By Brad Gallagher:
About six years ago my wife and I adopted a tiny Goldendoodle puppy and named her Lucy. She is not tiny any more though. In fact, she is larger than most Goldendoodles, and heavier too. But I can remember the day we introduced her to our kids as a puppy and one of our sons commented, “Wow, look at the size of those mitts. She is going to be big when she grows up.” And he was right. She did grow up to be big, but gentle as can be, and we love her to death. We lovingly refer to her as our “Gentle Giant”.
Fast forward a few years to one day when we were sitting outside with Lucy, listening to music and enjoying the fresh air when the song, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” began to play. “Lucy”, my wife said, “This is your song”. And I immediately turned to her and said. “I don’t know, Honey, this song is about LSD.” At least that is what I had always been told. After all, it was written in 1967 right in the middle a time when the youth countercultures were known to have widely adopted the use of hallucinogenic drugs, one of which was LSD. It only made sense.
Discovered in 1938 by Swiss chemist, Albert Hoffman, LSD was originally used experimentally for the treatment of alcoholism and schizophrenia. It’s use produces phycological effects such as euphoria and joy. And also physical effects such as having objects appear to ripple and change shape and color, and move in geometric patterns like looking through a kaleidoscope. When LSD gained it’s popularity as a recreational drug through the 1960’s it was classified as a “schedule 1” drug. However, it has never been approved for medical use.
And, of course, this fascination with LSD in the 1960s ran rampant through the rock and roll culture. Almost every popular band at that time was known to be partaking. The Grateful Dead were said to be the band that introduces LSD into the rock culture, but many other bands jumped on the band wagon. Bands like Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Moody Blues, The Rolling Stones, and of course The Beatles. So why wouldn’t people assume that a song written by one of these groups that spoke about things like “rocking horse people eating marshmallow pies” or a train station with “plasticine porters and looking glass ties” was all about tripping on LSD. Especially when the letters “L.S.D.” are a near acronym for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”?
But, according to the Beatles, the song is not about LSD at all. The way they told the story, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about something totally different.
As The Story Goes…
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was released in 1967 as the third track on the Beatles’ “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. Rumors quickly began to spread about the meaning of the song, and in an interview roughly a year later, John Lennon was asked about it and if it was meant to depict the effects of taking LSD. Lennon denied the rumors, and told the interviewer a story about an afternoon when his preschool son, Julian, came home from school with a drawing he had made in class that day.
Julian showed his father his drawing of a girl in his class that he apparently had a little crush on. The girl’s name was Lucy O’Donnell, and Julian had named the drawing “Lucy — in the sky with diamonds”. In an interview years later Julian 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.” 1
Now, John Lennon was a big fan of Lewis Carroll’s works “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” and he said that Julian’s drawing reminded him of a chapter in the latter, titled “Which dreamed it”. I have not read “Through the Looking Glass” myself, but apparently in that chapter Alice is seen floating in a boat in the sky. Lennon stated years later in an interview about when he saw his son’s drawing, “It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty-Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that.” 2
But how could anyone know if that was the true story? Well, according to Ringo Star, he was there at the Lennon house that day when Julian came home from school, and he said that he witnessed the drawing and the interaction between father and son. And Paul McCartney said that he helped Lennon in the composition of the song stating, “We did the whole thing like an Alice in Wonderland idea, being in a boat on the river … Every so often it broke off and you saw Lucy in the sky with diamonds all over the sky. This Lucy was God, the Big Figure, the White Rabbit.” 3 (#tripping?)
So maybe “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” really is just about the Alice in Wonderland books and inspired by a child’s drawing. But a couple things just don’t add up for me. First, the line in the song which is repeated twice, “A girl with Kaleidoscope eyes”. Albert Hoffman also used the word “Kaleidoscope” when describing his LSD experiences. “In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.” 4 Just coincidence?
Second, The Beatles released this song on the album “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” which, through both it’s lyrics and it’s artwork, portrayed the theory that Paul had died in a car crash and was replaced by a look-a-like named Billy Shears. So why would one think that if the Beatles had no qualms about making up a story about Paul’s alleged death, why would they have any qualms about making up a story about a child’s drawing and a famous novel being the inspiration of a song about LSD? And all on the same album. It makes you wonder. But, I am just an observer. You decide for yourself.
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was never released as a single by the Beatles, but the album, “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”, reached number 1 on the US Billboard album charts in 1967, and has since gone 32 times platinum world wide. Eight years later, in 1975, “Lucy” was covered by Elton John as a single and reached number 1 on the US Billboard Singles charts for two consecutive weeks. Not bad for a song about a 4 year old boy’s drawing.
So now you know. Or do you? Come back and see me real soon right hear on As The Story Goes.
Check out the official Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgR6UNeQxXE
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[1] The Guardian 2009. ; Kral 2009. ; C Radio 2, Sounds of the 60s, 2 February 2008
[2] Sheff 2000, p. 182
[3] Aldridge, Alan (14 January 1968). “Paul McCartney’s Guide to the Beatles’ Songbook”. Los Angeles Times Magazine. Los Angeles. pp. 19–24.
[4] Hofmann 1980, p. 15
AS THE STORY GOES 