Lennon's Insanity--The Drug Songs and my Take

~Lennon’s Insanity: The Drug Songs and my Take~

I don’t like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” that much. Blasphemy, I know, but as a long time Beatles fan myself, I want to take a different approach from the conventional and voice my opinion. Today I will be looking at four Beatles songs from the 1967 era, all penned by John Lennon, and all presumably written under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “I am the Walrus”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Good Morning, Good Morning.” I strongly advise a listen to the songs as I make these points. The first three are easily searchable on Google, and I am unsure about the last one. The complete Beatles catalogue is now available on streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, so a quick search there should help, if you aren’t already a fanatic with all the songs downloaded like myself. So, let’s get into it.

          For me, I must say that “Lucy” isn’t all there. Lyrically, the song is a drug trip through and through, a series of random things that I don’t find very interesting. I much prefer Lennon’s more personal works. But that’s not a good excuse, since I like plenty of his own songs with nonsense lyrics, as we will get into. As a piece of poetry, the song is decent, as a song, well, unfortunately it doesn’t work.

One of my biggest problems with modern pop music is the lack of a chorus, with one line, or even a word or phrase repeated at nauseum, usually relying on verses, what little substance they have, pre-choruses, and either a rap verse or an EDM drop. That was not so back in the day, as many songs had entire choruses, full of rhyme and reason, with plenty of substance to them, carrying the song forward, not to mention the brilliant rock operas of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that didn’t need choruses. Many good rock songs of years gone by had memorable choruses without a synth drop in sight. Many of the Beatles own songs had great choruses, such as “Penny Lane,” “Nowhere Man,” and “Day Tripper” are just some examples, of course there are many songs which do not need choruses, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” being a perfect example, and all of this is not to say that a lack of a substantial chorus is a bad thing or ruins a song. It may hurt the overall experience in the case of “Yellow Submarine,” but songs such as “Eleanor Rigby,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Come Together,”  and “Rain,” have minimal and repetitive choruses. It’s not a bad thing always. But “Lucy” is one of those times when the verses are leaking creativity, and the chorus, repeating the song title over and over again can get old. But the real sin here is the music.

The music, is drowsy, boring, and drug induced. It goes on for three-and-a-half minutes, going nowhere, just around in circles. The production is minimal, except on Lennon’s voice creating an odd effect, but the repeated slow guitar chords don’t do anything to supplement the bizarre images being conveyed. Dare I say, the music just isn’t weird enough to catch my attention, and the cut may be my least favorite full-length song from the spectacular Sgt. Pepper’s LP. Not to say it’s bad, far from it, just not particularly memorable. It’s certainly no “Yesterday,” but thankfully no “Maxwell” either. I do like the pitch shift in the pre-chorus, and especially the “newspaper taxis” line.

I said earlier I wasn’t a fan of the nonsense lyrics as I liked the personal and grounded songs. But I will give an example of where Lennon nailed it. A brilliant nonsense song, so bizarre, intended to confuse all the schoolchildren of England. As good as Carrol, maybe better. And of course, I am talking about the walrus.

          “I am the Walrus” is a strange song. The only stranger Beatles song I can think of at the moment is the eight-minute avant-garde piece, “Revolution 9” on the Beatles 1968 self-titled LP, which is barely a song. So by all accounts, “I am the Walrus” may indeed be the strangest song the band ever released. And I love it. The lyrics are more interesting and bizarre than those of “Lucy”. But this time the music is able to match in absurdity to fit the mood. And in addition to the clever, nonsensical lyrics, this works brilliantly. It not only offers musical variety that “Lucy” could never achieve, but manages to boggle the mind while doing so. Here’s why.

          The song features a wide variety of instruments besides guitar and percussion, let alone the even more warped Lennon vocal. Distorted strings over the radio, noises from literal production hell, a Shakespeare play in the outro, and of course the era’s reliance on horns. And a “Lucy” reference. Great. Unlike a boring guitar progression that goes nowhere, the song consists of a rhythm inspired by a police siren which builds musically adding horns and strings as it progresses, adding in voices and strange sound choices as the listener slowly spirals into insanity. The song is pure nonsensical brilliance. It took the bare bones of “Lucy” and made it function by adding the music, that feels like it came from hell. Yes, there’s no substantial chorus here, but “Goo goo g’joob” is enough to get anyone talking.

