Paul McCartney On Drugs

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McCartney On LSD

The Beatles titan recently claimed, allegedly during a talk with friend and self-proclaimed "king of bitter divorces" Alec Baldwin a few days ago, that he has grown physically sick from the latest charges by his estranged wife in their divorce proceedings. (Her latest claim is that he stole paintings by Picasso and Renoir from their once-shared lodge.) But, let us revisit for a moment one of the more interesting charges leveled by Heather against Paul, shall we? Let us return to the drugs.

In college in the late 1970s, I had a girlfriend from The Hamptons who had been the baby sitter for Paul and Linda McCartney. (Paul and Linda and their children lived in that elegant Long Island suburb through most of the 1970s). Lizzie hated babysitting for the McCartneys because they were slobs (messy house) and because there were "drugs all over the place," right out in the open where theoretically one or all of their four young children could get at them. When I questioned Liz more closely about the drugs, she mentioned white powders, mushrooms and (no surprise) marijuana.

Lizzie detested drugs back then, because she was worshiping a poet named Robert Bly, and Robert Bly hated drugs. But I must admit, for me, this tidbit added substantially to Beatle Paul's always questionable hipster cred.

In the recent divorce case between Paul and his anti-landmine activist soon-to-be ex-wife Heather Mills McCartney, Heather filed a court statement, according to the British tabloid press, stating that McCartney had attacked her with a broken wine glass, and that he used illegal drugs and drank to excess.

I'm in no position to comment on any propensity Sir Paul may have towards violence, although a biography written by the tabloidesque rock writer Christopher Sandford promises, in a synopsis on Amazon.com, that "McCartney is a tale of self-destruction, violence and epic excess." (Imagine that. Paul McCartney: the Great Beast.) And McCartney himself has made clear that he drinks heavily when he's depressed (after the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, after the death of his first wife Linda, and while he toured for his hardest rocking solo album, "Run Devil Run" in 1999).



But when it comes to Macca and drugs, there is quite a bit more to talk about.

Join me then on a magical mystery tour:

Paul McCartney and Drugs: A Timeline

Early 1960s

The Beatles play frequent late night shows in seedy clubs in Hamburg, Germany, popping stimulants — mostly Benzedrine — to stay awake.

August, 1964

Bob Dylan turns The Beatles on to marijuana. He is shocked to discover that they're pot virgins.

April 1965

John Lennon and George Harrison are slipped LSD at a dinner party thrown for them by their dentist. McCartney is elsewhere.

1966

McCartney becomes the last Beatle to try LSD

1967

McCartney is turned on to cocaine by Robert Fraser, an art dealer and a central figure in the London counterculture, who was art director for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover (the image itself was done by Peter Blake). He uses cocaine a bit during his work on Sgt. Peppers, although he apparently doesn't share it around with his mates. Cocaine is very obscure in 1967 and doesn't become second nature to rock stars ’til around 1969.

Spring, 1967

McCartney is the first Beatle and the first major figure in rock to admit that he and the other Beatles had taken LSD. While this would seem to have been obvious to anybody who had been listening to their recent recordings, the great majority of people were way more clueless than they even are now and so the admission stirs up quite a bit of controversy. Lennon is miffed that McCartney came out of the closet as an acid head first.

June, 1967

In Life magazine, McCartney describes himself as "deeply committed to the possibilities of LSD as a universal cure-all."

July 24, 1967

All four Beatles sign a petition published in The Times of London calling for decriminalization of Marijuana. Sir Francis Crick and Francis Huxley also sign the petition. The Beatles also pay for the ad.

1972

Paul and Linda McCartney are busted for smuggling hashish into Sweden. He pays a $2,000 fine.

1973

McCartney is busted for growing marijuana on his farm in Scotland. He is fined the equivalent of $240.

McCartney visits John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, who are living together in L.A. while Lennon produces Nilsson's album, "Pussy Cats." A bleary-eyed Nilsson offers McCartney some PCP. Paul asks, "Is it fun?" "No," Nilsson replied. So McCartney passes on the PCP.

