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5.03pm
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1 May 2011
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Is the line not “I dont believe in Smoothies” instead of “sunnies”? What are sunnies? I definitely hear the “thies” sound at the end of the word.
And yeah Christmas after kings.
It’s a good cover but I prefer how the original goes quiet during the “I just believe in me…” section. It works better after the build up. No doubt some John fan will be moaning about the lyric changes and upon first reading it is a little weird but it does make sense adapting them and also John would be changing them all the time if he was doing it live depending on his thoughts and world events.
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12.29am
14 June 2016
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This songs, especially the second half of it sounds a lot like a confirmation that the Beatles have officially disbanded forever.
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7.20am
14 June 2016
Offline John kinda mumbles ‘concept’ when he first says “God is a concept by which we measure of pain.” He then says “I’ll say it again”, and this time he really sings ‘concept’ clearly. I like that, as if he’s a troubled man having to correct himself before he moves on with the song.
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9.47am
1 December 2009
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Timothy said
John kinda mumbles ‘concept’ when he first says “God is a concept…”
Haha I’ll never forget playing that song to my friend from university (and beyond) for the first time – he was and is a huge Beatles fan who’d somehow never heard POB before. And he did a double take and a “What did he say??” after that lyric.
He’d misheard it as “God is a c—“.
(He’d had a fairly strict Xtian upbringing. A faith long since shed, only partly because of that particular church’s stance on gay people, such as himself. 
)
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4.45pm
22 December 2013
Offline the song is Ultimate Lennon really… it’s ‘Strawberry Fields Forever ‘ in its retrospective glimpse, ‘Yer Blues ‘ for all its brute honesty and rhythmically echoes his R&B roots with a sort of quasi-shuffle that one could even waltz to… I have a Lennon playlist that I usually pull out on December 8th each year and this is the one song that wells me up everytime… while William Shears Campbell is indeed correct that it was indeed “a confirmation that the Beatles have officially disbanded forever”, it wasn’t until December 8, 1980 that this was truly “official” and “forever”…
this video, which I can’t even watch anymore, drives this notion further like a stake through one’s heart… if you’re gonna watch it, I recommend having some tissue handy:
…:-)
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17 December 2012
Offline The Song Exploder podcast explores how songs were written and recorded with the artists and musicians involved.
The most recent episode (6 October) explores God …
Earlier this year, I got an amazing email—the estate of John Lennon said that they have a treasure trove of audio material from his life, and they were wondering if I would be interested in making an episode around the song “God ,” from John Lennon ’s first solo album. I’ve never tried making a posthumous episode before, because hearing directly from the artist is at the heart of Song Exploder. But with all the interview archives that they have of him speaking, plus all the isolated tracks from the recordings, and the original demo, it actually seemed possible. So this is a very different and special episode of the show.
It includes archive material with John, Arthur Janov, Billy Preston and Ringo; as well as Klaus Voormann from an interview done for the podcast.
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5.36am
14 June 2016
Offline Love the whole song but everything from “I don’t believe in Beatles” is one of the greatest musical moments of all time. Raw, powerful, emotional…it packs a punch because it’s John singing directly to the listener with full truth to his words. It could be a letter rather than a set of song lyrics.
Saying “I don’t believe in Jesus’ is thrilling to me. And I love how he accompanies him next to Hitler, both big symbols of good and bad. And I love how he pronounces tarot as it is written, giving it no respect. He’ll call it what he wants because he doesn’t believe in it.
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6.32am
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1 May 2011
Offline I wonder what Ringo thought of John singing “I don’t believe in Beatles!” since he drummed on it. Did he agree, need it explained, get on with it since it was John’s song not his? Has he ever been asked? Does anyone else even care?
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8.52am
17 June 2021
Offline meanmistermustard said
I wonder what Ringo thought of John singing “I don’t believe in Beatles!” since he drummed on it. Did he agree, need it explained, get on with it since it was John’s song not his? Has he ever been asked? Does anyone else even care?
I always wondered that as well. Maybe John explained it to Ringo that he didn’t believe in The Beatles as a unit at the time, not the other three themselves. Even though John had some conflicts with Paul and George, he still loved them.
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1.22pm
18 April 2013
Offline He never called him “Ringo” in private so I’m sure he knew there was a difference between Beatles and who he was to John.
