THE BEATLES TRIP
It was fantastic. I felt in love, not with anything or anybody in particular, but with everything.
– George Harrison
In early 1965 – the exact date is unknown – John and George were invited, along with their partners Cynthia and Pattie for dinner with their dentist, John Riley. After coffee, the foursome announced they were leaving to go to a gig at the Pickwick Club, but the dentist advised them to stay put. He had laced the sugar in their coffee with lysergic acid diethylamide, the latest wheeze in Swinging London and then still legal. Confused and suspicious that he was persuading them to stay for an orgy, John, George, Cynthia and Pattie left the house and made their way to the Ad Lib club. Squeezed into George’s Mini, the hallucinations kicked in. Everything around them began to expand and contract, the street lights and advertising in shops, clubs and theatres made them feel as if everything was in flames, and Pattie had an overwhelming desire to smash shop windows. The Ad Lib, then the grooviest nightspot in town, was too overwhelming despite Ringo’s friendly face there. Miraculously, George managed to drive everyone back to his and Pattie’s house. Cynthia was deeply upset by the experience, while George described a real connection to the world around him, and how the trip gave him and John a special bond. John drew lots of pictures, one of which he gave to Ringo – four heads all saying, ‘We all agree with you.’
Egged on by John and George, Ringo was next to try the drug. He was with Neil Aspinall, during the 1965 tour, at a party in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Dave Crosby and Roger McGuinn from The Byrds were present, as was Peter Fonda, who spent the evening tediously telling everyone he had shot himself and died, inspiring John to write ‘She Said She Said’, which appeared on Revolver.
Paul was the last Beatle to try acid, and took his first trip with Tara Browne, away from the peer pressure of his bandmates, in 1966. He was, however, the first to go public about the experience. In 1967, when asked by a journalist about it, he confessed, causing a flurry of criticism. Paul’s second trip was with John at his house in Cavendish Avenue after the infamous recording session for Sgt. Pepper’s ‘Getting Better’. There, John accidentally took a tab, thinking it was amphetamine – the only time LSD was taken in the studio. Panicking at the mic, John was taken to the roof by an innocent Martin, unaware of why John was feeling so fragile. George and Paul, knowing better, got him off the roof and to Paul’s house nearby, where Paul kept him company on his trip.
John subsequently went in deep with LSD, taking so many trips he later said he completely destroyed his ego and had to have Derek Taylor remind him of all the things he had achieved. There is no doubt, though, that their introduction to the drug had a notable effect on their songwriting as they became increasingly interested in expanding the possibilities within the Abbey Road studio.