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Rupert Bear’s influence on the Beatles

It may seem to be   an exaggeration  to compare the Beatles with Rupert Bear, but, if you look at the evidence, you may begin to  comprehend  the importance to popular culture of the little bear from Nutwood to the twentieth century and on into the present one.

The  illustrations  that you find in the earlier Rupert the Bear books from the 1920s to the 1950s has a richness which is absent from  many of the later books. Indeed, one could argue that the artists themselves (Mary Tourtel and Alfred Bestall ) were as much to thank for the lively imaginations of the likes of John Lennon  and Sir Paul McCartney as were the Goons!

 It is indisputable  that, although the Goons were the inspiration for John Lennon’s anarchic sense of humour (viz Yellow Submarine and the voices he adopted during the song), it was Rupert who seems to have inspired Sir Paul.  Maybe that explains why he produced, “Rupert and the Frog Song” in 1985. Anyone who has read the earlier Rupert books will be only too aware that there is a richness of colour and design which you would be hard put to find in the  current world of children’s cartoons.

Indeed, cartoons of any kind are a  swiftly-vanishing  phenomenon in Britain. Although the old stalwarts of  the  “Beano” and the “Dandy” from the Dundee-based publisher, DC Thomson, are still to be had, the days of the “Eagle”, the “Hotspur” and so many other comics are over. The world of video is superseding  the paper-based world of the comic-strip and it may well be that the likes of Rupert Bear may be soon merely a dimly-remembered figure from the distant past.

However, the old annuals which can be found quite readily , show the richness of colour which was a feature of the Beatles dress from the mid-Sixties, as were  moustaches which may, perhaps, have drawn inspiration from Tiger Lily’s father’s immense contribution in that department. Of course, coupled with the exoticism of Tiger Lily, her father and his moustache are among the themes of this series of stories which were written at a time when Britain was either considered to be a very  Victorian society between the Wars, or economically bankrupt after the Second World War. The exotic clothes of Tiger Lily’s father were echoed by the brightly-coloured military uniforms adopted by the Beatles in 1966 and the rest of the music industry (and the young) soon followed suit.

If you consider the outlandish tales of Rupert’s adventures with all  kinds of creatures, ranging from talking animals (himself included), a gypsy boy, a medieval knight, a mermaid; journeys into  weird landscapes under a crazy paving path, with strangely floating trees and mists which hide and confuse, you would be hard put not to see a  correlation to  the increasingly avant-garde ideas that permeated the Beatles themes and songs from the mid-Sixties on. Indeed, the Magical Mystery Tour is a good point at which  one could make a link to Rupert stories and the very simple English used in early Beatles lyrics which bear a striking similarity to the rhyming couplets beneath the individual pictures in Rupert books. Highly-effective simplicity.

Do you agree with this analysis? Or do you want to find out for yourself how true this is? If so, visit:

http://rupertbearcentre.blogspot.com/

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