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would be understood by viewers of all nationalities. Writing began in late May, with Paul and John working on separate compositions, until John’s ‘All You Need Is Love’ emerged as the obvious choice. The song was not only musically and lyrically uncomplicated but also it perfectly captured the aspirations of international youth in the summer of 1967. This was the time when the war in Vietnam was at its most intense and the ‘love generation’ showed its opposition by staging a number of peaceful protests. “It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world amessage,” said Brian Epstein. “The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything.”
    In calling for universal love, ‘All You Need Is Love’ extended the message that John had first tried to put across in ‘The Word’ in 1965. He was fascinated by the power of slogans to unite people and was determined to create something with the timelessness of ‘We Shall Overcome’ (a labour union song popularized in the Sixties by folk singer Pete Seeger). When asked in 1971 whether songs like ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and ‘Power To The People’ were propaganda songs, he answered, “Sure. So was ‘All You Need Is Love’.. I’m a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change.”
    The viewers of Our World on June 25, 1967 saw a re-creation of a Beatles recording session: rhythm tracks had been laid down on June 14 and the live input was instantaneously added and mixed for transmission. A party atmosphere was created in Abbey Road’s Studio One by inviting Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Eric Clapton and Keith Moon to hold balloons, wave placards and join in on the chorus. George Martin accentuated the message of international unity by opening the song with bars from La Marseillaise (France), and closing it with snatches from ‘In The Mood’ (America) the Brandenburg concerto (Germany) and ‘Greensleeves’ (England).
    The single was released on July 7, and became the anthem of the Summer of Love, a paean to peace, love and understanding. “We had been told that we’d be seen recording it by the whole world at the same time,” said Paul. “So we had one message for the world – love. We need more love in the world.”

BABY YOU’RE A RICH MAN
    As with ‘ A Day In The Life’, two unfinished songs were sewn together to create ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, which opens with John’s section, originally titled ‘One Of The Beautiful People’, and then moves up a gear for Paul’s ‘rich man’ chorus.
    ‘The beautiful people’ was a term applied to the hip in-crowd who, with their long hair, free love and dope, created an alternative to ‘straight’ society. They used the word ‘beautiful’ freely in their conversations to describe anything of which they approved. “At the back of my mind somewhere…there is something which tells me that everything is beautiful,” said Paul in a stoned interview with International Times in January 1967. “Instead of opposing things like ‘Oh, I don’t like that television show’ or ‘No, I don’t like the theatre’ I know really that it’s all great and that everything’s great and there’s no bad ever if I can think of it all as great.”
    In 1967, San Francisco was regarded as the city of the beautiful people because it was here that the hippy movement was first spotted by the media and where the first psychedelic ‘happenings’ and open-air ‘tribal gatherings’ had taken place. Although the Beatles played San Francisco in 1964, 1965 and 1966, they didn’t really get to explore the city until 1967. Paul was the first to visit, on April 4, when he dropped in on a Jefferson Airplane rehearsal and jammed on guitar. George was next, on August 7, when he came to Haight Ashbury, the San Francisco district that had given birth to underground newspapers, psychedelic poster art, communes, crash pads, head shops,