1974

According to a book written by May Pang called Loving John: The Untold Story about the time she spent as John Lennon's girlfriend, John Lennon and Paul McCartney drop acid together one day in New York City in 1974 and decide to go visit David Bowie.

Bowie has just received the final mix of his latest album, Young Americans which includes two songs that John Lennon worked on. One was a reworking of The Beatles song, "Across the Universe," and the other was to become Bowie's first number one hit, "Fame," co-written with Lennon. Bowie proudly plays the new album for his two Beatles heroes and they're impressed. And so he plays it again. And again. And again. Eventually, McCartney excuses himself and bolts out the door, Lennon following quickly behind. Bowie's drug of choice in the mid-1970s might explain his obsessiveness that day: mountains of cocaine.

An interesting side note: In The Beatles version of "Across The Universe", the line "nothing's gonna change my world" comes across as a sort of cosmic meditation on the divine perfection of the eternal now. In Bowie's version, the same line becomes an expression of terrified desperation. This might be interpreted as the difference between psychedelics and coke, as well as the difference between the 60s and the 70s.

1975

Linda McCartney is busted for possession of marijuana in Los Angeles, but charges are dropped.

Sometime around 1976-77

I can't find the source so this is from memory, but at some point the McCartneys hosted a party for the original cast of Saturday Night Live. Mescaline was on the menu, according to one of the many SNL histories.

Late 70s

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and wives are sitting around Lennon and Ono's apartment one Saturday night getting stoned on weed and watching SNL, when Lorne Michaels does one of his occasional routines offering The Beatles a ridiculously small amount of cash ($3,200) to reunite. They briefly consider heading down to the show as a lark to claim half of the money, but they're too stoned to deal with it.

January 16, 1980

McCartney famously busted in Japan at the start of a planned tour with Wings with approximately half-a-pound of marijuana in his suitcase. He spends ten days in prison in Japan before being released and deported. After his release, he promises to quit but also argues that it is less harmful than Valium or alcohol. He also later comments that he just couldn't leave the pot behind because "it was such good stuff."

1984

Paul and Linda McCartney busted in Barbados for possession of marijuana. Several days later, Linda is busted again flying into Heathrow Airport in London with marijuana.



1997

McCartney, now a Knight of the British Empire, tells Musician magazine, "I support decriminalization. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminal is wrong."

September 22, 1999

At an after-party for a celebration/performance for McCartney's new album, Run Devil Run, held at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, McCartney is observed smoking vast quantities of weed with Woody Harrelson and Laurence Fishburne. McCartney's publicist gives a photo of the red-eyed trio to High Times magazine and encourages them to publish it. High Times published the photo under the heading, "The Three Stoners."

June 22, 2000

McCartney delivers a keynote speech in England on "Drug Awareness Day" about "heightening parental awareness to drug misuse, and to outline Government activity in this area." Rank hypocrisy? In fairness to Sir Paul, the talk repeatedly uses the term "misuse" and singles out heroin and cocaine as "the drugs that cause the greatest harm."

2004

In a prime example of the media's tendency to recycle old news as though it were fresh news, the British press goes wild with headlines like "Sir Paul Admits He Used Drugs!" The articles quote from an interview McCartney gives to "Uncut" magazine. He disclosed that he once smoked heroin, but didn't get high. He says that "Got to Get You Into My Life," off of the Revolver album was about pot and that the hit single, "Day Tripper" was about acid. He also admits the obvious, that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was about LSD, something the song's main author, John Lennon, always denied. While he tells the magazine that he's grown out of using drugs, he also tells them he "was flattered when he was recently invited by a group of Los Angeles teenagers to share their marijuana." McCartney was quoted as saying, "To me, it's a huge compliment that a bunch of kids think I might be up to smoke a bit of dope with them."

