On Growing beards

[Brian.Cady@turner.com]

     I've always wondered what the phrase "and their beards have all grown 
     longer overnight" in "Won't Get Fooled Again" meant.  About a year ago 
     I discovered a smilar phrase in a George Orwell article.  He discusses 
     British Communist Party members who became anti-communists after the 
     Hitler-Stalin Pact and said that they "grew their beards."  I would 
     assume that the phrase means to radically change one's political 
     beliefs.  However I've searched in American dictionaries, British 
     dictionaries, I've even called the library but they couldn't help me, 
     either.  Can anyone confirm this?
                                                -BSC