November 30, 2001 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) - George Harrison of the Beatles died on Thursday, November 29, 2001, at age 58 of throat cancer. The cancer was diagnosed in 1998. Harrison is the second of the four Beatles to die. John Lennon was shot to death in December 1980 outside his apartment building in New York City. He was 40 years old.

The Beatles are the most popular and influential rock band of all time. The Beatles, in fact, are a synonym for rock & roll. Their influence permeates Western society and can be felt throughout the world. Even Contemporary Christian musicians are Beatles fans. For example, Phil Keaggy pays "homage to the Beatles" on his 1993 Crimson and Blue album. Galactic Cowboys admits that their biggest influence is the Beatles. Caedmon's Call often performs Beatles music. dc Talk opened its "Jesus Freak" concerts with the Beatles' song "Help." Jars of Clay names Jimmy Hendrix and the Beatles as their inspiration. The lead guitarist is said to be a "Beatles fanatic."

Sid Bernstein observed, "Only Hitler ever duplicated [the Beatles'] power over crowds. when the Beatles talkabout drugs, the war in Vietnam, religionmillions listen, and this is the new situation in the pop music world" (Time, Sept. 22, 1967, p. 60). Rock critic Vern Stefanic noted that "Lennon was more than a musician" because he promoted "an anti-God theme, and anti-America, pro-revolution stance" (Tulsa World, Dec. 12, 1980, p. 20).

Harrison had a Catholic mother, but his father was not religious. By 1964, Paul McCartney testified that none of them believed in God, but their drug experiences changed that and Harrison became fascinated by pagan gods and New Age philosophy. Harrison rebelled against the way his father wanted him to act and dress. He later testified: "Going in for flash clothes, or at least trying to be a bit different was part of the rebelling. I never cared for authority" (Hunter Davies, The Beatles, p. 39). Harrison was in frequent trouble at school. When they began playing together in bands in their teenage years, they played in wicked places such as strip joints. They testified that they "got drunk a lot" and "had a lot of girls" (The Beatles, p. 77).

The Beatles were powerfully influenced by American bluesmen and Elvis Presley, and they formed a rock band called the Quarrymen in the mid-1950s. Lennon testified that "nothing really effected me until Elvis." By late 1957, the band included Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney, plus other young men on bass and drums. They combed their hair and dressed like Elvis and played rhythm & blues and Chuck Berry/Little Richard/Elvis type music. The group changed its name to the Silver Beetles in 1960, then simply to the Beatles, referring to the beat of their music. "John Lennon changed the name to Beatles to accent the drive of their music, the BEAT" (H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary Christian Music, p. 78). Drummer Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962 just before they recorded their first single. By 1963, "Beatlemania" was raging in England, and by 1964 the Beatles had leaped to international fame when "I Want to Hold Your Hand" skyrocketed to the top of the charts in the United States and they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. By April 1964, the Beatles had the top five best-selling singles in America.

The Beatles set the tone for rock music and for the hippie youth culture in the 1960s until the band broke up in 1969. They led a generation of rebellious youth from marijuana to acid to "free sex" to eastern religion to revolution and liberal political/social activism. David Noebel observes: "The Beatles set trends, and their fans followed their lead. They were the vanguard of an entire generation who grew long hair, smoked grass, snorted coke, dropped acid, and lived for rock 'n' roll. They were the 'cool' generation" (The Legacy of John Lennon, p. 43).

Harrison lived with Pattie Boyd for about a year before they were married in January 1966. In 1970, Eric Clapton wrote the famous rock love song, "Layla," for another man's wife, because the woman Clapton was illicitly "in love" with was George Harrison's wife, Pattie. By 1973, Patti began living and traveling with Clapton. Harrison and Pattie were finally divorced in 1977, and she married Clapton in 1979. That marriage only lasted a few years. Harrison married Olivia Trinidad Arias in 1978, one month after the birth of their son, Dhani, and remained married to her until his death. (Harrison also had an adulterous affair with Ringo Starr's wife, Maureen.)