Other McCartney Fun Facts

  • McCartney was always uptight that everyone considered Lennon, not to mention Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, a lot hipper than him. Thus, he was known to brag, particularly on the pages of Rolling Stone, about being first to try this and that. It was on the pages of Rolling Stone that he first let it be known that he was the first Beatle to try cocaine, and that he came close to cashing it in on unspecified drugs on a few occasions. "I've seen my soul get up and walk across the floor a couple of times." He also claimed in the mag that he gave Mick Jagger his first taste of marijuana. Sir Jagger vociferously denied the claim, saying that the Stones smoked weed long before The Beatles did (nyah nyah!).

  • Continuing on the Paul-is-hipper-than-you-think theme, McCartney was the Beatle who befriended ultra-hipster hero William S. Burroughs when he settled in London during the late 1960s. McCartney supplied Burroughs with tape equipment to experiment with his cutup method.

  • McCartney was also a lifelong friend with Beat/counterculture poet Allen Ginsberg. He performed, along with Philip Glass, on Allen Ginsberg's 1996 CD release, "Ballad of the Skeletons."

  • Paul and Linda McCartney were financial supporters of the 25th and 30th anniversary celebrations of "The Summer of Love." The celebration of psychedelic counterculture was organized by their long-time friend Chet Helms and took place in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

  • In Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney by Geoffrey Giuliano and ex-Wings member Denny Laine, Laine claims that, in the mid-1970s Paul and Linda were heavily into the occult and Aleister Crowley. The 1975 album, Venus and Mars seems to have a bit of an occultist vibe.

    Drugs In Song

    However much McCartney may like his altered states, particularly those derived from cannabis consumption, direct drug references are rare and allusions are subject to debate and interpretation. Nevertheless, aside from the songs mentioned earlier, "Got To Get You Into My Life" and "Day Tripper," I present a few McCartney lyrics that reference drugs, or seem like they probably reference drugs.

    I'm Looking Through You
    1965, Rubber Soul
    Ripped on weed, McCartney sees deeply into his then girlfriend, model Jane Asher, and decides she's a phony. This story has been told by McCartney himself.

    Yellow Submarine
    1966, Revolver
    On the surface, a child's rhyme; but the song was taken as a winking assertion of hippie, psychedelic, drop out escape from the dreary mainstream culture into the upcoming party utopia. It was even adapted by some new left activists as a theme song for those seeking an alternative culture.

    With A Little Help From My Friends
    1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    He gets high with a little help from his friends. What does he see when he turns out the lights?

    Fixing A Hole
    1967, Sgt. Peppers
    Taken by some to be a heroin song (fixing being a term used for shooting up], but also works as a contemplative pothead song or, for that matter, a plain old contemplative person's song. Another song lyric with a drop out vibe.

    Lovely Rita
    1967, Sgt. Peppers
    "When are you free to take some tea with me?" George Harrison has commented that The Beatles frequently used tea as a pseudonym for pot. On the other hand, they were Limeys, so maybe tea is just tea.

    A Day In The Life
    1967, Sgt Peppers
    "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke and somebody spoke and I went into a dream." Probably not a ciggie, but you never know.

    Magical Mystery Tour
    1968, Magical Mystery Tour
    "Roll up!" "A mystery trip." And the whole album/movie concept was taken from Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters.

    Penny Lane
    1968, Magical Mystery Tour
    "The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray." Hey, wouldn't a florist be selling poppies from a tray? In England, heroin was medicalized and made available to addicts, who were given injections by nurses. Also, "Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes." George Harrison grew up in a suburb near this street, Penny Lane. I recall a story about how George went back there on acid to grok it in all its weirdness. This may have inspired Paul's song.

    Get Back
    1970, Let It Be
    "Jo Jo left her home in Tuscon Arizona for some California grass." Is the grass just grass? What, she couldn't find any grass in Tucson?

    Three Legs
    1971, Ram
    "When I fly above the clouds, when I fly above the crowds, you could knock me down with a feather."

    Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
    1971, Ram
    "Hands across the water. Heads across the sky." Ahh, peace and drugs in the early seventies. References to heads in the late sixties and early seventies were pretty much understood to mean psychedelic drug heads.

    C Moon
    1973, Red Rose Speedway
    "I'd never get to heaven if I filled my head with glue. What's it all to you?" A rejection of a bad high, and yet, ain't nobody's business but his own.

