Do you believe "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was intentionally about LSD?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mike Bass, Aug 26, 2015.

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  1. empirelvr

    empirelvr "That's *just* the way it IS!" - Paul Anka

    Location:
    Virginia, USA
    Haha? *confused look*
     
  2. Rojo

    Rojo Forum Resident

    The Julian story sounds credible. But it could be only partially true. It sounded nice, worked well as a song title and had the right initials...

    As for Lennon, yes, he was quite direct and straightforward in interviews, but that doesn't indicate that every word he spoke was true. Everybody's got something to hide including him and his monkey.
     
  3. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    No, that would be the Pretty Things.

     
  4. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yes, I was making reference to this interview (go to the very end if you're in a hurry).

     
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  5. delmonaco

    delmonaco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    Yes, exactly - why admitting - well, I just wanted to do a song with LSD acronym, skratched my head, and didn't come with anything better than this meaningless title... The song is great, and such "confession" would kill some of the magic.
     
  6. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Here's a Lennon comment about LSD from 1970:
    "It went on for years, I must have had a thousand trips. Literally a thousand, or a couple of hundred? A thousand - I used to just eat it all the time."

    That doesn't sound like someone who thinks it's inappropriate to promote LSD. To the contrary, his comment sounds almost boastful. It seems extremely implausible that someone who so openly acknowledged his LSD use would for some reason be fearful of admitting a song title was inspired by the same drug.
     
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  7. teag

    teag Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    o_O
     
  8. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    There's a difference in personal use for him alone and bringing the rest of the group into it though, and that's what would've happened if he'd admitted the song was about that.
     
  9. happy2behere

    happy2behere Forum Resident

    Location:
    NY NY
    Intentional.
     
  10. eroz

    eroz Forum Resident

    You are talking about the man who boasted they smoked marijuana in a Buckingham Palace bathroom, while they others disputed that. Not to mention he peer pressured Paul for a long time to take LSD.
     
  11. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    You never know with Lennon, for as much as I like his music, and for as much of a character he was, he liked to exaggerate and fabricate.
     
  12. eroz

    eroz Forum Resident

    I agree. He said so himself, after all. But I think he was more likely to exaggerate things than downplay them. In this case I see no reason not to take him on his word.
     
  13. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    I'll leave this one in the "don't know" box.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2015
  14. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    I believe his son drew the picture, which reminded John of a psychedelic experience, which in return inspired the song about tripping. To protect his son or him from connecting his son with LSD he denied that the song was about an LSD experience, but John's wry wit would not let him not create a title that told the truth, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
     
  15. Rojo

    Rojo Forum Resident

    Confessional ("I must have had a thousand trips") and promotional are two different moods.

    Later in his life, he might have regretted having, to some extent, promoted something which he later found not to be so great. Or he might have been, in some way embarrassed, not necessarily on"moral" grounds. Maybe Yoko didn't approve. Whatever.

    Humans are complex, contradictory, often in denial. This one is a difficult call.
     
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  16. I like the "one-channel-from-stereo mono mix" of the original, which is mainly vocals, bass, and guitar.
     
  17. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    People seem to be under the impression that he only told the "Julian's drawing" story later in life. He told it as early as the 60s, and continued telling it up until the end. He was claiming the song was inspired by Julian's drawing at the same time he was boasting about his level of LSD consumption. Given that, it seems extremely unlikely he was lying about the genesis of the song title due to concerns about promoting drug use.
     
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  18. Culpa

    Culpa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Interesting that the Blues Magoos' "Albert Common Is Dead" came out just a month or two before Lucy In The Sky. Maybe John didn't want people to think he was copying them!
     
  19. Rojo

    Rojo Forum Resident

    In the 60s? I remember reading his explanation in a book compiling his Rolling Stones interviews from the early 1970s (around the time of the Plastic Ono Band and Imagine records).

    Which interview from the 1960s are you referring to?

    In any case, as I already mentioned, there could be others reasons (not linked to moral) for his reluctance to be honest about this.
     
  20. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    Let's end this debate once and for all:

     
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  21. AveryKG

    AveryKG Sultan of snacks

    Location:
    west London
    Nah, of course it's all perfectly innocent. It's not about LSD at all. Just like the Shamen's 'Ebenezer Goode' isn't about dropping ecstasy. And 'Afternoon Delight' isn't about having sex in the afternoon. Who would have thought such a thing?
     
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  22. empirelvr

    empirelvr "That's *just* the way it IS!" - Paul Anka

    Location:
    Virginia, USA
    This explanation was contemporary at the time of the LP's release. In fact, it might have first appeared in a "Beatles Monthly" about the LP when "Pepper" was released where the songs were gone over one by one in detail.
     
  23. Chuckee

    Chuckee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate, NY, USA
    Lennon's son Julian inspired the song with a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy—in the sky with diamonds". Shortly after the song's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the title nouns intentionally spelled LSD.[3] Lennon consistently denied this,[3][4] insisting the song was inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland books,[3] a claim repeatedly confirmed by Paul McCartney.[5][6][7]
     
  24. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    As soon as I quit tripping and listening to Sgt Pepper I'll way in.
     
  25. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    In his 1980 Playboy Interview, he claimed to never do LSD any more, nor even any drug---he would barely admit to even smoking pot, saying, "maybe, if someone gives me one, I might smoke it, but I don't go looking for it...". That sounds like the kind of guy who would never admit that Lucy was drug-related and that all he did for 5 years was bake bread.
     
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