The Beatles song A Day In The Life, taken from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, was once dramatically banned by the BBC following its release in 1967 in controversial circumstances. The decision showed that the corporation was run by an iron fist and, even if you were the biggest band in the world, if your music was deemed offensive then it would not be given air time.

This particular period of time arrived during The Fab Fours well-documented LSD period, a time which seeped into their foray into the psychedelic world for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band which was a dramatic move considering their whiter than white image. It was a moment that captured the band at the peak of their hedonism.

The band received a letter from BBC director of sound broadcasting Frank Gillard on May 23rd, 1967, detailing his reasoning for banning the song which opened with the line: I never thought the day would come when we would have to put a ban on an EMI record, but sadly, this is what has happened over this track.

We have listened to it over and over again with great care, continued Gillard, And we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that the words Id love to turn you on, followed by that mounting montage of sound, could have a rather sinister meaning.

The recording may have been made in innocence and good faith, Gillard added. But we must take account of the interpretation that many young people would inevitably put upon it. Turned on is a phrase which can be used in many different circumstances, but it is currently much in vogue in the jargon of the drug addicts.

Lennon, however, refuted this claim that the track was actually nothing to do with the substances that were aiding him during the recording process and about two stories that he read in a newspaper. I was reading the paper one day and noticed two stories. One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash, he told David Sheff.

On the next page was a story about four thousand potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire, that needed to be filled. Pauls contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song, Id love to turn you on, that hed had floating around in his head and couldnt use. I thought it was a damn good piece of work, he added.

Although that was the motivation that inspired Lennon to initially come up with the premise for the track McCartney has later said the track was the only one in the album written as a deliberate provocation. The lyrics they used to try and spark a reaction did work in this case, with Frank Gillard, taking their bait which ended up making the song even more notorious than if he had allowed it airplay in the first place.

Check out Gillards letter that he sent to the band, in full, below.

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The reason why the BBC banned A Day In The Life by The Beatles - Far Out Magazine