50 Years Ago: John Lennon's 'Beatles More Popular Than Jesus' Comment Published Subscribe to Ultimate Classic Rock on On March 4, 1966, an article appeared in the London Evening Standard that would cause an uproar and ripple for some time. Journalist Maureen Cleave was doing a series titled “How Does a Beatle Live?” and her encounter with John Lennon provided controversy that spread far beyond the London paper. “Christianity will go,” Lennon said. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” The comments generated little response in Britain, but after U.S. teen mag Datebook reprinted the quote out of context months later, the controversy boiled over. Alabama disc jockeys Doug Layton and Tommy Charles of WAQY initiated a “Beatle Boycott” urging people to take their Beatles “records and paraphernalia” to designated places to burn them.

The Beatles, and Lennon in particular, were momentarily the devil incarnate to the Bible Belt and beyond, just as they were about to begin a U.S. tour. “John is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way whatsoever,” said Beatles manager Brian Epstein at a press conference. “I’m not anti-Christ or anti-religion or anti-God,” Lennon said in a separate press conference. “I’m not saying we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and was wrong, or was taken wrong, and now it’s all this.” He continued his explanation. “If I’d have said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it,” he said. “In reference to England, we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here.” Lennon and the band survived the ordeal, and the tour went on as planned.

But the controversy as a result of his statements, which included death threats, was one of the reasons why the Beatles decided to give up the road upon the tour’s completion. Beatles Albums Ranked Worst to Best Image of 4 March 1966: John Lennon: "We're more popular than Jesus" | The Beatles Bible 1 2 Next The following article was published in the London Evening Standard newspaper on 4 March 1966. A fascinating portrait of John Lennon 's home life, it was written by Maureen Cleave, a close friend to The Beatles. The piece was headlined "How does a Beatle live? John Lennon lives like this". It grew notorious in later months when Lennon's comments about Christianity - "We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity" - were republished around the world. It was this time three years ago that The Beatles first grew famous. Ever since then, observers have anxiously tried to gauge whether their fame was on the wax or on the wane; they foretold the fall of the old Beatles, they searched diligently for the new Beatles (which was as pointless as looking for the new Big Ben).

At last they have given up; The Beatles' fame is beyond question. It has nothing to do with whether they are rude or polite, married or unmarried, 25 or 45; whether they appear on Top Of The Pops or do not appear on Top of the Pops. They are well above any position even a Rolling Stone might jostle for. They are famous in the way the Queen is famous. When John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, with its black wheels and its black windows, goes past, people say: 'It's the Queen,' or 'It's The Beatles.' With her they share the security of a stable life at the top. They all tick over in the public esteem - she in Buckingham Palace, they in the Weybridge-Esher area. Only Paul remains in London. The Weybridge community consists of the three married Beatles; they live there among the wooded hills and the stockbrokers. They have not worked since Christmas and their existence is secluded and curiously timeless. 'What day is it?' John Lennon asks with interest when you ring up with news from outside. The fans are still at the gates but The Beatles see only each other. They are better friends than ever before.

Ringo and his wife, Maureen , may drop in on John and Cyn ; John may drop in on Ringo; George and Pattie may drop in on John and Cyn and they might all go round to Ringo's, by car of course. Outdoors is for holidays. They watch films, they play rowdy games of Buccaneer; they watch television till it goes off, often playing records at the same time. They while away the small hours of the morning making mad tapes. Bedtimes and mealtimes have no meaning as such. 'We've never had time before to do anything but just be Beatles,' John Lennon said. He is much the same as he was before. He still peers down his nose, arrogant as an eagle, although contact lenses have righted the short sight that originally caused the expression. He looks more like Henry VIII than ever now that his face has filled out - he is just as imperious, just as unpredictable, indolent, disorganised, childish, vague, charming and quick-witted. He is still easy-going, still tough as hell. 'You never asked after Fred Lennon,' he said, disappointed.

(Fred is his father; he emerged after they got famous.) 'He was here a few weeks ago. It was only the second time in my life I'd seen him - I showed him the door.' He went on cheerfully: 'I wasn't having him in the house.' His enthusiasm is undiminished and he insists on its being shared. George has put him on to this Indian music. 'You're not listening, are you?' he shouts after 20 minutes of the record. 'It's amazing this - so cool' Don't the Indians appear cool to you? Are you listening? This music is thousands of years old; it makes me laugh, the British going over there and telling them what to do. Quite amazing.' And he switched on the television set. Experience has sown few seeds of doubt in him: not that his mind is closed, but it's closed round whatever he believes at the time. 'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity.

Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.' He is reading extensively about religion. He shops in lightning swoops on Asprey's these days and there is some fine wine in his cellar, but he is still quite unselfconscious. He is far too lazy to keep up appearances, even if he had worked out what the appearances should be - which he has not. He is now 25. He lives in a large, heavily panelled, heavily carpeted, mock Tudor house set on a hill with his wife Cynthia and his son Julian. There is a cat called after his aunt Mimi, and a purple dining room. Julian is three; he may be sent to the Lycde in London. 'Seems the only place for him in his position,' said his father, surveying him dispassionately. 'I feel sorry for him, though. I couldn't stand ugly people even when I was five. Lots of the ugly ones are foreign, aren't they?' We did a speedy tour of the house, Julian panting along behind, clutching a large porcelain Siamese cat.

John swept past the objects in which he had lost interest: 'That's Sidney' (a suit of armour); 'That's a hobby I had for a week' (a room full of model racing cars); 'Cyn won't let me get rid of that'(a fruit machine). In the sitting room are eight little green boxes with winking red lights; he bought them as Christmas presents but never got round to giving them away. They wink for a year; one imagines him sitting there till next Christmas, surrounded by the little winking boxes. He paused over objects he still fancies; a huge altar crucifix of a Roman Catholic nature with IHS on it; a pair of crutches, a present from George; an enormous Bible he bought in Chester; his gorilla suit. 'I thought I might need a gorilla suit,' he said; he seemed sad about it. 'I've only worn it twice. I thought I might pop it on in the summer and drive round in the Ferrari. We were all going to get them and drive round in them but I was the only one who did. I've been thinking about it and if I didn't wear the head it would make an amazing fur coat - with legs, you see.

I would like a fur coat but I've never run into any.' One feels that his possessions - to which he adds daily - have got the upper hand; all the tape recorders, the five television sets, the cars, the telephones of which he knows not a single number. The moment he approaches a switch it fuses; six of the winking boxes, guaranteed to last till next Christmas, have gone funny already. His cars - the Rolls, the Mini-Cooper (black wheels, black windows), the Ferrari (being painted black) - puzzle him. Then there's the swimming pool, the trees sloping away beneath it. 'Nothing like what I ordered,' he said resignedly. He wanted the bottom to be a mirror. 'It's an amazing household,' he said. 'None of my gadgets really work except the gorilla suit - that's the only suit that fits me.' HellFury420 (from YouTube) Tuesday 16 February 2010 Let’s face the fact, they WERE bigger than Jesus!!! Vatican 'forgives' Lennon for 'more popular than Jesus' remark - Telegraph How about that?

Vatican 'forgives' Lennon for 'more popular than Jesus' remark More than 40 years after Christians were infuriated by the Beatles' claim that they were "more popular than Jesus", the Roman Catholic Church has made peace with the Fab Four. All is forgiven: the Vatican has made its peace with the Beatles By Nick Squires in Rome 5:51PM GMT 21 Nov 2008 Saturday's edition of the Vatican's official newspaper absolves John Lennon of his notorious remark, saying that "after so many years it sounds merely like the boasting of an English working-class lad struggling to cope with unexpected success". In a lengthy editorial marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' famous White Album, L'Osservatore Romano heaps lavish praise on the British band. "The talent of Lennon and the other Beatles gave us some of the best pages in modern pop music," said the newspaper, which has recently tried to shake off its stuffy image by covering popular culture events such as the Oscars and inviting articles from Muslim and Jewish contributors.

Only "snobs" would dismiss the Beatles' songs, which had shown "an extraordinary resistance to the effects of time, providing inspiration for several generations of pop musicians", said the newspaper, regarded as the Vatican's official mouthpiece. It was in March 1966 that Lennon made his infamous claim. Related Articles 21 Nov 2008 "Christianity will go," he told a reporter from the Evening Standard. "It will vanish and shrink We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." T he boast provoked outrage, particularly in the United States, where conservative Christians burned piles of Beatles albums. The band received death threats and radio stations, particularly in the South, stopped playing Beatles records. More than a decade later Lennon said he was glad of the furore he had caused. "My life with the Beatles had become a trap," he wrote in 1978.

"I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said that the Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus' and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well, Lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus." When The Beatles Were Bigger Than Jesus Christ - CSI Skeptic Authors Steven Salzberg and Joe Nickell to Receive Balles Prize in Critical Thinking June 14, 2013 Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October. When The Beatles Were Bigger Than Jesus Christ Karen Stollznow September 10, 2009 In 1966 John Lennon said that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.” This was an observation of secularization to some, but to others, this was sacrilege. The Beatles have always been the subject of urban legends, from the “Paul is Dead” rumor to the claim that when played backwards, Sgt.

