Music | September 23, 2008 | 17 comments

Truth after 42 years: Beatles banned for fear of influence on youth

source: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/22-5

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goldenways
Forty-two years after Israel banned John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from playing to the nation, the truth about its Beatlephobia has finally been revealed.

Still reeling from the sight of Israeli teenagers swooning to the tunes of Cliff Richard in 1963, Israel's publicly appointed guardians of good taste and morality, the interdepartmental committee for authorising the importation of foreign artists, refused their entry.

Determined to prevent another outbreak of mass hysteria, the 13 member committee of politicians and civil servants whose job it was to assess the artistic merit of foreign acts resolved to be "vigilant".

As a result, the 1964 request to bring to Israel, the Rhythm Beatles - as they were called in Hebrew - was roundly rejected in the committee's resolution 691, which reads: "Resolved: Not to allow the request for fear that the performances by the Beatles are liable to have a negative influence on the [country's] youth."

The promoters appealed against the decision, so the committee launched a global investigation of the awesome foursome.

After soliciting information from Israeli embassies and the foreign ministry's cultural relations department, it discovered that the world was afflicted with Beatlemania.

Israel's media lambasted the group, urging the committee to protect the nation's youth as Cliff Richard had already given them "a bad name". One paper reported that committee members had been listening to the "yeah-yeah-yeah howls which are capable of striking dead a real beetle".

Another reported the head of the education ministry as saying: "There is no musical or artistic experience here but a sensual display that arouses feelings of aggression replete with sexual stimuli."

At the conclusion of its inquiry, the committee wrote, in resolution 709, that it would refuse entry because "the band has no artistic merit" and its performances "cause hysteria and mass disorder among young people".

Several versions of the story, blaming the then prime minister, Golda Meir, a former education minister who had never heard of the Beatles, a jealous promoter who regretted turning down the Beatles for Richard, and even the finance ministry for allegedly refusing to allot the foreign currency required to underwrite the performance, have lingered.

But when the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, gave an official letter of apology to John Lennon's half-sister this year, Alon Gan, a history professor at Tel Aviv University, was inspired to investigate.

Gan, who revealed the story in the daily newspaper Haaretz, one week before McCartney is due to perform for the first time in the country, said the true story was that "Israel in the early 60s was afraid that from the west would come a bad wind of sex, alcohol and rock'n'roll".
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    Entertainment,   Music,   Current News UK,   The Beatles
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17 comments // Truth after 42 years: Beatles banned for fear of influence on youth

  • huntre
    • 0
      huntre  

    • Silly pop music? Editor's pick be damned.
      I'm calling Glen Tilbrook, Chris Difford, Neil and Tim Finn, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Aimee Mann, Kings of Leon and anyone else I can think of.
      Oh. You'll pay. You'll all pay.
      Silly pop music, indeed. Hmph.

    • 3 years ago
  • purplefox
  • Mr_Costello
  • abbym0308
  • SDLN
    • 0
      SDLN  

    • The Beatles should have been banned out of fear that they would influence several generations of silly pop music.

    • 3 years ago
  • desertcat
    • 0
      desertcat  

    • not on AM radio they did not. on the FM stations yes and college stations. but it was PP&M Leaving on a Jet Plane in the 70's the first time they were played on commercial radio. You never heard Phil Ochs. Go to youtube and listen to I ain't amarching anymore and There but for Fortune among others. I don't know what three stations you heard them on but I never did in Philly.
      I am desertcat and I approve this message. but like any good politician ask me the same thing in ten minutes, my views may change

    • 3 years ago
  • rwylie
    • 0
      rwylie  

    • How times have changed in 40 odd years, now it'd be like, I don't know, Marilyn Manson (?) playing in Jerusalem, or were the Beatles ever that edgy; perhaps it was just the hysteria they were worried about.

    • 3 years ago
  • mattbrawn
  • jahbini
    • 0
      jahbini  

    • Desertcat:
      Joan Baez not played? Nonsense.
      PP&M not played? Nonsense.

      Been there heard them.

      I make no claims regarding Phil Ochs. You are on your own on that one.

      Joan B. and PP&M were required listening in '68. You just could not tune in 3 stations without banging in to one of those.

      I'm Jim Hinds, and I approved this message.

    • 3 years ago
  • desertcat
    • 0
      desertcat  

    • When the Beatles came on the scene Israel was just a baby nation only 20 years old. As in all new nations the censorship goes a little crazy. I don't condone what they did nor do I understand fear of musicians. But in the 60's we had our own censorship here, on radio Joan Baez, Phil Ochs even Peter, Paul and Mary were not played till the 70's. I can see the media and government fearing Ochs and the rest, they sang the truth about war and social injustice. Can't have our children learn the truth from strangers.
      Call it peace or call it treason
      Call it love or call it reason
      But I ain't a marching anymore.

    • 3 years ago
  • jahbini
  • dkincheloe
    • 0
      dkincheloe  

    • Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear.

    • 3 years ago
  • huntre
  • nufsenuf
    • 0
      nufsenuf  

    • I don't know about you, but I'm still into sex, alcohol and rock 'n roll! Yikes! I must be a boomer! Run, run ,run, and hide, we are abroad!!! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeaaaaah!

    • 3 years ago
  • SeaJade
  • HiImGuss
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