‘The Age of the Beatles’: Parliament and Popular Music in the 1960s

Abstract

This article examines how the unprecedented popularity and symbolic power of the Beatles forced politicians in Britain to attend to popular music in the 1960s. It argues that parliamentarians were ill-equipped to comprehend not only the Beatles but also the new social forces with which they were associated. They reacted with a mixture of jocularity, partisan point-scoring and earnest debates over art, class, youth and the state. Their general bewilderment testified to how the 1960s ‘cultural revolution’ exceeded the limits of the knowable and actionable in Westminster.

Keywords:

• The Beatles
• Politics
• Parliament
• Popular Music
• 1960s
• Permissiveness

Acknowledgements

An early version of this paper was presented to the CAMARG seminar at Loughborough University. The author is grateful to the seminar participants and to the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their feedback.

Notes

Marcus Collins teaches history at Loughborough University. He is the author of Modern Love (2003) and editor of The Permissive Society and Its Enemies (2007), and is currently writing separate studies of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

  [1] Quoted in Hitchens, The Abolition of Britain, xix.

  [2] House of Commons Debates (hereafter H. of C. Debs.), vol. 260, col. 907.

  [3] Quoted in Davis, The Beatles Files, 31; Pimlott, Harold Wilson, 268; Wilson, A Personal Record, 261.

  [4] The Beatles, ‘Taxman’; The Beatles, ‘The Commonwealth Song’ (1969) quoted in Cott and Dalton, Let It Be, n.p.; Harrison, I, Me, Mine, 67.

  [5] Bennett et al., ‘Introduction’, 3. For general works on the politics of popular music, see Street, Rebel Rock; Denselow, When the Music's Over; Orman, The Politics of Rock Music; Eyerman and Jamison, Music and Social Movements.

  [6] Grossberg, ‘The Framing of Rock’, 195.

  [7] Street, Rebel Rock, 16.

  [8] Frith, ‘Popular Music and the Local State’, 14.

  [9] Lynskey, 33 Revolutions Per Minute. For British folk and jazz, see Brocken, The British Folk Revival, chap. 4; McKay, Circular Breathing.

 [10] Ward, Just My Soul Responding.

 [11] Doggett, There's A Riot Going On.

 [12] Toynbee, Bob Marley.

 [13] Savage, England's Dreaming.

 [14] Watkins, Hip Hop Matters, pt. II.

 [15] Ryback, Rock Around the Bloc.

 [16] Grossberg, ‘The Framing of Rock’.

 [17] Cloonan, Banned!, 285; McKay, Senseless Acts of Beauty, chaps. 1 and 4; Chapman, Selling the Sixties; Cloonan, Popular Music and the State in the UK.

 [18] Street, ‘The Pop Star as Politician’.

 [19] Reed, The Art of Protest, chap. 6.

 [20] O'Brien, She Bop II, chap. 14.

 [21] Goodyer, Crisis Music. Although Rock Against Racism had its roots in the Socialist Workers Party, its multicultural message was readily detached from revolutionary socialism.

 [22] Street et al., ‘Playing to the Crowd’.

 [23] Frith and Street, ‘Rock Against Racism and Red Wedge’; Harris, The Last Party.

 [24] Cloonan and Street, ‘Politics and Popular Music’, 223.

 [25] For Lennon, see Wiener, Come Together; Elliott, The Mourning of John Lennon, chap. 4; Lynskey, 33 Revolutions Per Minute, chap. 8; Platoff, ‘John Lennon’.

 [26] Heilbronner, ‘The Peculiarities of the Beatles’; Fowler, Youth Culture, chap. 9.

 [27] Heilbronner, ‘The Peculiarities of the Beatles’, 102; Fowler, Youth Culture, 174.

 [28] Collins, ‘The Beatles' Politics’.

 [29] Fowler, Youth Culture, 167–74; Street, ‘Shock Waves’, 308–11; Simonelli, ‘Meet the New Boss’, chap. 2.

 [30] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 264.

 [31] Jazz and easy listening fall outside the ambit of this article, but parliamentary references to Frank Sinatra or Noël Coward (in his capacity as singer and songwriter) did not reach double figures during this period.

 [32] In several cases, a number of musicians are mentioned in the same debate or question, which explains why the total number of references to musicians does not equal the total number of debates or questions in which they appear.

 [33] Quoted in The Times, 25 February 1964.

