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The Gospel According to the Beatles
Renowned British music journalist and author Steve Turner surveys the religious and spiritual influence of the Beatles, the band that changed the history of music forever. With new interviews, never-before-published material, and fresh insights, Turner helps the reader understand the religious and spiritual ideas and ideals that influenced the music and lives of the Beatles and helps us see how the Fab Four influenced our own lives and culture.
Topics discussed include the religious upbringing of John, Paul, George, and Ringo; the backlash in the United States after John Lennon's "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus" comment; the dabbling in Eastern religion; the use of drugs to attempt to enter a higher level of consciousness; and the overall legacy that the Beatles and their music have left. While there is no religious system that permanently anchored the Beatles or their music, they did leave a gospel, Turner concludes: one of love, peace, personal freedom, and the search for transcendence.
Topics discussed include the religious upbringing of John, Paul, George, and Ringo; the backlash in the United States after John Lennon's "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus" comment; the dabbling in Eastern religion; the use of drugs to attempt to enter a higher level of consciousness; and the overall legacy that the Beatles and their music have left. While there is no religious system that permanently anchored the Beatles or their music, they did leave a gospel, Turner concludes: one of love, peace, personal freedom, and the search for transcendence.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2006
11 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Steve Turner
32 books70 followersSteve Turner is an English music journalist, biographer and poet, who grew up in Northamptonshire, England. His first published article was in the Beatles Monthly in 1969. His career as a journalist began as features editor of Beat Instrumental where he interviewed many of the prominent rock musicians of the 1970s. He subsequently freelanced for music papers including NME, Melody Maker and Rolling Stone.
During the 1980s he wrote extensively for British newspapers and magazines on a range of subjects as well as producing his study of the relationship between rock music and religion, Hungry For Heaven, and co-authoring U2: Rattle & Hum, the book of the film. In the 1990s he began devoting himself to full-length books, the first being a best selling biography of British music star Cliff Richard, Cliff Richard: The Biography, in 1993, which stayed in the Sunday Times bestseller list for six weeks. At the same time he has written a number of poetry books for both adults and children. The first of his books for children, The Day I Fell Down The Toilet, has now sold over 120,000 copies, and total sales for his children's poetry collection now exceeds 200,000.
His published poetry books for adults are Tonight We Will Fake Love, Nice and Nasty, Up To Date, The King of Twist and Poems. His published poetry collections for children are The Day I Fell Down The Toilet, Dad, You're Not Funny, The Moon Has Got His Pants On, I Was Only Asking and Don't Take Your Elephant To School.
He now combines his book writing and journalism with poetry readings, lecture tours of America and Europe and consultancies. He lives in London.
Hungry for Heaven: Rock and Roll and the Search for Redemption(1988)
Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now (1993) Van Morrison
Cliff Richard: The Biography (1993) Cliff Richard
A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (1994; updated in 1999 and 2005)
Jack Kerouac: Angelheaded Hipster (1996)
Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye (1998)
Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts (2001)
The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love and Faith of an American Legend (2004) Johnny Cash
Amazing Grace: John Newton, Slavery and the World's Most Enduring Song (2005)
The Gospel According to the Beatles (2006)
An Illustrated History of Gospel(2010)
The Band That Played On (2011)
During the 1980s he wrote extensively for British newspapers and magazines on a range of subjects as well as producing his study of the relationship between rock music and religion, Hungry For Heaven, and co-authoring U2: Rattle & Hum, the book of the film. In the 1990s he began devoting himself to full-length books, the first being a best selling biography of British music star Cliff Richard, Cliff Richard: The Biography, in 1993, which stayed in the Sunday Times bestseller list for six weeks. At the same time he has written a number of poetry books for both adults and children. The first of his books for children, The Day I Fell Down The Toilet, has now sold over 120,000 copies, and total sales for his children's poetry collection now exceeds 200,000.
His published poetry books for adults are Tonight We Will Fake Love, Nice and Nasty, Up To Date, The King of Twist and Poems. His published poetry collections for children are The Day I Fell Down The Toilet, Dad, You're Not Funny, The Moon Has Got His Pants On, I Was Only Asking and Don't Take Your Elephant To School.
He now combines his book writing and journalism with poetry readings, lecture tours of America and Europe and consultancies. He lives in London.
Hungry for Heaven: Rock and Roll and the Search for Redemption(1988)
Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now (1993) Van Morrison
Cliff Richard: The Biography (1993) Cliff Richard
A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (1994; updated in 1999 and 2005)
Jack Kerouac: Angelheaded Hipster (1996)
Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye (1998)
Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts (2001)
The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love and Faith of an American Legend (2004) Johnny Cash
Amazing Grace: John Newton, Slavery and the World's Most Enduring Song (2005)
The Gospel According to the Beatles (2006)
An Illustrated History of Gospel(2010)
The Band That Played On (2011)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 13, 2010
TL, DR: Turner should've simply written a book about George's spiritual journey.
