The Beatles’ lyrics were often interpreted to reference drugs. This led to a few of their songs causing controversy and even being banned from the radio. However, most of the time, The Beatles weren’t mentioning drugs, even if they used slang that caused misunderstandings. In his solo career, Paul McCartney had many misunderstood lyrics, and one of his songs included a line that many thought referenced cocaine.
‘Monkberry Moon Delight’ was based on a funny word McCartney’s kids used
“Monkberry Moon Delight” is a song from Paul McCartney’s second solo album, Ram. It’s one of McCartney’s more nonsensical songs, as the lyrics were written more for their sound than their meaning. In the novel Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of the Beatles’ Solo Careers, McCartney said the basis for the inventive title came from what his kids used to call milk.
“When my kids were young they used to call milk ‘monk’ for whatever reason that kids do,” McCartney shared. “I think it’s magical the way that kids can develop better names for things than the real ones. In fact, as a joke, Linda and I still occasionally refer to an object by that child-language name. So, monk was always milk, and monkberry moon delight was a fantasy drink, rather like ‘Love Potion No. 9’, hence the line in the song, ‘sipping monkberry moon delight’. It was a fantasy milk shake.”
Paul McCartney said the song does not reference cocaine
“Milkberry Moon Delight” is a song that doesn’t have a lot of meaning. Audiences can interpret it however they want, as the lyrics don’t have an obvious message. Still, one line in the song did cause some controversy as listeners thought it was an allusion to cocaine.
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At the song’s beginning, he says, “So I sat in the attic/a pillow up my nose.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, McCartney says some interpreted this line as about cocaine, but he meant it more abstractly. He does confuse “pillow” with “piano” while discussing it in the interview.
“With my stuff, I know the place where it’s coming from, but I don’t try and reason with it,” McCartney said. “It’s like abstract painting, like throwing paint. So you get a song of mine like ‘Monkberry Moon Delight’, which is talking about a piano up a guy’s nose. And people go, ‘Wow — is that cocaine?’ And I go, ‘No. It’s a piano up his nose. Haven’t you ever seen surrealist paintings?’”
McCartney has alluded to drugs in other songs
During the 1980s, Paul McCartney fought for the decriminalization of marijuana and even got into legal trouble in Japan after he brought weed into the country. His love for marijuana was expressed in a few of his songs, like “Got to Get You Into My Life” from The Beatles. In his solo career, his song “Let Me Roll it”, is about rolling a joint.
“To tell you the truth, that was more [about] rolling a joint,” McCartney told Clash magazine. “That was the double meaning there: ‘let me roll it to you.’ That was more at the back of my mind than anything else.”
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