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The Beatles made history, but they didn't sing about it much. Even when they did, usually it was an oblique reference to a current event – something that for them was contemporary, but which has since gone into the history books. In this way, larger historical currents did make their way into the band's lyrics – albeit often metaphorically, or as quick one-liners. Here's a sampling of the rare and subtle ways the Beatles commented on the world at large, and its past.
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When you're putting together a list of political music artists, you might think Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Tay Zonde
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Seriously, give Chocolate Rain another listen. Those lyrics are deep. You don't typically think of the Beatles. Their commentary is more focused on glass onions and octopuses gardens in the shade
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But, as it turns out, the Fab Four put a lot of sidelong references to contemporary news stories and political figures in their songs
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So, today, we're looking at all the historical references in some of your favorite Beatles songs
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Now, with some historical references like these, you know you should be glad
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The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band classic, A Day in the Life, starts with the phrase
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I read the news today, oh boy. And that's literal. Many references in the song were taken from
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newspaper articles that John Lennon had read while working on his first draft. Today, lines like
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he blew his mind out in a car, and 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, sound like pure abstractions
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or dark little jokes. In fact, the section of the song about a politician committing suicide in a
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car was inspired by the 1966 death of 21-year-old socialite Tara Brown in a car accident. Brown
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who was heir to the Guinness beer fortune, was a friend of both Lennon and Paul McCartney's
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and though he had not blown his mind out in a car, as the lyrics state, his tragic passing was likely on Lennon's mind while he was composing the song
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Some writers have even noted that Lennon appears to have adapted phrasing from a January 1967 article in the Daily Mail about the custody trial for Brown's two children
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The bit about the 4,000 holes was also adapted from a Daily Mail article
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this one about the poor state of the roads in the town of Blackburn. The article noted that the town had a total of 4,000 holes in its various roads, which equaled out to 1 26th of a hole per resident
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Writer Ron Kennedy then expounded on this tidbit to note that if Blackburn is typical for all English towns
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the country has a total of 2 million holes in its roads, with 300,000 in London alone
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Maybe that's where McCartney's cut fixing a hole on the same album came from
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Finally, the song's repeated line, I'd love to turn you on, was a reformulation of contemporary
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counterculture icon Timothy Leary's iconic phrase, turn on, tune in, drop out, encouraging
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hippies to expand their minds by experimenting with LSD and other hallucinogens
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Good thing the Beatles never touched the stuff right She Leaving Home also from the album Sgt Pepper was written by McCartney and inspired by another article he saw in The Daily Mail
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So it's clear what paper the Beatles were getting delivered. This story was about a 17-year-old girl named Melanie Coe who had just run away from home
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The real Coe had run off with her boyfriend, a croupier, and returned after just 10 days
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But McCartney didn't know that when he first read the article. The song finds him imagining what might have transpired based only on the initial disappearance
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He still got a few details right, especially the part about living alone for so many years
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Coe later reflected that she had been an only child and frequently felt lonely as a teen
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Purely by coincidence, McCartney had actually met Coe in 1963 while filming an episode of the ITV series Ready Steady Go
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At the time, he'd selected her as the prize winner following a dancing competition
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but wasn't even aware of this connection when he composed the song. And when you can listen to the track, you can tell
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Good luck dancing to this melancholy ballad. Another memorable Sgt. Pepper's track
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the bouncy and whimsical being for the benefit of Mr. Kite, was inspired by a 19th century circus poster
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that Lennon purchased at an antique shop in Kent. The poster was advertising Pablo Funk's Circus Royale
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which was performing in the town of Rochdale near Manchester. Nearly all of the lyrics are borrowed from the poster, including a shout-out to Pablo himself
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Wirewalker and trampoline artist John Henderson, referenced as the Hendersons in the song
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really did vault himself over men and horses, through hoops and over garters
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and eventually through a large barrel, a.k.a. a hogshead, of real fire
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The titular Mr. Kite was probably William Kite, a performer who worked for funk from 1843 to 1845
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Lennon always claimed to have written the entire song by himself, ripping references straight off the poster
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though McCartney later disputes this account in his autobiography, recalling the two of them writing it together
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Good thing Lennon and McCartney never argued about anything again. Right? Taxman, which opens the Beatles' trailblazing Revolver album, has some relatable roots in reality
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After all, no one likes paying their taxes. But, George Harrison specifically wrote the song after the Beatles' massive worldwide
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success suddenly shifted them into Britain's top tax bracket. The group's accountants informed them that the government's super tax on top earners
