Few are
aware of the great role The
Beatles
played in the formation of the hippie movement and its
ideas. So, were the Beatles hippies? That's a difficult
question to answer because it's like asking if the Beat
Writers were
beatniks or if Jesus was Christian?
But not as difficult to answer as "What came first,
the chicken or the egg?"
The Beatles preceded the fan frenzy called Beatlemania, from which many hippies emerged. Beatniks, hipsters and hippies are a
continuation of Bohemianism. They are persons with
artistic or intellectual tendencies that live and act
with little regard for conventional rules of behavior.
The bohemian subculture is deeply rooted in centuries old
liberal European artistic scene. The Beatles were
introduced to that bohemian scene when they were in their
teens. It was in the red-light district of Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany where they had a
successful gig for several months, which is a long time
for young music artists. They also traveled around Europe
and visited Edinburgh, Paris and Spain. In Germany, they
changed their hairstyles and met some famous American
Rock-N-Roll artists such as Chuck
Berry and Fats
Domino.
Early hippies were different from hipsters and other
counterculture groups that preceded them. Early hippies
followed Beat Writers, and British Mod fashions that were
brought to America by British music artists. And, I
haven't met a hippie that wasn't a Beatles fan. The
Beatles introduced America to long hair fashions for men,
Beatle
boots, and
new way of playing American Rock-N-Roll music that
created the new British sound. The Mod
fashions
that followed them from London were colorful and had
abstract designs at a time when men dressed in flat, gray
colors, wore short hair, combed hair backwards and used brilliantine made by Vitalis to keep the
hair shining and in place. Today, many examples of
British Mod fashions can be found in the Austin
Powers film
series, for example.
Hippies were an American youth movement that demanded
more personal rights and freedoms then most Americans
were willing to accept. It was not accepted for boys to
wear long hair or to wear colorful clothing, in those
days. Needless to say, barbers disliked long hair and
hippie fashions. That created a market for men's hair
stylists, who became an alternative for traditional
barbers. Besides the fashions and trends in music,
hippies also demonstrated against US policies, the
Vietnam War, the arms race, for nuclear disarmament,
ecology and other issues that were met with little
understanding in those years, and which were often
considered to be anti American. They brought new
awareness and many social-political and cultural changes
in the United States and abroad. Hippies questioned
popular values and beliefs, and so did The Beatles.
Hippies professed ideas of peace, love, pacifism,
ecology, civil rights, gay rights, freedom and so did The
Beatles. In just a few years, hippies had followers
allover the world. Hence, in America the label
"hippy" or "hippie" is a synonym of
"a social reformer", "free thinker"
and also a "user of mind-expanding psychedelic
drugs" such as marihuana or LSD that The Beatles also wrote songs
about, for example "Day
Tripper".
On July 6, 1961, John
Lennon was
asked by a reporter from Mersey
Beat (Vol.1
No. 1) how did the name Beatles arrive? He replied
"It came in a vision - a man appeared on a flaming
pie and said 'From this day on you are Beatles, spelled
with an A'. Thank you Mister Man, they said, thanking
him." That spelling identified the band with
beatniks, hipsters and hippies. The Beatles were very
popular among all progressive-minded social groups of the
1960-70s and still are long after they've broken up. That
made them good bridge-building Ambassadors for the 1960s
Peace Movement and Hippy
Movement.
They were four boys from Liverpool
with a great
sense of humor. That's why sometimes they were compared
to the Marx
Brothers.
Perhaps that's why they shocked the public and their fans
when they spoke out seriously and honestly on
controversial issues. The most controversial of the four
was John
Lennon. John
Lennon was charged for drug abuse in England and had to
seek refuge in America. He applied for a Green Card
(permanent residence) at the Immigration and
Naturalization Office in New York. But even though he was
still a British citizen and a fugitive from the law
awaiting approval from the American authorities, he and Yoko Ono - his Japanese wife did not
refrain from public criticism of the Vietnam
War or President
Nixon. When
John Lennon was asked in 1971 whether songs like "Give
Peace a Chance" and "Power to
the People"
were propaganda songs, he answered: "Sure. So was 'All You
Need Is Love'.
I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to
change."
The world as we knew it was transformed into a different
state of being, a different state of consciousness by The
Beatles and their followers. The band managed to unite
people from all walks of life and all religions. They did
not conform to any given system, did not follow the
mainstream culture but created their own, and stood by
what they believed in. They were more then just artists
or another music group. They were a new breed of bohemian
artists from the Old Continent, from Europe. In the late
1960s and early 1970s The Beatles considered themselves
to be hippies. That fact is well documented in their own
words and can be found in several sources such as The
Beatles Anthology.
