The Beatles and Drugs

Eszter Levai

BT 2*AM

The Beatles was probably the greatest band on earth ever. They have had more number one singles and albums than any other bands. They have spent 174 weeks at number one position on the album chart in the U.K. People loved their songs even after they started to do drugs, which had a great effect on their personality. This change can be felt on the rest of their late songs, but hadn’t caused a change in their quality and popularity.

Their connection with drugs started in their early years in Hamburg, when they had to play all night long. They often had to be on stage to entertain people for 12 hours continuously. They ate and slept on the stage. One day the waiters of the club gave them some pills – that’s what they used to stay awake all night long. It was actually a reductant pill, Preludin, and with the help of it and with lots of alcohol the band was able to entertain all those alcoholists and tourists that visited the club. John sometimes had hallucinations and symptoms of distraction. It was only Paul who rejected the use of drugs that time.

Later in New York they met Bob Dylan, who misunderstood the lyrics of one of their songs: instead of “I can’t hide” he heard “I get high”. He ran to them and gave them some marihuana. John said that they have smoked weed in 1960 in Liverpool, but they were so drunk that they didn’t feel anything, so this was the first time in 1964 that they have tried it ‘for real’. Ringo said it was a wonderful feeling that he had never felt before. This time Paul got high too, and found the sense of life several times, but he forgot it when he started to get clear (The Beatles Anthology 158).

During the making of the movie “Help!” in 1965 they claimed to be constantly high. This was the time when they gave up drinking and started to use weed more and more. “At that time we were smoking marihuana for breakfast”, said once John (Lennon 56). In the movie there was a scene where Paul and Ringo had to run away from a bomb. They kept running until nobody could see them, and then smoked a joint. An other scene had to be recorded a thousand times because the guys constantly burst into laughter all the time. The cutting-room was fully loaded with quality opiates, and the band often was sitting on the floor totally collapsed and could not get out a word for hours. Ringo said: “If someone takes a closer look at us in the movie can see how bloodshot our eyes were; we were totally high” (The Beatles Anthology 169)

The first time when they “used” LSD was without their knoweledge. This was “the case of the dentist”, as they later referred to it. John & Cynthia and George & Patti were invited to a party at a familiar dentist. The evil dentist, who was probably expecting an orgy, put LSD in their coffee. But the pairs didn’t want to stay at his house and went out to have some fun at the local clubs. It was veird, as they later described, and it was really a fantastic experience. Everything seemed to be perfect, things were shiny and people looked like they were wearing masks. It was just like in the story “Alice in Wonderland”. George even felt that he was enlightened. At the same time it was a very dreadful experience, the boys believed that the elevator was burning – later they discovered that they were gazing at a little red lamplight: this was their “fire” (The Beatles Anthology 177)

They really thought that LSD changed their life: they started to respect life and each other, they became more sensitive, and their relationship became better in a way. George was always regarded the youngest little boy in the band, the others sometimes treated him like a child, but when they used LSD with John, their relationship became more serious and they got closer to each other. George felt peace and love when using this drug, so he thought it would be really a nice idea to put LSD into every ministers’ tea. He believed that the using of LSD was written in his karma and would have happened whether he wanted it or not. But this was the way it should be: every event has a reason according to the teaching of karma in which George strongly believed.

In 1965 they received a medal of MBE (Members of the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen (The Philly Wire). During the ceremony they became so nervous that in the toilet of the Buckingham Palace they smoked a cigarette. John said it was a joint, but the others can’t remember of it exactly, they think that it was only a ‘simple cigarette’. George claimed that they couldn’t be so stupid to smoke weed just right before meeting the Queen.

In the same year they met Elvis, who introduced them his wife, Priscilla, “a Barbie-doll”, as Paul said. George didn’t even remember her, he was too busy with searching some weed, but “these people live on amphetamines and whisky down there in the south”, as he noted disappointedly. (The Beatles Anthology 191)

They soon recognised that it is impossible to work under the affect of drugs. They got high on the way to the studio, and John had a break in his voice because of the weed. Weed had an other effect too: because of the use of it lyrics started to change, and because of the lyrics their music started to go through changes too. “Rubber Soul” was the turning point; these “new way” songs were “Drive My Car”, “Norvegian Wood”, “You Won’t See Me”, “Nowhere Man” and “Michelle”. On this album the effect of the weed can be recognised, on the album “Revolver” the effects of LSD. They indulged themselves little nasty things: in the refrain of “Girl” the vocal’s lyrics was “tit-tit-tit...”, but nobody recognised it (The Beatles Anthology 196).

Paul wrote “Got To Get You Into My Life” about weed, and John’s song “Tomorrow Never Knows” was the first junkie-song. Their first big junkie-album was not the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, but the “Revolver” – by the end of making it everyone did drugs – even Paul.

The song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is not really about LSD. John’s son, Julian drew a picture about Lucy in the sky with diamonds, and his father wrote a song about it with Paul. Psychedelic lyrics are not about the drug, but maybe its effect can be discovered. Paul brought the “cellophane flowers” and “newspaper-taxies”, and John’s ideas were the “kaleidoscope-eyes” and “looking glass ties”. Weird ideas followed each other and the consequence of this brain-storming was this great fairytale song. The effects of LSD can be recognised in it, but it was not deliberate. Neither were the initials of the words of the title deliberate: L in Lucy, S in Sky and D in Diamonds... (The Beatles Anthology 242)

In the creating of the “Yellow Submarine” LSD didn’t play greater role than any sailor-song or folklore element, nor in the making of “Magical Mistery Tour” – however, the scenario drawn by Paul tells the opposite... (Ungvári 146, 155)

In 1967 Paul’s confession of using LSD caused a big scandal. Everyone was talking about the Beatles taking drugs and makes the youth to follow them. George decided to give up using LSD. After meeting the yogi Maharishi Mahesh John said that if they had met before the LSD, they probably would never use it.

Two years later anoter scandal shocked the fans: on the wedding day of Paul George and Patti were arrested in their home for possessing marihuana. George said that he was a tidy person: he kept the socks in the socks-drawer and marihuana in the marihuana-box... (The Beatles Anthology 331)

I agree with George’s view about the karma: if something is written in your karma, it surely will happen, and will happen for a reason. Their fate was to do drugs to create music of a new style, music of deep, secret, subconscious thoughts and feelings that can be brought to surface only by using sense-manipulating materials. They would probably be a great band without drugs, too; but i can’t imagine their whole work without all these influences and effects. This is like asking a historian the “What if...” question. It cannot be imagined “what if” this and this happens or not happens, but is also unnecessary and pointless. It happened this way and we cannot change it. Anyway, why should we?

John once said: “We were only taking drugs because we were in a hopeless situation, and we could stop it only when hope woke up in us. And as long as we hope, we won’t need drugs, nor alcohol, nor nothing else.” (The Beatles Anthology 347)

The Beatles Anthology. 85 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94105: Chronicle Books LLC, 2000. Hungarian Translation: Árokszállásy Zoltán, Béresi Csilla. Kossuth Kiadó Rt., 2001.

Lennon, John. In his Own Words. Omnibus Press, 1994. Hungarian Translaion: Romhányi Török Gábor. Allprint Kiadó, 2004.

The Philly Wire. The Beatles. 7. November 2004.

Ungvári Tamás. Beatles Biblia. Budapest: Zeneműkiadó, 1982.