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Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

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"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
Song

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written mainly by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) in 1967, and recorded by The Beatles for their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Arrangement

The song has a complex arrangement typical of later Lennon-McCartney compositions; much of the song is in triple 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 for the verse, B-flat for the pre-chorus or bridge section, and G 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 Lowrey organ (made to sound like an electric harpsichord) played by John Lennon.

Lyrics and title

The lyrics of the song — which are commonly believed to be about an acid trip — feature image-laden verses which present an overtly psychedelic travelogue, describing a boat trip through a fantastic land of "rocking horse people", "newspaper taxis" and "marshmallow pies", alternating with chorus sections which simply repeat the song's title. The Beatles, however, have steadily maintained that the initials of the title forming the word "LSD" (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) is mere coincidence, as the title is taken from a drawing by a young Julian Lennon. Forty years later the phrase "plasticine porters" inspired the name of the French female band the Plastiscines.

Session tapes from the initial March 1, 1967 recording of this song reveal that John originally sang the line "Cellophane flowers of yellow and green" as a broken phrase, but Paul suggested that he sing it more fluidly, thus improving the song.

Julian's drawing

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, a girl named Lucy. Showing the artwork to his father, young Julian described the picture as "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds."

File:Lucyinthesky.JPG
Lucy — in the sky with diamonds by a young Julian Lennon

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. At least one lyric was influenced by both Carroll and skits on a popular 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". A parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", recited by the Mad Hatter, appears in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Carroll's work has also been cited as having influenced Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" which refers to a character from Through the Looking-Glass and his two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.

Who was Lucy?

The Lucy referred to in the song was probably Lucy O'Donnell, born in Weybridge in 1963 (making her the same age as John's son)[1]. She was a classmate of Julian at Heath House School.[2] She has met up with him on a few occasions in the last few years, and occasionally appears on daytime shows for the anniversary of the "Sergeant Pepper's" album. She is featured in the book "A Hard Days Write". She now lives in Surbiton in Surrey, and owned a nanny agency for children with special needs until she was taken ill with psoriatic arthritis and lupus some years ago.

There is another candidate for the original Lucy — British comedian Peter Cook's daughter, Lucy. Lennon and Cook were seeing quite a bit of each other at the time (Lennon made a guest appearance on Cook's TV show Not Only... But Also as a doorman). According to Cook's biographer, Harry Thompson, Lennon told Cook's then wife, Wendy, that the song was inspired by Lucy Cook.

Reference to drugs and the title of the song

While Lennon and the Beatles were often frank about their drug use, for decades they denied that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" had anything to do with LSD. In a 2004 interview, however, Paul McCartney spoke openly about his Beatles-era drug use, revealing that songs such as "Day Tripper" and "Got To Get You Into My Life" were written directly about LSD and marijuana. When questioned about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," he noted that Julian's painting had inspired the song, but that it was "pretty obvious" that the song was about an acid trip.[3]

In a 1971 interview Lennon recalled hearing about how the initials of the title spelled out LSD, then checking if the same thing had happened with other Beatles songs and finding "they didn't spell out anything." In that same interview, he stated the song was composed in a conscious attempt to craft poetry, and in 1980 he confirmed the images were taken from Alice in Wonderland.

In The Beatles Anthology (2000), Ringo Starr claimed he was present when Julian showed his "crazy little painting". Paul recounted the time he and John spent in John's music room, swapping suggestions for lyrics, saying, "We never noticed the LSD initial until it was pointed out later, by which point people didn't believe us."[4]

Although the Beatles say they did not name the song after LSD, the song was conceived and recorded during a time when the Beatles were experimenting with LSD frequently, and creating much of their music under the influence.

Furthermore, some LSD users report a specific type of hallucination when they look at a starry night sky—when watching a particular star, a "copy" of it may periodically "flash" nearby either to the left or to the right. When looking at many stars under the influence of the drug, the whole sky seems to be "sparkling" with flashing stars, so "diamond sky" may be a metaphor of this vision.

Elton John version

The most successful remake was a single recorded in 1974 by Elton John, which also appeared on the ephemeral 1976 musical documentary, All This and World War II, with background vocals and guitar by John Lennon (who used the pseudonym Dr. Winston O'Boogie). The single topped the Billboard pop charts for two weeks in January 1975.

During their collaboration, John appeared on Lennon's song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Lennon promised to appear live with John at Madison Square Garden if it became a number 1 single.[5] It did, and on Thanksgiving Night, November 28, 1974, Lennon kept his promise. They performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", and "I Saw Her Standing There". Those live versions are available on the Lennon box set, as well as Elton John's Here and There. "It 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".

Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Elton John version)
January 4 1975 		Succeeded by

Other cover versions

The song has been covered by many artists.

Cultural echoes

  • In January 1968, John Fred and the Playboy Band parodied the song on their hit single "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" which intentionally sounds like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Interestingly enough, the single knocked another Beatles single, "Hello, Goodbye", down the charts.
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, Lisa is given nitrous oxide by her dentist and hallucinates in a scene inspired by the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie. In it, she encounters the four Beatles in a purple submarine, with George Harrison saying, "Look, it's Lisa in the sky!" Followed by Lennon lamenting "No diamonds though."
  • "Lucy In the Sky" is the codename of a superhero in the comic book Runaways. Karolina Dean takes up this name because her alien physiology makes her skin pulse with psychedelic colors and gives her the ability to fly, and because she is a fervent fan of The Beatles.
  • The song also plays an important role in the movie I Am Sam, starring Sean Penn, in which he names his daughter (Dakota Fanning) Lucy Diamond because of the song.
  • The song is referenced in the Clash track "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad."
  • In the Porcupine Tree song "Footprints", on their album On the Sunday of Life, the chorus lyrics are as such: "Tangerine trees and marmalade skies and plasticine porters with looking glass ties."
  • The song is referenced in another Beatles song, I am the Walrus, in the line "See how they fly, like Lucy in the sky."
  • "The sky with diamonds," is referenced to in a song by mc chris titled "WIID", in the line "All you need is one trip [of LSD] where you lose your shit, kiss goodbye to the sky with diamonds."

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21831399-2703,00.html
  2. ^ http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21831399-2703,00.html
  3. ^ BBC news article, "Sir Paul reveals Beatles drug use" citing Uncut magazine article
  4. ^ The Beatles, Anthology, p. 242
  5. ^ David Sheff, All We Are Saying, p. 31

References

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