The Beatles session plagued by John Lennon accidentally spiking himself with LSD: “I’m feeling better”
1966 might just be the most important year in English history.
When a group of young lads changed the course of history forever and set standards for the rest of history to follow, they continually defied odds and, in doing so, gave hope to a nation basking in the glory of the freethinking 1960s. No, I’m not talking about England finally winning the World Cup. I’m talking about The Beatles releasing Revolver and becoming the greatest band in history.
It was the year when they fully turned psychedelic, turning their back on the idea of being world-touring pop icons and instead embracing the expanse of the studio. It was the first domino to fall in an effect that would result in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. Make no mistake about it, Revolver was the lynch pin in their greatness.
Moreover, it wouldn’t be reductive to say that their newfound affection for LSD also expedited that. It opened their minds to the world of creativity that would ultimately inform this newfound expressive freedom and allowed them to pen tracks as abstract as ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
“LSD was the self-knowledge which pointed the way,” John Lennon once explained in an interview, “I was suddenly struck by great visions when I first took acid. But you’ve got to be looking for it before you can possibly find it. Perhaps I was looking without realising it. Perhaps I would have found it anyway. It would have just taken longer.”
Lennon and George Harrison were the first to dive into the altered worlds of LSD, with the more hesitant Paul McCartney following suit in 1967. Despite what his later appearances may have taught you, McCartney was fine relying on his natural songwriting ability and the mild influence of marijuana as a creative aid.
But it was in the following year, during the recording of their kaleidoscopic classic Sgt. Pepper, that McCartney would join his psychedelic compatriots and delve into the colourful landscapes of hallucinogenic drugs.
During the recording of ‘Getting Better’, his songwriting partner Lennon endured an intense, albeit completely unintentional, LSD trip that ultimately put the band into a brief crisis mode. Having confused an LSD tab for an amphetamine tablet he had meant to take, Lennon spiralled into a trip that forced producer and de facto father, George Martin, to take him to the studio rooftop for some fresh air.
In his book With A Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper, Martin recalled, “We stood there for a minute or two, with John swaying gently against my arm. ‘I’m feeling better,’ he announced. Then he looked up at the stars. ‘Wow..’ he intoned. ‘Look at that! Isn’t that amazing?”.
“I followed his gaze. The stars did look good, but they didn’t look that good. It was very unlike John to be over the top in that way. I stared at him. He was wired-pin-sharp and quivering, resonating away like a human tuning fork.”
McCartney and Harrison then stormed onto the roof, in fear that in the madness of his trip, Lennon had flung himself from the rooftops of the studio. Martin continued, explaining, “I spoke to Paul about this night many years later, and he confirmed that he and George had been shaken rigid when they found out we were up on the roof. They knew John was having what you might call a bad trip.”
But it turned out to be a pivotal moment for the band, as in the exercise of care, McCartney decided to throw caution to the wind and experience LSD for the first time.
Martin continued, “John didn’t go back to Weybridge that night; Paul took him home to his place, in nearby Cavendish Road. They were intensely close, remember, and Paul would do almost anything for John. So, once they were safe inside, Paul took a tablet of LSD for the first time, ‘So I could get with John’ as he put it- be with him in his misery and fear.’”
The dust settled, and Lennon got through his trip with a little help from his friends. The band were able to lay down the tracks of one of their most iconic albums, which, let’s face it, would not have existed without LSD.
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