    Hi Hi Hi
    1973, Red Rose Speedway
    This one is blatant and should have been titled High High High. He's "gonna get high high high." Mediocre song, though.

    Band On The Run
    1973, Band on the Run
    Not about drugs, but about being busted for drugs and Macca's concerns about being "stuck inside these four walls, sent away for ever.'

    Rock Show
    1975, Venus and Mars
    "The tension mounts you score an ounce ole!"

    Medicine Jar
    1975, Venus and Mars
    McCartney's first anti-hard drug song for Wings. Wings guitarist, Jimmy McCulloch, had an ongoing problem with heavy drugs, and eventually died from a heroin overdose. It's generally thought that McCartney wrote these lyrics trying to challenge and discourage his behavior. "Dead on your feet, you won't get far if you keep on putting your hand in the medicine jar."

    Wino Junko
    1976, At The Speed Of Sound
    Apparently, McCartney continued to preach it to brother McCulloch. "Pill freak spring a leak you can't say no."

    The Song We Were Singing
    1997, Flaming Pie
    Apparently a bit of misty nostalgia for old-fashioned psychedelic philosophizing and The Beatles heyday, which also seems to permeate the entire album. "For a while, we could sit, smoke a pipe. And discuss all the vast intricacies of life... Take a sip, see the world through a glass and speculate about the cosmic solution."

    Flaming Pie
    1997, Flaming Pie
    "I took my brains out and stretched 'em on a rack. Now I'm not so sure I'm ever gonna get 'em back... Go ahead, have a vision."



    Final Thoughts from Sir Paul

    So there you have it. The world's most complete roundup of Paul McCartney's relationship with drugs over the years. Does it matter? What does it mean? Let's give Sir Paul the last word, from his as-told-to 1997 biography Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, co-written with Barry Miles (Miles has also written bios of Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski):
    In today's climate, I hate to talk about drugs because it's not the same. You have someone jumping on your head the minute you say anything, so I've taken to not trying to give my point of view unless someone really very much asks for it. Because I think the "just say no" mentality is so crazed. I saw a thing in a women's magazine the other day: "He smokes cannabis, what am I to do. He laughs it off when I try to tell him, he says it's not really harmful..." Of course, you're half hoping the advice will be, "well, you know it's not that harmful; if you love him, if you talk to him about it, tell him maybe he should keep it in the garden shed or something," you know, a reasonable point of view. But of course it was, "No no, all drugs are bad. All drugs are bad. Librium's good, Valium's good, ciggies are good, vodka's good. But cannabis, oooh." I hate that unreasoned attitude. I really can't believe it's thirty years since the sixties. I find it staggering. It's like the future, the sixties, the sixties to me, it hasn't happened. I feel like the sixties are about to arrive. And we're in some sort of time warp and it's still going to happen.

    See also:
    Willie Nelson's Narcotic Shrooms
    Prescription Ecstasy and Other Pipe Dreams
    Hallucinogenic Weapons: The Other Chemical Warfare

    • 149 thoughts to “Paul McCartney On Drugs”

    2. Im constantly surprised at the fact that there are people who lived through these times and DIDN’T DO THE DRUGS. I mean while my own parents were quick to mention that drugs can be the wrong choice, they eventually admitted that they did them at some point. My own father used to mention stories about the early 80’s and going to coke parties. “Oh its snowing over here!” his friends would call up in the middle of July. He was pretty much antidrugs for a number of years up to his death due to HIV, but he wasn’t going to say he didn’t go down the road himself at some point. How could people not do even some experimentation back in the day? Thats what surprises me!

    3. Interesting piece but there are a couple of things to clarify. It was Peter Blake, not Robert Fraser, that designed the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover. The nurse selling poppies from a tray is almost certainly a reference to the remembrance day poppies sold each year, the proceeds from which goes to The British Legion who support ex-servicemen and their families.

      Where does the information about Lennon and McCartney hanging out together post-Beatles come from? I’d like to hear more.

