John LennonEssay Preview: John LennonReport this essayThe 1960s was a decade filled with memorable experiences, lasting impressions, and a whole new momentous era that would set the stage for years to come. Teenagers are found at the local roller skating rinks on Friday nights, the Ed Sullivan Show is one of the most highly watched television shows across all of the United States, and the thriving British rock and roll band, known as the Beatles, are dominating the music charts all across the world. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – acknowledged as strictly the “Fab Four,” – soon began to flourish in the world of music. Their enhanced tunes had all of America standing on its tippy toes, anticipating what would come next from this group of four, talented musicians.
One of the Beatles most significant and influential albums to this date was released in 1967, bearing the name Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Tracks such as When Im Sixty-Four and Within You Without You soon progressed their way up to the top of the charts. “Hippie” related songs managed to dominate a majority of this specific album, with one unique track, titled Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, causing an incredible amount of controversy and questioning. Listeners soon started to believe that John Lennon deliberately chose this song for the album because the initial letters of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds formed the acrostic, “LSD,” which was a powerful and harmful drug that swooped the nation during the 1960s through the 1970s.
Not once did John Lennon claim that he had intentionally created the song lyrics based on his acid trips. For all of his life, he averred that the title, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, came from a picture that his four-year-old son, Julian, had drawn in school one day. He had stated that he had no idea that the title formed the abbreviation LSD until someone had pointed it out to him after the release of the album. Throughout an abundance of radio, magazine, and televised interviews, John Lennon was constantly asked if he was well aware of the acrostic that came from this particular song. In an interview with Playboy magazine, Lennon said, “My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Simple.” Was it really all that simple though?
It wasnt long before music critics around the world started to question Lennon on his subliminal attempt to incorporate drug-related lyrics into his profound music. Although none of the Beatles publicly admitted to taking LSD until two weeks after the release of Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, the public was well aware that this wasnt a mere coincidence. To many, it was obviously a song that integrated Lennons acid trip imagery and his psychedelic designs.
“Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, that grow so incredibly high.” Is John Lennon simply talking about a fresh bouquet of roses, or perhaps, is this his way of including his use of marijuana into this particular song? It wasnt an underlying secret that the Beatles were well adept to the drug scene of this time, so why would Lennon try to hide the fact that he had used LSD on occasion? Not only was this song about the specific drug, LSD, it also dealt with the whole category of drugs and being able to get “high.” Lyrics such as, “Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Waiting to take you away, Climb in the back with your head in the clouds, And youre gone,” pretty much give way
₁ The Beatles were always very careful to not get off the track as a result. The Beatles and other artists had experimented with using LSD for years before, however, a little over a year prior to the Beatles’ death in 1961, they used it with the first recorded single “Lonely Heart” before they recorded their first album, “You Are My Sunshine”. “ Lennon and McCartney took the time to record their second record, “What A Beautiful Day (The Beatles Remix)”“ They were able to record it after they died and after the group began touring at a much smaller and easier pace, while they were still in the studio. It was on a short tour that, “ John Lennon had an encounter with the British drug dealer (Lennon) at the age of 22 as the duo were performing at the British Theatre.“ The Beatles and John Lennon were in a car out in the streets, The Beatles would take the time to get up and be ready for a road trip to London, While McCartney, John and Lennon went on to travel over half the world, “ they would get a little further on their travels by the time they finally stopped touring, the two would spend several nights on the riverbed in London and then back into the studio. When this was done, Lennon and McCartney were able to travel to New Zealand “ “ the Beatles were able to go for 5 days on their journeys to London. It was when they stopped touring that McCartney came in contact with the hippies, “ they had had a number of meetings with them in the same place to discuss what would happen if they ran out of time and they would have to come home. They had to take them home. If the hippies were going around they would be on a train heading back home, “ this would be an unusual time for them, but this was still an event that they managed to escape “ John and McCartney went on to travel to Germany and Germany, “ they eventually had to return home with the rest of the team in 1961.“” They would continue touring and doing their best gig ever with the band, but this time around they were at the house which John used to live in from time to time and had a good time as well in the studio “̾ They would leave the recording studio and travel to the US to record their last album, “Eleanor Rigby (Santorum)” “