Pop writer and Beatles confidante, Cleave, dies

Maureen Cleave, a British journalist who was one of the first music writers to introduce readers to the Beatles, and who recorded John Lennon’s famous observation that the band was “more popular than Jesus,” died Nov. 6 at her home in Aldeburgh, England. She was 87.

Her daughter Dora Nichols confirmed her death. She did not give a cause but said Cleave had Alzheimer’s disease.

When Cleave began writing the column “Disc Date” for The London Evening Standard in 1961, serious writing about pop music was in its infancy. She helped raise its profile, in columns that featured conversations with luminaries including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Rolling Stones. She became a marquee byline; in 1976, The Standard called her “the writer who gets people to talk about themselves in the way no other writer can match.”

But she was best known for her regular reporting on the Beatles, with whom she had a warm relationship and whom she described affectionately in the newspaper’s pages. Her piece headlined “The Year of the Beatles,” published in The Standard in 1963, was one of the first major newspaper articles about the band.

“Their behavior ranges from the preposterous, farcical and impossible to the kindly, thoughtful and polite,” Cleave wrote. “You are outraged, diverted and charmed. You are never, ever bored.”

Her biggest moment stemmed from an interview with Lennon published in March 1966, in which she delved into his thoughts on organized religion. “Christianity will go,” he said. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first — rock ’n’ roll or Christianity.”