And Now for Something Completely Different . . .

Not long ago, I wrote about Robert Sheckley and his short science fiction novel The Status Civilization (1960). Now I have reason to write about Sheckley again. That has come about in an unexpected way, by our watching the first part of the documentary The Beatles: Get Back, which is new this season. The scene is Twickenham Film Studios in London. The date is January 8, 1969. The Beatles have been rehearsing for a planned concert. George Harrison arrives in the morning with a snippet of a song he wrote the night before. He talks about his inspiration for the song. The night before, he watched BBC television, first an episode of the science fiction anthology show Out of the Unknown, then a program called Europa--The Titled and the Untitled. That episode of Out of the Unknown is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley's 1959 novel Immortality, Inc.

If you had told me that the Beatles ever wrote and recorded a waltz, I would have been skeptical. But there it is, a waltz in "I Me Mine," written on January 7, 1969, recorded on January 3, 1970, and released on the album Let It Be on May 8, 1970. George was inspired by the waltzing background music in Europa--The Titled and the Untitled. It isn't clear to me how--or whether--he might have been inspired by Immortality, Inc. However, the lyrics of "I Me Mine" have a spiritual meaning. I haven't read Immortality, Inc., but maybe its subject matter led George Harrison down a certain path. I suspect the discord among the members of the group--their clash of egos--also had something to do with Harrison's song. Anyway, if you had told me that the Beatles ever wrote and recorded a song inspired by science fiction, I would have been skeptical of that, too. Other bands did it: the Byrds ("C.T.A. 102," "Mr. Spaceman"), Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze," "Third Stone from the Sun"), Jefferson Starship (Blows Against the Empire), and so on. But the Beatles? And then I watched Dick Cavett's interview with George Harrison from 1971, and more than once, the ex-Beatle says, "Big Brother is watching you." So he knew a little about science fiction.

And, yes, Big Brother is watching us.

(George Harrison also mentioned Monty Python's Flying Circus in his interview, thus the title of this entry. It occurs to me that the name of the troupe very faintly echoes the title of a Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.)

Thanks to Hlafbrot for pointing out the connection between science fiction and the music of Jimi Hendrix.

Copyright 2021, 2023 Terence E. Hanley