Tim Blair

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand" was originally titled, "I Wanna... I... Wait, Did You...?" The song itself was 3 minutes of giggling and the sounds of a pizza being ordered.

1978: Red letter year Tim. That's when I first started listening to the Stones as a degenerate primary school student. They were already old hands by then but the Stones' effort that year, Some Girls was great.

The song 'Respectable' included the line "we're talkin heroin with the President, 'ya picked a problem sir but it can't be bent'." I suppose the Stones were never big on subtlety. (Note also 'Sister Morphine' on Sticky Fingers).

But Tim, are you saying the music hasn't been any good since then? There's been some good stuff - although it's time someone put hip-hop on a prominent 'What's Out' list.

haw-har! Nice one Tim

I thought every person alive during the 1970's (if not any time period since the song came out) knew that [I]Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds[/I] was about LSD. And one peek at the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album cover art should tell one all they need to know about the mindset of the artists. ;)

"MY attitude is really: 'Sod you. You think Mull Of Kintyre is crap - you try writing something like that."

i love that song!

Looks like Snopes has to change some of their postings.......

From Snopes:

"John Lennon, while never denying that the song itself was inspired by the countless acid trips he had taken, quickly explained that the title, in fact, had been mere coincidence. It was taken, verbatim, from the name John's four-year-old son Julian had given to a drawing he made at school (shown below), Lennon claimed; Lennon himself had no idea that the title formed the abbreviation LSD until it was pointed out to him by someone else after the album's release."

Of course, John Lennon is dead, and can't speak about this now. But it's still a 180 degree turn for this song.

Lennon himself had no idea that the title formed the abbreviation LSD

All too believable.

Gosh CurrencyLad.... 1978 and you're listening to the Stones? Good effort for a wean, but it smacks a little of Peter Costello's late bid for the youth vote by claiming he's listening to the Big Chill soundtrack, or Imre's sad assertions he's a Dylan fan.
We KNOW you were all grooving to Sister Janet Mead down at the Fellowship/Outreach Meeting.

For you Beatles trivia fans:
Q. When did Paul McCartney write "Silly Little Love Songs"?
A. From 1964 to present

Dirty Ol B: Fellowship/Outreach Meeting? We Catholics preferred Beer 'n Prawns.

Collected 20 Stones albums by the end of school in the 80s. Wonder if their worth anything? Beggar's Banquet is pristine.

McCartney wrote more than silly love songs, among these are some of the finest moments on Revolver and Abbey Road. I'm sure that joke can only be told tongue in cheek. And I think Paul was too hard on Wings. Some of their (i.e., Paul's) early stuff was great and of a piece with the Beatles. And Snopes has been wrong about other things, too.

Nah, CurrencyLad was listening to the Seekers back in 1978. He still is. You can catch them at a nursing home close to you.

...aaauugggh.... Beatles post.... shark tank ahead... must control... fist of death... must -- not -- press -- delete--!

(pantpantpant)

Geez, Tim, you really know how to hurt a girl.

Hey, I like the Seekers.

Even if 'Lucy In The Sky...' was code for LSD, Jimi Hendrix gazumped them 2 months later with 'Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice' (STP with LSD).

the beatles must have been on drugs to let ringo sing anything

Diggs,

I was gonna write in that 'Silly Love Songs' gag but hat tip National Lampoon magazine for it as that was where I first read it back in the '70's.

Julian Lennon's classmate Lucy was/is real and grew up to be a real looker, by the way. And Julian really did draw a picture of Lucy ("...in the Sky with Diamonds"). I've seen photos of both. But was Lennon writing/singing about LSD? You know it.

Anyone here ever take LSD and listen to the Beatles? Try listening to Strawberry Fields while you're frying. It's been 20 years but as I recall it was lot's of fun.

i have always said my favourite beatle was george and that's the reason why tracks like strawberry fields were such a blast

no not that george

george martin

RC Dean, just like when Yoko Ono claimed that Lennon had not idea he was giving money to the IRA.

A belated Some Girls anecdote in response to CurrencyLad. My Stones collection ends with Goats Head Soup (1973) but I vividly recall a "famous songs about groupies" section in an NME feature that covered "Star Star" from said LP. After speculating on who the song was about - I believe Margaret Trudeau and Bianca Jagger featured - the writers noted: "Whoever she is, she is apparently, 'the queen of porn/easiest lay on the White House lawn'".