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1.29pm
18 April 2013
Offline Also remember that Ringo had already quit The Beatles once and rejoined by the time Paul announced the breakup.
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1.38pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Even with those considered, Ringo was still drumming on a record where John very cleared stated that he didn’t believe in Beatles. As you say, it might never have mattered to Ritchie, he may have even nodded and completely agreed. I’m just wondering if he had any reaction to that line as it was and remains a very powerful statement.
I would think all four agreed with the idea that the myth, meaning and all else that surrounded and was attached to the band by others didn’t match or come anywhere close to their own experiences, thoughts and ideas. I think it’s George who talks about how they were fine and calm in the eye of the mania, it was everyone else who went mad.
I think I’m rambling.
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3.48pm
18 April 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
Even with those considered, Ringo was still drumming on a record where John very cleared stated that he didn’t believe in Beatles. As you say, it might never have mattered to Ritchie, he may have even nodded and completely agreed. I’m just wondering if he had any reaction to that line as it was and remains a very powerful statement.I would think all four agreed with the idea that the myth, meaning and all else that surrounded and was attached to the band by others didn’t match or come anywhere close to their own experiences, thoughts and ideas. I think it’s George who talks about how they were fine and calm in the eye of the mania, it was everyone else who went mad.
I think I’m rambling.
Good musings.
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7.37pm
26 January 2017
Offline I’m sure John had worked out or said much crazier things to Ringo throughout their friendship, such as allegedly claiming that he is the messiah after an acid binge, then turning around a few years later dismissing the concept of god. I wouldn’t be surprised if John was later nostalgic in private about the Beatles days, despite him bagging a little on the group and their legacy during his 70s interviews. John and Ringo were close and Ringo knew how to roll with the punches of John’s eccentric personality, I don’t think “don’t believe in Beatles” was much of a problem for Ritchie
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1.15am
14 June 2016
Offline Just as John released How Do You Sleep and referred to Paul as a brother around that time. I think he was rebelling against the myth and hype, trying to regain a sense of his true self, but absolutely still being proud of The Beatles.
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3.35am
25 February 2020
Offline I interpret that line as being about John being against the concept of The Beatles, what they had become
I think it’s been well established by now he was uncomfortable with everyone looking for meaning in every lyric he wrote, that The Beatles were seen as zeitgeist defining cultural icons and all that
that’s how I look at that line: the public’s perception of The Beatles being idolatry to John and him criticizing that, the music itself not really being part of the equation for him
3.53am
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1 May 2011
Offline Yes. From what John said it always seemed to me that he was stating he didn’t believe in all the bullshit the world had attached to the Beatles. At times they were treated as prophet-like miracle healers who had come to save the world and make it better; everyone’s hopes thrust upon them to lead the way to better lives.
I remember us standing on the roof of a building in one of the cities in Australia, and all the fans were down there, chanting. We were having fun with them and one guy, who was on crutches, threw his crutches away and went into: ‘I can walk, I can walk!’ What he felt I don’t know, but it was as if he was healed – and then he fell right on his face. He just fell over. Maybe that’s why it stuck in my head.
Crippled people were constantly being brought backstage to be touched by ‘a Beatle’, and it was very strange. It happened in Britain as well, not only overseas. There were some really bad cases, God help them. There were some poor little children who would be brought in in baskets. And also some really sad Thalidomide kids with little broken bodies and no arms, no legs and little feet.
The problem was, people would bring in these terrible cases and leave them in our dressing room. They’d go off for tea or whatever, and they would leave them behind. If it got very heavy we would shout, ‘Mal, cripples!’ and that became a saying – even when there were no handicapped people present. If there were any people around we didn’t like, we’d shout, ‘Mal, cripples!’ and they’d be escorted out.
Ringo – ‘Anthology’
George also spoke of how the world used the Beatles as a reason to go mad and then blamed the four of them for having done so. The LSD interview with Paul where the reporter asked Paul if he had taken it and then tried to put all the responsibility on to Paul for spreading the story (Paul is very like John in that).
All four went thru it and all four, I think, felt the same; John is the only one who implicitly stated it on record.
So maybe Ringo was relieved with “I don’t believe in Beatles’ and fully endorsed it, same as how George and Ringo (and maybe John) were relieved (in some way) with Paul announcing the band had split (they all knew but no one was saying it out loud).
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