 [34] Quoted in Evening Standard, 4 March 1966.

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 [47] Quoted in Braun, Love Me Do, 69.

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 [51] Quoted in Hamblett, Here are the Beatles, n.p.

 [52] Quoted in Harry, The John Lennon Encyclopedia, 922.

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 [63] Quoted in Oldham, 2Stoned, 304.

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 [67] Quoted in The Times, 16 June 1965.

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 [69] Brooke quoted in Evening News, 17 March 1964.

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 [73] New York Times, 1 December 1963.

 [74] Quoted in The Times, 11 October 1964.

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 [76] Quoted in The Times, 9 March 1964.

 [77] Wilson, Variety Club Awards Ceremony speech.

 [78] The Times, 23 September 1964.

 [79] Melody Maker, 6 March 1965 and 13 March 1965.

 [80] Quoted in The Times, 16 June 1965.

 [81] Time, 15 April 1966.

 [82] See Bourdieu, Distinction for his classic analysis of ‘cultural capital’.

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 [88] Quoted in The Independent, 9 January 1993.

 [89] Quoted in The Times, 15 May 1964.

 [90] Wilson, Variety Club Awards Ceremony speech.

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 [95] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1738.

 [96] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1745.

 [97] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, cols. 1757–8, 1751.

 [98] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1751.

 [99] H. of C. Debs., vol. 709, cols. 2009–10.

[100] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1751.

[101] Quoted in Montreal Gazette, 21 February 1964.

[102] Quoted in The Times, 24 June 1969.

[103] Entry for 13 June 1965 in Benn, Out of the Wilderness, 273.

[104] H. of L. Debs., vol. 276, col. 1131.

[105] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, cols. 261, 263–5; Deedes quoted in Montreal Gazette, 21 February 1964.

[106] For Labour attitudes to the ‘youth question’, see Black, The Political Culture of the Left, chap. 4; Fielding, The Labour Governments, 1964–1970, vol. 1, chap. 7.

[107] Epstein, A Cellarful of Noise, 73. For politicians' attitudes to the mods and rockers, see Grayson, ‘Mods, Rockers and Juvenile Delinquency in 1964’.

[108] H. of C. Debs., vol. 697, col. 261; H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 285.

[109] H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1751.

[110] H. of C. Debs., vol. 706, col. 931.

[111] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 265.

[112] Quoted in The Times, 21 October 1967.

[113] H. of L. Debs., vol. 285, col. 561.

[114] H. of C. Debs., vol. 751, cols. 1163, 1164.

[115] H. of C. Debs., vol. 751, col. 1164.

[116] Entry for 1 January 1970 in Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, vol. 3, 773; quoted in Frith, ‘John Lennon’, 24.

[117] NOP, ‘Report’, 42–3.

[118] H. of C. Debs., vol. 868, col. 760.

[119] H. of C. Debs., vol. 961, col. 586.

[120] H. of C. Debs., vol. 988, col. 55; H. of C. Debs., vol. 105, col. 13.

[121] H. of L. Debs., vol. 460, col. 1321; H. of C. Debs., vol. 42, col. 473W.

[122] Lord McCarthy, H. of L. Debs., vol. 450, col. 297.

[123] Quoted in The Times, 18 April 1964.

[124] Quoted in The Times, 8 May 1964.

[125] Norman Miscampbell, H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1751; Charles Curran, H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1745.

[126] Tom Driberg, H. of C. Debs., vol. 751, col. 1164.

[127] Lord Denham, H. of L. Debs., vol. 282, col. 125; Duke of Atholl, H. of L. Debs., vol. 281, col. 973.

[128] Lord Willis, H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 263.

[129] Russell Kerr, H. of C. Debs., vol. 751, cols. 145–6.

[130] Lord Willis, H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 264; Deedes quoted in Montreal Gazette, 21 February 1964.

[131] Charles Curran, H. of C. Debs., vol. 696, col. 1745; Laurence Pavitt, H. of C. Debs., vol. 780, col. 963; Alice Bacon, H. of C. Debs., vol. 751, col. 1163.

[132] Cloonan and Street, ‘Politics and Popular Music’, 224.

[133] The Times, 26 February 1964.

[134] H. of C. Debs., vol. 690, col. 235.

[135] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 270; Marwick, The Sixties.

[136] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 265.

[137] H. of L. Debs., vol. 258, col. 259.