...
I'm not really sure what purpose the author was aiming for here.
First off, I want to point out the base foolishness of making it about all the Beatles. Ringo barely exists in the book (which, of course, may have been Ringo's fault. But considering how sick he was as a child -- never mentioned in the book -- you have to think he had some deeper thoughts about what I would consider the "religious dimension" of life). Paul is touched on in places, but is usually an afterthought. Leaving, of course, John and George. That has its own problems, though, which I'll get to in a minute.
The second problem is the lack of a core thesis. Turner is content simply to trace the development of John's and George's spiritual journeys without making an effort to promote what it all meant. He touches on the typical baby boomer belief that everyone everywhere was transformed in the 60s early on, and then he discusses his own Christianity at the end, but neither of these topics form a thread throughout. There's talk about the emptiness of fame as a motivator for George, but it doesn't really touch on the other three as much.
In addition, he proceeds topically rather than chronologically -- they're close, but not quite. For example, marijuana is covered in one chapter, and then LSD in the next, but those two periods of influence overlap and I question the author's ability to discern that song A belongs with one while song B belongs with the other, even though they are written about the same time. This continues with the Maharishi and Krishna influences. It isn't all like this, of course; there are times where Turner does point out synchronicities of the journeys. But those are the exception, not the rule.
This topical progression combined with the lack of a core thesis results in a meandering book. While not frustrating (the book is an easy read), it doesn't portray the journey accurately. It's hard to see that event B was influenced by [drug/religion:] A when B precedes A in the book. The addition of the required (yet unnecessary) Ringo and Paul sections also break up the progress.
And then ... there's John. It's not that John's journey isn't interesting or compelling ... it's just that it's ultimately fruitless. Whatever the underlying psychological cause (the author thinks it was the absent father coupled with the nigh-absent mother, and he may be right), the man was just incapable of finding any sort of consistency in his life. While George's journey is about a man evolving as he discovers new modes of spiritual thought, John jumps from one idea to another (or one drug to another) haphazardly, sticking around a little while and then moving on to the next thing, without any thought of how contradictory the new belief was to the old belief. Of course, if you're a Beatles fan you're used to this. But in a book that has the motive of tracing a spiritual journey, it's tough to justify the effort on someone who isn't walking a path so much as he's playing chutes and ladders with his spirituality.
In other words: Turner should've simply written a book about George's spiritual journey. It's George who questions the fame and materialism, it's George who discovers the perils of turning on and dropping out with his visit to San Francisco (and Turner really should've spent more time here discussing this -- but again, lack of a core thesis) thus providing a nice commentary on the overall 60s culture, it's George who ends up having a faith that isn't radically different from the author's Christianity (according to the author -- and you get the sense in the last chapter that the author wants his own Christianity to be present in the Beatles' journey but doesn't know how to go about inserting himself without making it about him), it's George who ultimately undergoes a "typical" spiritual journey from which the author can draw comparisons both to contemporary times and may even to his own faith.
I really wish Turner had reached this conclusion himself, because it would've been a more valuable read. There's some good material in here (although there are a couple factual errors, but I've grown to accept that there haven't been any editors in the publishing or Internet world for the past 10 years), but there's nothing you couldn't discover from reading the roughly 4 kazillion other books written about the Beatles. And since it does focus almost exclusively on the spiritual, it is inadequate as a standard biography. If you're a Beatles completist the book is short enough that it won't consume too much time to read it, but again, I'm not sure if you'd learn anything new from it.
In the end, the book is a missed opportunity, and that's a shame.
...
I'm not really sure what purpose the author was aiming for here.
First off, I want to point out the base foolishness of making it about all the Beatles. Ringo barely exists in the book (which, of course, may have been Ringo's fault. But considering how sick he was as a child -- never mentioned in the book -- you have to think he had some deeper thoughts about what I would consider the "religious dimension" of life). Paul is touched on in places, but is usually an afterthought. Leaving, of course, John and George. That has its own problems, though, which I'll get to in a minute.
The second problem is the lack of a core thesis. Turner is content simply to trace the development of John's and George's spiritual journeys without making an effort to promote what it all meant. He touches on the typical baby boomer belief that everyone everywhere was transformed in the 60s early on, and then he discusses his own Christianity at the end, but neither of these topics form a thread throughout. There's talk about the emptiness of fame as a motivator for George, but it doesn't really touch on the other three as much.
