BEATLES FOREVER: How the Beatles Changed Everything
(c) 2009  Rev. Ted Tollefson
preached March 29, 2009 at UU Society of River Falls, WI

Thanks to all who joined in the singing of a dozen Beatles songs this Sunday!  And a special thanks
to those who helped us sing: Beth Ray, Thomas R. Smith, Rachel Knipfer, Rachel Funk, Tammy Stifter, Jeff Hitchcock and the UUSRF choir. To get the flavor of our "Beatles Forever Celebration", I'd suggest that you listen to some Beatles music between sections.

"Here Comes the Sun": 

I. Prologue

Without the Beatles, I wouldn't be here.  Not in the same way, not in the same role.  I might be giving even more obscure lectures on comparative religion or depth psychology.  I might be in recovery.  I might be six feet under.  I might be in the altered state of California.  But I wouldn't be here, in this life with this congregation.  So I'm grateful for that. I'm still hurting from the murder of John and George's early death from lung cancer.  I miss the excitement of waiting for the next installment of my life's  sound-track.  I am still humming along with the tunes of the Fab 4.

"Come Together" : 

II. "Come Together": How the Beatles Changed Everything
The first thing I have to say about the Beatles, is it's not about any of them separately.  In the years since the Beatles dissolved, we've had a chance to understand their separate gifts and limitations. Without John's
wit, Paul's sweet love songs tend toward cotton candy---an air concoction that you can't live on.  And without Paul's kindness, John's irony slides into cruelty and  sarcasm.  Without the Beatles, George flies off into a neo-Hindu haze with a 5 note range.  And Ringo is defiantly himself: a regular bloke, a rock-steady drummer who can almost carry a tune.   What is startling about the Beatles is how their separate talents "come together" to transform their individual selves into a dynamic, creative force of astonishing complexity, grace and power.   

The Beatles were more than just another rock and roll band.  They started with English skiffle and warmed over tunes  from Chuck Berry and Elvis.   But they kept growing:  they added lovely harmonies less predictable than the Beach Boys, they lifted folk melodies from England, Norway and America,  they threw in some chords and lyrics from Bob Dylan and some Hindu riffs that George learned from Ravi Shankar.  Their chord progressions were worthy of jazz.   They brought in strings and horns from pop and classical music.  With help from George Martin, they pioneered a special brand of recording studio magic with multi-tracks, tape loops, hidden messages, thematic patterns. In a word, the Beatles were creating World Music.   

By the mid 1960's, the Beatles reached beyond music with social resonance.  They became the sound-track for a generation.  "Sgt Peppers", with its east/west tunes and psychedelic riffs, helped launch
the "summer of love".   They provided words and music for a global peace movement.   They evolved
into a living hologram of an emerging global culture.   They were the troubadours for our Global Village.  Years before the internet, the Beatles brought the world together for the first world-wide broadcast via satellite (1967).  Their message?  "All We Need is Love".  

"All We Need is Love": 

III. More Popular than Jesus?  Avatars of a Global Village
What do you call  something that unifies the self, synthesizes world cultures, and generates a new vision and a global ethic?    One word is "Avatar".  In traditional cultures, when systems are breaking down and humanity has fallen into sin, an "Avatar" is sent from the Other Side with a healing message.   "Repent!"    "Try kindness!"   "Stop killing each other!".    From a more naturalistic perspective, an Avatar is a self-correcting message generated within a system in crisis.   It's an up-date which attempts to correct glitches in existing life-programs.    When the Plains Indians were wasting away on reservations in the 19th century, several "Avatars" or "Messiahs" appeared to teach them new songs,  new rituals, a new vision of the "Good Red Road".   I believe the Beatles were Avatars of an emerging global culture.   They were conveying a way of life for our "small blue boat": a fragile, lovely and deeply inter-dependent world.   More love, less war.   More beauty, less hate.   More fun, fewer rules.

The Beatles, like Jesus and Gandhi, were a manifestation of  "Holy Synergy".   Synergy occurs when the parts of any system "come together" in a way that maximizes mutual advantage, multiplies resources, and creates win/win solutions.   Every time they sang and played together, the Beatles were recreating  a "love and fishes" metaphor.   By unifying hemispheres of the brain and hemispheres of the globe,  they were opening a path towards healing and harmony.  

Like Jesus and Gandhi, the Beatles sang a gospel of love and peace.   The personal love songs of their youth deepened into a social ethic which affirms that  love is stronger than hate, and hope is stronger than fear.  Like Jesus and Gandhi, the Beatles attracted many fans who went into ecstasy in their presence, who loved them and wanted to be like them.  Why else did so many of us grow our hair long, wear purple pants and put flowers in our hair?    

And sadly, like Jesus and Gandhi , one of the Beatles was murdered for no good reason.   Except perhaps, we humans have a sad habit of killing the messengers of hope right before we saint them.  How else can we  understand the bloodline that runs from Jesus and  Gandhi to John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and John Lennon?  

The messengers may die, but their songs go on.  The Beatles music is an open invitation to a world that
just might be.  That's why their music is played in treatment centers all over the globe. It makes people
feel good.   It makes people feel hopeful about their futures and glad to be alive.  And it makes us just a
little more likely to respond with love and hope rather than hatred and fear.  All we have to do is sing along:


"All we need is love"......."Imagine"........."Let it be"

"Let it Be" :  

IV. Resources  
"The Beatles" on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles
The Beatles own web-site: http://www.thebeatles.com/
Beatles music/videos:  http://www.youtube.com/    search "The Beatles"
Beatles trivia and fan-lore:  http://www.beatlesagain.com/
A digitally  remastered complete catalog of Beatles Songs from 1960-1970 is due sometime in
2009. Keep your fingers crossed.

"Free as a Bird" (a 'new' Beatles song)