From 1969 until his death in 1980, John Lennon was nothing but an ego trip for Yoko Ono – a talentless artist from an ultra-right-wing family in Japan. The beginning of this venture capitalist experiment can be seen over the hours of the (1969) ‘Get Back’ footage. Through his success the parasitic Ono sought to hijack his career and somehow ride it to her own success – a reality that never quite transpired – despite her inheriting his vast fortune and dictating, to a lesser or greater extent, how that estate is portrayed in the media. Although Ono only existed as a Beatles adjunct for around the last six months of their career (achieving nothing but their breakup) – the myth has already developed that that she was ‘present’ in the backward, lurking in an influential manner since day one. Her absence, or so this false narrative suggests, is proof of her presence.
Lennon followed Ono to New York, and this decision cost him his life. Not only this, but it cost him his credibility by becoming mixed-up with the Bourgeois libertines of that scene! One such character that Ono introduced him to was ‘David Peel‘ – a former member of the US Army – who after his Honourable Discharge masqueraded as a street artist and countercultural guru! He can be seen ‘duetting’ with GG Allin as he sings a song advocating the sexual abuse of young children – a performance YouTube is quite happy to host – whilst it blocks any serious attempts to present genuine Soviet history, Israeli War Crimes or left-wing political rhetoric, etc. David Peel is interviewed calling for John Lennon to be President – whilst simultaneously agitating for the destruction of Disco music (?) an important component of Black cultural identity in the 1970s!
All the other former Beatles were also busy exploring their own equally frivolous ego trips – with their music never being quite as good again without George Martin at the helm! (McCartney’s first solo effort was simply called ‘Ram’ – with the cover art featuring him holding a male sheep by the horns). What these four men produced together could never be replicated individually. The exception is George Harrison’s post-Beatles ‘All Things Must Pass’ – but the bulk of the material on this album had been recorded during The Beatles heyday – and had been produced by George Martin. Years later, Yoko Ono would have herself inserted on various tracks during the recording of remixed editions – again giving the false impression she was present between 1962-1969.
Of course, none of this financially mattered, as each former Beatle was already a multimillionaire despite moving away from the original ‘The Beatles’ Epstein-Martin image that had carefully produced the avalanche of financial success! In the first post-Beatles decade – as with all subsequent decades – the former Beatles continued to rake in countless millions! The supposedly spiritual George Harrison had already protested about paying tax (The Beatles earned so much that their fair contribution to the well-being of the nation that had enriched them – would not have been financially noticed – such was their vast income) whilst he advocated dropping an atom bomb on the impoverished people of the Philippines!
In 1966 around 80,000 Philippines people paid to watch The Beatles perform – the largest crowd that ever witnessed a Beatles performance anywhere in the world! Whilst protesting about the Vietnam War (but never supporting the Vietnamese people in their struggle against US aggression) – The Beatles never saw fit to criticise the Catholic Dictatorship of the Philippines, or the oppression inflicted upon the ordinary Philippine people by the US-backed Marcos Junta! No – The Beatles were quite happy to take their money and run! After all, The Beatles had previously performed in Japan and had remained ‘silent’ when encountering Japanese fascism! This ‘rich’ ally of America was not subjected to the same intensity of criticism as that levelled by The Beatles at the poor people of the Philippines – despite The Beatles being far more popular in that latter country.
This all goes to prove the reality that our heroes are never quite the fully rounded individuals we might expect them to be. The Beatles music arose in an era which saw a popular cultural trend toward the ethereal and away from the concrete. The Beatles had to navigate the anti-capitalist aspects of this movement whilst remaining focused upon their own primary mission of being successful within that very same capitalist system! The fact that they were successful in this tightrope performance can be arrested by the fact that Paul McCartney is reported as being worth around £800 million as of the time of writing. Indeed, the only political (economic) ideology we can be sure The Beatles supported is that of predatory capitalism – the very ideology that many Beatles fans rejected around the world during the 1960s! Ironically, it was this very ideology that impoverished hundreds of millions worldwide – but gave just four men hundreds of millions in return! This sounds like the lyrics of another Beatles’ song!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 