On 18 December 1966, a young man named Tara Browne died from injuries sustained in a horrific car crash in London. Just 21 years old, he was a rising figure in the Swinging London scene of the ’60s, a friend to The Beatles, and heir to the Guinness fortune.
His death would soon inspire one of the most famous opening lines in pop music history – written by his friend John Lennon.
‘A Day In The Life’, the final track of The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, begins with the lines: “I read the news today, oh boy / About a lucky man who made the grade.”
Those lyrics, Lennon later confirmed in the Beatles’ Anthology, were prompted by a short article in the Daily Mail reporting the coroner’s verdict on Browne’s death.
“I was writing ‘A Day In The Life’ with the Daily Mail propped in front of me on the piano”, he recalled of the 17th of January 1967. “I had it open at their News in Brief, or Far and Near, whatever they call it. I 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.”
Tara Browne was born into Irish aristocracy as the son of Dominick Browne, the fourth Baron Oranmore and Browne, and Oonagh Guinness, a member of the famous brewing dynasty. Despite his privileged background, Browne fully immersed himself in London’s counterculture during the 1960s, and was part of the art and music circles that included The Beatles and Rolling Stones.
On the night of his death, Browne and his girlfriend – 19-year-old model Suki Potier – had been visiting a friend in Earls Court. They left just before 1am and went looking for something to eat, with Browne driving his Lotus Elan through South Kensington. He then ran a red light at speed, and, attempting to avoid an oncoming Volkswagen, crashed into a stationary van on Redcliffe Gardens.
According to Potier, Browne deliberately swerved to take the brunt of the collision and save her life, and she was left with no injuries.
Browne, though, tragically died of his injuries the next day, leaving behind a separated wife, Noreen, and two sons, as well as an estate valued at £56,069 – though he was due to inherit £1 million on his 25th birthday.
Though Lennon made it clear that he hadn’t directly chronicled Browne’s accident, the event lingered in his mind: “I didn’t copy the accident” Lennon told Hunter Davies in the band’s 1968 authorised biography. “Tara didn’t blow his mind out. But it was in my mind when I was writing that verse.”
The line “He blew his mind out in a car / He didn’t notice that the lights had changed” has often been linked to Browne’s death, though interpretations vary.
Paul McCartney, who co-wrote parts of the song, offered a different perspective decades later: “The verse about the politician blowing his mind out in a car we wrote together”, explained McCartney said in Barry Miles’ 1997 authorised biography Many Years From Now. “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”, McCartney added. “The ‘blew his mind’ was purely a drugs reference, nothing to do with a car crash.”
Later, in his 2021 book The Lyrics, McCartney clarified that the verse had indeed been written in reference to the accident. He said of Browne, whom he considered a friend: “I wrote about him in ‘A Day in the Life”.
Browne’s connection with the Beatles wasn’t new. He’d reportedly helped The Beatles with early introductions to London’s elite and avant-garde circles, and was known for his charm, fashion sense, and quick wit.