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TL;DR:

  • A writer told John Lennon about the reaction to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • He said listeners in Cuba and Vietnam understood it.
  • Decades later, Cuban President Fidel Castro spoke at the unveiling of a statue of John in Cuba.
A vinyl copy of The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'
The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ | Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Some people in Cuba had political opinions regarding The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. John Lennon felt this was “amazing.” In addition, Fidel Castro discussed his feelings about John during a speech.

John Lennon said the Fab Four were perceived as ‘capitalist robots’ in the Soviet Union and joked this perception was right

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon features a 1971 interview. In it, John recalled when some Soviet Russians dismissed The Beatles as “capitalist robots. “They’re scared of the Western culture,” John opined. He joked The Beatles were capitalist robots.

“Just recently, I read something where some Vietnamese up north had had a secret club where they all dreamt about what they would do if they were capitalists with all the women and they were playing rock’ n’ roll,” he recalled. “And the actual musicians were playing; they were not playing records. And they were imprisoned for twenty years ’cause of it. I think they’re so scared of Coca-Cola and rock ‘n’ roll.”

A writer told John Lennon about the reactions to The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ in Cuba and Vietnam

In response, writer Robin Blackburn said the reception to The Beatles was different in another communist country. “In Cuba, it was a really big breakthrough in 1967 — it was actually when Sgt. Pepper came out,” Blackburn said. “They listened to it and said, ‘This is not bourgeois,’ and they started playing it on the radio.” John said his anecdote was “amazing.”

“And of course the Vietnamese also really understand that,” Blackburn added. “But then you get these ridiculous incidents like the one you mentioned, which is very bad.”

Related

The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Originally Received a Bad New York Times Review, Here’s How John Lennon Reacted

Fidel Castro gave a speech honoring the former Beatle

This was not the end of Beatlemania in Cuba. Slate reports that, on the 20th anniversary of John’s murder in 2000, Cuban President Fidel Castro unveiled a statue of the singer. “All You Need Is Love” played during the ceremony. The statue depicts John during his years as an anti-war activist.

Castro praised the former Beatle. He said he was a “dreamer” like the “Imagine” singer. Castro saw the singer not as a symbol of Western decadence, but as an activist who sought to liberate the working class. The statue still stands today in a park called John Lennon Park in Havana, Cuba. Notably, the glasses on the stature have been stolen repeatedly.

The Beatles might have been part of the so-called “decadent West” but they still have communist fans.

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