LSD has had a major impact on numerous artistic endeavors, including literature, filmmaking, design, and music as exemplified by George Harrison’s work. Harrison found that using LSD helped him concentrate on the hereafter. However, the effects of LSD vary on the individual and the environment in which they are taken.
George Harrison has a sizable back library of songs during his time as a Beatle. Though many of his contributions didn’t suit the Lennon and McCartney brand that the band so strongly relied on, some of them were released. As such, he had enough material to draw on when the band broke up and he made the decision to concentrate on his solo career.
The first time he used LSD influenced one of the songs he chose to pursue. Harrison would subsequently describe this encounter with Lennon as a gateway to his spiritual enlightenment and introduction to Hinduism.
The news that the Beatles had used LSD caused quite a stir. The group was known for being funny English guys who could always do things correctly. Naturally, many conservative listeners scoffed at them when they initially admitted in the 1960s that they were fond of the substance.
The two musicians who used the substance the most were Harrison and Lennon; they started using it in the spring of 1965 and didn’t look back. The substance significantly altered both the band’s sound (mostly heard on the albums Revolver and Sgt Pepper) and the public’s perception of them, which had a profound effect on their career.
They weren’t the first, and they wouldn’t be the last, to let LSD influence their work. Creative individuals have often benefited from the medication. Because it encourages simplifying, an intense obsession with color and light, and the symbolic and abstract representation of objects, it is arguable that it has had a significant impact on the evolution of Western civilization as a whole. Individuals can focus on thoughts with more clarity, and as a result, their portrayal of them becomes more fascinating and psychedelic.
Harrison let the drug’s impact permeate his solo work even though the band would eventually condemn it and choose to focus on meditation instead. The popular song “Art Of Dying,” which is on his debut LP, exemplifies this.
Harrison claims that after using LSD for the first time, he couldn’t stop thinking about the Himalayan yogis. He claimed that he started to accept reincarnation, the central idea of “Art of Dying,” as a result of this awakening and his education in religion.
Harrison never showed fear of dying, and this event probably helped him to do so. He was always okay with the thought of passing away, even after receiving a cancer diagnosis and going through a protracted struggle with the illness. He felt that death would transport him to a better place. Before the world knew of his death, his ashes were dumped into the Ganges River in India.
LSD appears to have had a lasting impact on George Harrison throughout his life, as seen by both his artistic and personal endeavors. “Art of Dying,” which not only demonstrates his fondness for the drug but also how at peace with death he was, is the song that best captures his attitude toward it and its effects on him.