Pepper’s reveals hidden satanic and sexual messages. However, the most contentious incident of the band’s career was the so-called “Jesus Controversy”. This began in a rather inauspicious way. In March 1966 the interview “How Does A Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This” appeared in the London Evening Standard , without incident. Nor did the article cause a stir when it was republished in the July issue of TIME magazine. However, when the following snippet appeared on the cover of the August issue of US teenage magazine Datebook, all hellfire and brimstone broke loose. Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. 1 Lennon’s theological musings were taken out of context, misinterpreted and misconstrued, reduced to the sound bite, “We’re more popular than Jesus”, and then further reinterpreted as “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus”.

In response, radio stations across the United States, Mexico, Spain and South Africa banned The Beatles from their playlists. Some two dozen US radio stations boycotted Beatles’ music, although this was symbolic, because many were country music stations that never played their songs anyway… With an upcoming 14-city tour of the US, The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein attempted damage control by appearing at a press conference in New York. He explained that Lennon’s words were taken “out of context” and he expressed regret “that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way.” 2 But the public bayed for the blood of the Beatle to blame - John Lennon, “The Smart One” who made the smart ass comment. When the group arrived in the States Lennon gave the following apology at a press conference, surrounded and supported by the other Beatles. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here. I’m not saying that we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is.

I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this. 3 To placate his once faithful followers, Lennon reaffirmed his own belief in God, or something, “but not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us”. But much of the damage was already done. With the same zeal in which they followed the Beatles, their fans turned on them. Concerts for the tour were canceled throughout the country, and many tickets remained unsold for shows in Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Detroit. However, nowhere was the hostility more palpable than in the “Bible Belt” states. In the South, Lennon’s remarks were interpreted as sacrilegious. The South wasn’t accustomed to these “Scousers”; these blunt Liverpudlian lads. Lennon’s words were a far cry from the conditioned “Yes, Ma’am,” “No, Sir,” of Elvis, remote-controlled by Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis may have sneered and gyrated his hips suggestively, but he was a Good Ol’ Boy who sang gospel and lived in “Graceland”.

In the South, some radio stations organized public protests. Anti-Beatles demonstrations were held against these supposed anti-Christs. Much to the chagrin of modern collectors, records, t-shirts, books, wigs and other memorabilia were destroyed in “Beatles Bonfires”. Several Baptist ministers threatened to excommunicate their congregation members if they dared attend the concerts. Some still did attend, if only to picket. Extremist groups also reacted to the quote. In South Carolina, a “Grand Dragon” of the Ku Klux Klan nailed a Beatles’ album to the base of a wooden cross. Other Klan members went further than burning records and burned effigies of the band, or even issued death threats. Some Klan spokespeople made derogatory comments about the ethnicities of the band members. These fanatical acts, reminiscent of burning crosses and Nazi book burnings, soon tempered the public response. Even the most ardent protestors didn’t want to be associated with the Klan. The “Jesus Controversy” contributed to the end of the Beatles’ touring. Receiving telephone threats before concerts, The Beatles feared an assassination attempt. A show in Memphis was halted when a firecracker exploded and was feared to be gunfire.

The inflammatory quote had been published in August, and that same month the Beatles played their final tour concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. There were other contributing factors. After 1400 live concerts, the lads were tired of the travel. The band also cited the increasing complexity of their music, and the unsuitability of their newfound psychedelia to a live show format. Also, they were keen to develop their music in the studio, rather than trying to hear themselves over the screams of their adoring fans. In fact, this “fan worship” landed them in this trouble in the first place… The mass hysteria of Beatlemania was analogous to religious ecstasy. To describe this semi-religious allure, the press invoked religious metaphors. The Beatles were “Gods”, “prophets”, “idols” and “icons”, and the fervent fans that flocked to their concerts were “pilgrims” and “disciples”. To some fans, The Beatles were sacred. Press Agent Derek Taylor said of The Beatles’ arrival in Australia, “Cripples threw away their sticks [and] sick people rushed up to the car. It was as if some savior had arrived and all these people were happy and relieved.

The only thing left for the Beatles is to go on a healing tour.” 4 This was obviously facetious, but some truly saw The Beatles as musical messiahs. John, Paul, George and Ringo reported that fans would bring sick people to their concerts, in the belief that the band had a divine healing presence. The Beatles were perceived as the Peter Popoffs of pop. In Lennon’s own write: When we would open up, every night, instead of seeing kids there, we would see a row full of cripples along the front. When we’d be running through, people would be lying around. It seemed that we were just surrounded by cripples and blind people all the time, and when we would go through corridors they would all be touching us … They’d line them up, and I got the impression The Beatles were being treated as bloody faith healers. 4 This reverence was enough for any of the members to develop a messiah complex. And Lennon did, if only for a day. His friend Pete Shotton recounts the drug-induced incident.

One night, after a few joints, a bit of LSD, we were sitting around at Kenwood playing tapes when John suddenly said: “Pete, I think I’m Jesus Christ.” “You what?” I said. “I’m Jesus Christ. I’m back again.” “Oh yeah,” I said. “What are you going to do about it?” “I’ve got to tell the world who I am.” “But they’ll kill you.” “That can’t be helped,” said John. “How old was Jesus when they killed him?” “I reckon about 32.” “Then I’ve got at least four years to go,” said John. “First thing tomorrow morning, we’ll go into Apple and tell the others.” Next morning, I contacted Apple to arrange an emergency board meeting. All four Beatles turned up, plus Neil Aspinall (Apple’s managing director) and Derek Taylor, their press officer. “Right,” said John, sitting behind his desk. “I’ve something very important to tell you all. I am...Jesus Christ. I have come back again. This is my thing.” The Beatles looked rather stunned, but said nothing. It was totally surreal. But nobody cross-examined him.

No plans were made to announce the Messiah’s arrival. There was a bit of muttering, then silence, till somebody suggested the meeting was adjourned for lunch. “In the restaurant over lunch a man came up to John and said: “Really nice to meet you, how are you?” “Actually,” said John, “I’m Jesus Christ.” “Oh, really?” said the man. “Well, I liked your last record.” 5 In light of Lennon’s lyrics “they’re gonna crucify me” in The Ballad of John and Yoko , and his subsequent murder in December 1980, some might ascribe meaning to the above story as a prophetic ‘vision’. The press and public not only availed themselves of religious metaphors, but also drew parallels between The Beatles and royalty. In the infamous article, Cleave also wrote: They are famous in the way the Queen is famous. When John Lennon’s Rolls-Royce, with its black wheels and its black windows, goes past, people say: “It’s the Queen.” Religious or royal, these metaphors were stylistic and humorous, but they were mostly employed as comparative devices. This was how the press and public conceptualized the unprecedented fame of The Beatles.

Lennon uttered those fateful words at the height of Beatlemania. The “British Invasion” happened to also coincide with the decline of Christianity, especially in England, and especially amongst the younger generations. This was a time when Mods, Hippies, schoolgirls and the general public were more likely to buy a Beatles record than a Bible. Today, even the Vatican has pardoned Lennon. The Holy See’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano dismissed his comments as, “showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll and had enjoyed unexpected success.” 6 Lennon wasn’t anti-Christ, or an Anti-Christ. In God he would later sing “I don’t believe in Jesus”, but he also said he didn’t believe in “magic”, “tarot” or even “Beatles”. He asked us to “imagine no heaven” and “no religion”, but spiritual motifs appeared frequently throughout his music. He also promoted peace, freethinking and humanism. Perhaps Lennon was a skeptic… The “Jesus Controversy” was an uncritical interpretation of Lennon’s quote.

His remarks were indeed boastful, taboo and offensive to some people; but they were also a comment on popular culture, and an observation of the slow secularization of society. As the Catholic magazine America conceded at the time, “Lennon was simply stating what many a Christian educator would readily admit.” 7 When John Lennon said The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus,” they were. References . Editorial. August, 20, 1966. Karen Stollznow Karen Stollznow is an author and skeptical investigator with a doctorate in linguistics and a background in history and anthropology. She is an associate researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and a director of the San Francisco Bay Area Skeptics. A prolific skeptical writer for many sites and publications, she is the “Good Word” Web columnist for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the “Bad Language” columnist for Skeptic magazine, a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer , and managing editor of CSI’s Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice . Dr. Stollznow is a host of the Monster Talk podcast and writer for the Skepbitch John Lennon's Bigger Than Jesus Statement - In Context How Does a Beatle Live?

John Lennon Lives Like This by Maureen Cleave London Evening Standard, March 4 1966 It was this time three years ago that The Beatles first grew famous. Ever since then, observers have anxiously tried to gauge whether their fame was on the wax or on the wane; they foretold the fall of the old Beatles, they searched diligently for the new Beatles (which was as pointless as looking for the new Big Ben). At last they have given up; The Beatles' fame is beyond question. It has nothing to do with whether they are rude or polite, married or unmarried, 25 or 45; whether they appear on Top of the Pops or do not appear on Top of the Pops. They are well above any position even a Rolling Stone might jostle for. They are famous in the way the Queen is famous. When John Lennon's Rolls-Royce, with its black wheels and its black windows, goes past, people say: 'It's the Queen,' or 'It's The Beatles.' With her they share the security of a stable life at the top. They all tick over in the public esteem-she in Buckingham Palace, they in the Weybridge-Esher area.

