In January, 1964, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" hit the top of the charts and boys started to take the grease and the frills out of their hair. By spring the Beatles had accomplished the ridiculous feat of putting five songs in the top ten at the same time, and people who were saying that the Beatles wouldn't last soon began to be afraid that they would.
They did; but they have lost the innocence of that big beat and become one of the biggest influences on the pop culture of the sixties. They freed men from crewcuts and business suits. They made a permanent mark on movie-making with "A Hard Day's Night." "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the first real indication that rock and roll would turn out to be significant.
Now they have focused their sights on the animated cartoon, and will soon release the movie-length "Yellow Submarine." The film tells the story of Pepperland, a land whose main resources are "sun, music, laughter and love."
But Pepperland is attacked by the dastardly Blue Meanies, "led by a music-loather, allergic to love." Pepperland's Lord High Mayor asks Old Fred, conductor of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, to go for help in the Yellow Submarine.
He ends up in Liverpool, home of John, Paul, George and Ringo, who go with him to Pepperland and conquer the Meanies, restoring love, song and color to the ravaged countryside.
It sounds like a beautiful movie, but it is a movie nonetheless and this is the Bethel College Clarion, so why the story?
Here's the epilogue to the paperback of Yellow Submarine:
Long live Pepperland.End of epilogue. Starting next week there will be a column in the Clarion that will attempt to brief you on upcoming and just-past entertainment events. It will be called, in humble tribute to the Beatles, "Protection for Pepperland."
But
There are other Pepperlands to be found.
Here, there, anywhere.
Listen, and when you hear:
Lovely day, isn't it?
Be my guest.
May I help you?
Let's not argue . . . etc.
You'll know you've found one.
Please remember.
For every Pepperland you encounter--
You can be sure there are Meanies in the vicinity.
Oh, they may not be blue, orange, green, purple--
Whatever their color, they despise friendship, love and music.
And they'll do whatever they can to stamp them out.
They have got to be held back.
Who will protect your own private Pepperland?
Only you can say that.