Harrison told reporters that the Beatles would not be afraid to use any four-letter words in their songs. In fact, obscenities are quite common in Beatles' compositions (Noebel, The Marxist Minstrels, pp. 104, 92).

The Beatles began taking drugs during their earliest band days before they became popular. They started by taking slimming pills to stay awake during long performances. They were high on "prellies," a form of speed called Phenmetrazine and marketed as Preludin. Many of the Beatles songs were about drugs. These include "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Day Tripper," "Yellow Submarine," "Help," "Rubber Soul," "Cold Turkey," "Glass Onion," "I Am the Walrus," and "Penny Lane." (The Beatles eventually admitted that these are drug songs.) Their 1967 Sgt. Pepper's album heralded the drug revolution in America. Time magazine reported that Sgt. Pepper's was "drenched in drugs" (Time, Sept. 22, 1967, p. 62). On the Sgt. Pepper's album Ringo Starr sang, "I get high with a little help from my friends." Sgt. Pepper's was hugely influential, one of the best-selling albums of rock history. The London Times' theater critic Kenneth Tynan observed that the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album was "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization." Lennon said the Beatles smoked marijuana for breakfast and were so stoned that they were "just all glazed eyes." The Beatles took out a full-page ad in the London Times (June 1967), calling for the legalization of marijuana. In April 1969, George Harrison and his wife, Patti, were arrested at their home and charged with possession of 120 joints of marijuana. The drugs were found by a police dog. They pleaded guilty and were fined.

In the summer of 1967, the four Beatles and other rock stars, including Brian Jones and Mike Jagger of the Rolling Stones, visited Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during his trip to North Wales and listened to the teachings that he called the "Spiritual Regeneration Movement." This false teacher claimed to have a path of regeneration other than that of being born again through faith in Jesus Christ. Later the Beatles, along with Donovan, Mia Farrow, Beach Boy Mike Love, and others, visited the Maharishi's ashram on the banks of the River Ganges in India to study Transcendental Meditation. The Beatles soon split with the Maharishi, but Harrison continued to follow Hinduism. Harrison admitted to Rolling Stone magazine that the drug LSD opened his mind to this pagan religion. "Although up until LSD, I never realized that there was anything beyond this state of consciousness. I think for me it was definitely LSD. The first time I took it, it just blew everything away. I had such an overwhelming feeling of well-being, that there was a God, and I could see him in every blade of grass" (Rolling Stone, Nov. 5 - Dec. 10, 1987, p. 48). The creator of LSD, Dr. Albert Hofman, also acknowledges that the hallucinogenic drug led him into Hindu meditation (Mark Spaulding, The Heartbeat of the Dragon, p. 75). Harrison eventually purchased the Krishna Temple in London and financed the publication of the Krishna magazine. Harrison's song "My Sweet Lord" (1971), which he published the year following the breakup of the Beatles, is a song of praise to the Hindu god Krishna. It mentions the long process of achieving Nirvana through meditation and mysticism. It ends with the Hare Krishna chant. Harrison also sang about Krishna in his albums Living in the Material World (1973) and Dark Horse (1974). Living in the Material World had the lyrics: "I hope to get out of this place/ By the Lord Sri Krishna's grace/ My salvation from the material world." During his 1974 concerts in America, Harrison led audiences in the Hare Krishna mantra. In 1987, Harrison testified that Hinduism was still a part of his life. "I still believe the purpose of our life is to get God-realization. There's a science that goes with that, the science of self-realization. It's still very much a part of my life, but it's sort of very personal, very private" (People, Oct. 19, 1987, p. 64).

Harrison's longtime friend Gavin De Becker said that the former Beatle "died with one thought in mind -- love one another" (Associated Press, Nov. 30, 2001). Sadly, though, the love that the Beatles sang about is not the love of God in Jesus Christ which offers eternal salvation for sinful men.