In addition, he proceeds topically rather than chronologically -- they're close, but not quite. For example, marijuana is covered in one chapter, and then LSD in the next, but those two periods of influence overlap and I question the author's ability to discern that song A belongs with one while song B belongs with the other, even though they are written about the same time. This continues with the Maharishi and Krishna influences. It isn't all like this, of course; there are times where Turner does point out synchronicities of the journeys. But those are the exception, not the rule.
This topical progression combined with the lack of a core thesis results in a meandering book. While not frustrating (the book is an easy read), it doesn't portray the journey accurately. It's hard to see that event B was influenced by [drug/religion:] A when B precedes A in the book. The addition of the required (yet unnecessary) Ringo and Paul sections also break up the progress.
And then ... there's John. It's not that John's journey isn't interesting or compelling ... it's just that it's ultimately fruitless. Whatever the underlying psychological cause (the author thinks it was the absent father coupled with the nigh-absent mother, and he may be right), the man was just incapable of finding any sort of consistency in his life. While George's journey is about a man evolving as he discovers new modes of spiritual thought, John jumps from one idea to another (or one drug to another) haphazardly, sticking around a little while and then moving on to the next thing, without any thought of how contradictory the new belief was to the old belief. Of course, if you're a Beatles fan you're used to this. But in a book that has the motive of tracing a spiritual journey, it's tough to justify the effort on someone who isn't walking a path so much as he's playing chutes and ladders with his spirituality.
In other words: Turner should've simply written a book about George's spiritual journey. It's George who questions the fame and materialism, it's George who discovers the perils of turning on and dropping out with his visit to San Francisco (and Turner really should've spent more time here discussing this -- but again, lack of a core thesis) thus providing a nice commentary on the overall 60s culture, it's George who ends up having a faith that isn't radically different from the author's Christianity (according to the author -- and you get the sense in the last chapter that the author wants his own Christianity to be present in the Beatles' journey but doesn't know how to go about inserting himself without making it about him), it's George who ultimately undergoes a "typical" spiritual journey from which the author can draw comparisons both to contemporary times and may even to his own faith.
I really wish Turner had reached this conclusion himself, because it would've been a more valuable read. There's some good material in here (although there are a couple factual errors, but I've grown to accept that there haven't been any editors in the publishing or Internet world for the past 10 years), but there's nothing you couldn't discover from reading the roughly 4 kazillion other books written about the Beatles. And since it does focus almost exclusively on the spiritual, it is inadequate as a standard biography. If you're a Beatles completist the book is short enough that it won't consume too much time to read it, but again, I'm not sure if you'd learn anything new from it.
In the end, the book is a missed opportunity, and that's a shame.
May 21, 2015
This book focuses on the more interesting events of the Beatles career through a spiritual lens. Turner starts with the "Bigger than Jesus" controversy and ends with the Maharishi event, and afterwards he chronicles the Beatles religious pursuits after the breakup. Unsurprisingly, the Manson murders also take up several pages, but in this case Turner focuses on how the Beatles were disciples to Manson. This book is heavy on George and John, less so on Ringo and Paul. It's a bit frustrating, but I do think it's fair. George was, as most know, the consistently spiritually dedicated member of the group, and John was always of fascination because he was always searching for a guru up until the very end. Paul's beliefs weren't so controversial, and Ringo didn't care so much until he came through alcoholism, at which point he was no longer the voice of a generation. There isn't too much that's new here, but Turner does provide large snippets of a conversation he held with John in his last years. Turner notes that he was the amateur believer going up against John, the seasoned doubter, and he felt unequally matched and somewhat embarrassed to share his interview questions. This is a book I will keep, because it's one with a unique perspective on the Beatles too-often-told story. As I said, there is nothing too new here, and yet what we read does not feel simply rehashed. We learn what we already know, perhaps, that the Beatles ultimate gospel was love, but what a journey it is to get there. It makes the band all the more human to know that for all the simple messages in their lyrics, there was nothing ultimately simple about what they all believed as individuals. That's an achievement, too, that Turner reminds us that while the Beatles thought as one in the beginning, they all found themselves in different places not only musically but spiritually by 1970.
June 30, 2015
I liked this one. It goes into the Beatles' personal changes about god, religion consciousness, drugs, all of that. More so, it does so by recording changes in the mass culture as the Beatles themselves affected it, and by way of telling his own personal changes in that regard as well, Mr. Turner catches a lot of what those socio-cultural changes were. References in their music and songs are generous and well-aligned. The book in fact, isn't stupid, which you might take it to be if you only saw the title, because it isn't so much about "the Gospel, as they proclaim it" so much as it is "the gospel, such as they saw it and it happened upon them." If you have filled your head with the many biographies available, this is a good addition, since it throws it all into a very different frame of reference, and doesn't get hung up in the personal foibles as against the personal virtues of the Fab four as they came to grips with Fortune and Celebrity...
