How literature shaped the music of The Beatles
Although The Beatles‘ impact on music goes without saying, their influence over literature has also been rather sizeable. From Haruki Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood, named after the Rubber Soul track, to Stephen King’s Misery, the Fab Four have inspired the titles of many books.
Besides the cultural phenomenon associated with the band, their influence over such a vast array of writers is perhaps due to their music’s own literary qualities. Although The Beatles initially burst onto the scene as fresh-faced youngsters, behind their cheesy smiles and mop tops was an interest in both high and low-brow literature that helped to shape their own lyrics.
In Paul McCartney’s book, Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, the musician details how a rich knowledge of poetry, prose and theatre inspired his songwriting, which led him to produce some of the most well-known songs of all time. McCartney was greatly influenced by his grammar schoolteacher Alan Durband, a Cambridge-educated man who brought his extensive literature knowledge into the classroom. Paul Muldoon, who edited Lyrics, said: “What Paul was exposed to [by Durband] was really quite phenomenal.”
McCartney shared: “He inspired my love of reading and opened things up for me so much that I came to live for a while in a fantasy world drawn from books.” Durband inspired the young Beatle to pick up the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Dylan Thomas, whose ‘Under Milk Wood’ McCartney purchased a copy of, “just to see how Thomas dealt with words.”
Muldoon taught McCartney how to ‘close read’, which involved carefully examining specific lines and phrases to extract their full potential. This preoccupation with detail can be seen in McCartney’s lyricism, particularly in ‘Eleanor Rigby’, which hones in on specifics such as, “Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door” and “Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave.”
Another massive influence over McCartney was Jane Asher and her family, who the young musician moved in with during 1963, remaining there for three years. “The family knew all about art and culture and society,” says McCartney, who would visit galleries and theatre productions with Asher’s mother.
With that, a number of McCartney-penned tracks included references to William Shakespeare, often ending lines with rhyming couplets as the famous playwright so often did. He also adapted a 17th-century poem called ‘Cradle Song’ by Thomas Dekker into Abbey Road‘s ‘Golden Slumbers’, stating that he “liked the words so much”.
McCartney wasn’t the only member of the band that expressed an interest in literature. John Lennon heavily immersed himself in the world of art and literature as a child: “It was very, very scary [being a child], and the only contact I had was reading about an Oscar Wilde or a Dylan Thomas,” he once said. Lennon also cited Lewis Carroll as a particular influence, as did McCartney. However, the English author’s effect is best traced in the nonsensical ‘I Am The Walrus’. Lennon’s track is a nod to Carroll’s poems ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ and ‘Jabberwocky’ from his novel Through the Looking-Glass. The ‘goo goo g’joob’ chant is lifted from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake – one of the most challenging works of fiction ever written.
Lennon also loved the Beat Generation, with Allen Ginsberg referenced in ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and William S. Burroughs appearing on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.
Apparently, neither George Harrison nor Ringo Starr were big readers, perhaps explaining why McCartney and Lennon were the band’s primary songwriters. However, Harrison was undoubtedly influenced by the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, keeping “a stack of copies in his car” to give to friends. Harrison’s fascination with Indian culture and spiritual practises bled heavily into The Beatles’ later music, introducing traditional Indian instruments to Western pop and rock.
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