An interview with ... Steve Taylor, author of Across The Universe

I've always loved The Beatles from childhood onwards – not just listening to them but also reading about them. When I was younger, I played in bands all the time and music was my main interest, so I’ve always loved singing their songs too.

In 2023 I went to a psychology conference and one of the keynote lectures was about cultural change. It focused on the 1960s and explained how central the Beatles were to the changes that took place during that decade. They seemed to be focal point of the whole world and has such a massive cultural influence.

A couple years before, I had published a paper about the rock bands Black Sabbath and Joy Division, who always fascinated me because they were so prolific, with a strange synergy that transcended them as individuals and because their music seemed to be the natural product of their environment. After the keynote lecture, I realised that it was possible to analyse the Beatles from the same psychological perspective. The more I thought about it, the more there was to write about. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I wrote the first draft of the book in a couple of months. I felt as though it was stored up inside me for a long time, waiting to come out.

Here's an example of how the Beatles permeate my mind: I know that some people count sheep to try to go to sleep but I usually get to sleep by going through every Beatles single from ‘Love me Do’ onwards. I normally get to sleep by 1967 or 68. Other times I go through the album releases in sequence but sometimes I'm still awake by the time I get to Let it Be.

I love the mythology of the Beatles and every detail of their history, their development, their career, and also their solo careers. I did go on a tour of Beatles sites in Liverpool but the tour guide got fed up with me because I was asking too many detailed questions.

Most of my research was fact checking dates and the sequence of events. I found Paul McCartney's book The Lyrics very helpful and also Barry Miles’s Many Years from Now. I also listened to and watched many interviews with the members of the band. One of my favourite finds was two editions of the BBC’s The Frost Programme from late 1967, where John and George speak very articulately about meditation and spirituality on prime time TV. It's hard to believe that they were only in their mid 20s but had already lived through so much experience and become so wise.

While writing the book, I became aware of the real reason why the Beatles broke up. It was due to meditation. Their trip to India in 1968 was massively beneficial in creative terms. They wrote about 40 songs in seven weeks. It had the biggest impact on John Lennon’s songwriting - he returned to England with 14 new songs. However, the intensive meditation had a massively detrimental effect on John. He had a psychological breakdown.

Before they went to India the Beatles were very harmonious and united. Recently they had seriously considered buying a Greek island where they could live and work together in isolation with their families and aides. The fact that all four of them were enthusiastically embracing meditation and all travelling to India together illustrated their harmony. But when they returned to England the harmony was gone. They were never the same. As soon as he returned, John decided to leave his wife and child for Yoko Ono and started taking heroin. He began to withdraw from the group and felt animosity towards the other Beatles, especially Paul.

Lennon was somebody who carried a great deal of trauma due to a lifetime of abandonment and bereavement. Previously he had kept the trauma at bay with constant activity and drink and drugs. But during the meditation retreat all that trauma rose to the surface. From that point on, the Beatles were breaking up.

I wrote the book for everyone who loves the Beatles and wants to understand their magical creativity and why they had such a powerful cultural impact. I also think that at a time when there is a lot of discord in the world and anxiety about the future, the Beatles represent something incredibly positive. They represent all the best things about the human race – energy, optimism, love, idealism, hope, comfort and spirituality. When we listen to them we feel that all is well, or at least that all will be well in the future. So I wanted to convey that optimism and idealism to readers.

I also wrote the book for creative people. I wanted to find out what we can learn from the Beatles’ creativity and apply it to our own creative work. And I found that there are many creative lessons we can learn: the magical synergy of co-operative creativity; the importance of remaining curious and open, and choosing growth over stability, so that we can keep developing; the lesson that proficiency and technical knowledge may be an obstacle, cluttering our minds with concepts; the importance of apprenticeship, of a long period of arduous learning and training before creativity becomes effortless and spontaneous.

There are so many songs I love. My favourites are mainly later songs like ‘Strawberry Fields forever,’ ‘All you Need is love,’ ‘Let it Be’ and ‘Hey Jude’. But I think my favourite song of all is the title of the book, ‘Across the Universe’. I love the fact that, according to John's account, the song was channelled. It just flowed into his mind and all he had to do is write it down.

The song is basically a description of a powerful spiritual experience which John must have had. All through the song, there is a sense that all events and experiences occur not in everyday life, society or even the world, but in the context of the entire universe. As we speak, laugh or think, and as we feel pain or joy, the cosmos stretches around us. Words and thoughts make their way across the universe. Light and love call him across the universe. The song is full of serene acceptance of life in all its suffering and bliss. The words are very poetic and beautiful. When I hear the line ‘limitless undying love that shines around me like a million eyes’ I always get shivers up the back of my spine. There’s a sense that the song comes from some higher place, beyond John Lennon’s mind, and he’s just a conduit.

I also love ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ from Revolver. I’m always surprised that more people don’t know this amazing song. I love it because of its radical technical innovation, its cultural significance, and its musical and philosophical sophistication. I find it amazing that the Beatles recorded it just after 18 months or so after they were mainly recording conventional love songs like ‘No Reply’ and ‘Eight Days a Week.’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ still sounds startling now, sixty years after it was recorded. It has an Indian-influenced drone, a single repeating bass note, a hypnotic syncopated drumbeat, multiple tape loops (influenced by modern avant garde composers such as Stockhausen and Edgar Varese), backwards guitar solos and lyrics adapted from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. For me, this song is possibly the Beatles’ single greatest artistic achievement.

I hope they will understand the factors that made the Beatles so exhilarating and inspirational. More broadly, I hope people gain an understanding of the magic of creativity itself. Throughout the book I point out that the Beatles’ creativity didn't come from them, it came through them. That's the nature of the highest creativity - human beings don't produce it, we just open our minds and let it flow through. I also hope that people learn how to nurture their own creativity, following the Beatles’ example. Creativity always requires a long period of preparation and cultivation – in other words, an apprenticeship.

The Beatles remind us that we are most creative and effective when we work as a group. Perhaps the most amazing thing about them is that they weren't really individuals. They had a group mind. Often when they were asked questions individually, they would reply with ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, because they were so interconnected. That synergy was essence of their creativity and their inspirational effect.