Tara Browne

Tara Browne (March 4, 1945 â€" December 18, 1966) was a young London socialite and issue of peerage whose untimely death was immortalized in song.

Browne was the son of Dominick Browne, the 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, a member of the House of Lords since 1927 who later became famous for having served in that house longer than any other peer, finally being evicted during government reforms in 1999; and Oonagh Guinness, heiress to the Guinness fortune and the youngest of the three "Golden Guinness Girls". One of his older brothers was Garech Browne, an enthusiast of traditional Irish music and a founding member of The Chieftains.

Tara Browne was a member of Swinging London's counterculture of the 1960s. He was known to use drugs recreationally, and had befriended several contemporary rock musicians, such as Paul McCartney.

On December 18, 1966, Browne was driving with his girlfriend, model Suki Potier, in his Lotus Elan through South Kensington at high speed (some reports suggest in excess of 106 mph/170 km/h). It is not known whether or not he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He ignored or failed to see a traffic light and proceeded through an intersection, colliding with a parked lorry. He was likely killed instantly. Potier was not injured.

Presumably the next day, John Lennon was composing songs at his piano and idly reading London's Daily Mail while doing so when he discovered the news of Browne's accident. He worked the story into the song he was composing, which was later released on the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the song "A Day in the Life". The first verse features the lines:

He blew his mind out in a car,He didn't notice that the lights had changed,A crowd of people stood and stared,They'd seen his face before,Nobody was really sureIf he was from the House of Lords.

According to Lennon: "I didn't copy the accident. 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 â€" not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene â€" were similarly part of the fiction."

Browne was survived by two sons, Dorian and Julian Browne.