from the album
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song by English rock
band The Beatles, primarily written by John Lennon (credited to
Lennon/McCartney) for the group's 1967 album
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
At the time of its release, the Beatles claimed that the
inspiration for the song came from a drawing by John Lennon's
son, Julian, which Julian called "Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds". The song sparked controversy when released,
including being banned by the BBC because of the supposed
reference to the drug LSD, with the first letter of each noun
in the title spelling LSD. Although Lennon denied that the
L-S-D in the title was a reference to the drug, McCartney later
said it was "pretty obvious" that the song was inspired by
LSD.
The song has an arrangement typical of later
Lennon/McCartney compositions; much of the song is in compound
duple metre (3/4 time), except the chorus, where it switches to
4/4 time. The song also shifts between musical keys, using the
key of A major for the verse, B♭ major for the pre-chorus or
bridge section, and G major for the chorus. It consists of a
very simple melody (reminiscent of a nursery song), sung by
Lennon over an increasingly complicated underlying arrangement
which features a tamboura, played by George Harrison, and a
counter melody on Lowrey organ played by McCartney being taped
with a special organ stop to give it a sound like a
celeste.
Session tapes from the initial 1 March 1967 recording of
this song reveal that Lennon originally sang the line
"Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" as a broken phrase,
but McCartney suggested that he sing it more fluidly to improve
the song.
According to the Beatles, one day in 1966 Lennon's son,
Julian, came home from nursery school with a drawing he said
was of his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell (later, Lucy Vodden) ,
whom Julian drew with diamond-shaped eyes. Showing the artwork
to his father, young Julian described the picture as "Lucy — in
the sky with diamonds". Julian later said, "I don't know why I
called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings,
but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used
to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this
one sparked off the idea for a song about 'Lucy in the sky with
diamonds'".
His son's artwork appears to have inspired Lennon to draw
heavily on his own childhood affection for Lewis Carroll's
"Wool and Water" chapter from
Through the Looking-Glass. Carroll's work has also been
cited as an influence upon Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" which
refers to a character from
Through the Looking-Glassand his two books,
In His Own Writeand
A Spaniard in the Works. As well as Carroll, other
influences on the song include popular skits on British radio
comedy programme (
The Goon Show) making references to "plasticine ties",
which showed up in the song as
"Plasticine porters with looking glass ties".
The original painting was for a time in the hands of
Julian's mother Cynthia. As of June 2009, the whereabouts of
the painting were unknown. But in an interview with The Early
Show in December of that same year, Julian revealed that the
drawing "got lost. So how it was found or who may have taken
it, I have no idea, but it's now been re-found and David
Gilmour from Pink Floyd has it and kindly allowed us to use a
copy of it for the art work" for "Lucy".
Lucy O'Donnell Vodden (1963 - 22 September 2009) was the
inspiration for the song. She was born in Weybridge, Surrey, in
1963. She was a classmate of Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon,
at Heath House School. Julian Lennon drew a picture of
O'Donnell in 1966 and took it to his father, explaining to him
that the picture he drew was, "That’s Lucy in the sky with
diamonds." The quote became the legend for the origin of the
song.
O'Donnell married her husband and "childhood sweetheart",
Ross Vodden, in 1996. In 2007 she acknowledged being the Lucy
referred to in the Beatle song, during an interview with BBC
Radio. Lucy told the BBC, "I remember Julian and I both doing
pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other,
much to the horror of the classroom attendant... Julian had
painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned
up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school."
In 2009, Julian Lennon learned that Vodden, who lived in
Surrey, England, suffered from the immune system disease lupus.
Lennon sent her flowers with a personally written card. After
learning that Vodden was taking solace from gardening and
looking at plants, Lennon also sent her gift vouchers for a
garden centre. Vodden, who saw Lennon only once during the
intervening years at a concert of his, responded, "It was
lovely of Julian." Vodden developed an infection on the second
day of her first vacation with her husband in eight years. She
was rushed to a hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, where she
died on 22 September 2009, aged 46, with her husband, father,
sister and brother at her bedside. Julian Lennon and his
mother, Cynthia, released a statement saying they were "shocked
and saddened" by Vodden's death.
On December 15, 2009, Julian Lennon released a single,
"Lucy," dedicated to his late friend. Most of the proceeds are
earmarked for lupus foundations.
Rolling Stonemagazine described the song as "Lennon's
lavish daydream" and music critic Richie Unterberger said
"'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' was one of the best songs on
the Beatles' famous Sgt. Pepper album, and one of the classic
songs of psychedelia as a whole. There are few other songs that
so successfully evoke a dream world, in both the sonic textures
and words." In a review for the BBC, Chris Jones described the
song as "nursery rhyme surrealism" that contributed to Sgt.
Pepper's "revolutionary ... sonic carpet that enveloped the
ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms."
In later interviews, Lennon expressed disappointment with
the Beatles' arrangement of the recording, complaining that
adequate time was not taken to fully develop his initial idea
for the song. He also said that he felt he didn't think that he
sang it very well. "I was so nervous I couldn't sing," he told
the journalist Ray Connolly, "but I like the lyrics."
A 3.2 million year-old, 40% complete fossil skeleton of an
Australopithecus afarensisspecimen discovered in 1974
was named "Lucy" because The Beatles song was being played
loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp.
The White dwarf star BPM 37093, which contains a core of
crystallized carbon roughly 4000 km in diameter, is informally
named "Lucy" as a tribute to The Beatles song.
In 1974, Elton John released a cover version as a single.
Recorded at the Caribou Ranch, it featured background vocals
and guitar by John Lennon under the pseudonym Dr. Winston
O'Boogie. The single topped the Billboard pop charts for two
weeks in January 1975 and also appeared on the 1976 musical
documentary,
All This and World War II.
The B-Side of the single was also a John Lennon composition,
"One Day (At a Time)," a song from Lennon's 1973 album
Mind Games. As with the A-Side, Lennon appears on the
B-Side, playing guitar.
During their collaboration, Elton John appeared on John
Lennon's song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Lennon
promised to appear live with John at Madison Square Garden if
"Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" became a number 1 single. It
did, and on Thanksgiving Night, 28 November 1974, Lennon kept
his promise. They performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds",
"Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", and "I Saw Her Standing
There". The Lennon-sung "I Saw Her Standing There" (credited to
The Elton John Band featuring John Lennon) was originally
released in 1975 on the B-Side of Elton John's "Philadelphia
Freedom" single. In 1981, all three live songs were issued on
"28 November 1974," an Elton John EP. In 1990, the three songs
were made available on the
Lennonbox set. In 1996, they were also included on the
remastered edition of Elton John's
Here and Therealbum.
Elton John once said, "[Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds] is a
song that I never do in a set at a concert simply because it
reminds me too much of John Lennon. This is the same with Empty
Garden".
Today, Elton John does occasionally perform it. The single
was later released on the 1996 re-release of Elton John's album
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Discography