July 3, 2021
Really terrific book - well researched and insightful.
January 17, 2020
I've read many, many Beatle books. This one stands out. Well laid out with new information and quotes placed within their proper context.
November 29, 2019
A good bio of what the Beatles thought and did during their years as a band. There's some after breakup info as well. I grew up in the era and knew some of the facts and fiction about the four, but this interesting take on how they each felt about religion and as role models was informative and fab, man!
The bios aren't complete, for example there's no mention of Ringo's two long stays in the hospital as a child, but early days and singing in church choirs helped catapult their interest in and inborn talent for melodies and lyrics.
As adults their leadership in promoting first marijuana, then LSD is made clear and the hints in the lyrics parents pointed to when scolding kids for following such cultural icons is evident.
Their search for "spirituality" and early agnosticism reads like many of that generation who were too quick to try any new religion then discard it, they were dilettantes of a sort, in a hurry for quick fixes and reassurance in making sense of their fame and existence. Only George held onto his practices as a Krishna believer.
In sum, a good book for those unknowing of the remarkable power of the music as affecting so many areas of life. The Manson 'family' and Mark David Chapman's praying to the devil for strength to shoot Lennon are in there as well.
A good book, but not an important one, three stars for the four gifted stars. Right on.
The bios aren't complete, for example there's no mention of Ringo's two long stays in the hospital as a child, but early days and singing in church choirs helped catapult their interest in and inborn talent for melodies and lyrics.
As adults their leadership in promoting first marijuana, then LSD is made clear and the hints in the lyrics parents pointed to when scolding kids for following such cultural icons is evident.
Their search for "spirituality" and early agnosticism reads like many of that generation who were too quick to try any new religion then discard it, they were dilettantes of a sort, in a hurry for quick fixes and reassurance in making sense of their fame and existence. Only George held onto his practices as a Krishna believer.
In sum, a good book for those unknowing of the remarkable power of the music as affecting so many areas of life. The Manson 'family' and Mark David Chapman's praying to the devil for strength to shoot Lennon are in there as well.
A good book, but not an important one, three stars for the four gifted stars. Right on.
January 3, 2023
I usually love reading anything that is Beatles related and I have enjoyed past books by this author about the Beatles but unfortunately, this one just didn't do it for me. They read more like essays for a university paper or something. I often felt like it was a slog to get through. And it probably doesn't help that there was a lot of religious talk. I know the books is called the gospel according to the Beatles so I suppose I should have expected there to be many references to religion but it was just too much. I hate to say it but I found it a bit boring...I wouldn't say I hate it but I don't feel like I really learned anything new or was particularly intrigued by it.
Grade: D+
Grade: D+
August 21, 2021
Very well written and I learned lot about not just their spiritual influences but also musical and cultural as well. I reccomend it for any avid fan as well as anyone seeking insight into the 60s. I can though only give it four stars due to the narrator's preachy agenda which thankfully doesn't show up til the end of the book. It isn't that heavy handed all considering but using John Green as a source ( Psychic consultant to John and Yoko who penned Dakota Days) is just very distasteful to say the least. So take what you may from this book. It has a lot to offer
August 2, 2017
Fortunately, this book is not what I thought its title implied: this is not a "hey, Christians, let's look for Bibley-messages in Beatles tunes and sanitize them so we can enjoy them guilt-free!" book. That would be horribly distasteful, both for Christianity and the Beatles. Instead, Mr. Turner gives us a more honest survey of the spiritual journeys of the Beatles (though, let's be honest, it's approximately 84% about John, 15% about George, .6% about Paul, and .4% about Ringo) from recklessly secular existentialists to drug-catalyzed spiritualists and beyond. Mr. Turner, who we learn actually got to interview John and Yoko once, begins with a general but intriguing overview in the first chapter about the nature of the Beatles as evangelists of their own rapidly-evolving religion, especially once they started to acknowledge their role/opportunity as influential people, and ends with a refreshingly personal essay on his own lifetime with the Beatles that somehow evades tendentious piffle while simultaneously explaining his impressively respectful and erudite commentary on Christianity throughout the rest of the book: he believes it. And in that rest of the book we get a mostly fascinating perspective on the changing attitudes and beliefs of the Fab Four (though, again, mostly John).
I'm still a bit confused by Mr. Turner's decision to begin the book with the "Jesus incident," though I sort of can convince myself why he would, since it's likely the most famous spiritual-related moment in the Beatles'(s?) career - though, since the rest of the book is chronological, it's odd to begin with the "turning point" of their lyrical and corporate career then jump back to their (mostly John's) childhood religious experiences in the following chapter. Even so, Mr. Turner gives us a very researched account of the episode with trenchant commentary, including a rather chilling observation about if Al Benn of UPI hadn't just so happened to turn his radio to local station WAQY's broadcast while he was passing through at just the right moment to hear DJ Tommy Charles's "ban the Beatles" ratings stunt, John Lennon may be alive today. What started as a fairly meaningless local stunt in Alabama (based on a months' old magazine interview, no less) spiraled into an international brouhaha involving everyone from the KKK to David Noebel.
