Tara Browne was just twenty one years old when "He blew his mind out in a car". John Lennon immortalized Browne when he wrote the song A Day in the Life at least partially about Browne's death:
I read the news today oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph.

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 sure
If he was from the House of Lords.
from "A Day in the Life", song 13 on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band album by the Beatles..

Tara Browne was young, good looking in a boyish way, extremely rich, and very very wild. His great-grandfather was Edward Cecil Guiness, the owner of the Guinness Brewing Company and his father was The 4th Lord Oranmore and Browne, the longest standing member of the House of Lords. Tara was close friends with members of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles and was well known for both his enjoyment of and capacity for mind expanding drugs. Indeed, he was believed to be under the influence of LSD when he crashed his Lotus Elan into a lamp-post in Redcliffe Square, London, in December, 1966. Suki Potier, a girlfriend of Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones was in the car with him and escaped without serious injury. Browne was staying with Brian at the time and his death hastened the mental and physical breakdown that Jones was going through.

Tara was was part of the new young aristocracy who loved to mingle with pop stars in the early 1960s. Although only 21 at the time of his death, he would have inherited a 1,000,000 pounds fortune at the age of 25 and was described on his death certificate as a man 'of independent means' with a London home in Eaton Row, Belgravia. After schooling at Eton, Browne married at 18 and fathered two boys before separating from his wife and taking up with Suki Potier. He frequented London nightspots such as Sibylla's and the Bag O'Nails and had become particularly friendly with Paul and Mike McCartney and Rolling Stone Brian Jones. For his 21st birthday, he had the Lovin' Spoonful flown to his ancestral home in County Wicklow, Ireland. Mick Jagger, Mike McCartney, Brian Jones and John Paul Getty were amongst the guests.

Browne's mother was Oonagh Guinness, one of the "Golden Guinness Girls". She was the owner of Luggala, a fairytale Gothic lodge in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. His brother is Garech Browne, the pony-tailed squire of Luggala, a guardian of Irish lore and founder of The Chieftains.

Phil May of the English group Pretty Things also wrote a song about Browne's death. It is called "Death of a Socialite" and was featured on the band's 1967 album "Emotions". I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere, but would be very interested to see them if anyone comes up with a copy.

I'm sad that I couldn't find much about Tara's LIFE. All of the information I could find was about his death and his family. I think his life would be far more interesting than his death. If anyone knows of anywhere I could look please /msg me.

Sources:
http://www.sixtiesrock.com/pretty-things/files/file3.html
http://www.rte.ie/millennia/people/guinnessartthuredward.html
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/8815/week.html
http://slick.org/pipermail/deathwatch/2002-August/000226.html
http://www.beatlesatoz.com/dayin.htm

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