It was spring 1965. Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, and Harrison and his wife, Pattie Boyd, were attending a dinner at the London home of dentist John Riley and his girlfriend, Cyndy Bury. Before the foursome left, Riley asked them to stay for coffee, then urged them to finish their cups. Shortly after, he told Lennon he had placed sugar cubes containing LSD in the coffee.
Psychedelic culture is full of wisdom and creative figures that show us just how boring the world would be if the recreational use of mind-altering substances did not exist.
As aggressive as the War on Drugs has been throughout the years, it has been no match for geniuses who have smoked and tripped their way over to the other side.
Why is marijuana against the law?
It grows naturally upon our planet.
Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?
If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant…….
And if this world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution
Then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise.
Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed.
Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use.
– Jimmy Carter
They lie about marijuana.
Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated.
Lie!
When you’re high, you can do everything you normally do just as well — you just realize that it’s not worth the fucking effort.
‘Imagine’ speaks from the heart evoking powerful emotions of unity and love; this comic strip joyfully animates this feeling perfectly.
Pablo Stanley masterfully captures the intent and love behind John Lennon’s now iconic song.
The loving thoughts that led to this song’s creation are beginning to take shape in today’s society. As technology and communication expand and unify our consciousness, connections we make pave the way for massive changes in the way we live and interact together.
John Lennon Imagine Comic Strip
John Lennon Imagine Live
Enjoy this live version of Imagine and check out the work of Pablo Stanley
Dave MacDowell’s art melds satire with an unapologetic wit.
The style of MacDowell’s work pairs surreal visuals with deliberately recognizable pop culture references to transform the known into a hilarious commentary on society.
Disney Brainwash
The Last Friday
Pryor on Fire
AM: And you are entirely self taught. What methods did you use to educate yourself in the art of making a good painting? You seem to have a wonderful, and quite individual, grasp on color theory…
DM: Downloading color wheels from the Internet, and struggling with the illusion that I was doing it right. As a career decision from the start, I decided to always use a small script brush to make the work super detailed, and to keep the themes varied and entertaining. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
Seven in the Box
Saving the Princess
Bad Motha Eraserhead
AM: Some of the great lowbrow painters such as Robt Williams and Todd Schorr must be a huge inspiration to you. Where else do your significant inspirations lie?
DM: I need to tell stories and express what I feel. I always figured that if everything was painted really well, you could say whatever you wanted. I think hidden behind a lot of my candy colored pieces are revolutionary slants leaning toward the misfits and underdogs. Subtle jabs at Classism, racism, greed and commodified sexuality. It’s all in there, but never in your face. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
Hendrix in Wonderland
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Imagine
Alice in Limbo
The Dude Abides
The Dude
When Yoko Ate Ringo
AM: You had a dalliance with Banksy and also the planned Banksy Unveiling show in the UK not too long back. How did that come about and what happened?
DM: Banksy wrote and said he was a fan of my stuff years ago on Myspace {Remember Myspace anyone?}. My friend in London curated a show with the pitch of revealing the guy. Of course they never did, it was all cheeky fun. Banksy and those guys are all tight anyway, so their Broken Britain madness continues. – Dave Macdowell, Arrested Motion
It is well known that Bob Dylan fully turned The Beatles on to cannabis.
In 1964 they were introduced by a mutual friend, the writer Al Aronowitz, at a New York Hotel. Upon arriving at The Beatles’ suite that evening, Dylan asked for cheap wine, and during the wait Dylan suggested they have a smoke.
The Beatles looked at each other apprehensively. “We’ve never smoked marijuana before,” the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein finally admitted.
Dylan looked disbelievingly from face to face. “But what about your song?” he asked. The one about getting high?”
The Beatles were stupefied. “Which song?” John managed to ask.
Dylan said, “You know…” and then he sang, “and when I touch you I get high, I get high…”
John flushed with embarrassment. “Those aren’t the words,” he admitted. “The words are, ‘I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide…” – Peter Brown, The Love You Make
After the room was secured, Dylan rolled the first joint and passed it to Lennon. He immediately gave it to Ringo Starr, whom he called “my royal taster”. Not realizing the etiquette was to pass it on, Starr finished the joint and Dylan and Aronowitz rolled more for each of them.
The Beatles spent the next few hours in hilarity, looked upon with amusement by Dylan. Brian Epstein kept saying, “I’m so high I’m on the ceiling. I’m up on the ceiling.”
Paul McCartney, meanwhile, was struck by the profundity of the occasion, telling anyone who would listen that he was “thinking for the first time, really thinking.”
How Cannabis Influenced The Beatles’ Music
By the time they came to make Help! in 1965, The Beatles’ cannabis use had reached a peak. It affected their songwriting, which became mellower and more introspective. During the filming of Help! they were often stoned on set, which caused them to forget their lines.
The Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast.
We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time. – John Lennon
Cannabis had a significant effect on The Beatles’ music. It found its way into a number of songs:
The Beatles – Got to Get You Into My Life
Described by Paul McCartney as “an ode to pot”
The Beatles – With a Little Help From My Friends
This track was condemned in some quarters due to its reference to getting high.