Only Paul remains in London. The Weybridge community consists of the three married Beatles; they live there among the wooded hills and the stockbrokers. They have not worked since Christmas and their existence is secluded and curiously timeless. 'What day is it?' John Lennon asks with interest when you ring up with news from outside. The fans are still at the gates but The Beatles see only each other. They are better friends than ever before. Ringo and his wife, Maureen, may drop in on John and Cyn; John may drop in on Ringo; George and Pattie may drop in on John and Cyn and they might all go round to Ringo's, by car of course. Outdoors is for holidays. They watch films, they play rowdy games of Buccaneer; they watch television till it goes off, often playing records at the same time. They while away the small hours of the morning making mad tapes. Bedtimes and mealtimes have no meaning as such. 'We've never had time before to do anything but just be Beatles,' John Lennon said. He is much the same as he was before.

He still peers down his nose, arrogant as an eagle, although contact lenses have righted the short sight that originally caused the _expression. He looks more like Henry VIII than ever now that his face has filled out-he is just as imperious, just as unpredictable, indolent, disorganised, childish, vague, charming and quick-witted. He is still easy-going, still tough as hell. 'You never asked after Fred Lennon,' he said, disappointed. (Fred is his father; he emerged after they got famous.) 'He was here a few weeks ago. It was only the second time in my life I'd seen him--I showed him the door.' He went on cheerfully: 'I wasn't having him in the house.' His enthusiasm is undiminished and he insists on its being shared. George has put him on to this Indian music. 'You're not listening, are you?' he shouts after 20 minutes of the record. 'It's amazing this-so cool' Don't the Indians appear cool to you? Are you listening? This music is thousands of years old; it makes me laugh, the British going over there and telling them what to do. Quite amazing.' And he switched on the television set.

Experience has sown few seeds of doubt in him: not that his mind is closed, but it's closed round whatever he believes at the time. 'Christianity will go,' he said. 'It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.' He is reading extensively about religion. He shops in lightning swoops on Asprey's these days and there is some fine wine in his cellar, but he is still quite unselfconscious. He is far too lazy to keep up appearances, even if he had worked out what the appearances should be-which he has not. He is now 25. He lives in a large, heavily panelled, heavily carpeted, mock Tudor house set on a hill with his wife Cynthia and his son Julian. There is a cat called after his aunt Mimi, and a purple dining room. Julian is three; he may be sent to the Lycde in London.

'Seems the only place for him in his position,' said his father, surveying him dispassionately. 'I feel sorry for him, though. I couldn't stand ugly people even when I was five. Lots of the ugly ones are foreign, aren't they?' We did a speedy tour of the house, Julian panting along behind, clutching a large porcelain Siamese cat. John swept past the objects in which he had lost interest: 'That's Sidney' (a suit of armour); 'That's a hobby I had for a week' (a room full of model racing cars); 'Cyn won't let me get rid of that'(a fruit machine). In the sitting room are eight little green boxes with winking red lights; he bought them as Christmas presents but never got round to giving them away. They wink for a year; one imagines him sitting there till next Christmas, surrounded by the little winking boxes. He paused over objects he still fancies; a huge altar crucifix of a Roman Catholic nature with IHS on it; a pair of crutches, a present from George; an enormous Bible he bought in Chester; his gorilla suit.

'I thought I might need a gorilla suit,' he said; he seemed sad about it. 'I've only worn it twice. I thought I might pop it on in the summer and drive round in the Ferrari. We were all going to get them and drive round in them but I was the only one who did. I've been thinking about it and if I didn't wear the head it would make an amazing fur coat-with legs, you see. I would like a fur coat but I've never run into any.' One feels that his possessions-to which he adds daily-have got the upper hand; all the tape recorders, the five television sets, the cars, the telephones of which he knows not a single number. The moment he approaches a switch it fuses; six of the winking boxes, guaranteed to last till next Christmas, have gone funny already. His cars-the Rolls, the Mini-Cooper (black wheels, black windows), the Ferrari (being painted black)-puzzle him. Then there's the swimming pool, the trees sloping away beneath it. 'Nothing like what I ordered,' he said resignedly. He wanted the bottom to be a mirror. 'It's an amazing household,' he said.

