“Really, It Was Their Fault”: George Harrison Defends Beatles' Role (Or Lack Thereof) in ..
Some Beatles critics were quick to blame the Fab Four for the rise of drug culture, particularly psychedelics and marijuana, in the late 1960s, but George Harrison had a different idea about who was really responsible for the public’s interest in LSD and weed. While it’s true that much of the Beatles’ later work was heavily influenced by this psychedelic drug and the mental and visual revelations they had while taking it, the band didn’t feel it was their obligation to lie about it.
When someone asked about their recreational drug use, they were honest. And as Harrison once argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, that was the real problem. George Harrison Says Beatles Weren’t Responsible For Drug Culture
To pin the rise of drug use and counterculture solely on the Beatles would be wholly overestimating their cultural influence as a singular musical group. The Beatles were massive, certainly, but hardly big enough to inform an entire generation of global citizens without any extra help. The Beatles were one thread in a larger tapestry of societal change. They didn’t invent LSD. They were merely one of the thousands of people who started trying it recreationally in the mid-1960s. And even then, this was after the drug had already been present in psychiatric and other scientific circles for decades.
Nevertheless, the Beatles were one of the biggest bands in the world in the mid-1960s. If they said jump, most of their fans would ask, “How high?” Social influence of this size comes with its fair share of downsides, including the fact that critics will often lobby your personal choices against you in the context of other people’s choices. Because the Beatles did LSD, the media tried to blame other people using LSD on them. But as George Harrison argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, he and his bandmates simply didn’t believe that to be true.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
