Episode 105- The Gospel According To John Lennon (Part 1 of 4)

We end Glass Onion’s 6th year with the start of another multi-part series, the first 4-parter in the history of the podcast. Using (mostly) the John Lennon parts from Steve Turner’s excellent 2006 book ‘The Gospel According To The Beatles’, we trace our hero’s religious, spiritual and philosophical journey through its many twists and turns in his intense four-decade ride through life. Antony also comments on his own journey in these areas, some of which overlaps with that of John Lennon and The Beatles. Part 1 looks at the first two chapters of Steve’s book, focusing a lot on the ‘Bigger Than Jesus’ controversy of 1966. This is preceded by an attempt to lay some groundwork for this series by defining ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ and pondering what the differences (if any) between them are. There are multiple audio clips at the start to help us along, and you will find many useful web links in the show notes below   Enjoy! And see you in January 2025 for part 2. Best wishes from Antony   Feedback to [email protected]   Support the show at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/antonyrotunno OR https://www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno   Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/glassonionjlpod   Twitter handle  https://www.twitter.com/OnionLennon   Antony's website (music, podcasts, blog, life coaching)  https://www.antonyrotunno.com   Antony's 'Life And Life Only' podcast (on Psychology and Alternative media)  https://www.lifeandlifeonly.podbean.com   episode links Steve Turner’s book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22515.The_Gospel_According_to_the_Beatles   Jon Stewart’s book ‘Dylan, Lennon, Marx & God’ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59593530-dylan-lennon-marx-and-god   Steve and Jon on the ‘Unbelievable ?’ podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COHA7qRQX5o   John defends ‘Bigger Than Jesus’ in Chicago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZaI7m1xpAg   Brian Epstein speaks about the controversy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsqdzC2kFeA   John Lennon- God ‘video’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX7GsonWTJA   Andrew Hickey’s podcast on the Beatles in 1966-67 (including ‘Bigger Than Jesus’) https://500songs.com/podcast/episode-150-all-you-need-is-love-by-the-beatles   Beatles interviews database http://beatlesinterviews.org/   Joe Goodden’s superb book on the Beatles and drugs https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36379732-riding-so-high   ‘The Rest Is History’ podcast about Jesus’s existence (2 parts) https://therestishistory.com/287-jesus-christ-the-mystery/ https://therestishistory.com/288-jesus-christ-the-history/   John Cleese and Michael Palin defend ‘The Life of Brian’ in 1979 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYMpObbt2rs   Band Aid 40th anniversary documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6_6PzRQ9sQ&t=1s   William Mann ‘oustanding composers’ article in The Times in 1963 https://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/12/27/the-times-what-songs-the-beatles-sang-by-william-mann/