Kurt Vonnegut: ‘The Beatles make people appreciate being alive’
The Beatles and Kurt Vonnegut were two of the most vital counterculture figures of the 1960s. Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five remains one of the most important anti-war works of literature ever written, and The Beatles undoubtedly made their mark on the cultural milieu ever since their arrival on the scene at the beginning of the decade.
Vonnegut had actually made a number of references to The Beatles throughout his works. In Slaughterhouse-Five, he refers to John Lennon song ‘I Am the Walrus’, and we also find little snippets of the Beatles in the likes of Cat’s Cradle and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; which is unsurprising, given how ubiquitous The Beatles had become at that time.
In Vonnegut’s 1997 semi-autobiographical novel Timequake, he reserved some of his highest praise for the Fab Four, writing, “I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.”
In one of those speeches, at a graduation ceremony, Vonnegut also noted the way that roots music inspired The Beatles. “I would be remiss not to mention the absolutely priceless gift which African Americans gave to the whole wild world when they were still in slavery. I mean the blues. All pop music today, jazz, swing, bebop, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Stones, rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, and on and on, is derived from the blues.”
During an interview in 1991, Vonnegut gave his praise to The Beatles whilst in the same breath talking down on their contemporary Bob Dylan and hip-hop. “I hate rap,” he said. “The Beatles have made a substantial contribution. Bob Dylan, however, is the worst poet alive. He can maybe get one good line in a song, and the rest is gibberish.”
Evidently, Vonnegut was in great admiration of the famous British rock band. He had admired John Lennon’s stance on the Vietnam War and was said to listen to their music while he wrote. He struck up a friendship of correspondence with George Harrison, and Harrison’s album Living in the Material World took inspiration for its title from a line in Slaughterhouse-Five.
The Beatles had been happy to include humour in their works whilst simultaneously giving scathing critiques of things like political regimes and warfare. So, in that light, Kurt Vonnegut’s work followed in a similar vein. Sometimes the best way to confront the horrors of the world is to laugh at them, and the legendary author was certainly capable of providing that for his readership.