“Kandinsky saw the spiritual and the earthly as opposites, but for indie rock’s spiritual explorers, they are inextricably linked.”

Berman, Judy. “Concerning the Spiritual in Indie Rock.” The Believer Magazine, August 2009.

There is a long-pervading contention that says music is both material and spiritual; as such, parallels to religion have been drawn and argued in contexts academic and otherwise. Berman, in Concerning the Spiritual in Indie Rock, provides an analysis of the musical object as a bearer of an experience similar to a religious phenomenon.

An inevitable extension of this mindset is the fact that artifacts of musical production—as well the places that have a direct connection with music—hold a fair amount of quasi-religious significance as well. Period instruments, old orchestral scores, and drafts all fetch a high value in the auction markets around the world not because of the default value associated with them (being old objects), but rather because of the stories that they beg to tell, about what they have gone through and/or what they were made to do—much in the same way that alleged fragments of Christ’s cross used to be traded at premium prices in medieval black markets not because they were antique wood, but because they carried so much history.

Places, on the other hand, follow a similar economic pattern—with the difference lying in the fact that they are rarely bought by private entities. Of course, market forces play a massive role here, as the mere maintenance of these locations can already prove to be costly (realty taxes, repainting, etc.) without any promise of increased value other than the natural appreciation of real estate with respect to time. In most cases, these sites are kept afloat largely through the money that droves of visitors pay to see these places, which one may liken to pilgrims journeying to holy places to better understand what they believe in.

I was fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to take the Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool early this year. The almost-two-hour-long tour is regularly run by the guys at the Cavern Club and goes through most of the places in Liverpool that were immortalized by the Beatles in their music. The tour also features a fancy bus painted very much in the style of the eponymous Beatles album.

The bus picked everyone up at Albert Dock, where The Beatles Story Museum was located, and first proceeded to go to Penny Lane. This part of the tour was one of the more interesting bits, as I generally felt that everyone onboard was trying to remember the lyrics to the song and trying to find the corner where the banker was with his motorcar, the barbershop where photographs were shown, etc. We eventually hit the corner, near the roundabout, in the middle of which was a shelter—where the fabled barbershop used to be in.

We then drove off and headed to the flat where George Harrison spent the first few years of his life. 12 Arnold Grove looked pretty ordinary for a place that carries so much cultural value in it, and I was amusingly puzzled by the fact that this apartment was still being rented out to this day.

The tour then proceeded to Strawberry Field Children’s Home which, in its state of disrepair, was quite saddening to see. The original gate was still there but corrosion has inevitably set in, and the home’s grounds appeared to have been unattended for quite some time. It was a relief, though, when the tour guide mentioned that the old and unusable bricks of the Cavern Club were being auctioned out to raise funds to open the children’s home again.

20 Forthlin Road, Paul McCartney’s former home, was the next stop. It was unfortunate, however, that the tour did not allow us to go into the house and see the room where the Beatles rehearsed and wrote a large part of their early catalogue. As distant as I may have been, though, I could still imagine the proverbial walls speaking to me about how certain songs came about and how rehearsals were like during those days.

The last stop on the tour was 251 Menlove Avenue, John Lennon’s former home; it’s now owned by the National Trust and has the familiar blue plaque that shows the name of the famous person who used to inhabit the place. Like in the McCartney house, the tour didn’t allow us to enter the site but it was enough to see the windows in John’s room from the street. I was told that there was a special tour that allows guests to go around the house, but before I was even able to ask about it, the tour guide told us that guest bookings at that time were already booked for the next three months.

I picked up my souvenirs after we were dropped off at the Cavern Club, and stayed for a few minutes to take it all in: long stairway down to the actual club; the old wooden bar which Beatle elbows may have dented; the club’s brick walls worn down by the loud music we’ve all come to love.

If one asks any pilgrim as to why he or she makes it a point to go to a holy place, one may be confronted with the answer that pilgrimages allow you to have a religious experience like no other, that the place itself reeks of holiness. One walks away from such a journey feeling like a new person with a clearer understanding of what he or she believes in. Needless to say, having “rolled up in the mystery tour” elicited a similar feeling in this particular pilgrim. (Marco Harder)

Visit the Cavern Club’s official site. Also, go on the same tour Marco took by accessing the official site of the Beatles Tour. All tour photographs shot by and courtesy of the author.