John Lennon wrote a scolding tune about the yogi's make-believe celibacy that began, "Maharishi, what have you done/you made a fool of everyone…" George, who remained a believer longer than the rest, made Lennon swap "Sexy Sadie" for "Maharishi." (In The Beatles: A Biography, Bob Spitz reports that during the band's ashram gambit John and Paul composed 40 songs, including "Dear Prudence," for Mia's reclusive sister, as well as "The Continuing Saga of Bungalow Bill," "Julia," "Rocky Raccoon," "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Across the Universe.")
Although Melville House promotes this slight (147 smallish pages) volume as the record of a world-changing cultural event, and despite the few paragraphs of historical hindsight that Lapham -- editor of Harper's for many years with a reputation as a social commentator to uphold -- tacks on to the end of the book, the book simply lacks gravitas. Those who do not believe that the Beatles' transition from suited mop tops to long-haired meditators was a pivotal moment in Western history are free to savor Lapham's voyeurism and wit as delightful ends in themselves.
Because With the Beatles is a lark, a giggle, a pleasure. It's fun seeing the most famous rockers in the world posing around a beady-eyed little man in cotton pajamas (the photos are nifty), fun to know that the musicians themselves are being played, and even more fun to see the Fab Four cotton on to the set-up, as the great yogi morphs before thier eyes into a traditional Indian fakir. Awareness, after all, is what they came for, and they depart in good humor, with John comparing the Maharishi to Lewis Caroll. As one of the spiritual pilgrims in Rakishesh tells Lapham, "at the fifth level of realization, everything becomes hilarious."
