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Beatles
"The dream is over."- John Lennon, from "God"
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I
became a man, I gave up childish ways.-
Corinthians I 13:13
The time had come for the Beatles to give up their childish ways. It was hard to imagine that fewer than five years had passed since America discovered the Beatles, because so much had changed since then. The very fabric of our culture had been inexorably altered, and the Beatles, who were in the eye of this tempestuous hurricane, changed with us.
In retrospect, the overall impression of 1964 that lingered was that of a virginal innocence becoming aroused by the prospects of an exciting future. In 1964, Americans had nothing more to be afraid of in popular culture than the androgynous nature of the Beatles' haircuts. From the vantage point of 1968, it was easy to look back wistfully at the optimism of those times. The Beatles themselves must have felt similarly. The overwhelming excitement of suddenly having the most famous four faces in the world, coupled with the energy and talent to rise up to the expectations of the masses must have given them at least some sense of satisfaction and pride in their achievement, even if it was only short lived.
Human nature and time can be killers, though. They inevitably will disrupt anything that appears to be static and will wear down even the hardest of surfaces. Initially, the tumultuous events that surrounded the Beatles brought them closer together. The band became something of a private men's club, containing four exclusive members. Even wives and girlfriends were kept outside of the fold. Their manager, Brian Epstein, acted as doorman who prevented all interlopers from entering the private sanctum, but now Brian was dead.
The four Beatles, who lived like pharaohs, were never as innocent as their audience perceived them to be, but drugs, sex, money, and now the death of their manager had irreparably corrupted their outlook and disrupted the framework that held them together. Even the peripheral aspects of their lives (which is pretty much where you stood if you were a Beatle wife or girlfriend) began to disintegrate. John Lennon’s marriage to his wife, Cynthia, was essentially over, and Paul's long term relationship with Jane Asher had fallen apart, as well.
Not only the Beatles, but everybody else was going through similar turmoil. Law-abiding, respectful youth had learned about drugs, and many of us didn't hesitate to experiment with them. We began to question authority and even protested openly against the government. First Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, and then Robert Kennedy. The Summer of Love had become a near-forgotten, perverted dream. We, all of us, were no longer innocent. All of a sudden, we became older, but wiser. The Beatles, because of their fame and notoriety, became our sacrificial lamb. They, not the Rolling Stones, were the butterfly to be broken on a wheel.
But who really was to blame? Why was a sacrifice necessary? What else could be eviscerated to make right this divisive and troubled time?
Time. Time was the problem and time held the solution.
Maturity could loosely be defined as an awareness of yourself coupled with a loss of innocence. Time only makes us older. Experience and awareness make us wiser. "Hey Jude" was McCartney's way of coming to terms with the changes that were happening all around him. His lyrics could be directed at John and Cynthia's breakup, a means of cheering up their child, Julian, or a way of putting McCartney’s own life in perspective - but they work best when perceived on a global scale.
Letting go of your childhood innocence is a rite of passage that is always taken reluctantly. "Hey Jude" points the way and says, essentially, "It's all right to move on." An entire generation was simultaneously developing a new awareness. Whether you were nine or twenty-nine, you heard the message. The Beatles even supplied us with a four-minute mantra to chant in unison while we learned to accept our pain. One of the most beautiful and transcendent moments in all of music occurs when the lyrics give way to the chanting chorus. The combination of pain and pleasure at that moment is immeasurably powerful. The "na na na nanana na" chorus is just as life-affirming as the earlier "yeah, yeah, yeah," but less childish and more realistic. McCartney's ad-libbed vocal lines are among the most expressive singing he has ever done, letting us know just how important and cathartic this moment is for him. Seven minutes and eleven seconds encapsulates a lifetime of experience and captures the moment when we become vaguely aware that the Beatles, by necessity, were nearing the end of their existence together. Symbolically, “Hey Jude” was the first Beatles record that was released on their own Apple Records label, and it became the biggest hit of their career when it remained at #1 for nine weeks. With a song that was intended to show the world that, as a group, they were as strong as ever, they acknowledged the importance of their individual independence. In one year's time, the Beatles would disintegrate completely, but by then, "Hey Jude" would justify the entire experience.
 
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