Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Beatles CD's/Posters altered to remove cigarettes
SIMON WHEELER ^ | January 21, 2003 | The Sun

Posted on 01/21/2003 5:07:47 AM PST by ejdrapes

EXCLUSIVE

No more Fag Four Beatles


One for the road ... Beatle Paul McCartney with a cigarette in his hand on the original 1969 album cover

By SIMON WHEELER

THE classic Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover showing the band on a zebra crossing has been altered – to remove the cigarette in Paul McCartney’s hand.

The original image shows a barefoot Macca third in line holding his ciggie.

The 1969 photo has been a poster best-seller since it was shot near Abbey Road studios in North London, where the Fab Four recorded most of their music.

But companies including US giant Allposters asked for the cigarette to be removed by computer wizardry to make it more politically correct.

Posters and merchandise items have already changed. Even the cover of the Abbey Road CD could be updated when it is re-issued.

An American source close to the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, said last night: “There has been a lot of pressure from the anti-smoking lobby. Much of the merchandise now appears without the cigarette.

“It may seem like political correctness gone mad but there is a strong feeling that smoking shouldn’t be depicted as cool. There is a movement to remove the cigarette from the actual album sleeve if it is re-issued.”

The move, 14 months after guitarist George Harrison died of cancer, will please anti-smoking campaigners.

Amanda Sandford, from anti-smoking group Ash, said: “We are happy to support this action.

“People who see their idols holding cigarettes are more likely to copy them and start smoking themselves.”

Stubbed out ... the ciggie has been airbrushed out of Macca’s hand in the latest politically-correct posters

But Simon Clark, of pro-smoking group Forest, hit back: “This is pathetic. What next? We will have to remove pipes and cigars from pictures of Sherlock Holmes and Winston Churchill. These people should stop trying to re-write history.

“If this has happened with McCartney’s blessing, it’s strange coming from a man famous for smoking other substances as well.”

Sir Paul, 60, was arrested in Japan in 1980 when cannabis was found in his luggage.

The singer, who had flown in from America, spent ten days in jail after officials found about half a pound of the drug.

All the Beatles were heavy tobacco smokers during the Sixties and Seventies. Harrison blamed smoking for the cancer which killed him — aged 58 — in November 2001.

The Abbey Road shot is one of pop’s most controversial album covers. Myths grew up about what it meant after an earlier rumour claimed McCartney had died in a car crash and been replaced with a lookalike.

It was said the picture represented a funeral procession. John Lennon, wearing a white suit, symbolised a preacher while Starr and Harrison were coffin bearers. McCartney, shoeless and holding a cigarette, was the corpse.

A VW Beetle is pictured in the background with the number plate 28 IF — said to be how old McCartney would have been IF he had survived the “car crash”.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abbeyroad; antismoking; antismokingnazis; applerecords; beatles; biggerthancamels; chemicalsubstances; cigarettes; historicalrevision; letitbe; nosmoking; notobacco; pc; polcorrectness; politicallycorrect; puff; pufflist; rewritinghistory; thebeatles
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last
This is so silly. You can't rewrite history. Who approves something like this, the record company? Or the ex-Beatles themselves (god I hope not)?
1 posted on 01/21/2003 5:07:47 AM PST by ejdrapes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
and....it increases the value of the original
2 posted on 01/21/2003 5:09:32 AM PST by The Wizard (Demonrats are enemies of America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
HOW SILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I was growing up my father made our living by being a cigar salesman. Tobacco is a LEGAL substance!
3 posted on 01/21/2003 5:12:03 AM PST by buffyt (Can you say President Hillary?.......Me neither....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
Also I think it is pretty hard to pin Brain Cancer on smoking?
4 posted on 01/21/2003 5:13:58 AM PST by Woodman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
How quaint.

Much like the mortician makes the dead look better than life.

"Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall".

