“ It occurred to me that I had to take acid ”

Today, The Beatles remain one of, if not the most influential, musical groups in rock and roll history. In the 1960s, the group’s growing popularity on both sides of the pond drove them to continually create hit after hit. In the seven years the Fab Four have produced music together, 12 albums have been released in the UK. While the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Orchestra was not the best-selling group, but perhaps the most controversial and influential.

Beatles songs and albums

“Here Comes the Sun,” released in 1969, is the Beatles’ most-listened song, according to the Charts. Their 1968 hit, “Hey Jude,” spent 19 weeks on the music charts, according to Newsweek. The group’s number 1 hit in 1969, “Come Together,” spent 16 weeks on the charts. The White album, released in 1968, far exceeded the sales of any other album by the group with more than 24 million copies sold. But it was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Orchestra, released a year earlier, that Rolling Stone was named best album of all time. The basis of the album was that of Paul McCartney, conceived while he was on a plane.

The idea was that each member of the band would assume an alter-ego in the “Lonely Hearts Club Band” to play in concert to create the album. The name Sgt. Pepper comes from the letters S for salt and P for pepper that McCartney must have explained to his assistant while eating an in-flight meal, according to Mental Floss. Sgt. Pepper has included hits such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Lovely Rita”, “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “Getting Better”. As with most of their music, the songs on the album were written by band members, primarily John Lennon and McCartney.

The Beatles used many illicit drugs

It’s no secret that every Beatles member has taken drugs at some point. “Almost everyone took drugs in one form or another and we were no different,” McCartney said in an interview with Today. McCartney admitted that drugs had an influence on some songs. “A song like ‘Got to Get You into My Life,’ which is directly about pot, although everyone missed it at the time,” McCartney said. Lennon had called the album, Revolver, the band’s acid album. Songs about Sgt. The Pepper album more than hinted at drugs, including “Day Tripper,” which was about LSD, McCartney said, and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” though Lennon denied it at the time. . Lennon had claimed that it was inspired by a drawing his young son, Julian, had drawn. McCartney admitted that “it was pretty obvious” that drugs were the influence.

Write and record ‘Getting Better’

McCartney and Lennon wrote the lyrics for “Getting Better”. McCartney came up with the headline one morning while walking his sheepdog, with reporter Hunter Davies. The reference was to welcoming spring. While McCartney saw an optimistic line in it, Lennon commented, “It couldn’t be worse.” It was Lennon who added darker lyrics to the song that “would deal with anger, unrest at school, and violence against women,” according to The Beatles Bible. When it came to recording the song, Lennon took what he thought was better (amphetamine) to prepare for a long night in the studio. He later realized that he had taken the wrong pill. “I thought I was feeling bad and I thought I was going to crack… then I realized I had to take acid,” Lennon said in an interview in 1970.

Lennon walked over to the production room where Beatles producer George Martin worked. He had a “weird, icy look on his face,” Martin said. Unaware that Lennon was under the influence, Martin suggested that Lennon might just need to get some fresh air. To avoid the hundreds of fans outside, Martin led Lennon up to the studio roof, unaware that he had taken drugs, and left him alone on the roof and returned to work in progress. It was McCartney and George Harrison who ran to the roof after realizing their groupmate was alone up there on an acid trip. The band decided to forgo recording any backup vocals for the song that night.

McCartney walked Lennon to the house a short distance away. He made a quick decision. Fearing acid, McCartney decided maybe now was the time to finally take a trip with his friend. “It has been happening for a long time. This is often the best way, without thinking too much about it, you just have to slip into it. John is already on it, so I’ll kind of catch up, ”McCartney said. “It was my first trip with John, or one of the guys. We stayed up all night, sat down and hallucinated a lot. McCartney called the experience of that night “mind-blowing… You dissolve into each other. … And it was amazing. He could see himself through the eyes of his good friend. “It was a good trip.”