Riding So High Quotes

“When he was doing his TV programme on Pepper, he asked me, “Do you know what caused Pepper?” I said, “In one word, George, drugs. Pot.” And George said, “No, no. But you weren’t on it all the time.” “Yes, we were.” Sgt Pepper was a drug album.’67”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“It mightn’t have affected creativity for other people,’ said George Harrison. ‘I know it did for us, and it did for me. The first thing that people who smoked marijuana and got into music [found] is that somehow it focuses your attention better on the music, and so you can hear it clearer. Or that’s how it appeared to be. You could see things much different.’10”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Cannabis was key to this new sound, and as the Fifties gave way to the Sixties it gradually replaced speed as the hipster drug of choice. ‘We’d heard of Ellington and Basie and jazz guys smoking a bit of pot,’ said Paul McCartney, ‘and now it arrived on our music scene. It started to find its way into everything we did, really. It coloured our perceptions. I think we started to realise there weren’t as many frontiers as we’d thought there were. And we realised we could break barriers.’9”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Under Epstein’s tutelage, the Beatles moved from playing clubs and coffee houses to ballrooms and dance halls. They”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“One of the Beatles’ first encounters with cannabis went back to the time of their failed audition for Decca Records, when the label’s head of A&R Dick Rowe famously rejected them with the immortal words ‘guitar groups are on the way out, Mr Epstein’.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“In the years 1962-64 they played over 750 concerts, often more than one a day; recorded and released 67 songs for EMI across eight UK singles, four albums and an EP (Long Tall Sally, the only one from that period to contain recordings unavailable elsewhere); appeared numerous times on television and radio; gave countless interviews and press conferences; starred in their first feature film; appeared in two Christmas pantomime shows; had their own US cartoon series; and conquered America.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“One of Epstein’s first moves as manager was to ban the Beatles from swearing and smoking on stage, as well as devouring their lunch during midday shows at the Cavern Club. As Lennon recalled: ‘Epstein said, “Look, if you really want to get into bigger places you have to stop eating on stage, stop swearing, stop smoking.” It was a choice of making it or still eating chicken on stage.’51”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Their legal status helped legitimise pill-popping among the British musicians. ‘You could buy them over the counter,’ said Starr. ‘We never thought we were doing anything wrong, but we’d get really wired and go on for days. So with beer and Preludin, that’s how we survived.’31 The”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“To get through the long nights they were given a new spur: Preludin, or ‘Prellies’ – German slimming pills which removed their appetites and gave them the energy to take their stage shows to new, often chaotic, levels.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“We can never know if they would have been the same group making the same music had drugs not been a part of their lives, yet it is undeniable that they used them much as they seized upon any new stimulus throughout the 1960s: taking what they could, then moving on when they ceased to deliver.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“There are few studio photographs of the making of Abbey Road, but a number of outtakes from the cover shoot exist. In each of the zebra crossing pictures Lennon walks hunched, expressionless, with his hands in his trouser pockets. However, pictures taken beforehand of the group waiting on the studio steps are even more revealing. Lennon appears pale, furrowed, haggard and at least a decade older than his 28 years. Ono was once again pregnant at the time of the car crash; it ended in miscarriage in October. Lennon arranged for Harrods to deliver a double bed to EMI Studios, allowing her to be near him while he worked and she recuperated. She slept, read and knitted, and a microphone was suspended above the bed for her to add her thoughts during the Beatles’ recording sessions, a development which would”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“have been unthinkable in previous years. The bed became a divisive symbol among studio staff and the musicians, and was emblematic of Lennon and Ono’s often inward and obstinate behaviour.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“The Universe, a 1968 recording the Beatles had yet to find a use for. His only other Beatles song of note was the Get Back b-side Don’t Let Me Down, written for Ono but which could as well have been about any of his other addictions or gurus. Heroin left him placidly indifferent to the activities of the Beatles, and as more of a supporting actor than in a leading role. There was no single cause of the Beatles’ break-up, but if any one drug was the main catalyst it was surely heroin.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“On 14 January Lennon and Ono were interviewed at Twickenham by a reporter from Canada’s CBC-TV. Lasting 30 minutes, it became known as the ‘Two Junkies’ interview.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Heroin was a major factor in the escalating problems. As Barry Miles observed of Lennon: ‘He was on edge, either going up or coming down. The other Beatles had to walk on eggshells just to avoid one of his explosive rages. Whereas in the old days they could have tackled him about the strain that Yoko’s presence put on recording and had an old-fashioned set-to about it, now it was impossible because John was in such an unpredictable state and so obviously in pain. Yoko sat right next to him while he played, ordering Mal Evans to fetch her food and drinks and, worst of all, adding her unasked-for comments and musical suggestions, thoroughly inhibiting the other Beatles. Most of John’s attention was focused upon her instead of the other three Beatles. The Fab Four had become the Fab Five without the other three ever being asked if they wanted a fifth Beatle.’