5 posted on 01/21/2003 5:14:43 AM PST by G.Mason (Thanks Dr. King. Newark has never been the same)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
You can't rewrite history.

Oh? Just ask Hillary! about the 9/11 concert.

6 posted on 01/21/2003 5:14:55 AM PST by InvisibleChurch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
I'd like to "airbush" out the entire decade of the 60's.

BTW, what the hell is a "Macca"?

7 posted on 01/21/2003 5:18:08 AM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
Well, we all know that the Beatles were opposed to polluting the body with any dangerous chemicals, such as nicotine. White-washing out the cigarettes in their lives is in keeping with their image as clean-cut youths who wanted to live pure lives, unadulterated by any pharmaceuticals.
8 posted on 01/21/2003 5:25:07 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SheLion
The silly buggers just get sillier!
9 posted on 01/21/2003 5:31:04 AM PST by metesky (Why kick somebody when they're still standing and can kick back?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
Hollywood continues to glamorize ciggys in just about every new movie. Was gibt's? Are they out of step with their leftist idealogues?
10 posted on 01/21/2003 5:34:27 AM PST by widowithfoursons
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
Riiiiiiight !
11 posted on 01/21/2003 6:31:54 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
This is directly out of Orwell's 1984. If you don't think history is not being rewritten (more important facts than whether or not someone smoked), you're living in a dream world. The debate over the separation of church and state, the 2nd Amendment, abortion, for example, all have an element of the attempt to change the past thru the rewriting of history.
12 posted on 01/21/2003 6:39:35 AM PST by aardvark1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: *puff_list; SheLion; Gabz; Max McGarrity
Rewriting history PUFF
13 posted on 01/21/2003 6:57:36 AM PST by Just another Joe (bastiches)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Woodman
Also I think it is pretty hard to pin Brain Cancer on smoking?

George Harrion's battle with cancer started in his lungs and throat so one can reasonably argue his smoking probably contributed to it, or at least it certainly didn't help matters. His brain cancer was not a primary cancer but was rather a metastatic cancer, spreading there from the other sites. While they don't really know what causes brain cancer, I don't think they're seriously looking at smoking, of course, since smoking has been shown to be dangerous to one's health I don't think they've ruled anything out.

14 posted on 01/21/2003 7:09:12 AM PST by MrConfettiMan (One Year+ Low Grade Brain Tumor Survivor - http://www.mcmprod.com/jj)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
You can't rewrite history.

Hell you can't. History is rewritten all the time. For instance, have you considered the difference between what you learned growing up about the Founding Fathers and what is taught now?

15 posted on 01/21/2003 7:20:30 AM PST by Junior (No tag line this time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
"You can't rewrite history"

Sure you can. The liberals have been doing it for years. Pretty soon the only "truth" will come from the liberal socialist gestapo.

16 posted on 01/21/2003 7:28:33 AM PST by sweetliberty (RATS out!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
But Simon Clark, of pro-smoking group Forest, hit back: “This is pathetic. What next? We will have to remove pipes and cigars from pictures of Sherlock Holmes and Winston Churchill. These people should stop trying to re-write history.

Sorry Mr. Clark - they won't stop. They've already airbrushed out FDR's cigarette.

17 posted on 01/21/2003 8:00:34 AM PST by Gabz (Keep the servers running, become a FReeper Donor today)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gabz
And Paul Simon's. And Robert Johnson's. And Peter Max's.
18 posted on 01/21/2003 11:04:35 AM PST by Max McGarrity (Anti-smokers--still the bullies in the playground they always were.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
Who controls the past, controls the future.
Who controls the present, controls the past.
---- 1984 by George Orwell
19 posted on 01/21/2003 1:30:21 PM PST by Flashman_at_the_charge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ejdrapes
"Who approves something like this"

I would presume whoever holds the copyright on the photo, as well as the remaining Beatles and the families of those who have passed on.

20 posted on 01/21/2003 1:41:04 PM PST by MEGoody
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson