'Where You Once Belonged' Class, Race and Liverpool Roots of Lennon and McCartney's Songs

While Lennon and McCartney’s class affiliations are ambiguous to degrees that should remain debatable, the depth and the detail in which working-class life defines their work have been overlooked, thus misrepresenting The Beatles’ cultural significance. Initial New Left criticisms of The Beatles—almost exclusively in response to one composition, ‘Revolution’ (1968)—have recently been adapted by commentators eager to portray The Beatles as a culturally and politically conservative force. I argue that early left-wing and recent right-wing criticisms of The Beatles’ legacy are misleading, because both overlook Lennon and McCartney’s different relationships to working-class culture. I also emphasize an importantly related, even more marginalized aspect of The Beatles’ history: the significance of black musical and cultural influences from Liverpool. The article seeks to offer new interpretations of songs including ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘A Day In The Life’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da’ and ‘Working Class Hero’. KEYWORDS: : avant-garde; The Beatles; left wing; Liverpool; race; working class

http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v9i1.27616