The Beatles Push for Weed Freedom
On 24 July 1967 The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein added their names to an advertisement which appeared in the Times newspaper calling for the legalization of cannabis.
Sponsored by a group called Soma, the advertisement also demanded the release of all people imprisoned due to cannabis possession, and further research into the drug’s medical uses.
John Lennon quotes get to the heart of the matter like an arrow from Apollo’s bow; precise and piercing, provoking the inner depths of our minds into expansion.
Time
Do what you love and you will love your life.
Summing Up Life
Focus on what’s positive in your life.
Love
Let your love flow freely.
Lost in Translation
Do not use God to divide the masses. United God smiles upon us all.
Happiness
Happiness is a choice. Choose to be happy and your life will align with that choice.
Honesty
Be true to yourself.
Peace
Get in touch with your inner most desires and move towards them.
God and Pain
When you speak to and seek out God, focus on what you’re searching for; you’ll find all the answers are inside waiting for you.
Heinz Edelmann was the illustrator who created the hallucinogenic landscape of Pepperland as art director for the 1968 animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine. The Beatles’ adventure and films like Pink Floyd’s The Wall go along well with psychedelic trips.
In the 1960s, Edelmann was experimenting with a stylized, soothingly fluid, neo-Art Nouveau manner. That caught the eye of Al Brodax, producer of a successful animated Beatles television cartoon series for children. He chose Mr. Edelmann to be the chief designer of his first feature-length animated film, “Yellow Submarine,” built around a 1966 Beatles’ song of the same name. – NY Times
John Lennon – Watching The Wheels
Album: Double Fantasy
John Lennon enjoyed his time away from center stage so much that he wrote a song about it. Watching the Wheels was released in 1981 after Lennon’s murder. This song is a great reminder of the simple beauty that can be found in everyday life.
John Lennon – Watching The Wheels Lyrics
People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing
They give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin
When I say that I’m o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you’re not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I’m lazy dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me
Tell them that I’m doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don’t you miss the big time boy you’re no longer on the ball
I’m just sitting here making the wheels run round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round I just had to let it go
People asking questions lost in confusion
Well I tell them there’s no problem, only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind
I tell them there’s no hurry
I’m just sitting here doing time
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels run round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go…I just had to let it go
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
Album: A-Side Single of “Penny Lane”
“Strawberry Fields Forever” was inspired by Lennon’s memories of playing in the garden of a Salvation Army house named “Strawberry Field” near his childhood home. It is one of the defining works of the psychedelic rock genre and has been covered by many artists.
I was different all my life. The second verse goes, ‘No one I think is in my tree.’ Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius—’I mean it must be high or low‘ “, and explaining that the song was “psycho-analysis set to music – John Lennon
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever (Cartoon Version)
Take a look back in time with these great iconic images from History and Pop Culture.
Salvador Dali
At the end of his shoot with artist Salvador Dali — a session that took six hours and 28 throws (of water, a chair, and three cats), “my assistants and I were wet, dirty and near complete exhaustion,” photographer Philippe Halsman reported. The resulting image, with a leaping Dali in midair amid the madness, is a portrait as kinetic and surreal as artist’s own work.
Frozen Niagara Falls
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Young Beatles
View from the Window at Le Gras 1826 (First Photo Ever Taken)
Pablo Picasso
For this 1949 portrait of Pablo Picasso in his studio in the south of France, the artist was inspired by Gjon Mili’s previous photos of ice skaters spinning through the air with small lights attached to their skates. Mili left the shutters of his cameras open as Picasso made ephemeral drawings in the air of a darkened room. This one was of one of a centaur. Mili caught the artist himself by using a 1/10,000th-second strobe light. This photo ranks among LIFE’s best partly because it actually captures the moment of creation by a genius.
Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris
Elvis in the Army
Charlie Chaplin and Ghandi
Google Launches in 1999
Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly
Backstage at the Academy Awards, two past Best Actress winners, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, await their turns to present. That Allan Grant could catch both supremely elegant, stylish icons together in a moment may have been a stroke of luck (Hepburn and Kelly never did work together, and very soon after this photo was taken the latter left Hollywood to become Monaco’s princess). But Grant’s use of composition and lighting — with the two women parallel and glowing in profile — is nothing short of masterful.
First Ever Free space walking, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit by Bruce McCandless – 1984
Construction of Disneyland
The First Computer Ever
John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy
Then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy confers with his brother Robert F. Kennedy in a hotel suite during the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Looking at Hank Walker’s image today, through the filter of all we know now — that Jack would indeed win the nation’s highest office, with Bobby by his side as his most trusted adviser; that the brothers would navigate the United States through almost three years of magic and turbulence; that each man would be cut down by an assassin’s bullet by decade’s end — the poignancy is astonishing. And yet, even without the context of that history, the photo, with all its fascinating details and near-perfect composition, stands alone as powerfully