<P> During a writing session at McCartney's house in north London, Lennon and McCartney fine - tuned the lyrics, using an approach that author Howard Sounes likens to the cut - up technique popularised by William Burroughs . "I didn't copy the accident," Lennon said . "Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse . The details of the accident in the song--not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene--were similarly part of the fiction ." McCartney expounded on the subject: "The verse about the politician blowing his mind out in a car we wrote together . It has been attributed to Tara Browne, the Guinness heir, which I don't believe is the case, certainly as we were writing it, I was not attributing it to Tara in my head . In John's head it might have been . In my head I was imagining a politician bombed out on drugs who'd stopped at some traffic lights and didn't notice that the lights had changed . The' blew his mind' was purely a drugs reference, nothing to do with a car crash ." </P> <P> Lennon wrote the song's final verse inspired by a Far & Near news brief, in the same 17 January edition of the Daily Mail that had inspired the first two verses . Under the headline "The holes in our roads", the brief stated: "There are 4,000 holes in the road in Blackburn, Lancashire, or one twenty - sixth of a hole per person, according to a council survey . If Blackburn is typical, there are two million holes in Britain's roads and 300,000 in London ." </P> <P> The story had been sold to the Daily Mail in Manchester by Ron Kennedy of the Star News agency in Blackburn . Kennedy had noticed a Lancashire Evening Telegraph story about road excavations and in a telephone call to the Borough Engineer's department had checked the annual number of holes in the road . Lennon had a problem with the words of the final verse, however, not being able to think of how to connect "Now they know how many holes it takes to" and "the Albert Hall". His friend Terry Doran suggested that the holes would "fill" the Albert Hall, and the lyric was eventually used . </P> <P> McCartney said about the line "I'd love to turn you on", which concludes both verse sections: "This was the time of Tim Leary's' Turn on, tune in, drop out' and we wrote,' I'd love to turn you on .' John and I gave each other a knowing look:' Uh - huh, it's a drug song . You know that, don't you?"' George Martin commented that he had always suspected that the line "found my way upstairs and had a smoke" was a drug reference, recalling how the Beatles would "disappear and have a little puff", presumably of marijuana, but not in front of him . "When (Martin) was doing his TV programme on Pepper", McCartney recalled later, "he asked me,' Do you know what caused Pepper?' I said,' In one word, George, drugs . Pot .' And George said,' No, no . But you weren't on it all the time .' ' Yes, we were .' Sgt . Pepper was a drug album ." </P>

What is the song a day in the life about