McCartney’s “first ‘Yesterday.'” He also claimed he helped out with the bridge. “The ‘And’ in the title was an important thing — ‘And I Love Her,’ it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it,” McCartney said. “The title comes in the second verse and it doesn’t repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside: ‘Oh . . . and I love you.'”
It took a few tries for the Beatles to figure out how to play it: Their initial attempts treated it as a subdued electric rock song, but once Starr switched from his drum kit to a set of bongos, it began to assume its classic form. The secret motor of the song, Tom Petty told Rolling Stone, was Lennon’s guitar part: “If you ever want to see some great rhythm-guitar playing, check out in A Hard Day’s Night when they do ‘And I Love Her.’ He could really make a band just kind of surge and jump.”
Appears On: A Hard Day’s Night
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Artist featured today is Richard Merkin
click on image for an enlargement, price, size and medium.
Larger paintings 
oil on canvas
Additional Large Paintings 
Additional Small Paintings
 Bad Company, 1988 |
Richard Merkin
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This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2010) |
| Richard Merkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1938 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | September 5, 2009 Croton-on-Hudson, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University, Michigan State University, Rhode Island School of Design |
| Known for | painting and illustration |
| Spouse(s) | Heather G. Merkin |
Richard Marshall Merkin (1938 – September 5, 2009)[1] was an American painter, illustrator and arts educator. Merkin’s fascination with the 1920s and 1930s defined his art and shaped his identity as a professional dandy. Merkin traveled back in time as an artist, to the time of the interwar years, creating narrative scenes in bright colors of jazz musicians, film stars, writers, and sports heroes. Merkin was as well known for his painting and illustration work as he was for his eccentric collecting habits and his outré fashion sense.[2]
Biography[edit]
Merkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938, and held an undergraduate degree in fine art from Syracuse University in 1960, a Master’s Degree in art from Michigan State University in 1961, and a Master’s Degree in Painting (MFA) from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1963.[2] In 1962–63 he received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship in Painting and, in 1975, The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from The National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Merkin began teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1963 and remained there for 42 years, during which time he built his reputation in New York. He commuted every week to RISD to teach painting and drawing, after he moved back to New York in 1967.[2] At RISD, Merkin was loved and revered. One RISD alum described him as “fearless beyond measure.” [3] Some notable students Merkin taught at RISD include, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the band Talking Heads and Martin Mull.[4]
Richard Merkin embodied RISD. He was regularly seen on campus wearing his trademark scarf and ballet slippers. In 1974, when the film “The Great Gatsby” was being filmed in Newport, RI Merkin appeared as an extra in one of the lawn party scenes.[5]
Merkin had been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair since 1986 and a regular contributor of illustrations to The New Yorker since 1988, as well as Harper’s and The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine. From 1988–1991, he wrote a monthly style column called “Merkin on Style” for Gentlemen’s Quarterly. In 1986, Merkin told The Daily News Record, a fashion publication: “Dressing, like painting, should have a residual stability, plus punctuation and surprise…Somewhere, like in Krazy Kat, you’ve got to throw the brick.” [2]
Merkin also designed several album covers for the Jazz record label Chiaroscuro Records for artists such as Mary Lou Williams, Ruby Braff, and Ellis Larkins.
Relate quotes[edit]
Merkin’s dear friend, the writer Tom Wolfe wrote in an email to the New York Times upon Merkin’s death:[2]
“He was the greatest of that breed, the Artist Dandy, since Sargent, Whistler and Dali…Like Dali, he had one of the few remaining Great Mustaches in the art world.”
Wolfe also wrote:[2]
“What made Merkin so sought after as an illustrator was his eccentric approach to modernist art. He used Modernism’s all-over flat designs–that is, every square inch of the canvas was covered by flat, unmodulated blocs of color of equal value, creating not three but two dimensions–but his works were full of people, rendered in the same fashion, in comic poses and situations and extravagantly caricatured.”
The New Yorker noted that Merkin
“loved and evoked the great spirit of the nineteen-twenties, thirties, and forties in his work – he was, moreover, “a connoisseur of the good life.”
