When In Doubt, Believe The Literal and then The Pun

For the 100th. post of my blog (nothing special to me, but some people get into milestones), I'd like to emphasize something based on all my research about The Beatles:  all of the talk about MYSTIC hidden meanings, COSMIC meanings, OCCULT meanings etc., etc. in their songs and their lives I think is just that: talk.  The Beatles as individuals came from working class backgrounds and did not have an upbringing or education in the classical or the odd.  From what I read of "swinging London" in the 1960's, all that was out there to be learned and used, but understanding The Beatles as they were, they may have used images or references or odd bits from "mystic" sources, but they did not embrace the "philosophies" behind them.

I have no doubt that they were being pushed toward trying to unduly influence their young fans with new age "philosophies" and all the nonsense connected with it, but The Beatles had their feet on more stable soil and I think they had enough bravado to realize that they did not have to follow someone's idea of hip, they WERE the hip. And that's why--for example--it took George's dentist to drug them with LSD for the first time because they wouldn't have done it themselves.  And I think it was also Paul and John's refusal to hiss in the ears of their young fans about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that got them replaced.

They did have a collective sense of humor but even that didn't make it into the group's songs (although you can hear some of it in outtakes and in their interviews, and--very rarely-- in their Christmas records.)

So if I have one humble piece of advice to give people researching the mysteries about The Beatles--when it comes to the men we saw and heard from late 1963 to mid 1966--believe the literal and then the pun.