Is it just me, or are the Beatles the best argument in favor of recreational drug use ever? It’s universally acknowledged–indeed it’s all but written into the band’s official unofficial hagiography–that the full flowering of the band’s genius stemmed directly from their discovery of marijuana and LSD. Before drugs they were awesome-to-behold hitmakers, yeah, but after drugs they recorded Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, and Abbey Road, and transformed human society, more or less. Certainly that’s the contour of the storybook version of their career as will become canon for a generation courtesy of Rock Band–the missing ingredient is elided, but all of a sudden they go from a rockin’ live act to godlike beings performing psychedelic masterpieces in “dreamscapes.” Best of all, drugs didn’t contribute to their break-up, and none of them O.D.’d! Drugs were terrific for the Beatles. And yet even as we trumpet the treasures that pot and acid helped John, Paul, and George mine from their brains, the government will be spending millions upon millions of dollars telling kids that recreational drug use is always horrible. Lying to them, in other words. (Drink up, though!)
Do you think ‘Cold Turkey’ was about Thanksgiving leftovers?
Anonymous, do you think I was conflating the weed and pot experimentation that led to, say, Revolver with his period as a heroin addict? Who is the turkey around here, sir?
I don’t know. Recently Macs admitted that part of the disintegration of the band was that people were nodding off in recording sessions.
I get that everybody has recently signed on to the Whig theory of the Beatles that suggests that the increasing divisions of the band were part of the necessary story of the Beatles, but on the ground reports suggest that they were, in fact, impaired by their drug use.
But don’t let that stop you.
Perhaps you should find Everybody’s blog and correct them, then.
HA! Sean T. Collins, borrowing from the David Byrne school of fucking awesome comebacks.