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Find out what happened the first time John Lennon and George Harrison took LSD

Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain are a power pair of printers smashing out some of the coolest music history around. Their 1997 novel Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk has been printed in 12 languages, is undoubtedly the best-selling punk nonfiction ever written and is said to have started the stylistic oral history trend in music journalism.

Their upcoming release Sixty-Nine: An Oral History harnesses a similar style to spin tales of the 60s music scene. In a recent article (including an interview) with VICE, McNeil has offered a glimpse into a critical chapter – the time John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives took LSD for the first time, and not by choice.

The Beatles LSD
Image by Lili Emtiaz

“The dentist said something to John, and John turned to me and said, ‘We’ve had LSD.’ I just thought, ‘Well, what’s that? So what? Let’s go!’

The TL:DR of the story is that Harrison, Lennon and their wives were innocuously dosed by their dentist John Riley, who laced sugar cubes with LSD before plopping them in some tea.

Lennon reportedly said “How dare you fucking do this to us!” Oh, how that attitude would change in the following years.

The full history is too good to miss, so head over to VICE to read it. For now, know that it includes a trip to a club, screaming fans, an elevator fire and Harrison doing far too much driving for somebody on their first trip.

Via VICE.