⁠414”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Eventually McCartney grew tired of the low moods he experienced during comedowns. ‘I’d been in a club in London and somebody there had some and I’d snorted it. I remember going to the toilet, and I met Jimi Hendrix on the way. “Jimi! Great, man,” because I love that guy. But then as I hit the toilet, it all wore off! And I started getting this dreadful melancholy. I remember walking back and asking, “Have you got any more?” because the whole mood had just dropped, the bottom had dropped out, and I remember thinking then it was time to stop it. ‘I thought, this is not clever, for two reasons. Number one, you didn’t stay high. The plunge after it was this melancholy plunge which I was not used to. I had quite a reasonable childhood so melancholy was not really much part of it, even though my mum dying was a very bad period, so for anything that put me in that kind of mood it was like, “Huh, I’m not paying for this! Who needs that?” The other”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Dependency may have been an underlying part of Lennon’s personality from an early age, but his peak LSD period appeared to firmly embed personality traits which remained throughout much of the rest of his life. His quest for another kind of mind continued in the hope that each successive lover, guru, chemical, religion, campaign, cause or therapy might provide answers he was looking for. All fell short.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Lennon’s behaviour became ever more unpredictable. In the first week of May, with Cynthia on holiday abroad, he spent an evening with Shotton in his music room at Kenwood. Both took LSD, smoked cannabis and made some experimental recordings. Shortly before dawn they fell into silence, which was eventually punctuated by Lennon’s solemn announcement: ‘Pete, I think I’m Jesus Christ.’ Shotton was more than familiar with his friend’s bizarre flights of fancy, but this was a revelation too far. He attempted to pour cold water on Lennon’s sudden eagerness to tell the world of his new identity, perhaps mindful of the ‘More popular than Jesus’ controversy of 1966. ‘They’ll fucking kill you,’ he told Lennon. ‘They won’t accept that, John.’ Lennon grew agitated, telling Shotton that it was his destiny, and that he would inform the other Beatles at Apple. A board meeting was hastily convened that day, attended by the Beatles, Shotton, Taylor and Aspinall. Lennon opened the meeting by solemnly telling the others that he was the second coming of Jesus. ‘Paul, George, Ringo and their closest aides stared back, stunned,’ Shotton said. ‘Even after regaining their powers of speech, nobody presumed to cross-examine John Lennon, or to make light of his announcement. On the other hand, no specific plans were made for the new Messiah, as all agreed that they would need some time to ponder John’s announcement, and to decide upon appropriate further steps.’ The meeting came to an abrupt close, and all agreed to go to a restaurant. As they waited to be seated, a fellow diner recognised Lennon and exchanged pleasantries. ‘Actually,’ Lennon told him, ‘I’m Jesus Christ.’ ‘Oh, really,’ the man replied, seemingly unfazed by the news. ‘Well, I loved your last record. Thought it was great.’328”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Lennon’s vituperative Rolling Stone interview was conducted in New York City in December 1970, shortly after the completion of his debut solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and his involvement with primal therapy. The album, Lennon’s masterpiece, showed the artist stripped bare: in turns paranoid, wounded and angry, railing against targets including fame, the Beatles, religion, drugs, his family and the media. In the interview he was similarly irascible, detailing the many grievances he felt at the disintegration of the Beatles and Apple, and reshaping the band’s historical narrative in the wake of the split. He later”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“People were making concoctions that were really wicked – ten times stronger than LSD. STP was one; it took its name from the fuel additive used in Indy-car racing. Mama Cass Elliot phoned us up and said, “Watch out, there’s this new one going round called STP.” I never took it. They concocted weird mixtures and the people in Haight-Ashbury got really fucked-up. It made me realise: “This is not it.” And that’s when I really went for the meditation.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“As they moved on he was offered some STP, a powerful hallucinogenic which had become infamous after five thousand high-dosage tablets had been given away weeks earlier at the Summer Solstice Celebration in Golden Gate Park. The delayed onset of its effects meant a number of users had taken extra hits and ended up in hospital.302 Harrison declined the STP, but his response was seen as a snub. ‘I could see all the spotty youths,’ he recalled, ‘but I was seeing them from a twisted angle. It was like the manifestation of a scene from an Hieronymus Bosch painting, getting bigger and bigger, fish with heads, faces like vacuum cleaners coming out of shop doorways… They were handing me things – like a big Indian pipe with feathers on it, and books and incense – and trying to give me drugs. I remember saying to one guy: “No thanks, I don’t want it.” And then I heard his whining voice saying, “Hey, man – you put me down.” It was terrible. We walked quicker and quicker through the park and in the end we jumped in the limo, said, “Let’s get out of here,” and drove back to the airport.’303 The crowd began to grow hostile as they returned to the limousine, and those outside began rocking the vehicle as their faces pressed against the windows. The narrow escape increased Harrison’s resolve to move away from LSD. ‘That was the turning point for me – that’s when I went right off the whole drug cult and stopped taking the dreaded lysergic acid. I had some in a little bottle – it was liquid. I put it under a microscope, and it looked like bits of old rope. I thought that I couldn’t put that into my brain any more.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“As they went inside a shop they noticed they had attracted a following. ‘They had recognised George as we walked past them in the street, then turned to follow us,’ said Pattie. ‘One minute there were five, then 10, 20, 30 and 40 people behind us. I could hear them saying, “The Beatles are here, the Beatles are in town!”’299 For Harrison the area was far from the hippie utopia he had anticipated. ‘I went there expecting it to be a brilliant place, with groovy gypsy people making works of art and paintings and carvings in little workshops. But it was full of horrible spotty drop-out kids on drugs, and it turned me right off the whole scene. I could only describe it as being like the Bowery: a lot of bums and drop-outs; many of them very young kids who’d dropped acid and come from all over America to this mecca of LSD.