I
think I can safely presume that we have all, at one time or another,
said or done something we shouldn't have; or haven't done something we
should have, for which somebody else might have been offended or hurt,
or just simply put out of joint a bit. In the case that what has been
done is not possible to undo, or what have not been done is too late to
emend, what we yearn for is forgiveness, so that we can rid us of the
mental burden. Even though it takes long time coming. Say 42 years! This
has formed part of the history in the Pop music world.
Better late than never I guess. Except in this case, when the pardoned one is not alive any more to receive it. In May of 1966, during an interview with the British news paper 'The Evening Standard', John Lennon, wagging the loose tongue of youth and drunk with his sudden fame, proclaimed that 'The Beatles are more famous than Jesus'. It was taken at the time as his brand of humour, or bragging in jest, but in the United States the phrase was put prominently on the cover of a magazine. This put Rome on fire, and the Vatican protested formally. Lennon, realizing and fearing that this could greatly jeopardise the success of the planned trip round the U.S. The Liverpool pop group humbly asked for forgiveness.
This pardon was granted, 42 years later, in 2008. The 'Observatore Romano', the official paper of the Vatican, classified the phrase of Lennon as 'swaggering or showing off'', and thus in his way playing it down somewhat and taking the sting off. Taking into consideration of Lennon's working class background, facing the unexpected success, and finding themselves on par with the legendary Elvis Presley, the combination must have been quite
intoxicating.
At the end, the article highlighted the fact that, even 38 years after the break up of the group, their songs with Lennon and McCartney have shown extraordinary resistance to the passage of time, but yes, not so much as Christianity.
- Current Mood:
Artistic
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