John Lennon's “Accidental” LSD Trip That Produced One of the Greatest ....
When people think of the Beatles, the first thing that comes to mind is not their drug use, at least for most people. When compared to some of their wilder contemporaries, the Fabs feel somewhat innocent. But that certainly doesn’t mean the band didn’t partake from time to time.
They famously entered into a psychedelic era in the mid-’60s, fueled by LSD and other hallucinogens. They were also not strangers to marijuana. The Beatles’ post-introduction to drugs was markedly more experimental in the studio. Like many of their contemporaries, drugs provided a creative spark. There was one studio session wherein John Lennon accidentally took drugs, luckily leading to one of the Beatles’ best psychedelic songs.
When we think of the Beatles and drugs, it’s hard for the mind not to immediately go to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Although we don’t have the statistics, this feels like the Beatles’ “highest” album. That’s likely due to the inclusion of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”–which Lennon swore up and down wasn’t about LSD…However, there is another song that rivals “Lucy” in terms of drug use: “Getting Better.”
John Lennon was in the habit of taking “uppers” in the studio to deal with the long nights. On this particular occasion, Lennon accidentally took a massive dose of LSD instead of his usual fare. It made him noticeably off-kilter in the session.
“We were overdubbing voices on one of the Pepper tracks, and John, down in the studio, was obviously feeling unwell,” George Martin once recalled. “I called over the intercom, ‘What’s the matter, John? Aren’t you feeling very well?’”
“It wasn’t until much later that I learned what had happened,” he continued. “John was in the habit of taking pills, ‘uppers’, to give him the energy to get through the night. That evening, he had taken the wrong pill by mistake – a very large dose of LSD.”
Staying true to his songwriting partner, Paul McCartney decided to join in on the LSD trip, if only so Lennon wouldn’t be alone.
“But Paul knew, and went home with him and turned on as well, to keep him company,” he added. “It seems they had a real trip. I knew they smoked pot, and I knew they took pills, but in my innocence I had no idea they were also into LSD.”
The Beatles and Their Extracurricular Activities
The Beatles haven’t been shy about their drug use. They have been as forthright about their wild years as any of their peers.
Lennon’s LSD-inspired “Lucy” is perhaps their most famous drug-fuelled track, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. There’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” (with its references to getting high). Elsewhere, they penned a love letter to pot with “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
Despite their experimentation with drugs, their journey never took them too far into the heavy stuff. At least, McCartney said heroin and the like weren’t for him.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