Merkin’s career at The New Yorker spanned twenty years, three covers, and nearly three hundred illustrations.[6]
Death and legacy[edit]
Merkin died on September 5, 2009 at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, after a long illness. He was 70 years old.[7] He was survived by his wife Heather Merkin.[2]
Merkin is represented in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum, among others.[8][9][10]
He appears on the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, (back row, right of center, in between Fred Astaire and a Vargas Girl).[2]
Richard Merkin; RISD artist also dressed with expression
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Richard Merkin wrote the column “Merkin on Style’’ for GQ from 1988 to 1991. His image is on the cover of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’’ next to Fred Astaire. (Edward Hausner/New York Times) |
New York Times / September 19, 2009
NEW YORK – Richard Merkin, a painter and illustrator whose fascination with the 1920s and 1930s defined his art and shaped his identity as a professional dandy, died Sept. 5 at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. A longtime teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design, he was 70.
His wife, Heather, said he died after a long illness.
As an artist, Mr. Merkin traveled back in time to the interwar years, creating brightly colored, cartoonish portraits and narrative scenes of film stars, jazz musicians, sports heroes, and writers. His illustrations appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s, but he was at least as well known for his outré fashion sense and eccentric collecting habits.
“He was the greatest of that breed, the Artist Dandy, since Sargent, Whistler, and Dali,’’ the writer Tom Wolfe, a friend, wrote in an e-mail reminiscence Tuesday. “Like Dali, he had one of the few remaining great mustaches in the art world.’’
After graduating from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in fine art in 1960, he received master’s degrees in art from Michigan State University in 1961 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 1963. For the next 42 years he taught painting and drawing at RISD, commuting every week from New York.
“What made Merkin so sought after as an illustrator was his eccentric approach to modernist art,’’ Wolfe wrote. “He used Modernism’s all-over flat designs – that is, every square inch of the canvas was covered by flat, unmodulated blocs of color of equal value, creating not three but two dimensions – but his works were full of people.’’
Among other offbeat claims to fame, Mr. Merkin appeared on the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’’ in the top row between Fred Astaire and a Vargas girl. He was not well known at the time, but on a visit to London he had struck up a friendship with British pop artist Peter Blake, who was at work on the cover art for “Sgt. Pepper’’ at the time. The rest is a small footnote to history.
Mr. Merkin wrote the column “Merkin on Style’’ for GQ from 1988 to 1991, holding forth on a subject he knew more about than practically anybody else. A key to his philosophy was the dandyish notion of fashion as aggression.
“Dressing, like painting, should have a residual stability, plus punctuation and surprise,’’ he told the fashion publication The Daily News Record in 1986. “Somewhere, like in Krazy Kat, you’ve got to throw the brick.’’
Sgt Pepper: Who is who?
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| Click the image for a bigger version. |
Here’s something which I hope will be a good resource for Beatles scholars and students for years to come. This is a guide to who all the people on the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover photo are. Every name is linked to the person’s own wikipedia entry, so this page will stay current forever. All the links will open in a new window. You can have acres of fun with this post for a long time. Enjoy!