'None of my gadgets really work except the gorilla suit-that's the only suit that fits me.' He is very keen on books, will always ask what is good to read. He buys quantities of books and these are kept tidily in a special room. He has Swift, Tennyson, Huxley, Orwell, costly leather-bound editions of Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde. Then there's Little Women, all the William books from his childhood; and some unexpected volumes such as Forty-One Years In India, by Field Marshal Lord Roberts, and Curiosities of Natural History, by Francis T. Buckland. This last-with its chapter headings 'Ear-less Cats', 'Wooden-Legged People,' 'The Immortal Harvey's Mother'-is right up his street. He approaches reading with a lively interest untempered by too much formal education. 'I've read millions of books,' he said, 'that's why I seem to know things.' He is obsessed by Celts. 'I have decided I am a Celt,' he said. 'I am on Boadicea's side-all those bloody blue-eyed blondes chopping people up.

I have an awful feeling wishing I was there-not there with scabs and sores but there through reading about it. The books don't give you more than a paragraph about how they lived; I have to imagine that.' He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England. 'Physically lazy,' he said. 'I don't mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with any more.' Occasionally he is driven to London in the Rolls by an ex-Welsh guardsman called Anthony; Anthony has a moustache that intrigues him. The day I visited him he had been invited to lunch in London, about which he was rather excited. 'Do you know how long lunch lasts?' he asked. 'I've never been to lunch before. I went to a Lyons the other day and had egg and chips and a cup of tea. The waiters kept looking and saying: "No, it isn't him, it can't be him".' He settled himself into the car and demonstrated the television, the folding bed, the refrigerator, the writing desk, the telephone. He has spent many fruitless hours on that telephone.

'I only once got through to a person,' he said, 'and they were out.' Anthony had spent the weekend in Wales. John asked if they'd kept a welcome for him in the hillside and Anthony said they had. They discussed the possibility of an extension for the telephone. We had to call at the doctor's because John had a bit of sea urchin in his toe. 'Don't want to be like Dorothy Dandridge,' he said, 'dying of a splinter 50 years later.' He added reassuringly that he had washed the foot in question. We bowled along in a costly fashion through the countryside. 'Famous and loaded' is how he describes himself now. 'They keep telling me I'm all right for money but then I think I may have spent it all by the time I'm 40 so I keep going. That's why I started selling my cars; then I changed my mind and got them all back and a new one too. 'I want the money just to be rich. The only other way of getting it is to be born rich. If you have money, that's power without having to be powerful.

I often think that it's all a big conspiracy, that the winners are the Government and people like us who've got the money. That joke about keeping the workers ignorant is still true; that's what they said about the Tories and the landowners and that; then Labour were meant to educate the workers but they don't seem to be doing that any more.' He has a morbid horror of stupid people: 'Famous and loaded as I am, I still have to meet soft people. It often comes into my mind that I'm not really rich. There are really rich people but I don't know where they are.' He finds being famous quite easy, confirming one's suspicion that The Beatles had been leading up to this all their lives. 'Everybody thinks they would have been famous if only they'd had the Latin and that. So when it happens it comes naturally. You remember your old grannie saying soft things like: "You'll make it with that voice."' Not, he added, that he had any old grannies. He got to the doctor 2 3/4 hours early and to lunch on time but in the wrong place.

He bought a giant compendium of games from Asprey's but having opened it he could not, of course, shut it again. He wondered what else he should buy. He went to Brian Epstein's office. 'Any presents?' he asked eagerly; he observed that there was nothing like getting things free. He tried on the attractive Miss Hanson's spectacles. The rumour came through that a Beatle had been sighted walking down Oxford Street! He brightened. 'One of the others must be out,' he said, as though speaking of an escaped bear. 'We only let them out one at a time,' said the attractive Miss Hanson firmly. He said that to live and have a laugh were the things to do; but was that enough for the restless spirit? 'Weybridge,' he said, 'won't do at all. I'm just stopping at it, like a bus stop. Bankers and stockbrokers live there; they can add figures and Weybridge is what they live in and they think it's the end, they really do. I think of it every day-me in my Hansel and Gretel house. I'll take my time; I'll get my real house when I know what I want.

'You see, there's something else I'm going to do, something I must do-only I don't know what it is. That's why I go round painting and taping and drawing and writing and that, because it may be one of them. All I know is, this isn't it for me.' Anthony got him and the compendium into the car and drove him home with the television flickering in the soothing darkness while the Londoners outside rushed home from work. Copyright ï¿½ 1966 Maureen Cleave A Cute Ending - and true! Radio Station KLUE in Longview, Texas, one of the stations which organised the public bonfires of Beatles records on August 13, was knocked off the air the next morning when a bolt of lightning struck their transmission tower, causing extensive damage to their radio equipment, and according to the book Beatles In Their Own Words edited by Pearce Marchbank, knocking their news director unconscious. ~WE GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS~ All donations go toward web site expenses and are greatly appreciated! You are visitor number History of John Lennon's Bigger Than Jesus Quote By Robert Fontenot Updated March 27, 2016.

It was the most infamous and disruptive moment in a Beatles history that was filled with them: the magazine interview where John Lennon, in predicting Christianity's decline, declared the band to be "more popular than Jesus now." The ensuing outrage helped kick the band offstage for good, jumpstart the youth counteruclture of the '60s in Amerixa -- and almost get the band killed. This FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions) explains the controversy's origins, its scope, its aftermath, and influence. 3 John Lennon Quotes That Pissed Off A Lot Of People « 100.7 WZLX SEE ALSO: More Than 100 John Lennon Manuscripts Heading To Auction Lennon had a penchant for speaking his mind throughout his career, which only made him that much more compelling and endearing a figure. He wasn’t afraid to poke fun at wealthy fans or call out his own record companies. Two of these below quotes did not quite evoke the same reaction as the big one, but if delivered any differently could have been received much worse. 1. “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” Singer John Lennon attends a reception January 18, 1977 in New York City. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) The controversial rock star quote to end all controversial rock star quotes. If you were to rank the rock star quotes that generated the most controversy, would this one not be #1? Lennon unintentionally put his band above Christianity, which resulted in protests, record burnings, and other wildly angry reactions from apoplectic Christians. The quote didn’t even gain much traction until it was re-published months later, which the general public obviously twisted into “The Beatles are better than Jesus,” which was NOT Lennon’s intentions. He did his best to clear up the controversy at a news conference in Chicago: “I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I’m sorry I opened my mouth. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down.

I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here. I’m not saying that we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this.” This wasn’t the first time Lennon pushed buttons with his mouth. 2. “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.” (Quote begins at 0:52) This one actually didn’t turn out to piss off a lot of people – it garnered plenty of laughter and applause from the people in attendance and only made the band more lovable once the quote hit the papers. For the poor people the reaction was “Yeah, tell it to those rich bastards!” while for the rich people it was “Ha! Joke’s on you, I’m rich too.” But according to A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of The Beatles, there was an extra word in there that Brian Epstein feared Lennon would use.

He originally said backstage that they should “rattle their f***in’ jewelry.” That one word likely would have completely changed the tone and triggered a much different response from his targets. But the clean version of the quote came off more as a light-hearted joke to poke fun at the wealth of many of the fans. 3. “Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.” John Lennon speaks as he arrived for a hearing on his case at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in the lower Manhattan section of New York, May 12, 1972. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm) The only people this quote could have angered are the record labels and their execs, who probably laughed it off anyway. But Lennon made a profound point here: even he doesn’t own his music. It’s for everyone to enjoy. And the only people who really put a price on music are the ones actually trying to sell it. “What’s the price of music?” is the kind of question that provokes intense, polarizing debates to this day. SEE ALSO: Untimely Deaths of Famous People Who Mocked God - Fiction! and Unproven!

Untimely Deaths of Famous People Who Mocked God After saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ, John Lennon was shot 6 times-Fiction! After saying that only God could remove him from office a Brazilian president elect died before his inauguration- Unproven! Brazilian singer Cazuza died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER after blowing cigarette smoke at God – Fiction! Actress Marilyn Monroe told Billy Graham that she did not need Jesus and died shortly afterwards- Fiction! The man who built the Titanic said “Not even God can sink it!” – Unproven! Summary of eRumor: A forwarded email with examples of untimely deaths of people who mocked God. The email quotes Galatians 6:7 and lists a group of people who all mocked God and died. The first example is of former Beatle John Lennon who said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Also included in the list are Marilyn Monroe, a rock singer who sang that he was on a “Highway to Hell”, a Brazilian president elect, a Brazilian singer and the man who built the RMS Titanic. The Truth: This eRumor suggests that God wiped out certain people for statements they made about him.

Whether that is true is known only to God, but we can explore whether they really made the statements attributed to them. John Lennon (1940-1980) did say in 1966, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock n’ roll or Christianity.” Fourteen years later, Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman in New York City on December 8, 1980. The American teen magazine “Datebook” reprinted the “We’re more popular than Jesus” interview which caused a stir of protests and a rash of Beatle record and memorabilia burnings on the streets in the US. Beatles manager, Brian Epstein released a statement saying that the words of John Lennon had been taken out of context and while in Chicago Lennon and the Beatles called a press conference and apologized to the world for his comment. The band heard of threats from the Ku Klux Klan, predictions that they would all die in a plane crash or a hurricane. This was about 2 years after the assassination of President John F.

