Still putting myself together with a cup of tea by the PC, after a strange dream where The Beatles were together in the times of King Arthur (Ringo looks really cool in chain mail, by the way). It was a fun dream, and it got me thinking about the strange connections that I see between the story of The Beatles and the Arthurian legends...there’s something that resonates powerfully about Arthur and the Round Table, one reason I keep re-reading Mallory and Mary Stewart (Steinbeck wrote a bitchin’ translation of Mallory, by the way), and I think it’s a good example of what Joseph Campbell wrote about too...Campbell was a fascinating anthropologist/folklorist/rennissance man who had an interesting essay about the "10 points of the Hero". The idea being that all great legends and hero tales change over the many retellings and embellishments in time, and have the main character going through many of the same things that all other heroes do, whether it be Osiris, or Luke Skywalker, or Frodo, or Jesus, or Tarzan, or Arthur. Maybe it says something about human nature or the collective unconcious, I don’t know. I can’t remember all 10 right now, but some of the ones I do are:
The hero is born to greatness, but is raised humbly, unknowing of their status.
Later, in their youth, their deeds show that they are special.
Often the hero leaves to go on a quest to find their birthright.
On the journey, they meet strange friends and wise men who help them.
Their quest often cumulates in their public display of their powers in miraculous ways.
Later in their lives, they are sometimes killed by evil, jealous and deceitful ones, but somehow they magically return and live on, in some special way, although they may not be physically present on earth.
...See the connection with the story of The Beatles there? The quest to Hamburg and beyond, the strange friends Epstein, Evans, Aspinall, the wise Martin. Their miraculous rise...John’s assasination, but his music and message ringing out unkillably through time. The stuff of legend. They were just four guys, but they also seem like Jungian archtypical heros too! Also, it’s the hero legend with the best soundtrack EVER. Just some of the things passing through my mind in the morning...maybe I need another cup of that tea.