    5. Get Back
      1970, Let It Be
      “Jo Jo left her home in Tuscon Arizona for some California grass.” Is the grass just grass? What, she couldn’t find any grass in Tucson?

      I guess you’ve never been to Tucson. It’s not a great place for grass of any kind.

    6. I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to any bands that havent done drugs. How would I know? I think Sir Paul is one of the coolest humans ever to exist. I would love to sit down and smoke a big joint with him and wax rhetoric about life. He would have the best stories. And I got a couple good ones myself. He never got addicted to crack or heroin or any of the “bad” stuff, rather he is an all natural.

    7. Maybe I’m Amazed at how Paul can smoke in the Back Seat of his Car with his Long Haired Lady all he wants while Willie Nelson keeps getting busted. Or Maybe I’m Amazed that this is news, how he Used to Be Bad. Maybe Mother Nature’s Son just keeps the stuff around like a Souvenir of Yesterday. But the Fool on the Hill is almost as much a hero as Walrus John, ready to rip it up and Do It In the Road as much as any rock star of the period. They’re all heroes because they did it first; here, there, and everywhere. They stuck their necks out and in some cases had them chopped off.

      For example — too bad you can’t put up the video clip from the Beatles Anthology video (from which the still image is taken). What it means to be a worldwide celebrity, and who ultimately is responsible for what happens with celebrity press coverage, was encapsulated in this McCartney interview from 1967 to the press after announcing that he had, indeed, taken LSD. So he put on his Brave Face:

      Paul: “I don’t think my fans are going to take drugs just because I did, you know. But the thing is — that’s not the point anyway! I was asked whether I had or not. And from then on, the whole bit about how far it’s gonna go and how many people it’s going to encourage is up to the newspapers, and up to you on television. I mean, you’re spreading this now, at this moment. This is going into all the homes, in Britain. And I’d rather it didn’t. But you’re asking me the question — You want me to be honest — I’ll be honest.”

      Q: “But as a public figure, surely you’ve got the responsibility to…”

      Paul: “…No, it’s you who’ve got the responsibility…”

      How true. The press stages the ambush and then covers it from every angle. They don’t give him his money, they only gives him the funny papers. Too Many People jump on the bandwagon, including his newly ex’d wife. Ram on…

      I always liked Paul’s musicianship, despite all that Ballroom Dancing. The man could sing and play a complicated bass part at the same time — just listen to “I Saw Her Standing There” with the volume turned all the way up, and imagine doing the entire number in one perfect take. For that alone, Her Majesty knighted him; at least that’s why I would call him Sir Paul.

      It’s great that he’s still involved with the Summer of Love celebrations. Let’s hope he comes to S.F. for the upcoming 40th! I’ve got something I’d like to “turn him on” to. And maybe then his “soul will get up and walk across the floor.”

      That Would Be Something.

      [Check out my Favorite Fab Four Facts: http://www.rockument.com/Beatles2.html%5D

    8. Lots of bad info (for example, McCartney and Lennon were NOT on speaking terms in the early 70s, and in fact were busy tearing each other new ones in song– see Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” and McCartney’s “Too Many People”). Also, if you’re going to talk about drug references in songs, how the heck can you skip the White Album?? Half of that record is about drugs– “Obla-di Obla-da” is probably the most blatant drug-reference song in the entire Beatles catalog. It’s literally named after a drug, and ends with an exhortation to try it! One more nitpicky thing: “Penny Lane” was a single that came out in early 1967, long before it popped up on the Magical Mystery Tour record (which was released in late 1967, NOT 1968). It’s therefore misplaced in your timeline.

      All in all, though, I think it was a pretty good article. I enjoyed reading it, and it’s cool to see McCartney’s less-publicized side get some attention. I agree with KevMannDude that Paul “is one of the coolest humans ever to exist.” I grew up with his music, and he’s always been one of my heroes. Thanks for the article!

    9. Fun piece! You totally missed “Let me roll it” (Band on the Run), but I forgive you.

    10. On “Penny Lane” – all four Beatles come from round that street, it’s a high street down the south end of Liverpool where they all come from. And “selling poppies from a tray” refers to selling the red poppies which commemorate war victims. They’re sold all over Britain each November to remember Armistice Day.

