Chapter 3 uses a modified version of R. Serge Denisoff’s (1968) Marxist analysis of class consciousness in protest music to explain the differences in Dylan’s and Lennon’s anti-war output during the Vietnam era. It synthesises this with Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison’ (1998) theorisation of the ‘movement artist’, offering new explanations for the divergence in Dylan’s and Lennon’s outlook. Dylan’s initial period as a peace campaigner was surprisingly brief, lasting for just over a year, at which point he turned towards more ambiguous anti-war lyrics. Meanwhile, at the height of the Beatles’ international popularity, Lennon began to advocate for universal love but was gradually drawn into militant revolutionary politics. Their work traced a mirror image – just as Dylan retreated from the role of movement artist, Lennon enthusiastically embraced it.

This chapter uses J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer’s (2011) meta-analysis of the evolutionary basis for faith to compare Dylan’s and Lennon’s supernatural beliefs. These manifest as profound spiritual convictions that resisted the conventional strictures of mainstream religion. Their similarities and differences demonstrate, once again, how dual biography elicits outcomes that a stand-alone individual assessment cannot produce. Dylan and Lennon, widely regarded as innovative mavericks, were both active participants in thought-reform movements on at least one occasion. Each also, at different times, identified with the figure of Jesus Christ so completely that this transformation in their private disposition became conspicuous in their public life. As the first study of its type, this chapter demonstrates the potential for further interdisciplinary research between popular music scholars and evolutionary psychologists.

Chapters 4 and 5 examine Dylan’s and Lennon’s conspicuous and copious allusions to events, characters and literature from the past using a framework inspired by the Marxist historiography of Fredric Jameson (2011). Together they reveal the similarities and dissimilarities between Dylan’s and Lennon’s worldview, and show how each artist’s appreciation of history informed their work. Chapter 4 discusses how Lennon’s colonial nostalgia coincided with the Beatles’ propulsion to international stardom during the dissolution of the British Empire, and was further complicated by his predilection for transgressive humour – which included ironic Nazi salutes before vast open-air crowds and acts of grotesque mimicry while performing onstage. Both chapters explore the basis for their subject’s historical awareness and show how it found expression in their work.