The Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum
  • Home
    • About Us
    • ELDM Sponsors >
      • ALA
      • Ben & Jerry's
      • IKEA
      • NPR
    • FAQs
    • Featured Poems of the Week
    • Blackout Poetry
    • PLOG: Poetry Blog
    • Words of the Year >
      • Words of the Year 2013
      • Words of the Year 2014
      • Words of the Year 2015
      • Words of the Year 2016
      • Words of the Year 2017
      • Words of the Year 2018
      • Words of the Year 2019
      • Words of the Year 2020
      • Words of the Year 2021
      • Words of the Year 2022
    • Words to Song
    • Tripping >
      • From Washerst to Amherst
      • Chicagoetry
      • PoeTSBURGH >
        • PoetsBURGH: Part Duh!
      • Golden Gate Unabridged
      • New Mex I Go
      • North by Northeast >
        • The Baked Apple, Summer 2019
      • Tex-Mess, Summer 2017
      • The Walking Dread >
        • People In The Grave
      • Maine Character
      • Why Would We Visit Alabama? >
        • ALabandoned: State of Disrepair
      • Say Cheese!
      • South to Savannah
      • 65, Going On 66
    • "Tell It Straight" Award
  • Dickinson & His Family
    • Other Washerstians
    • Dickinson's Inventions
    • Dickinson & Science
  • Washerst, PA
    • Historic Washerst
    • Calendar of Events >
      • Valentine's Day: Feb 14
      • National Laundry Day: April 15
      • National Traffic Light Day
      • Cow Appreciation Day: July 15
      • National Relaxation Day: Aug 15
      • Comma-Con
      • Emmett Lee Dickinson's Birthday: Oct 12
      • National Candy Corn Day: Oct 30
      • Annual Deja Vu Days
    • Other Museums in Washerst
  • Great American Poems - REPOEMED
    • Gift Ideas
  • Special Exhibits
    • JANUARY >
      • Dickinson & The Beatles
      • Under the Influence
      • Dickinson Romances
    • FEBRUARY >
      • Coffee Poetry
      • Dickinson & Lincoln
      • Second Cup
      • Third Cup
      • Fourth Cup
      • Fifth Cup
      • Sixth Cup
      • Seventh Cup
      • Eighth Cup
      • Ninth Cup
      • Tenth Cup
      • Eleventh Cup
    • MARCH >
      • I'm Dickinson, He's Lichtenstein
      • Ben & Jerry's
      • Poetry is the Best Medicine
      • March Madness & Alfred Hitchcock
    • APRIL >
      • Broadway & Dickinson
      • American Poetry Month
      • The Poetry Hall of Fame
      • Broadway & Dickinson Pt 2
      • Poetic New Deal >
        • Poetic New Deal -- Part 2
        • Poetic New Deal -- Part 3
    • MAY >
      • The Wonders of Washerst
      • Poetry In Motion Pictures
      • Sprechen Sie Dichundsohn?
    • JUNE >
      • DickinsonLand
      • hyperBALLe: Sports & Poetry
      • What's The Buzz?
    • JULY >
      • The Purple Cow Poems >
        • How Now, Purple Cow?
      • Publish or Perish
      • Music To My Ears
    • AUGUST >
      • Influence on Literature
      • Nashburg, PA
      • Channeling Dickinson
    • SEPTEMBER >
      • Education Capital
      • East Meets Washerst
      • Poem & Circumstance
    • OCTOBER >
      • The DIKEAnssohns
      • Self Help
      • Soup Two Nuts
    • NOVEMBER >
      • Food Artwork
      • Re-Elect Dickinson
      • Haiku
    • DECEMBER >
      • Deflatable Festival
      • The Gift of Poetry
      • Happy Holidaze!
  • DOPE
    • 2013 DOPE Conference
    • 2014 DOPE Conference
    • 2015 DOPE Conference
    • 2016 DOPE Conference
    • 2017 DOPE Conference
    • 2018 DOPE Conference
    • 2019 DOPE Conference
    • 2020 DOPE Conference
    • 2021 DOPE Conference
  • DIED
    • DIED 1
    • DIED 2
  • In The News
  • Natl ReTweeting Month
  • Miscellany
    • Top 100 Events in Poetry
    • Helter-Shelter: Life In Quarantine
    • Word Count
    • Poetry Alerts
    • SUMMER ART WAVE
  • Gift Shop
  • Dating Sites
    • Couplets.com for Poets
    • DateDue for Librarians
  • Links

Emmett Lee Dickinson's Influence On The Beatles

In January 2013, the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard) hosted a special exhibit on the influence of Dickinson on the Beatles.  Some highlights from the exhibit are shown below.
Picture
It is widely known that all four of the Beatles were great admirers of the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily Dickinson's thired cousin, twice removed (at her request).  Their regard for the poet is readily noticeable on many of their album covers -- especially on the cover for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":  an image of Emmett Lee appears next to Edgar Allan Poe, Dickinson's vaudeville partner in the comedy duo "Izzy Sharp & Moe."

The tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson is deliberately obvious on the back cover of the album, where Paul McCartney poses as the great American poet.
Picture
Picture
Another Beatles' album cover with an obvious tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson is the cover of "Abbey Road." 

First of all, Abbey Road was the name of Washerst's most notorious painted lady, known to the locals as Downtown Abbey, with whom Dickinson is rumored to have had multiple affairs.

Second, all four of the Beatles are dressed to represent Dickinson or someone from his life:

* John, dressed all in white, represents Emmett Lee's third cousin, Emily Dickinson.
* Ringo represents Caldwell Begone and brothers Eberhard and Egan Perish, the owners of the Perish & Begone Funeral Parlor where Dickinson once lived in a basement apartment.
* Paul is dressed like Emmett Lee Dickinson.  His lack of shoes is meant to suggest the line, "My shoes -- perhaps are under bed?" from his poem, "I lost my coat -- the other day."
* George is dressed like Phillip Graves, an employee at the Perish & Begone Funeral Parlor and a mentor of Emmett Lee's.
In addition to the Dickinson tributes on the "Sgt. Pepper's" album and "Abbey Road," the Beatles paid tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson in many other ways.

* "The Beatles' Second Album" included songs with lyrics based on the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

* "With the Beatles" depicted the Fab Four in Dickinson's customary black attire.

* The Beatles appear on the cover of "Magical Mystery Tour" in vintage costumes on loan from the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Blvd).  The costumes are from a past Moss & Hornwort Jubilee (Washerst's annual celebration), from the Pageant of Herbivores, the Jubilee's opening parade.

* The song and album "Let It Be" was named after Dickinson's mother's sister, Beatrice Incross, from Leddit, Pennsyvania.  She was known fondly in the Dickinson family as "Leddit Bea."
Picture
Picture

Left:  With the cover of the "White Album," the Beatles paid tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson's third cousin, Emily Dickinson.

Right:  In September of 1964, the Beatles performed at the Calvert Street Theater in Baltimore, Maryland, where Emmett Lee Dickinson performed with Edgar Allan Poe in their comedy duo, "Izzy Sharp & Moe."  Dickinson and Poe were the first to tell "why did the chicken cross the road" and "waiter, there's a fly in my soup" jokes.
Picture
Picture



The Beatles' song "Yesterday" was based on a song that Paul McCartney wrote about Emmett Lee Dickinson.

The lyrics to the original version started as follows:

Emmett Lee,
How I really love your poetry,
I can't say how much it means to me --
Oh, I believe in Emmett Lee.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Above left:  "All You Need Is Love" is based upon a song by Lennon & McCartney about Emmett Lee Dickinson called "All You Need Is Corn."  Center:  "Baby's in Black" is "Dedicated to Emmett Lee Dickinson, the original Man in Black."  Right:  "Nowhere Man" was dedicated to Emery Dickinson, Emmett Lee Dickinson's father.
Picture





Left:  The original title to "Paperback Writer" was "Poetry Writer" -- a tribute to the work of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

Right:  "Girl"  was a song about Qwerty Jean Dickinson, Emmett Lee Dickinson's daughter
.
Picture
Picture
Emmett Lee Dickinson was the first to say, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"
Picture
"Rock 'n' Roll Music" was dedicated to Emmett Lee Dickinson -- and all four of the Beatles posed as the poet on the back of the record's jacket.
Picture






Left:  "I Am The Walrus" was listed as "a tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson, the original 'Walrus.'"

Right:  The Fab Four enjoys a book of peotry by Emmett Lee Dickinson.
Picture
Picture


Emmett Lee Dickinson was fascinated by the many uses of corn, from food and beverage recipes to personal care and health and wellness remedies to pharmaceutical and industrial products.  He was obsessed with analyzing the calendar and weather patterns associated with the planting season.  For many years, Paul McCartney (on the left in the photograph at the left) would make an annual pilgrimage to a Washerst cornfield with Emmett Lee Dickinson look-alike Raynor Schein (on the right).  McCartney knew of Dickinson's love of corn, and he said that the setting allowed him to connect spiritually with the poet.  "Pop changes week to week, month to month," said McCartney, but great poetry lives on forever."
Picture
Picture
Above left:  The Fab Four frequently paid tribute to Emmett Lee Dickinson by posing as the American poet at press conferences and before and after concerts.  Above right:  Paul McCartney posed as Dickinson for the poster of a concert film about Dickinson's influence on the Beatles.

All things Emmett Lee Dickinson (poetry, museum stuff, Washerst facts and figures, etc.) © 2013, 2014, and 2015  by Jim Asher
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.