On this day (August 13) in 1966, KLUE-AM in Longview, Texas, organized the first-ever “Beatles Bonfire.” The station urged teens and parents to attend the event and burn records, posters, and “other symbols of the group’s popularity.” Local outraged fans of the Fab Four weren’t the only people who got in on the inferno. A prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan attended to burn a cross and a record.
The Beatles were the biggest band in the world in 1966. As with nearly any other teen fad throughout history, parents and other elders clutched their pearls at the sight of the shaggy-haired Brits. Then, John Lennon commented that the band was more popular than Jesus. This set off a wave of outrage among fans and pearl-clutchers alike across the Bible Belt.
As the group began their tour of the United States, the Texas-based radio station called for a demonstration against the band and its perceived blasphemy.
Van Craddock, who attended the event, wrote about it for Stephen F. Austin State University in 2011. “That night, several thousand teens, including yours truly, descended on KLUE for the history-making ‘Beatles Bonfire.’ Thousands of dollars of Beatles records went up in smoke as the rowdy crowd cheered and sang Elvis Presley songs,” he recalled. He added that he left his collection of Fab Four records “safely at home.”
According to the Beatles Bible, area residents weren’t the only ones to attend the event. The Grand Dragon of the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan burned one of the band’s records along with a cross.
How John Lennon Turned Americans Against The Beatles
One doesn’t have to be a fan of The Beatles to know that John Lennon once claimed the band was more popular than Jesus Christ. Those comments were largely ignored in the United Kingdom. However, when they made their way across the ocean, his comments were largely taken out of context and sparked outrage among the performatively religious.
During an interview with the London Evening Standard, Lennon discussed the popularity of the band. “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue that. I’m right and I will be proved right,” he said. “We’re more popular than Jesus right now. I don’t know which will go first–rock and roll or Christianity,” he added. “Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me,” Lennon clarified.
In a press conference days before the bonfire, he further clarified his comments. “I could have said TV, or cinema, or anything else that’s popular. Motorcars are bigger than Jesus,” he said. “I never thought about repercussions.”
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