John Lennon Accidentally Took LSD During a Beatles Session
In March 1967, while recording the Sgt. Pepper track "Getting Better," John Lennon inadvertently took LSD after mistaking it for an amphetamine. Paul McCartney decided to take LSD alongside Lennon for the first time, leading to an intense bonding experience.
In his book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, author Ian Leslie suggests that such moments of vulnerability and support strengthened Lennon and McCartney's artistic synergy and personal connection
John Lennon and Paul McCartney changed the world with the 162 songs they wrote for the Beatles, but few demonstrate the creative and emotional complexities of their relationship quite like “Getting Better,” from the band’s 1967 opus, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Speaking to PEOPLE 50 years after writing it, McCartney would cite the track as emblematic of their contrasting philosophical dispositions — with himself handling the bright and buoyant “It’s getting better all the time” chorus while Lennon offered the tart counterpoint: “It can’t get no worse.”
In John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, author Ian Leslie details their union with perceptive insights bolstered by extensive research. The book highlights not only how “Getting Better” illustrates Lennon and McCartney’s individual personalities, but also how the recording session became an unexpected bonding experience of the psychedelic variety.
As with many songs from this era, the initial idea came from McCartney. While strolling in the park on an early spring day in March 1967, he recalled a favorite phrase of part-time Beatles’ drummer Jimmie Nicol, who subbed in for a few dates on the 1964 world tour while Ringo Starr recovered from tonsillitis. When interviewers asked how he was coping with the whirlwind role, Nicol would invariably reply with a hopeful “It’s getting better!” Nearly three years later, the line bubbled into McCartney’s consciousness, appealing to his innate sense of optimism.
Source: people.com/Jordan Runtagh