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Three months earlier, a coup d’état had taken place in which the Greek military junta seized power, established a dictatorship and immediately curtailed press freedom and an array of civil liberties. Political parties and demonstrations were banned, surveillance was widespread, and police brutality became commonplace. More than six thousand suspected communists and political activists were imprisoned or exiled, and torture was routinely used against opponents of the state. Oddly, however, the junta continued to allow its citizens access to Western films and music. Tourism was encouraged, a vibrant holiday destination nightlife developed, and a hippie colony on the island of Crete was left undisturbed. The Beatles either chose to overlook the actions of the police state they were thinking of entering, or were naive about the suffering of the Greek people.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“He needn’t have worried. ‘Before long I found myself swimming like a parcel of Escher lizards through the lines of a purple jigsaw of increasing and then decreasing size. “What the hell’s going on?” I asked, crying with laughter. “You’re tripping,” said Joan, with a new vocabulary already. Tripping? Me? … “Are you tripping?” I asked Joan. She nodded lovingly. “We all are,” George said. “Everyone is.”’ As the effects of the double dose peaked, it proved too much for Taylor, who was assailed by disturbing visions and dark thoughts. Harrison, with enough experience to spot the warning signs, and the calmness – despite tripping himself – to provide reassurance, talked Taylor back from his descent into misery. ‘Derek, create and preserve the image of your choice,’ Harrison told him. ‘It’s up to you. The thing is to see what you want to see. Do you want to create something nice? Then look into the fire and see something nice.’ The intervention worked, and much of the remainder of Taylor’s trip was filled with talking, laughter and visions. He and Joan bonded over the shared experience, and led a singalong on Epstein’s grand piano. Late into the night Taylor was cornered by Harrison, who reiterated his words of wisdom: ‘Derek, I love ya. I just want you to know that. I love ya and it’s going to be OK. Create and preserve the image of your choice. Don’t forget, Derek. Gandhi said that. Pick your own trips.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“And therein lies a curious paradox at the heart of the Beatles’ late-1960s output: while their personal and professional lives became tumultuous and troubled, including drug experimentation, affairs and break-ups, a range of personal crises and loss of group cohesion, their songwriting leaned the opposite way, with family friendly songs of innocence that often seemed aimed at their very youngest fans. Even in their darkest moments, such as the fractious sessions for the White Album, they could turn out such breezy songs as Wild Honey Pie, Piggies and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da just as readily as the experimental Revolution 9 or rockers like Helter Skelter. Not one of the Beatles was immune to the fashion for childlike whimsy.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“Lennon was – whether by luck, accident or perceptive foresight – at the forefront of the psychedelic era’s passion for rose-tinted introspection, which channelled the likes of children’s literature, Victorian fairgrounds and circuses, and an innocent sense of wonder. McCartney, too, moved with the times when writing his children’s singalong Yellow Submarine. Among the hippie era’s other moments of nostalgia were Pink Floyd’s Bike and The Gnome from their debut album Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, recorded at EMI Studios as the Beatles worked on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, laid down in 1966 but released in the same month as Sgt Pepper, and which drew from Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories just as Lennon did; and many more, from Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through The Tulips to Traffic’s psychedelic fantasy Hole In My Shoe. The Beatles continued writing songs evoking childhood to the end of their days. Sgt Pepper – itself a loose concept album harking back to earlier, more innocent times – referenced Lewis Carroll (Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds), youthful anticipation of old age (When I’m Sixty-Four), a stroll down memory lane (Good Morning Good Morning), and the sensory barrage of a circus big top extravaganza (Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!). It was followed by Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, two films firmly pitched at the widest possible audience. A splendid time was, indeed, guaranteed for all.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“It was such a mind-expanding thing,’ McCartney remembered. ‘I saw paisley shapes and weird things, and for a guy who wasn’t that keen on getting that weird, there was a disturbing element to it. I remember looking at my shirtsleeves and seeing they were dirty and not being too pleased with that, whereas normally you wouldn’t even notice. But you noticed and you heard. Everything was supersensitive.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs

“In many ways it might have been more surprising had the Beatles not regularly used stimulants during their ascent to fame. In the years 1962-64 they played over 750 concerts, often more than one a day; recorded and released 67 songs for EMI across eight UK singles, four albums and an EP (Long Tall Sally, the only one from that period to contain recordings unavailable elsewhere); appeared numerous times on television and radio; gave countless interviews and press conferences; starred in their first feature film; appeared in two Christmas pantomime shows; had their own US cartoon series; and conquered America. Their photographs were everywhere, their likenesses rendered on everything from toys and musical instruments to clothes and pillow cases, and their every word was devoured by their legions of fans.”
― Joe Goodden, Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs