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John Lennon said a mouthful

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"God is a concept by which we measure our pain"
John Lennon
When asked about his friend's song 'My Sweet Lord', John Lennon chose the line in the George Harrison song that he found the most clever.
"Oh my Lord" was actually a hidden "Om".
It was George's way of getting western culture to chant without KNOWING it.
John Lennon was familiar to the technique...
He did it ALL the time.
This is one of my favourite quotes from the Beatle who was so famously misunderstood, when he once mentioned some ancient carpenter....
I think his name was Jerry Chrisp, or something....I could be wrong...
Whatever happened to Jerry Chrisp?

Here is the ACTUAL quote, IN CONTEXT, and with his follow up explanation, and, for me, UNNECESSARY apology.

On March 4, 1966, this quote of John's was printed in an interview by reporter (and friend of John's) Maureen Cleave in the London Evening Standard:

"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 '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 was, as she reported, reading extensively about religion at the time. It was a small part of the article. No one took notice of it in Britain.

And then, five months later, on July 29, a teen magazine in the US of A (land of the free, especially religious freedom), Datebook, reprinted the quote out of context instead of submerged in an article, and used it as a part of a front cover story.

Radio stations in the south banned Beatles music. There were rallies of boys and girls stomping on their records and bonfires of Beatles material. John received death threats, and the KKK protested a Beatle concert in Alabama (because, apparently, it seemed like the Christian thing to do).

This statement, hardly noticed in the UK, was completely taken out of context and the bible belt of the hypocritical southern states was used to beat Lennon and The Beatles in a very unfair and very non-Christian way. John was not comparing the Beatles to Christ or god or religion. The quote as it appears here, IN CONTEXT, is just John being John and using things he knew about in a way he naturally spoke to a friend/reporter. The Jesus lovers, acting in their best Christ-like behaviour, threatened to kill John.

Who says terrorism is limited to radical Islam?



The Apology

John: "If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a friend and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think - as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way."

Reporter: "Some teenagers have repeated your statements - "I like the Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?"

John: "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That 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. 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."

Reporter: "But are you prepared to apologize?"

John (thinking that he had just apologized, because he did): "I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."

In this time, in these days of religious extremism, I don't look to the "wisdom" of people like the doddering old fool Pat Roberts
[link]
or the idiots currently planning on burning the quran
or the questionable thoughts of xenophobic mass muderer Osama Bin Laden....
I miss George Harrison, and his lessons on TOLERANCE of other religions.
I miss John Lennon. [link]

"I'm shouting all about love
While they treated you like a dog
When you were the one who had made it
so clear
All those years ago.

I'm talking all about how to give
They don't act with much honesty
But you point the way to the truth when you say
All you need is love.

Living with good and bad
I always look up to you
Now we're left cold and sad
By someone the devil's best friend
Someone who offended all.

We're living in a bad dream
They've forgotten all about mankind
And you were the one they backed up to
the wall
All those years ago
You were the one who Imagined it all
All those years ago.

Deep in the darkest night
I send out a prayer to you
Now in the world of light
Where the spirit free of the lies
And all else that we despised.

They've forgotten all about God
He's the only reason we exist
Yet you were the one that they said was
so weird
All those years ago
You said it all though not many had ears
All those years ago
You had control of our smiles and our tears
All those years ago" - George Harrison, after the assasination of his friend, but before he himself was attacked and nearly killed by another delusional religious fool.
Image size
3323x1698px 5.69 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Shutter Speed
1/128 second
Aperture
F/4.0
Focal Length
24 mm
ISO Speed
400
Date Taken
Jan 16, 2010, 10:16:34 AM
Lens
EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
© 2010 - 2024 KeswickPinhead
Comments7
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MallonIllustration's avatar
Lennon was a mean bastard, but he was one of the most intelligent people to enter the public consciousness in the twentieth century.

You've got to serve yourself, ain't nobody gonna do it for you
You say you've found Jesus Christ and he's the only one
You say you've found Buddha sitting on his arse in the sun
You say you've found Mohammed kneelin' on a bloody carpet facin' to the east
You say you've found Krishna dancin' in the street
Well you may believe in devils and you may believe in laws, but you just gotta fuckin' serve yourself and that's all there is to it.

- John Lennon, "Serve Yourself"