          Okay, Sarah, so you don’t like dreamy-sounding songs with lyrics that are about nothing? You must really hate “Strawberry Fields!” No, no, I don’t In fact I love it. It took forty-five hours to record and mix, and honestly, I can’t blame them. It’s a masterpiece. First off, the lyrics have some sort of cohesion, a sense of not caring, a sense of being oblivious to the universe, and even a childlike innocence that is masked by the drugs. Strawberry fields was the name of the orphanage where Lennon would play as a kid after all.

          I must say, the use of two versions of the song mixed together are perfect. The rhythm is irregular and captivating, not only is it one of the first truly experimental Beatles songs, disregarding “Tomorrow Never Knows,” but it features a wide variety of instruments not present in “Lucy” and also a slight preview of the build and insanity to be found in “Walrus.” The variety of instruments outside of the amazing guitar and percussion includes a mellotron, backwards cymbals, horns, and more. Not to mention the outro, where fans heard Lennon saying, “I buried Paul.” He was supposedly saying “cranberry sauce,” in the creepiest voice imaginable. Not to mention the double-tracked vocals add a whole layer of depth to the song that was prevalent on “Rain,” but really came into its own here. This was a great evolution for Lennon and the band as a whole, but did he one-up himself with Walrus? Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t but regardless, while neither are his most personal works, they surely are some of his most unusually brilliant.

          The next song on the chopping block is a bit different from all the others. It isn’t a famous smash, isn’t a single, isn’t even psychedelic or crazy enough to stand tall amongst these songs, and yet it does. It’s an album cut from the arguably superior B-side of the Sgt. Pepper’s LP. And that song is “Good Morning, Good Morning.”

Where “Lucy” is lauded to death amongst the fans, “Good Morning, Good Morning” has been shunned by everyone from fans to critics to Lennon himself as a throwaway song. And here’s why it works where “Lucy” doesn’t, and is one of Lennon’s best outings on the LP. (Disregarding “A Day in the Life” possibly my favorite song of all time.) While “Good Morning” does have a repetitive, almost annoying chorus, and a half-brilliant, half ear screeching outro filled with animal sounds and city noises, yet the chicken’s clucking is a brilliant segue into the album’s penultimate track, I must say that the rest of the song more than makes up for it. The chanted chorus originates from a cornflakes commercial, and the song gives off a very drugged vibe, a lost man wandering around town. The lyrics offer something of substance as well, taking place almost entirely in the second person, and reflecting the mundane nature of suburban life, with beautiful organic vocals, a nice melody, and some internal rhymes to boot. I will say that this is one of the largest departures between lyrics and music I have seen, and it works brilliantly. The lyrics reflect a mundane daily routine, starting with a rooster crowing, and talking about the quiet streets of morning, the bustle of afternoon shoppers, Lennon’s favorite sitcom, and an early Ono reference(?) (“go to a show, you hope she goes,”) while the music couldn’t be more of an energetic wakeup song. Odd, certainly, but also somehow cohesive. The brash horns against the steady percussion works surprisingly well as an arousing wakeup call, with the melody speeding up in a rush, going back to the mundane, the chants, and the solo. Oh, that solo. The lead guitar solo, oddly played by Paul McCartney, is absolute brilliance, as the screeching guitar bleeds into the next verse of the song. “Somebody needs to know the time, glad that I’m here.” I’m sorry, but I love this song, and sadly, I think I’m the only one who can say that.

In conclusion, John Lennon was going through an experimental phase, and had some hits, and some misses like the rest of us. I will say while “Lucy” is far from a bad song, it may be less of a masterpiece than people credit it for, while “Good Morning, Good Morning,” may just be a spectacular hidden gem from the same era that more people should definitely give a listen. Raw appreciation for Lennon’s vocal and Starr’s drumming can be found on the anthology/Sgt. Pepper remaster version of the song, without the horns, chanting, and effects, but no solo sadly. Nevertheless, I hope this gave you more of an insight into what’s going on in my head when I say. “’Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ is really overrated.” Maybe it is, but maybe it’s all subjective anyway.