Sexy Sadie is a song from the White Album written by John Lennon. It is one of those Beatles songs with a well known story behind it.

The song is about the Maharishi, the Beatles one-time guru, and Lennon’s feelings of disillusion over what he perceived as some kind of betrayal. He began writing it immediately after his acrimonious departure from the Rishikesh ashram where he and Harrison had spent the preceding two months learning Transcendental Meditation (the other Beatles having departed earlier). Knowing this, it is not hard to decode the lyrics, but I doubt whether fans at the time would have had sufficient information to make sense of the song, which on the surface refers to an alluring woman that has let the protagonist down. Harrison, who had not felt betrayed in the same way urged Lennon not to identify the Maharishi and to tone down the lyrics.

The Beatles Bible

John Lennon’s most acerbic song on the White Album, ‘Sexy Sadie’ was a barbed tribute to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and was written during Lennon’s final hours in India.

Continue reading on Beatles Bible →

Wikipedia

"Sexy Sadie" is a song by the English rock group the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon in India and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon wrote the song during the B…

Continue reading on Wikipedia →

The Beatles had initially been very enthusiastic about the Maharishi who they first encountered, encouraged by Harrison’s wife Pattie, at a lecture in London in August 1967. At this stage in their careers they had been working all out for five years and were in danger of burning out. They had also been taking LSD (especially Lennon and Harrison), which had no doubt opened their minds but also perhaps left them unsettled. They needed a break and they needed to ground themselves. They had arranged to attend at a seminar in Bangor, North Wales starting the following day. Having travelled to Wales with the Maharishi, the very next day they learned of the sudden death of their manager, Brian Epstein. Epstein had been the “grown-up” in their organization and someone who had taken care of business and thus shielded them from at least some of the pressure they would have otherwise experienced. The Maharishi was a new and reassuring authority figure who they turned to in their grief and shock.

Still enthused by Maharishi’s teachings and disorientated by Epstein’s death, they made plans to travel to his ashram in Rishikesh, India in October, but McCartney urged them to delay this until 1968 so that they could complete the Magical Mystery Tour project. During the intervening period Lennon and Harrison made strong public statements in support of meditation, making two appearances on the Frost Programme focused on the practice (as discussed in the entry on The Inner Light)

Eventually, the Beatles travelled to India in February 1968, joining a three month course on Transcendental Meditation normally aimed at training teachers of the practice. Although McCartney and Starr did not stay as long as Lennon and Harrison, the Beatles, their partners and some friends and acquaintances were together for some weeks in a peaceful environment with very few demands on them other than learning to meditate. In the circumstances, the break from their work schedule would have been very significant in itself, and the Beatles and their friends also valued the meditation techniques they learned.

McCartney and Starr departed early, but Lennon and Harrison were joined by Alexis Mardas, known as Magic Alex, who by most accounts actively sought to undermine the Beatles faith in the Maharishi, encouraging them to drink alcohol (against the rules of the ashram), not to contribute money to the organisation, describing his practices as “black magic” and generally undermining their confidence in his propriety.

Rumours, likely fuelled by Mardas, began to circulate that the Maharishi had made sexual advances toward one or more female students. Lennon, in particular, started to believe these rumours and convinced himself that the Maharishi was a fraud and a hypocrite. Lennon confronted the Maharishi and left the ashram with Harrison, their partners and acquaintances. Lennon had begun writing the lyrics of the song eventually called Sexy Sadie before he had even left the compound. Originally, rather than Sexy Sadie, they had been addressed to Maharishi*.

Sexy Sadie, what have you done?
You made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie, you broke the rules
You laid it down for all to see

One sunny day, the world was waiting for the lover
She came along to turn on everyone

Sexy Sadie, how did you know?
The world was waiting just for you

Sexy Sadie, you’ll get yours yet
However big you think you are

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything

The context makes the interpretation clear, and the reference to “Sexy” perhaps alludes indirectly to the sexual allegations, but it’s notable that the main accusation is that the Maharishi “made a fool of everyone”. Whether or not Lennon had actually been fooled, he perhaps did not want to make too much of it publicly having been so outspoken in support of the Maharishi and meditation just a few months earlier.