John Lennon Called Out a TV Star for Misinterpreting Beatles Songs
John gave a wide-ranging interview to Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner in 1971. In it, John discussed everything from Bob Dylan to Roman Catholicism to Frank Zappa. In addition, John discussed fans’ tendency to read a lot into the Beatles’ work.
“I was having a laugh because there’d been so much gobbledegook about [Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band], play it backwards and you stand on your head and all that,” John replied. “Even now, I just saw Mel Torme on TV the other day saying that ‘Lucy [in the Sky with Diamonds]’ was written to promote drugs and so was ‘[With a] Little Help from My Friends’ and none of them were at all – ‘[With a] Little Help from My Friends’ only says get high in it, it’s really about a little help from my friends, it’s a sincere message.”
Source: cheatsheet.com