McKinley Campaign Lapel Pin courtesy of Ithaca College
Originally posted on Thursday, January 23rd, 2014
The first volume of a history of a new, reportedly definitive, work on the Beatles, Tune In, by Mark Lewisohn, begins with a brief introduction to … British monetary history.
The purpose is not altogether clear, other than perhaps to point out that the legacy British monetary system — of the Beatles’ youth — pounds, shillings, and pence were abbreviated to LSD. As Wikipedia explains:
£sd (sometimes pronounced, and occasionally written, L.s.d.) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, which was one of the last to change, as well as some other Commonwealth countries. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii.[1] In the U.K. these are today referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence (pence being the plural of penny).
There is no obvious connection between money and LSD — not even Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. But there are several hints out there of the Beatles’ affinity for classical liberal economic principles. Here is a representative sample quote from the first song on Revolver, The Taxman, by George Harrison,
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
As Songfacts.com points out:
This is a bitter song about how much money The Beatles were paying in taxes. People with high earnings pay exorbitant taxes in England. Many successful entertainers leave the country so they can keep more of their money. As a result, The Beatles – as well as The Who and The Rolling Stones – spent a lot of time in America and other parts of Europe as “tax exiles.” Harrison: “Taxman was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes.”
The empathy for the classical liberal principle of light and equitable taxation does not end there.
On Abbey Road, at the opening to the climactic Side Two medley, the Fab Four, in a song credited to McCartney and Lennon, croon:
You never give me your money
You only give me your funny paper
and in the middle of negotiations
you break down
Out of college, money spent
See no future, pay no rent
All the money’s gone, nowhere to go
Any jobber got the sack
Monday morning, turning back
Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go….
Lewisohn reportedly attributes the lines to hassles by the Beatles with their agent about getting money due them.
Yet consider the full lyrical and historical context. “Out of college, money spent See no future, pay no rent” is a knowing observation about encroaching stagnation. And 1969, when the song was written and recorded, represented the continuing death throes of the Bretton Woods international gold-exchange standard. It was “in the air.”
Although it was Rolling Stones’s Mick Jagger who went to the London School of Economics, rather than John, Paul, George or Ringo … it is hard to conclude other than that there is an allusion in the words You never give me your money You only give me your funny paper implicitly referencing the degradation of the currency then at least portending severe economic stagnation.
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