The Beatles and UFOs

On January 26t, 2014 at the Grammy Awards Ringo Starr again played with Paul McCartney.Meanwhile Yoko Ono watched from the audience. It was a Beatles reunion of sorts.

When it comes to UFOs and the Beatles, most people know about John Lennon's famous UFO

The Dakota where Pang and Lennon viewed the UFO.
Credit Peter Robbins

 sighting on August 23, 1974, exactly 8 years to the date of the last Beatles concert in New York City. John mentioned the sighting in the liners notes of the album “Walls and Bridges” he was working on at the time.

On August 23, 1974 at 9:O’clock I saw a UFO – J.L. There’s UFO’s in New York and I ain’t too surprised- As John signs so brilliantly – “Strange Days Indeed. Most peculiar Mama.

It was not the first time Lennon would mention UFOs. In the Lyrics of "Out the Blue" written nine months before the sighting, and believed to be a song about his love for Yoko Ono, with who he was separated, Lennon sang,  "Like a UFO you came to me and blew away life's misery."

Then there are the stories told by Lennon’s one time girlfriend May Pang, who was there during the sighting, that Lennon made drawings of the UFO he and she had seen up close. She added that Lennon was fascinated with the subject of UFOs and had a whole collection of magazines and books. One story says that Lennon subscribed to the British magazine "Flying Saucer Review." Then there are the rumors of another encounter with aliens who came to the apartment door indicating an alien abduction. This story and the story that Lennon told Pang he believed he had been abducted have less evidence to back them up.

McCartney's Flaming Pie Album

One of the stories that is not so well known is the story that Lennon wrote an article to tell the public how the Beatles got their name. Lennon would say that he had a dream on night when a man on a “flaming pie” appeared to him indicating that the Beetles should be spelled The Beatles. According a 1961 article written by then 21 year old Lennon in the Mersey Beat paper, "It came in a vision (when he was 12 in 1952) – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'from this day on you are Beatles with an A.’”

Flaming Pie Drawn by McCartney

Lennon never explained what he meant by the flying pie reference – whether it was a flaming flying saucer or a man who was on an actual flying pie. Most wrote it off as a bit of a joke, despite the fact that the article from the public is there for all to see. In 1997, however, after Lennon had died Paul McCartney put out an album and song called flaming pie. On the album cover is an object that looks much like a flying saucer.

McCartney confirmed that the album has been named after the famous story told by Lennon years before.

McCartney with Owl and Golden Orb on the right.

In another bizarre story McCartney put out a documentary on the making of the flaming pie album called “In The World Tonight.” In the documentary he talks about his arts work showing what looked like the Easter Island statues and believe it or not “an owl on a golden orb.”[1] The significance of this is that orbs are common elements in many UFO accounts and the owl is believed by many as the most common screen image used by aliens to replace their images in the minds of experiencers.

Lennon has always considered to be the UFO Beatle but this is not the case. Less know is the fact that Ringo Starr was very interested in science fiction, extraterrestrial life and the government UFO conspiracy. In a 1969 video interview Starr went on the record talking about how he believed that there was life in outer space, how the government was covering up the UFO situation, and how many inter-dimensional races could actually be here on Earth.

Part of what Starr said in the interview included,

I really can’t believe that this is the only planet with this going on because the law of averages ... George has a great scene where we take Mars and there is no one there, but there is someone on it.

1969 Interview - Starr Talks UFOs

It’s just a different time dimension which we can’t see. It’s like anything. There’s another race going on where the time is just a little different…there could be a hundred races living on just this planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-GeLAMsww

Cover of Starr Album "Goodnight Vienna"

Then in 1974 Starr put out an album called Goodnight Vienna. John Lennon wrote the title Song for the album. The album cover is a screen shot from the 1951 flying saucer movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" about aliens that are prepared to destroy the world. It was this movie that inspired President Ronald Reagan’s famous statement “how the world would unite if faced with a threat from an alien race.”

 On the cover Starr replaces his head with that of the alien Klaatu who is exiting the flying saucer. Then Lennon and Starr produced a one minute commercial to promote the album. In the commercial as Lennon narrates Starr gets on a flying saucer that has landed in the middle of the street. The saucer then flies to the roof of Capitol records in Los Angeles where Starr then gets out and waves to the people on the street.

Starr enters flying saucer in Goodnight Vienna Commercial

 

Starr on roof of Capitol Records

 

Whatever the truth of the Beatles and UFOs – it is a very strange story.

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[1]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_j4CZ3RD9w