The rest of the book, as I said, is a chronological journey through the major spiritual moments of the Beatles' collective and solo careers. John is perhaps the most interesting case after all, having had the most formal religious instruction/experiences as a young boy combined with the roughest childhood (father left, mother killed in a car accident when John was young). John goes through the most oscillating religious life of the group: early choir boy training to cynical rejection of spirituality mainly due to loss to famous musician with everything money can buy to searching for something immaterial beyond for meaning/purpose/et cetera to drugs as a gateway to cosmic oneness to Transcendental Meditation to cynical atheism to magic/spiritism/Buddhist-like panoply of Yoko to dalliance with Christianity to Give Peace a Chance. George doesn't have many religious youth experiences, gets involved with drugs around the same time as John, gets involved with the Maharishi with the others, then gets involved with Krishna and more or less spends his life there off and on. Paul is the steady, materialistic, willing-to-dabble, Love is the Answer guy we all basically suspect he is. And Ringo is the mostly laid-back one who dabbles with his buddies but finally arrives at the efficacy of spirituality further down life's long and winding road.
Throughout it all, Mr. Turner gives us what appears to be a well-balanced presentation of the ideas, events, catalysts, and reactions the Fab Four experienced through the good times and bad. Mr. Turner does not just give us the usual line "the Beatles got really good when they started taking drugs," but instead he reminds us even the boys themselves understood not too long after their drug experiences drugs were not the goal of life, despite what Timothy Leary and Michael Hollingshead and others were preaching. Drugs may have "expanded their consciousness," but drugs also damaged John, George, Paul, and Ringo in long-lasting ways. The Beatles best songs and attitudes during and after their "drug period" were not because of drug usage, and while Hinduism may have prompted their social involvement more than Christianity, the quest for truth remained strong in them all (more or less) - but not because of drugs.
This book does not attempt to tell the whole story of the Beatles. This book focuses on John's, George's, Paul's, and Ringo's spiritual lives before, during, and after their time as Beatles. At times the book feels like Mr. Turner's attachment to the subject is about to interfere, but it never does so for more than a moment, even in the very personal conclusion chapter. I began the book with trepidation especially about its title, but this book was a challenging and encouraging treatment of one of the most important yet grossly neglected aspect of one of the 20th century's most influential groups. I will likely be reading this again sometime soon.
I'm still a bit confused by Mr. Turner's decision to begin the book with the "Jesus incident," though I sort of can convince myself why he would, since it's likely the most famous spiritual-related moment in the Beatles'(s?) career - though, since the rest of the book is chronological, it's odd to begin with the "turning point" of their lyrical and corporate career then jump back to their (mostly John's) childhood religious experiences in the following chapter. Even so, Mr. Turner gives us a very researched account of the episode with trenchant commentary, including a rather chilling observation about if Al Benn of UPI hadn't just so happened to turn his radio to local station WAQY's broadcast while he was passing through at just the right moment to hear DJ Tommy Charles's "ban the Beatles" ratings stunt, John Lennon may be alive today. What started as a fairly meaningless local stunt in Alabama (based on a months' old magazine interview, no less) spiraled into an international brouhaha involving everyone from the KKK to David Noebel.
The rest of the book, as I said, is a chronological journey through the major spiritual moments of the Beatles' collective and solo careers. John is perhaps the most interesting case after all, having had the most formal religious instruction/experiences as a young boy combined with the roughest childhood (father left, mother killed in a car accident when John was young). John goes through the most oscillating religious life of the group: early choir boy training to cynical rejection of spirituality mainly due to loss to famous musician with everything money can buy to searching for something immaterial beyond for meaning/purpose/et cetera to drugs as a gateway to cosmic oneness to Transcendental Meditation to cynical atheism to magic/spiritism/Buddhist-like panoply of Yoko to dalliance with Christianity to Give Peace a Chance. George doesn't have many religious youth experiences, gets involved with drugs around the same time as John, gets involved with the Maharishi with the others, then gets involved with Krishna and more or less spends his life there off and on. Paul is the steady, materialistic, willing-to-dabble, Love is the Answer guy we all basically suspect he is. And Ringo is the mostly laid-back one who dabbles with his buddies but finally arrives at the efficacy of spirituality further down life's long and winding road.
Throughout it all, Mr. Turner gives us what appears to be a well-balanced presentation of the ideas, events, catalysts, and reactions the Fab Four experienced through the good times and bad. Mr. Turner does not just give us the usual line "the Beatles got really good when they started taking drugs," but instead he reminds us even the boys themselves understood not too long after their drug experiences drugs were not the goal of life, despite what Timothy Leary and Michael Hollingshead and others were preaching. Drugs may have "expanded their consciousness," but drugs also damaged John, George, Paul, and Ringo in long-lasting ways. The Beatles best songs and attitudes during and after their "drug period" were not because of drug usage, and while Hinduism may have prompted their social involvement more than Christianity, the quest for truth remained strong in them all (more or less) - but not because of drugs.
This book does not attempt to tell the whole story of the Beatles. This book focuses on John's, George's, Paul's, and Ringo's spiritual lives before, during, and after their time as Beatles. At times the book feels like Mr. Turner's attachment to the subject is about to interfere, but it never does so for more than a moment, even in the very personal conclusion chapter. I began the book with trepidation especially about its title, but this book was a challenging and encouraging treatment of one of the most important yet grossly neglected aspect of one of the 20th century's most influential groups. I will likely be reading this again sometime soon.
April 24, 2021
More about their spiritual journeys than how a song might illustrate one of the gospels’ stories. I’m fine with that, even prefer that. But I think the title is misleading. The book was interesting and mildly insightful.
September 25, 2022
I appreciated the details of The Beatles lives, but the focus of the book, some strange notion of their religious life, eluded me.
September 14, 2012
For those looking for a quick review and an inclination as to whether this is a worthy read, I recommend any Beatles fan or avid popular music fan to fit this biography into their "top ten" must reads.
Whether you're a Beatles lover and need to satiate an ongoing desire for all that is Beatles trivia, a serious student of popular culture, or one with earnest interest in the spiritual and theological thought and influence of culture icons, this is a book that may disturb but will not disappoint.
Steve Turner is a Beatles fan. This is notable because the honest approach Mr. Turner takes in this study of the pioneers of modern music made me, even a moderate fan of the Fab Four, feel the sting in the divulging of less than flattering aspects of their fabulous lives. As the title depicts, Turner searches to disclose much more than interesting morsels on the most popular musical group ever. He seeks to reveal what his study of these four men from an English middle-class town thought; what they believed concerning the most important questions regarding life itself.
Considering the times in which the Beatles came onto the scene and the resulting magnitude of their influence on that generation and those to come, Turner's aspirations are well placed. As he takes us from the childhood trails and teen angst of the band members, along with the spiritual involvements of especially John Lennon, it's hard not to share in their common endeavors and empathize. As John and other band members struggle to find their purpose and identity they often receive erroneous, unfulfilling platitudes from the drifting church they associated with of their day.
Once they strike out and find their initial "salvation" in the recognition and good times of playing in a band, their quest for fulfillment and meaning soon escalates to the higher highs of the dissolution and decadence of "red light" area bars of Hamburg Germany. Upon discovering the intellectual freedom of drug use, LSD takes the savior role. Turner shows each member's experimentation with varying philosophies and mind altering chemicals and how these gave perspective to the music they created. From the wild life of the German clubs and existentialist beatnik influences, to an assortment of drugs (quintessentially LSD), to the draw of the Maharishi and Eastern Hindu mysticism, the author illustrates the direct connection of these gospels to the message and music the Beatles produced. The musical genius of John, Paul, George, and Ringo is not minimized but the direction and message of the music is laid out so the reader can make accurate conclusions as to what exactly was the Gospel of the Beatles.
Gospel essentially means good news. From what is explicitly laid out in this biography Turner makes clear The Beatles sought to convey some kind of a message of "goodness" to their followers and anyone who'd listen. The author does a fine job of demonstrating, though the Beatles themselves were at times overwhelmed and sometimes unwilling in their role of evangelists to a generation, they were without doubt religious leaders of their time - and beyond.
`The Gospel According to the Beatles' portrays the facts and the sensations of the people and time in a calculated but human manner that makes it worth a continued turn of the page, even to the tragic entrance of Charles Manson and Lennon's Judas - Mark David Chapman.
Whether you're a Beatles lover and need to satiate an ongoing desire for all that is Beatles trivia, a serious student of popular culture, or one with earnest interest in the spiritual and theological thought and influence of culture icons, this is a book that may disturb but will not disappoint.
Steve Turner is a Beatles fan. This is notable because the honest approach Mr. Turner takes in this study of the pioneers of modern music made me, even a moderate fan of the Fab Four, feel the sting in the divulging of less than flattering aspects of their fabulous lives. As the title depicts, Turner searches to disclose much more than interesting morsels on the most popular musical group ever. He seeks to reveal what his study of these four men from an English middle-class town thought; what they believed concerning the most important questions regarding life itself.
