John wants to send the record label Whitaker’s “butcher” photograph as a cover image.

The Beatles, against Brian’s wishes, have already included this photo in promotional materials for their tenth consecutive British number-one single, “Paperback Writer.” No one in Britain complained, but Capitol balks at using it for an album cover. Although they eventually give in and ship 750,000 albums ahead of the June 15, 1966, release, nearly every record store refuses to display them.

“It’s as relevant as Vietnam,” John explains to the press about the controversial image. “If the public can accept something as cruel as the war, they can accept this cover.”

Nevertheless, Capitol can’t. On June 14, the company recalls the record, incurring shipping and manufacturing costs to replace the controversial cover photograph with another one Whitaker shot, showing the band gathered around an open steamer trunk.

Though the “butcher cover” remains a highly sought-after Beatles collectible, the chart-topping album is a money loser for Capitol, the only Beatles record with that dubious distinction.

*  *  *

Ahead of the August tour dates, the Beatles’ press officer, Tony Barrow—originator of the band’s nickname, the Fab Four—sends Maureen Cleave’s Evening Standard profiles to DATEbook, an American teen magazine favored by the band for its progressive social vision. “I think the style and content is very much in line with the sort of thing DATEbook likes to use,” Barrow writes to the editors, who agree. They reprint the profiles in their September issue (on stands in mid-July) with a quotation from John (the second of eight) on the cover: “I don’t know which will go first—rock ’n’ roll or Christianity.”

The Associated Press picks up on the story, and two radio disc jockeys mobilize their teenage listeners to denounce John Lennon and defend Jesus Christ.

“This is Doug Layton and Tommy Charles reminding you that our fantastic Beatles boycott is still in effect,” Layton broadcasts from WAQY-AM’s Birmingham, Alabama, studio. “Don’t you forget what the Beatles have said.”

The disc jockeys organize a burning of Beatles records as a publicity stunt to boost ratings. Charles adds, “Don’t forget to take your Beatles records and Beatles paraphernalia to any one of our fourteen pickup points in Birmingham, Alabama, and turn them in this week if possible.”

The band has no idea the trouble these two men are about to cause.

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Every way you look at it you lose.

—“Mrs. Robinson”

Ratings at WAQY-AM are up—in part because of the sensational efforts of station disc jockeys Doug Layton and Tommy Charles. They borrow a giant tree-grinding machine from the Birmingham town council and rename it “the Beatle grinder.” On August 8, three days before the first American tour date, kids show up with records and photos and feed them into the machine, which chomps them into dust.