Some Beatles critics were quick to blame the Fab Four for the rise of drug culture, particularly psychedelics and marijuana, in the late 1960s, but George Harrison had a different idea about who was really responsible for the public’s interest in LSD and weed. While it’s true that much of the Beatles’ later work was heavily influenced by this psychedelic drug and the mental and visual revelations they had while taking it, the band didn’t feel it was their obligation to lie about it.
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When someone asked about their recreational drug use, they were honest. And as Harrison once argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, that was the real problem.
George Harrison Says Beatles Weren’t Responsible For Drug Culture
To pin the rise of drug use and counterculture solely on the Beatles would be wholly overestimating their cultural influence as a singular musical group. The Beatles were massive, certainly, but hardly big enough to inform an entire generation of global citizens without any extra help. The Beatles were one thread in a larger tapestry of societal change. They didn’t invent LSD. They were merely one of the thousands of people who started trying it recreationally in the mid-1960s. And even then, this was after the drug had already been present in psychiatric and other scientific circles for decades.
Nevertheless, the Beatles were one of the biggest bands in the world in the mid-1960s. If they said jump, most of their fans would ask, “How high?” Social influence of this size comes with its fair share of downsides, including the fact that critics will often lobby your personal choices against you in the context of other people’s choices. Because the Beatles did LSD, the media tried to blame other people using LSD on them. But as George Harrison argued during a 1971 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, he and his bandmates simply didn’t believe that to be true.
Harrison recalled an interview between Paul McCartney and “TV people” in England, who asked the bassist if he had tried LSD. “Paul said to the TV people, ‘Look, I’m not saying if I had the drug. It’s you. If you’re going to ask me if I’ve had it, I’m going to say yes because I’ve had it. I’m not going to lie.’ He said, ‘It’s your responsibility, because if you’re going to ask me, and I’m going to say yes, and you’re going to be on the TV saying, ‘Yes, we’ve had LSD.’ So really, it was their fault.”
The Blame Was Even More Ironic Given The Circumstances
The media blaming the Beatles for the rise of drug use was undoubtedly a “pot calling the kettle black” situation. Of course, the Beatles had tremendous social influence given their celebrity status. But the media also had significant power in revealing what, if anything, about the musicians’ personal lives offstage would become public information. In a way, both parties fanned the flames when it came to the rise of LSD use around the world. Given the circumstances of how the Beatles first came into contact with the psychedelic drug, their role in its rise in popularity was even more ironic.
As George Harrison explained to Dick Cavett, the Beatles had never even heard of LSD when they first took it accidentally. They had been having dinner with a dentist, Dr. John Riley, during which the host passed around coffees after the meal. Unbeknownst to the Fab Four, Riley had laced their coffees with LSD. Harrison and John Lennon were the first bandmates to try the drug, and although they weren’t happy with the way they received their initial dose, they came to love the mental and musical expansion the drug provided. What anyone else did or didn’t get out of their psychedelic experience, well, the Beatles would likely argue that that was the other people’s problems, not theirs.
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