Considering the times in which the Beatles came onto the scene and the resulting magnitude of their influence on that generation and those to come, Turner's aspirations are well placed. As he takes us from the childhood trails and teen angst of the band members, along with the spiritual involvements of especially John Lennon, it's hard not to share in their common endeavors and empathize. As John and other band members struggle to find their purpose and identity they often receive erroneous, unfulfilling platitudes from the drifting church they associated with of their day.
Once they strike out and find their initial "salvation" in the recognition and good times of playing in a band, their quest for fulfillment and meaning soon escalates to the higher highs of the dissolution and decadence of "red light" area bars of Hamburg Germany. Upon discovering the intellectual freedom of drug use, LSD takes the savior role. Turner shows each member's experimentation with varying philosophies and mind altering chemicals and how these gave perspective to the music they created. From the wild life of the German clubs and existentialist beatnik influences, to an assortment of drugs (quintessentially LSD), to the draw of the Maharishi and Eastern Hindu mysticism, the author illustrates the direct connection of these gospels to the message and music the Beatles produced. The musical genius of John, Paul, George, and Ringo is not minimized but the direction and message of the music is laid out so the reader can make accurate conclusions as to what exactly was the Gospel of the Beatles.
Gospel essentially means good news. From what is explicitly laid out in this biography Turner makes clear The Beatles sought to convey some kind of a message of "goodness" to their followers and anyone who'd listen. The author does a fine job of demonstrating, though the Beatles themselves were at times overwhelmed and sometimes unwilling in their role of evangelists to a generation, they were without doubt religious leaders of their time - and beyond.
`The Gospel According to the Beatles' portrays the facts and the sensations of the people and time in a calculated but human manner that makes it worth a continued turn of the page, even to the tragic entrance of Charles Manson and Lennon's Judas - Mark David Chapman.
July 25, 2011
Steve Turnerin "Beatles ja usko rakkauteen" (Kirjapaja, 2008) käsittelee mielenkiintoisesti uskonnon ja hengellisyyden merkitystä the Beatlesin tuotannossa ja uralla, tarkoitettiinpa sillä sitten John Lennonin "Suurempia kuin Jeesus" -lausunnon käsittelyä mediassa, LSD:n avulla tapahtuvaa korkeamman hengellisyyden tavoittelua tai George Harrisonin suhdetta Krishna-liikkeeseen.
The Beatlesista on kirjoitettu tuhansia ja tuhansia sivuja, eikä yhtyeen historiassa ole kovinkaan montaa vaihetta, jota ei olisi käsitelty perinpohjaisesti läpi. Steve Turnerin näkökulma on kuitenkin sen verran tuore ja omaperäinen, että ainakin tämmöiselle keskitason Beatles-tutkinnon suorittaneelle se antaa uuttakin tietoa: ainakin Lennonin lyhyt mutta kiihkeä herätyskristillinen vaihe 1970-luvulla sekä Applen elektroniikkaosastoa johteneen Alex Mardasin myöhemmät vaiheet olivat jääneet minulta tyystin pimentoon.
Turner käsittelee aihettaan puolueettomasti, kiihkottomasti ja mielenkiintoisesti, eikä anna oman suhtautumisensa kristinuskoon leimata lainkaan teoksen sivuja. Erittäin suositeltava kirja kaikille The Beatlesin ystäville!
The Beatlesista on kirjoitettu tuhansia ja tuhansia sivuja, eikä yhtyeen historiassa ole kovinkaan montaa vaihetta, jota ei olisi käsitelty perinpohjaisesti läpi. Steve Turnerin näkökulma on kuitenkin sen verran tuore ja omaperäinen, että ainakin tämmöiselle keskitason Beatles-tutkinnon suorittaneelle se antaa uuttakin tietoa: ainakin Lennonin lyhyt mutta kiihkeä herätyskristillinen vaihe 1970-luvulla sekä Applen elektroniikkaosastoa johteneen Alex Mardasin myöhemmät vaiheet olivat jääneet minulta tyystin pimentoon.
Turner käsittelee aihettaan puolueettomasti, kiihkottomasti ja mielenkiintoisesti, eikä anna oman suhtautumisensa kristinuskoon leimata lainkaan teoksen sivuja. Erittäin suositeltava kirja kaikille The Beatlesin ystäville!
