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gileson wrote on Nov 23, ’08

I remember this incident quite clearly and I recall our parish priest saying that John Lennon was right because there were millions of people all over the world who were Hindu, Moslem, Jewish, Confucians, Rastafarian, Atheist, Agnostics, etc. who listened to The Beatles but may never have heard of Jesus or necessarily believed in him.
My memory as a young perspiring journalist is different from the Vatican, and it may be arguing semantics, but the way I always remembered the quote was that The Beatles were more “popular” than Jesus Christ. Which changes the impact of the statement considerably. Being more “popular” would mean that even if Jesus were more “famous”, i.e., known by more people, among those who knew both the Beatles and Jesus Christ that the Beatles had a bigger following.
When the Christians started having their album burning parties, a lot of people (including some parents) participated so as to keep in good graces with with Fanatics if their churches without really losing anything.
That is why today among those who inherited their parent’s vinyl you will find quite a few Beatles albums in the liner sleeves but no dust covers.
When the fever pitch to burn something hit, nobody bothered to check to see if their was anything in those “albums” being tossed on the fire.
Just a little 60’s trivia from somebody who lived it.

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lauritasita wrote on Nov 23, ’08

If I recall, John Lennon was known for his sharp tongue, and he said whatever was on his mind. Even though he apologized for his remark, everyone knew deep down that is was true. People knew damn well that they would rather go to a Beatles concert than go to church.

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grand60 wrote on Nov 23, ’08

Like a lot of sport-stars, musicians, maybe even painters, they are famous for a while. But when they say that in comparison with someone else it seems that always people are hurt. For me the Beatles still are famous, like daVinci, Beethoven, Queen, Pele and John McEnroe

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lauritasita wrote on Nov 23, ’08

That was a typical John Lennon statement. The point is that, what difference does it make what the Vatican thinks about that anyway ? It’s kind of late to decide who is forgiven after so many years. Don’t they even know what “forgiveness” means ?

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forgetmenot525 wrote on Nov 23, ’08

I can see him now, lounging up against those pearly gates, guitar slung over his shoulder, peering over those little round glasses saying ” grappling with fame??, naah not me mate, I f****** loved it” 🙂

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gileson wrote on Nov 23, ’08

John Lennon was known for his sharp tongue,

That is true. I think the album burning frenzy came later. There was this general hope that Lennon would recant and apologize, and the way I remember is that he did neither, but instead added “gasoline” to the fire by saying, “What’s the big stink? You know it’s true.”

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gileson wrote on Nov 23, ’08

It’s kind of late to decide who is forgiven after so many years

Either you can forgive and forget or forgive but never forget or never forget and never forgive. I’ll read a lot about the ongoing rift between The Vatican and modern day leaders of the Jewish Church over what the Catholic Church, in general, or Pope Pius XII in particular did or did not do during the Holocaust.

I wasn’t there, so I have only two sets of conflicting testimony to go by. Inevitably it boils down to “he said she said” and so long as people want to make each other pay in misery for things that happened before they were born. If the Jewish people seriously believe that the Pope could have and should have done something to stop the holocaust, then I think the current Pope could say, “In the interest of peace and harmony among all God’s children, we offically and solemnly apologize for whatever we did or did not do that caused this most unspeakable of horrors to be brought upon you. We ask for your fogiveness on behalf of those whose actions may or may not have led to the holocaust who are no longer among us to plead for your forgiveness.”
Then let it go ….

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welshdoug wrote on Nov 23, ’08

I always thought he said “We’re more popular than cheeses”…..

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lauritasita wrote on Nov 23, ’08

Tim,
I actually do remember John apologizing to the press:

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seth360 wrote on Nov 26, ’08, edited on Nov 26, ’08

I think this whole thing was misunderstood…

My take on Johns comment was more dig at pop culture than a blasphemous comment of Jesus and Christianity as it was widely & historically interpreted..

I think he felt the Beatle hysteria was incomprehensible to him. He found it disturbing that the world seems to be more occupied with Beatlemania than with the peaceful message of Jesus…

It’s so clear by the tone of his voice and facial expressions in the interview that he was perplexed by the insanity of it all..

In my view he didn’t need to apologize for his comment, but he was basically forced to do so by Beatle management at the time

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lauritasita wrote on Nov 26, ’08, edited on Nov 26, ’08

Seth, I do agree with what you said. Brian Epstein, who I believe was still alive at the time, probably told him to apologize as a political move. The Beatles were only in their mid 20s at the time. They were too young to understand how their statements could be misunderstood like that. It’s almost the same thing as what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they made their crack about Bush. You never know how people are going to interpret what you say.