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meant that despite the windfall from their numerous hit songs two members of the band were already in immediate danger of bankruptcy and the others were likely to follow The song Sarcastically includes the name of two British politicians of the era Mr Wilson and
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Mr. Heath. Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister of the UK from 1964 to 1970, and his Labour Party
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had been responsible for the country's high level of progressive taxes, which claimed more than 90
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of the Beatles' annual earnings. Hence the line, it's one for you, 19 for me. The Beatles recorded
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the song in April 1966, just one month after Labour and Wilson's landslide win in the UK's
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general election. Edward Heath was Wilson's rival and head of the Conservative Party
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It's unclear why Harrison included both names, even though only Wilson had supported the high
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tax rate. Perhaps he was suggesting that the entire government was responsible
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not just Labour politicians. Or maybe he just wanted to avoid alienating the group's young Labour voting fans
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Back in the USSR, the group's Beach Boys homage from 1968's self-titled record, commonly known as the White Album
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contains a lot of nods to locations around the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly known as the USSR
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But McCartney notes that he, quote, flew in from Miami Beach BOAC
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This is a reference to the British Overseas Airways Corporation, a major UK airline in the 1960s
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In 74, BOAC merged with another company to form the still-active carrier British Airways
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But those syllables just don't fit the lyrics, you know? Sexy Sadie, another white album tune, took inspiration from a seminar in Bangor, Wales
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presented by Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, best known as the creator of Transcendental Meditation
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Inspired by the Maharishi's ideas, the band, along with notable figures like singer-songwriter Donovan
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Beach Boys singer Mike Love and actress Mia Farrow visited his retreat in northern India in February
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1968. Their time in India not only inspired many of the group's most famous songs, it also helped
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shift western ideas about eastern spirituality and introduced the practice of transcendental
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meditation to millions around the world. Even today, the retreat the group visited in the town
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of Rishikesh is known as the Beatles Ashram. Nonetheless, the trip concluded on a sour note
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after allegations of inappropriate conduct by the Maharishi toward female students, including Pharaoh, came to light
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Later accounts also suggest that Lennon suspected the guru of taking advantage of the Beatles' fame for selfish purposes
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and observed some financial discrepancies. The incident inspired Lennon to write Sexy Sadie as an acerbic takedown of his former teacher including the lyrics Maharishi what have you done You made a fool of everyone Before recording and releasing the song the songwriter in his own words chickened out and changed the lyrics to Sexy Sadie
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Years later, Harrison apologized for the group's treatment of the Maharishi and said he'd come to believe most, if not all, of the allegations against him were untrue
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The White Album also includes arguably the group's most pointedly political song
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Revolution One. Lenin wrote the song in early 1968, as mass protests of the war in Vietnam were escalating following the disastrous Tet Offensive
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During this time, the left side of the political spectrum was increasingly divided
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On one end were the counterculture hippies of 1967's Summer of Love
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who espoused an anti-war pacifist philosophy that focused on personal and spiritual growth through practices like drug use, free love, and meditation
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Moving away from this philosophy was a movement often referred to as the New Left
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which adopted a more stridently anti-establishment rhetoric. Many on the New Left took inspiration from Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong
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and his efforts to purge his country of capitalism and non-progressive organizations and modes of thought
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In early 68, Lenin was still mostly on the hippies' side. He was opposed to the Vietnam War
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but uncertain if the responsible reaction was a complete toppling of the entire capitalist system
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But hey, he was making a lot of money at the time. His lyrics espouse this center-left position, noting a general ideological agreement with
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the new left, but hesitation around violent or otherwise directly revolutionary actions
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The lyrics specifically reference China's Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966, with Lenin cautioning
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If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow
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Lenin was still working through and developing his political outlook during this time
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and likely intended Revolution 1 as more of a consideration of that moment
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than a pointed attack on the progressive left. He later told Rolling Stone that he regretted the negative Chairman Mao shout-out
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as he thought love would save us all, but later amended these views as overly optimistic
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Another lyric says, When you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out
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But right after out, you can hear Lennon quietly sing in, giving the song a much more ambiguous point of view
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But in the years after the song's release, Lenin's politics would continue moving towards Marxism and more radical direct action
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as evidenced by his 1971 single, Power to the People. The FBI was keeping a watchful eye on Lenin and his bandmates during this time
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so it's good they never did anything political ever again. Right