    11. Where is this aforementioned “Three Stoners” photo from High Times? Couldn’t find it anywhere…

    12. Also, I don’t see Let Me Roll It as having any drug references in it at all. Same with Ob-La-Di, although it has a nice tranny theme. Trannies and whores in McCartney songs could make up another list…

      R>

    14. The last part of “Norwegian Wood” goes something like this:

      And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown
      So I lit a fire, isn’t it good, norwegian wood.

      It is generally understood that “lit a fire” means “smoked pot”. But it may also mean he burned the place down out of sexual frustration.

    16. According to wikipedia, that line in Day in the Life that you quote, “Found my way upstairs and had a smoke and somebody spoke and I went into a dream,” is not a drug reference.

      From the link

      It was another song altogether, but it happened to fit. It was just me remembering what it was like to run up the road to catch a bus to school (Liverpool Institute for Boys with George Harrison), having a smoke and going into class… it was a reflection of my school-days. I would have a Woodbine (a cheap unfiltered British cigarette) and somebody would speak and I would go into a dream.

      Maybe I’m being naive, but I would like to think that it isn’t a drug reference.

    17. >>
      Lots of bad info (for example, McCartney and Lennon were NOT on speaking terms in the early 70s, and in fact were busy tearing each other new ones in song… see Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” and McCartney’s “Too Many People”).
      >>

      They were suing each other, or McCartney was suing everybody else, and they slagged each other a bit but Lennon and McCartney still hung out occasionally, and on those occasions that I mentioned…

    18. “The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray.” Hey, wouldn’t a florist be selling poppies from a tray?

      Excellent post, but I have to dispute this bit. Just a little. While on a typical day, a florist would sell all manner of flower, it would not be unusual for a nurse to be selling little paper poppies on behalf of the Poppy Appeal, a charity for the British Legion. The first Poppy Day was held on November 11, 1921.

      http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/content/History-of-the-Poppy-Appeal-508925.shtml
      http://www.poppy.org.uk/

    19. Whew! I thought I knew everything about The Beatles, especially Paul, my favorite. But I suppose you could take just about any song and make a hidden reference to drugs. For instance, “Mary had a little lamb, “(lamb could mean wool purse), “its fleece was white as snow” (snow of course is herion inside the purse). ” And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go” (she didn’t leave home without her bag of dope). “It followed her to school one day which was against the rules” (illegal everywhere, especially schools) “but it made the children laugh and play” (obviously they all got high) “to see a lamb at school”. Very interesting.
      I , personally have never taken a drug, other than prescription, but believe pot should be legal. I worked in the medical field for twenty years and there is nothing like it to releave severe and unrelenting pain in a sick or dying patient.

      Love you, Paul.

      Your eternal friend, Eve.

    20. I am with Paul on legalization of marijuanna. That day is coming. Hopefully in my lifetime. I am a patriotic, taxpaying, vote casting, American citizen. If you didnt know me, or if I didnt tell you, you might never have guessed that I indulge . There are many many people just like me. It is a shame that we are made to feel like criminals .

    23. Geez…nothing new here. I was 13 when the White album came out; everyone knew that “Warm Gun” was about heroin. If he’s still using the afore mentioned herbs, fungi or whatever, he won’t be able to hide it much longer. It will affect his health-vegan or not. I will not put him on a pedestal, even when he did contibute to the history of R & R in such a stellar manner. I too adored the Beatles, but it’s time the old fart grew up; he’s just another guy with an addiction.

    24. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t “Come Together” the song that encouraged Bob Dylan to offer the Beatles marijuana, because he thought that was what the song was about?