February 26, 2013
The link between the Beatles spiritual journey and how it influenced each of them is analyzed by Steve Turner in great detail. As a life long Beatles fan, I was always impressed with the amazing curve they created in a relatively short period of time. In the US we were introduced to them in February of 1964. In a few short years the songwriting was getting more sophisticated, the lyrics more introspective, and at the same time more colorful and unconventional resulting in some of the best albums ever made. There was probably no other band who wrapped it all together as well as the Beatles did. Steve Turner does an excellent job in linking all the pieces of the Beatles thought processes and creative magic together via religious and spritual contexts for a perspective unlike any other. I totally enjoyed this book.
June 17, 2009
A fine overview of the spiritual journeys of the Beatles. Christianity, hallucinogenic "enlightenment", the Eastern gurus, TM and agnosticism are all covered here. The chapter about their boyhood encounters with a vapid form of Christianity that left them prejudiced against that faith and one concerning John's "more popular that Jesus" controversy are excellent and should not be missed. The author, Mr. Turner lets the subjects speak for themselves without providing analysis at every single point; this allows the book to flow at a natural, easily readable pace. Highly recommended for Beatles fans, music fans or anyone interested in the cultural or spiritual influences of the '60s.
July 22, 2012
Do we need a book dedicated to the spirituality of The Beatles?
The book does provided a good insight into the spirituality of the Beatles however often goes far to detailed into drug preferences and rarely mentions Sutcliffe, Best, or even Ringo. I also thought the final chapter was too personal. On the other hand I do like the quotes at the start of each chapter and was responsibly impressed with the photography. I like the 1st few chapter a great deal and how Ringo was given the final say. OK, the book helped open my mind to drugs and told me a lot of things about The Beatles I never knew before but it good have been done a tad better.
The book does provided a good insight into the spirituality of the Beatles however often goes far to detailed into drug preferences and rarely mentions Sutcliffe, Best, or even Ringo. I also thought the final chapter was too personal. On the other hand I do like the quotes at the start of each chapter and was responsibly impressed with the photography. I like the 1st few chapter a great deal and how Ringo was given the final say. OK, the book helped open my mind to drugs and told me a lot of things about The Beatles I never knew before but it good have been done a tad better.
February 1, 2010
This was a really interesting look at the spiritual journeys of the Beatles (focusing mostly on John and George as the two who were more blatantly interested in religion and spirituality) and by extension the generation in which they grew up. The last chapter fell a little bit flat, focusing a little too much on the author's own spiritual journey but not tying it in to the rest of the book as well as he could have. I wish he would have summed up the book a bit better and taken it a little further than he did. Overall though, it was well written, engaging, and informative.
April 6, 2014
As a true Beatles fan and avid spiritualist, what I really enjoyed about this book is how the author blended the spiritual impact of the Beatles on the world with their own individual spiritual journeys. Each of the boys was very different from the others, yet their thoughts and beliefs meshed together perfectly to have a great impact on the world. I just love them.
July 19, 2009
A different and interesting take both on the Beatles and various religions as they saw them. Interesting chronology of how their views were initially formed and then changed as they were exposed to more and different philosophies. It was an intersting change from most of the Beatle books I've read.
November 9, 2012
On the first page, after the author defined what 'gospel' means, he asked and answered his own question: Did the Beatles really have a 'gospel'? He said, "I think they did. It wasn't their intention."
To me, if one knows the spiritual meaning of Love and on one among their song: All you need is Love, Love is all you need, then you have your own answer too. (1John 14:16)
To me, if one knows the spiritual meaning of Love and on one among their song: All you need is Love, Love is all you need, then you have your own answer too. (1John 14:16)
March 15, 2013
My husband pulled this book off the shelf for me to read. The Beatles? Sure, I know their stories, but why not? I found myself drawn into the lives and hearts of the Fab Four. I was captivated, page after page, as I gained new insights into what made them who they were; what was in their hearts and souls. I highly recommend this book.
March 14, 2010
Found this book in the Cokesbury bookstore at Lake Junaluska, NC. The stories of each of the Beatles' religious experiences will both challenge and inspire you. I looked up more stuff online while reading this book! LOL
July 19, 2007
I meet steve turner at a bed and breakfast once.
What a nice guy. We chatted about the beatles for hours!
Great read!
What a nice guy. We chatted about the beatles for hours!
Great read!
September 10, 2007
I know very little about the Beatles, so this was all new information for me. A lot of interesting insights about the origins and inspiration for many of their songs.
February 12, 2010
Great book, two blogs::
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http://nursepastorfatherhusband.blogs...
http://nursepastorfatherhusband.blogs...
http://nursepastorfatherhusband.blogs...
March 23, 2011
I love the Beatles
September 9, 2012
The author talks about the spiritual journey of the Beatles members. I liked the idea that Paul was a post-Christian pragmatist realist.
January 4, 2014
Quite engaging but dwelt on John excessively, burying his interesting point that it was Paul who ultimately adopted a lifestyle more consistent with the evolved spiritual views of the group.
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