1. SRI YUKTESWAR GIRI 1855-1936
2. ALEISTER CROWLEY 1875-1947
3. MAE WEST 1893-1980
4. LENNY BRUCE 1925-1966
5. KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN 1928-2007
6. W.C. FIELDS 1880-1946
7. CARL GUSTAV JUNG 1875-1961
8. EDGAR ALLEN POE 1809-1849
9. FRED ASTAIRE 1899-1987
10. RICHARD MERKIN 1938-2009
11. THE VARGA GIRL.
12. LEO GORCEY 1917-1969
13. HUNTZ HALL 1919-1999
14. SIMON RODIA 1879-1965
15. BOB DYLAN 1941-
16. AUBREY BEARDSLEY 1872-1898
17. SIR ROBERT PEEL 1788-1850
18. ALDOUS HUXLEY 1894-1963
19. DYLAN THOMAS 1914-1953
20. TERRY SOUTHERN 1924-1995
21. DION 1939-
22. TONY CURTIS 1925 – 2010
23. WALLACE BERMAN 1926-1976
24. TOMMY HANDLEY 1892-1949
25. MARILYN MONROE 1926-1962
26. WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS 1914-1997
27. SRI MAHAVATAR BABAJI unknown
28. STAN LAUREL 1890-1965
29. RICHARD LINDNER 1901-1978
30. OLIVER HARDY 1892-1957
31. KARL MARX 1818-1883
32. H.G. WELLS 1866-1946
33. SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA 1893-1952
34. ANONYMOUS DUMMY.
35. STUART SUTCLIFFE 1940-1962
36. ANONYMOUS DUMMY.
37. MAX MILLER 1894-1963
38. THE PETTY GIRL. painting of his wife, Anna Mae Clift, by GEORGE PETTY 1894-1975
39. MARLON BRANDO 1924.-2004
40. TOM MIX 1880-1940
41. OSCAR WILDE 1854-1900
42. TYRONE POWER 1914-1958
43. LARRY BELL 1939 –
44. DR. DAVID LIVINGSTONE 1813-1873
45. JOHNNY WEISSMULLER 1904-1984
46. STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
47. ISSY BONN 1893-1977
48. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW 1856-1950
49. H.C. WESTERMANN 1922-1981
50. ALBERT STUBBINS 1920-2002
51. SRI LAHIRI MAHASAYA 1828-1895
52. LEWIS CARROLL 1832-1898
53. T.E. LAWRENCE¨1888-1935
54. SONNY LISTON 1928-1970
55. THE PETTY GIRL 2.
56. GEORGE HARRISON 1943-2001
57. JOHN LENNON 1940-1980
58. SHIRLEY TEMPLE 1928-
59. RINGO STARR 1940-
60. PAUL McCARTNEY 1942-
61. ALBERT EINSTEIN 1879-1955
62. JOHN LENNON. Again.
63. RINGO STARR. Again.
64. PAUL McCARTNEY. Again.
65. GEORGE HARRISON. Again.
66. BOBBY BREEN 1927-
67. MARLENE DIETRICH 1901-1992
68. MAHATMA GANDHI 1869-1948
69. LEGIONNAIRE FROM THE ORDER OF BUFFALOS
70. DIANA DORS 1931-1984
71. SHIRLEY TEMPLE. Again.
No. 12, Leo Gorcy was on the cover, but he was painted out before publication due to his manager requesting a fee of $400 for his participation.
No. 68, Mahatma Gandhi was also painted over, by request of EMI.
Here’s a recreation of how “the stage” looked like before the Beatles and their wax models entered.
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| Recreation of the set up before the wax models arrived |
As you can see, more people are revealed.
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| Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni |
Hidden behind the wax models of The Beatles, you would have seen this image of Sophia Loren(1934- )and Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996).
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| Adolf Hitler and Peter Blake |
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was also one of the full figure cut-outs, but contrary to what Peter Blake later claimed, he was not hidden behind The Beatles, but stood in the wings when the Beatles entered the picture.
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| Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth I |
Hidden behind George in his Pepper suit is this image of Bette Davis (1908-1989) in her portrayal ofQueen Elizabeth I (1533-1603).
Also, an image of Timothy Carey (1929-1994) from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing” shows up behind George.
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| Shirley Temple in a still from the movie “Bright Eyes” |
Rejects from the cover included:
BRIGITTE BARDOT (1934- )
RENE MARGRITTE (1898-1967)
ALFRED JARRY (1873-1907)
MARQUIS DE SADE (1740-1814)
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900)
LORD BUCKLEY (1906-1960)
RICHMAL CROMPTON (1890-1969)
DICK BARTON (fictional)
JESUS CHRIST (ca 4BC – 30AC)
JAMES JOYCE 1882-1941 (a cut-out of his head was made and they tried to fit it in somewhere, but gave up. At one point his head was where Lawrence of Arabia went.
Finishing off, what you see depicted above is a poster from the Pepper photo session. It is pretty close to the one that was used on the album, but you’ll notice small, slight differences like John holding his instrument a bit higher.
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