    25. Blimey, I’ve picked a ratha big boogie outa me nose, mate… Aye’v got the muchies so I’ll eat the blighter…

    27. …I love Beatles together and as solo artists after the breakup..probably have most of what they’ve produced….but I have to point out that the lyrics are a bit like scripture, in that anybody can take any references in the songs that they want and find a way to see it from a drug vantage, a spiritual enlightenment vantage, or whatever other viewpoint or interpretation that they may wish to see….but in the long run, sometimes a rose is just a rose…take this line from Penny Lane; “In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head hes had the pleasure to have known…”….For heavens sake!…. a drug reference?….sheeeeeeesh!… I knew a Barbershop many years ago that had a wall full of pictures….half of them were little boys getting their first haircuts… Most definitely a Rose!

    28. First line of Peter Blake’s Wikipedia entry:

      “Sir Peter Thomas Blake (born June 25, 1932) is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

      Fraser may have been involved but Blake absolutely, 100% designed the thing.

      Norwegian wood was, I believe, a furniture style that was very popular in the period that the song was written so lighting the fire may be a literal act of revenge on a woman who failed to sleep with the narrator.

      I think part of the problem with reading so many meanings into songs, particular those from before many of us were born and from foreign countries is that readings can be taken that aren’t entirely meant. Obviously that is part of the fun and part of what makes the material so rich, but it can be problematic when taken at face value.

    29. Fun – informative, if not 100% accurate.
      My two cents would be to note that the two “anti-drug songs” (“Medicine Jar” and “Pill Freak”) were not written by Macca, but by Jimmy McCulloch himself.

    30. Sorry, I meant “Wino Junko” where I typed “Pill Freak,” but I think you’ll get the idea . . .

    31. “every head he’s had the pleasure to know” surely refers to the photographs of haircut styles available. Every barber in those days had them posted on the wall.

      Rock on Paul

    33. wouldn’t it be interesting to see the graph of drug use against law suites?

      Paul Mc is the consumate profesional, i watched him glad hand a long stream of admirers in a dingy brixtom tecno club one night in the 90s, as Linda nagged to be taken home. He made the effort to make every one of them feel like they were the only person in the room and that they were the only person ever to have complemented him on his work. if it wasnt for the soppy-vege-nazi bit, and legendary tightness i’d say he was a true gent.

    34. George Martin in one of his books denies indignantly that the tea in “Lovely Rita” was anything but tea. He might not know the truth, however.

    35. Drugs or no drugs, whatever is behind Paul’s music has always lifted my spirits, which is all I feel he ever intended to do. That’s what “Hey Jude” is all about, “Here Comes The Sun”. . . the list is endless.

      He is the consumate entertainer and loves what he does. After waiting 30 years I had the pleasure to see him play in Orlando on 5/9/93 and again in Tampa on 9/17/05. His voice and talent on guitar and piano was perfect playing non-stop for 2 1/2 hours (including encores). Even when the band took a break he sang solo. Not only was he the cute Beatle, but the funny and witty one too! That’s what I love about him –
      A Paul fan always.

    36. “For a while, we could sit, smoke a pipe. And discuss all the vast intricacies of life… Take a sip, see the world through a glass and speculate about the cosmic solution.”

      Ugh. I can’t wait for these smug bastards to die off. No, you’re not solving the world’s problems, you’re taking drugs. Your “cosmic solution” is getting everyone high and building the world’s biggest bag of Cheetos. Brilliant. My wife’s idiot hippie mother-in-law says that we just have to get everyone to agree not to fight, then we’ll have world peace. Fabulous! Here’s your Nobel Peace Prize! Funny how after all that consciousness expansion, they’re the least self-aware people on the planet.

      With any luck, the sixties never /will/ happen again. Sorry, Paul.

    38. Why go out of your way to characterize that perfectly good rocker “Hi Hi Hi” as mediocre while letting the execrable “Admiral Halsey” slip by un-slammed? You stoned, or what?

    39. This is one of the dumbest articles I have ever read ! Mr. or Ms. RU Sirius, I bet you would give anything to trade places with Paul. I know so many ‘holier-than-thou’ people who like to find ‘dirt’ on others so they can feel better about themselves. Let’s look in your closet! Paul is the most successful, talented singer/songwriter/performer to date. Not to mention I have never seen a more gorgeous rock star!!! I agree with Paul when he says, “Legalize it”. As for your article, although entertaining, I say, “So what?” By the
      way, if Paul happens to see this comment, I say, “I will gladly sign any pre-nup you like!” XOXOX

    40. Dave, with “speculate about the cosmic solution,” McCartney is nostalgic for those more innocent and/or naive days, he wasn’t talking about life in 1997.