In a short time, Beatles and hippies had much of the
nation and the world behind them. As a result of that and
the work of antiwar activists and other events that
followed, President Nixon lost office, the US backed out
of Vietnam and President Carter lifted the draft and gave
amnesty to many draft evaders (the author was one of
them). Since that time, no other generation of young
Americans had to face a draft and fight in a war against
their own will. Today, the US has a professional military
staff dedicated to the craft, and no one is forced to
join the forces against his or her will. And as we all
now know, not all wars our troops participated in were
necessary for national defense as much as for Wall
Street. And
as we know it, not all folks are made for fighting. Now,
young people can grow and develop naturally without being
forced to go through a boot camp at a time when they'd
prefer to do other things with their life. The music and
popularity of The Beatles were also responsible for many
changes in distant parts of the world; including the
former Soviet
Union.
I wonder if there's any other country in the world where
foreigners could have been allowed to do as much as The
Beatles did in America for the whole world? I also wonder
if there is any other place in the world where one
generation of young people could have as much influence
on its government's fundamental policies as hippies had
in a peaceful way, without overthrowing a government, and
in a short time (1965-1970)? Those were just some so
called miracles of The Beatles and 1960s Youth Revolution.
For many Beatles fans like me; especially in America, the
band descended on a PanAm jet from another world,
parallel to ours. And they were greated like a divine
descent. The Beatles didn't just play great music or
introduce new fashions from England but brought new ideas
that changed the world. It was also The Beatles' interest
in Maharishi
Yogi and Prabhupada that made those two the best
known Yoga Gurus in the world, at that time. As far as I
can remember, Paul
McCartney
and George
Harrison
completed Yoga Teachers' training courses, and passed on
many Yogic ideas to us in their works. That's why in my
opinion, they were the first Yoga Gurus for many of their
fans and followers.
The author is also a Yoga teacher. Here's a free introductory
Yoga lesson.
a) Put yourself in a good frame of mind.
b) Sit down in a comfortable position and relax.
c) Breathe slowly and regularly chanting the following
Mantra: “So Hung” (“So” on the in-breath and
“Hung” on the out-breath).
d) Focus your mind on the idea that All is One and You
are One with All.
Now that you've had that first lesson, we'll continue
with the story of The Beatles and hippies using advanced
Yoga language, the language of images and symbols...
Images and symbols are very difficult to decipher without
proper initiation into their meaning as opposed to
encryption, for example. So the following may be a bit
difficult to understand for some readers.
So now, here comes the Sun! We could imagine The Beatles
as the four Gods (Brahma) that created, supported and
transformed the world. Those more advanced in Tantra Yoga
could also imagine them as the four aspects of Antahkarana, for example, and The
Rolling Stones that followed The Beatles to America
and recorded "I Can't
Get No Satisfaction" could be incorporated in that
picture, and imagined as the five senses and their organs
of action. That's because those two bands were adored by
their fans almost as if they were gods in the 1960s and
beyond. But please don't take the above visualizations
too literally. I'm using here some metaphors mixed with a
bit of humor to illustrate the special importance these
artists and their music had for many members of my
generation. I'm not writing about The Rolling Stones,
about Donovan or any other British artists that followed
The Beatles to the USA. They would be another subject for
another article.
Haight-Ashbury, Chicago's
Old Town,
NY's Greenwich
Village and
other hippie Meccas of the 1960s; as well as mass events
such as the Monterey
Pop Festival,
Summer of
Love in 1967
or the Woodstock
Festival in
mid-August 1969 are also remembered as sort of sacred
hippie grounds and holiday type events. So, it could be
said that hippiedom is a free worldview that is followed
by those that believe in peace, love and personal
freedom. It's a worldview associated with some iconic
signs like the Peace
sign or The
Beatles and some loose ideas but no sacred texts, no
leaders or organized institutions. Woodstock brought
massive changes in public perception of reality. Besides
the large hippie events of the 1960s, there were many
others that are less known. Some of those were called
"happenings", "be-ins" and music festivals,
concerts, coffee houses, poetry readings, pot parties,
beach parties, protests etc. A hippie gathering was
anywhere where hippies gathered, at concerts, in private
homes, parks, forests, beaches, on campuses etc.; where
there were long haired boys and girls, sounds of mellow
music, the spirit of peace & love, and a scent of
incense.
Whether this new age will be better or worse does not
depend on the stars, the position of the planets, holy
books, prophecies and other things that work in a magic
way on the imagination. It will depend on what we do to
change the world, on what stands we take, and on how we
stand up for what we believe in. So Flower
Children,
have hope and keep the faith. May the groove (energy,
force or Shakti) be with you always.
In conclusion, The Beatles caused irreversible mental
changes on a massive scale around the world. They had
great influence on the development of the hippie
movement. The Beatles as well as The Rolling Stones and
many other artists of the 1960s spread ideas of Peace
& Love, which are fundamental ideas for hippies.
Adam
Wojtanek
aka. The Polish
Hippy
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