I'd love to tu-u-u-urn yo-o-o-ou o-o-o-on....... The Beatles will probably go down in history as the greatest popularizers and romanticizers of drug use -- for an entire generation of children and the next several generations of cripples that followed them -- that this world has ever seen.
John Lennon often boasted about the power of his artistry and the power of the mass-media microphone that he wielded (though he was just as aware of the frightening potential of his message being twisted and boomeranging back at him). Lennon knew that if he wore green socks, tomorrow a million impressionable teenybopper Beatles fans would likewise be wearing green socks (that was his stated rationale for opening the Apples Clothing botique). Just as I'm sure he was equally aware of the effect that his endless allusions to his drug use -- in both his songs and in his countless interviews broadcast to millions -- would also have on his impressionable fans, many of whom were teenagers or younger. Lennon himself laughed with glee at the thought of millions of naive li'l Beatles buds innocently singing along to "Dr. Roberts" -- his oh-so-wonderful paean to shooting up speed. Thats just the kind of whacky, zany, madcap sense of humor the guy had.
While the Beatles certainly can't be held accountable for the whacko interpretations that lunatics like Charles Manson projected onto their songs, the question I raise is this: CAN the Beatles be held accountable for SOME of the effect they had on their audience?
Given the power of the Beatles artistry, given the power of their media platform, given the power they had to get into the heads of their audience and effect their thinking in countless ways, CAN the Beatles be held accountable? Certainly, Lennon bragged endlessly about the POSSITIVE effect he felt he had (why, he CHANGED the world).
When Lennon was in high school, he was the guy that all the parents warned their kids not to hang around with because he was such a bad influence. And Lennon himself conceded that this was for good reason, because, as he admitted, he was bitter and jealous that he didn't have a mother and father so in revenge he wanted to mess up the families of his friends. He admitted as much. And when you wipe away the phoney, smiling, smarmy charm of them lovable Fabs, you might find the same fucker lurking behind the Lennon mask.
(For more on this, see The Ace Backwords Report Number 9)