      RU, Nice job on the timeline. Some adds: “Wanderlust” from Tug of War (1982) is about Wings narrowly avoiding a drug bust in the Caribbean by sailing off in the Wanderlust, a yacht they were living on while recording the London Town album (1978). Some choice lyrics:

      Light Out Wanderlust
      Head Us Out To Sea
      Captain Says There’ll Be A Bust
      This One’s Not For Me
      Take Us From The Dark
      Out Where We Can See
      Captain’s Out To Make His Mark
      This One’s Not For Me

      Also, in 2001, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was quoted in Gear magazine as saying of McCartney: “He smokes too much pot. It’s none of my business and he can do what he wants, but that’s just my opinion.”

      And soon thereafter Heather Mills insisted that McCartney give up the pot and he did. I think they’ve both been quoted on that topic. Now that they’re splitsville, the question is, is he toking up again? His last album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) was probably the most sober work of his career. It’ll be interesting to see if he changes course. I say it’s high time for a Wings revival (some of his least sober work – and critics charged the pot had him releasing half-baked songs – but also some of his best music).

    41. nice try,but you were wrong about about”Get Back”-Jo-Jo was Lindas ex who left Tucson for California following her divorce.

    42. A song was left out – a day in the life. “I’d love to turn you on” – leading into the crescendo of instruments. This refers to the “turn on, tune in, drop out” mantra of Timothy Leary. To “turn on” was to try LSD. In the Anthology documentary with the Beatles they refer to this and how they were uncertain whether they could actually state this – say it so directly.

      Another claim I’ve seen online – less able to substantiate as it came from a christian site – was that “straweberry fields forever” refers to heroin. John apparently experimented with heroin at the time, and strawberry fields was (the website claimed) a term used to describe the needle-pricks on the arms of a heroin junkie. As Lennon went on to write “Cold Turkey” it seems safe to say he was involved in heroin.

    43. look they did smoke and toke the reference in songs can have double meaning so what, since there 1st song to the last is id love to turn you on so get over it its there lives and if it wasnt for them i would never had tripped and found the spirit that all the beatles have shared woth the world power to the people

    48. Nice article but your information is faulty and flawed. For example, the genesis of Yellow Submarine came from Ringo and was about escaping life but still living in a fishbowl. Band on the Run was inspired by the events surrounding it’s recording in Africa. Paul and Linda had the only working copy of the tapes on them when they were robbed at knife point in Africa. Paul surrendered his wallet, watch and they took Linda’s purse with the tapes. The entire album had to be redone. I lived in Los Angeles during John’s so-called “Lost Weekend.” I knew him and hung out with him and Harry. Ms. Pang may have been in L.A. with John but she was never at Harry’s. Harry was much more into shroom and acid while John, for lack of a better description, was a drunk and could be a really nasty, mean drunk. Paul and Linda did pot but were both usually passed up anything stronger. Paul likes to be in control and drugs take control away. Paul and Linda visited when they were in town but never stayed too long and the relationship was clearly strained. The truth is it wasn’t really until John and Yoko cleaned up and Sean was born that Paul and he started really talking again. Paul is still feuding with Yoko and probably always will. He called her John’s tart when they stayed with him before John was divorced. John wasn’t amused, Yoko was insulted and although Paul said he was joking, privately he will admit things between them were never the same.

    49. Shelley: Here Comes the Sun is a George Harrison song.

      Marsha: Happiness is a Warm Gun was written by John Lennon and you don’t get addicted to cannabis or fungi.

    50. ‘Strawberry Field’ is an ex-Salvation Army home in Liverpool where John used to go as a kid. It’s about two minutes from his house. The additional ‘s’ added to the song’s title is Lennon mis-remembering the name.

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