The Beatles knew how to do everything well, including create a scandal.
While classified as a rock ‘n’ roll band, the Fab Four’s muse took them everywhere. They made folk, psychedelic music, vaudeville, pop, blues, and children’s lullabies. Some fans will tell you they even paved the way for new genres, like punk rock, heavy metal, and grunge.
While they gave us family-friendly songs like “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden,” they also knew how to raise eyebrows. Some of their songs are still pretty edgy today. Even so, people of all temperaments and persuasions still enjoy them.
Even the Beatles' fans didn't always understand their songs
Sometimes, Beatles songs were considered scandalous because fans misinterpreted their meanings. (Misunderstandings like that are harder to come by these days, as anyone can look up the intended meaning of a song online.) Other times, the Beatles were intentionally provocative. Regardless, all of their scandals are fascinating moments in rock ‘n’ roll history.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
Fans swear up and down that the song’s title is based on the initials “LSD.” So does Paul McCartney. Meanwhile, John Lennon said any similarities between “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and hallucinogens is purely coincidental.
You be the judge. Either way, the song is psychedelic bliss.
"Come Together"
“Come Together” started the sort of controversy no musician wants to deal with: a plagiarism lawsuit. While writing “Come Together,” Lennon incorporated some lyrical homages to Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me.” Music mogul Morris Levy sued the “Imagine” singer, resulting in Lennon recording three songs Levy owned on the record Rock ‘n’ Roll.
"Revolution"
The 1960s were all about revolutions, some political, some sexual, and some musical. A listener or two felt that “Revolution” was the Beatles’ attempt to trigger a communist revolution. Anyone who studies the song’s lyrics closely will note that the Fab Four endorse a revolution before dismissing it, concluding that everything is going to be alright.
"The Ballad of John and Yoko"
In the folk rock number “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” Lennon laments “they’re gonna crucify me.” That line would have raised eyebrows in the 1960s regardless of who sang it. It was more provocative coming from the man who said his band was “more popular than Jesus.”
"Day Tripper"
“Day Tripper” is a song about a part-time hippie who only occasionally uses drugs. Somehow, Time magazine interpreted the song as being about a prostitute. When confronted on the supposedly salacious meaning of the song, McCartney assured a reporter he and the other Beatles would continue to write songs about prostitutes.