The songs John Lennon wrote about drugs
Every song John Lennon ever wrote seemed an extension of his personality. Whether it was his feelings on the peace movement or quoting his heart when singing about Yoko Ono, Lennon was more interested in telling his fans what was on his mind rather than just another hit song for the masses. Outside of his core emotions, though, Lennon had a bit of a nasty streak behind the scenes.
While working on The Beatles’ classic albums, Lennon was notorious for being an avid druggie, telling Rolling Stone, “I’ve always needed a drug to survive. The others, too, but I always had more, more pills, more of everything because I’m more crazy probably.” While it started with traditional uppers back in the days of The Cavern Club, things started to shift once Lennon began experimenting with mind-altering chemicals.
Though Paul McCartney got his fix on marijuana in songs like ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’, Lennon was focused on using drugs to take him to another world. Once he discovered the mind-expanding potential of LSD, he used that dream world as his muse, writing different songs while flying.
Across Revolver, Lennon packs his songs full of surreal imagery brought on by his experiments with LSD, from recreating a Peter Fonda nightmare on ‘She Said She Said’ to thanking one of his dealers on ‘Doctor Robert’. Although each one of Lennon’s songs was an eye-opener, it wasn’t until the very end of the record that people realised how crazed he was.
As Revolver’s unintended thesis statement, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ could be considered the first acid song that Lennon wrote, based on lyrics taken from Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience. Given the immaculate high that came from acid, Lennon decided to make songs that could give listeners the same experience without ingesting anything.
While ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ may have suggested surreal drugs in its lyrics, Lennon nailed the psychedelic experience in a single song until ‘I Am The Walrus’. Across four minutes, Lennon and the rest of the band recreate an acid trip in song form, crossing their traditional style of pop songwriting with the most avant-garde ideas suggested in a pop song, from having a women and men’s choir sing two separate lyrics over each other to playing a radio play of King Lear towards the end.
After experimenting with acid, though, Lennon found himself in a deep depression after being creatively separated from the group, which led to him getting into harder stuff. When working under the influence of heroin, Lennon created borderline scary dirges about what needing a fix can do to a person on ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’. By the time he got to his solo career, Lennon had created ‘Cold Turkey’ to depict the sudden withdrawals from weaning off heroin, down to the desperate screams that inevitably come with a junkie needing that spike in their veins.
Despite Lennon using drugs as a tool throughout his songwriting, the drugs never became a crutch for him to make classic songs. Lennon never claimed to be a role model, but sometimes the odd classic can arise from having elicit substances coursing through one’s veins.
The songs John Lennon wrote about drugs:
- ‘She Said She Said’ – Revolver
- ‘Doctor Robert’ – Revolver
- ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ – Revolver
- ‘I Am The Walrus’ – Magical Mystery Tour
- ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ – The White Album
- ‘Cold Turkey’ – single
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.