Was The Beatles‘ music occasionally influenced by recreational drug use? Definitely. Was it influenced by it as much as some tend to believe? Probably not. But there were clearly songs that can’t be separated from the drug experiences of the group’s various writers.
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“It’s All Too Much,” which appeared on the soundtrack for The Beatles’ 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine, certainly falls into the drug-influenced category. We know because the writer, George Harrison, admitted as much.
“Much” Ado
Because of the songwriting excellence of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, George Harrison often struggled to get his songs onto Beatles records. Remember Lennon and McCartney were established as writers even before Harrison had even attempted to compose songs on his own, which meant he was always playing catch-up.
Even after excellent songs like “Taxman” and “If I Needed Someone” started to flow from his pen, Harrison was still generally relegated to one or two songs per record. On Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the only track of his to make the cut was “Within You Without You.” “It’s All Too Much” was also recorded at that time, but the group put it on the shelf.
It came in handy when they were looking for songs for the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, since they weren’t all that keen on going into the studio and recording new stuff for the movie. Harrison explained in an interview (as reported by Beatles Bible) “It’s All Too Much” emanated from his experience with psychedelics, in particular the disconnect between the trip and the return to reality:
“I just wanted to write a rock ‘n’ roll song about the whole psychedelic thing of the time. Because you’d trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! you’d just be back having your evening cup of tea!”
Exploring the Lyrics to “It’s All Too Much”
In accordance with the topic, “It’s All Too Much” was given a colorful musical backdrop by The Beatles, all swirling guitars, keyboards, and sound effects intermingling with some majestic horns. At one point in the midst of the musical chaos, Harrison sings the line, With your long blond hair and your eyes of blue. It was a reference to the song “Sorrow,” which had been a ‘60s UK hit for the group The Merseys.
Harrison throws a lot into the pot in his lyrics to “It’s All Too Much,” which is probably apropos for a song about overwhelming feelings and experiences. At first, it’s very much a devotional love song, albeit one with cosmic undertones: When I look into your eyes, your love is there for me / And the more I go inside, the more there is to see.
In the second verse, the idea of mind expansion comes closer to the surface: Floating down the stream of time from life to life with me / Makes no difference where you are or where you’d like to be. Later, he hints at the notion of how disorienting and strange it can be to come back down to Earth, so to speak, after a drug experience, but he’s all in for it: Sail me on a silver sun, where I know that I’m free / Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea.
The chorus suggests the totality of the experience, like love itself, can be somewhat more than a simple human can imbibe. But he sounds grateful for it nonetheless: It’s all too much for me to take / The love that’s shining all around you. “It’s All Too Much” testifies to the idea that too much of a good thing can be a glorious burden to bear.
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Photo by Birmingham Post and Mail Archive/Birmingham Post and Mail Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
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