Kennedy and the band made a decision to stop touring and focus their attention to work in the recording studio. YouTube Video of the John Lennon Comment about Jesus John Lennon was a Rock and Roll musician who co-founded the popular British Invasion Band called the Beatles in the 1960’s. Lennon and co-writer Paul McCartney wrote hundreds of songs together along with George Harrison and Ringo Star and together they remained at the top of the charts for nearly a decade. Lennon was notorious for his little quips and often answered reporter’s questions off answers the top of his head. One of the earliest remarks like these was when asked how the Beatles found America, Lennon responded, “Turn left at Greenland.” The Fab Four might have began in England but they gained European popularity in the rock and roll school of hard knocks working the taverns of Hamburg Germany. The band returned to England where they were discovered playing at a nightclub by Brian Epstein who landed them a record deal and there first hits “Please Please Me” and “Love Me Do” skyrocketed them to fame. Their 1963 US tour the U.S. included a Sunday Night live performance on the Ed Sullivan Show which introduced the for mop tops to the nearly every American family.

The band had a long run on the hit parade and in 1969 broke up and each Beatle pursued their individual solo careers. In the Beatles Anthology documentary , George Harrison said, “They gave their money and they gave their screams, but the Beatles kind of gave their nervous systems. Which is, you know, much more difficult thing to give.” In his book, “Skywriting By Word of Mouth”, Lennon wrote that he and the group had grown weary of touring and thanked Jesus for the comment that drove the band from the road and into the studio where they recorded their most creative projects. After the breakup of the band, John Lennon wrote a couple of songs about God. In his first solo album Lennon wrote, “God is a concept, by which we can measure, our pain.” This was a song where John list Beatles, Bible, Jesus, Zimmerman (Bob Dylan), kings, yoga, Kennedy, and mantra as things that he does not believe in and says he just believes in himself and his wife Yoko. Seven years before his death, in 1973, Lennon’s biggest solo hit entitled “Imagine” included the lyrics, Imagine there’s no Heaven, it’s easy if you try.

No Hell below us, above us only sky.” Many interpreted the song to be a message against religion but this was John Lennon vision of the world living in peace and not fighting over spiritual ideals or materialism. The question is, why would God wait so long to smite John Lennon? Tancredo Neves (1910-1985) He was elected president of Brazil in January 1985. Neves underwent surgery before his inauguration and was unable to take office. Vice president elect José Sarney Costa temporarily assumed the presidency. Neves never recovered and died from complications following his surgery. We have not found any evidence that he made the statement about God. Cazuza (4 April 1958 – 7 July 1990) was a Brazilian composer, singer and poet who was noted for mixing the Bosse Nova with British and American Popular music styles. According to his obituary in the July 8, 1990 New York Times, the openly bisexual Cazuza died of aids at the age of 32, not lung cancer. We have not found any evidence that he mocked God. Click for obit.

Marilyn Monroe (1926 – 1962) was married at the age to 21 to her first husband, Jimmy Dougherty. According to the bio on Monroe’s official web site, Dougherty, said of his wife, “She was a sweet, generous and religious girl.” Monroe was reared as a foster child in a devoutly Christian family in Hawthorne, California but there is not much information about what her spiritual beliefs were before she died. Monroe’s death was ruled to be “acute barbiturate poisoning” by Los Angeles County Coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi. A spokesperson for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association told TruthOrFiction.com that there was no discussion between Marilyn Monroe and Billy Graham. Bonn Scott (July 9th, 1946 – February 19, 1980) was the co-writer of the ACDC 1979 popular song “Highway to Hell” and at the age of 33 was pronounced dead on arrival at Kings College in London, England. The cause of death was asphyxiation as a result of vomiting after passing out after a night of heavy alcohol consumption.

The song Highway to Hell lyrics referred to the self destructive lifestyle of the rock and roll artist with the lyrics: “Hey Satan, payin’ my dues. Playing in a rocking band. Hey Momma, look at me I’m on my way to the promised land. I’m on the highway to hell.” The RMS Titanic was built in 1911 for the White Star Line at the the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast in the United Kingdom. According to the archives.gov web site an unknown White Star Line employee at the time of Titanic’s launch on May 31, 1911 said, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.” It is not known who this person was or if in fact he built the Titanic. TruthorFiction.com is still investigating the other stories in this eRumor. The Bible quotation in the eRumor taken from Galatians 6:7 but was used out context to the text surrounding it. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians is about Grace, Christian living and the sixth chapter warns against being condescending and instructs on helping others who fall into sin.

updated 07/02/09 The Beatles - Popular than Jesus - YouTube The Beatles - Popular than Jesus Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Mar 8, 2007 The Beatles in 1966 when Lennon was missunderstood by the American Press for his famous words "We're more popular than Jesus..." (with Spanish subs...)

Question: Who said "We're more popular than Jesus now"?
Answer: John Lennon