As The Beatles went worldwide following their humble beginnings in Liverpool, they were exposed to all kinds of experiences that broadened their horizons. That also provided them with songwriting fodder they otherwise might have missed.
In the case of “She Said She Said,” their own drug intake had something to do with its creation. But the catalyst was actually a member of one of Hollywood’s royal families and his memories of a wild incident from his past. John Lennon filtered it all through his unique sensibilities to create one of the most memorable tracks on Revolver.
For Peter’s Sake
“She Said She Said” is one of those Beatles tracks that is laden with all kinds of unique trivia. For example, Paul McCartney sat out most of the session. After adding some bass originally, he and John Lennon ended up in a disagreement and McCartney stormed out. That led George Harrison to add some bass notes via keyboards to complete the song.
The creation of the song’s lyrics really stands out because of the bizarre, only-in-the-’60s circumstances behind them. In the summer of 1965, The Beatles, while touring America, rented a house on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. Considering that area was the epicenter of a burgeoning rock scene, it made sense the group would be hosting luminaries while they were there.
On one occasion, a party included members of The Byrds. In addition, Peter Fonda, son of legendary actor Henry and future star of iconic counterculture film Easy Rider, showed up. Most of the party took LSD (Paul McCartney neglected to do so), and George Harrison experienced a little bit of a rough trip.
Upon hearing Harrison say he felt like he was dying, Fonda interjected to say it was nothing to fear. As a child, Fonda had accidentally shot himself, and it had given him a new perspective on death. But when John Lennon heard Fonda saying all this, and perhaps misunderstanding his intent, it freaked Lennon out, as he explained to interviewer David Sheff:
“He was describing an acid trip he’d been on. We didn’t want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and sixties, and this guy—who I really didn’t know; he hadn’t made Easy Rider or anything—kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead,’ and we kept leaving him because he was so boring!”
Examining the Lyrics to “She Said She Said”
There were many people at that party who were certainly capable songwriters. It’s telling that John Lennon came up with “She Said She Said,” because few had his knack for making such experiences resonate. In his hands, the song became a treatise on the struggles to communicate within the drug culture, especially when everyone is coming in on a different wavelength.
Lennon begins by quoting Fonda pretty much verbatim, except that he switches the gender: She said / I know what it’s like to be dead. That puts the narrator on the defensive, feeling like he’s somehow being left behind by this girl’s assertion: And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born.
He then wonders how she reached this point: I said / Who put all these things in your head? / Things that make me feel like I’m mad. When the middle eight arrives and the music dramatically shifts, the conversation becomes jumbled and confusing, and it forces Lennon to look back to a more innocent time: When I was a boy / Everything was right.
His final solution is to get out of Dodge as soon as possible: I said / Even though you know what you know / I know that I’m ready to leave. Even if you didn’t know the specific origins of the song’s lyrics, The Beatles’ “She Said She Said” stands out for its inventive portrait of mid-’60s cultural insanity. Once you do know what inspired it, it will likely make you marvel at John Lennon’s ability to pull such clarity from a confusing scene.
