The banned Beatles song John Lennon thought was “beautiful”
Despite being the biggest band in the world and with songs that were adored worldwide, The Beatles still found themselves at the heart of censorship. Several of their tracks were banned by different radio stations for a variety of reasons. Some made sense, some seemed silly, and others resulted from misinterpretation. One of their tracks, arguably, was banned because of all three.
One of the strangest reasons one of their songs got banned was ‘Come Together’. Despite the track not being controversial and considered by many as one of the band’s best, the BBC wasn’t allowed to play it because it referenced Coca-Cola. This went against their advertising laws and meant that they had to step in and remove the song from the airwaves.
While The Beatles were likely frustrated by this, they understood the rationale. However, another one of their banned songs had its meaning completely misunderstood, which frustrated the band a great deal as it was considered a favourite by everyone.
The song was ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’. It was banned by several radio stations because they believed that The Beatles were writing a pro-drug song. The “Warm gun” in question was believed to be a reference to shooting up heroin. Instead, it came from a gun advert that John Lennon had seen and was confused by. He was frustrated by the decision to ban the track, as he described the song as “Beautiful.”
“’Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was another one which was banned on the radio—they said it was about shooting up drugs,” he said, “But they were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it […] It wasn’t about ‘H’ at all. George Martin showed me the cover of a magazine that said: ‘Happiness is a warm gun.’ I thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you’ve just shot something!”
Lennon always had a way with lyrics. While Paul McCartney was always great at writing catchy numbers infused with pop, Lennon was a wordsmith. He was able to take a profound view of things and create exceptional art as a result. ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was no exception, and the fact that fewer people got to hear it annoyed him.
“I think it’s a beautiful song,” he said, “I like all the different things that are happening in it. I had put together three sections of different songs, it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music.”
McCartney shared his bandmate’s frustration, agreeing that it was an exceptional song and that more people should have had a chance to listen to it. “It’s a favourite of mine […] It was an advert in a gun magazine,” he said, “And it was so sick, you know, the idea of ‘Come and buy your killing weapons’, and ‘Come and get it’. But it’s just such a great line, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ that John sort of took that and used that as a chorus. And the rest of the words […] It’s a poem.”
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