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

Maybe he received some help from his parents while drawing, or not, who knows. What I'm sure about is that he was the one that came up with that title. And John wrote such a beautiful song inspired by it! It's a really nice family story, ain't it?

 

I kinda wonder about that too. He might have been a little gunshy, especially after the whole Bigger than Jesus thing...

 

No, he had already written "Dr Robert" and had no problem giving the story of that song.

 

Or "She Said, She Said" for that matter.

 

And "Day Tripper". And "Cold Turkey". And "She Said She Said".

But it's no fun for the conspiracy theorists to accept John at face value.

 

Funny that "newspaper taxis" is perhaps the most retained image from that song, but Lennon told Playboy in 1980 "that was Paul's line." Go figure.

 

I took lsd several times during my youth. There's no doubt the song is about it. The girl with the kaleiscope eyes? And then she's gone? It's literal.

 

How about Alice In Wonderland? I'm not saying LSD didn't have anything to do with the creation of the song, but John always had a love of Lewis Carroll and said this song drew on that influence and it wasn't the only one. "I Am The Walrus" was a direct, point blank reference to "The Walrus and the Carpenter" for instance...and John later admitted he misunderstood the metaphor Carroll was going for saying "I should have called it "I Am The Carpenter."

Again, while I'm sure LSD "helped" the song along, I think the imagery owes more to "Alice" than a sugar cube. IMO.

 

Exactly. Hell, I was watching the South Bank Show from 1992 on the 25th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper and both Paul and Ringo admitted they saw Julian's drawing on their visits to Kenwood that summer. That, and Julian's classmate Lucy who inspired the drawing was a real person (sadly, she died of lupus several years back). The initials were a coincidence, but yeah there's no way LSD *didn't* inspire the lyrics and recording of the music. Cosmic confluence, indeed!

 

I take him at his word.

But sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake with these sorts of things. I had to say the title to the Grateful Dead's "Alice D. Millionaire" ten times before I got the joke.

 

This, a million times over. John has spoken openly and often about drugs he did and songs he wrote about them. Why would he adamantly lie about this one song up until his death? It makes zero sense.

LSD surely influenced this song, but the idea of John lying about intentionally writing this song about LSD is stupid. From the man who freely admitted, "We smoked pot for breakfast," among many other drug stories? Come on...

 

This.

 

My thoughts, exactly.

 

What do you think @Bobby Morrow

 

I'd never heard that story. To me, he looks like he's totally telling the truth.


But you can never be quite sure with John.

Great song. Who dares start a LITSWD Elton or the Beatles poll?

 

The man posed nude on an LP cover. I'm pretty sure he'd fess up if the Julian drawing story wasn't true.

 

Talk about "audacity" right!

 

No, not true. None of the songs on Pepper were hit singles at the time.

 

I believe Lennon. I can't really see what his motivation would have been to lie about it.

 

By the time he wrote Lucy, he hadn't written Cold Turkey. At least that's how I'd taken the previous post.

To your point by his final interview he'd written and spoken about drugs numerous times.

It took McCartney a while to cop to Got to Get You into My Life but he eventually did...right? Why wouldn't we think the same of Lennon - especially when he was in myth buster mode in the early 70s.

 

I like how you've changed your avatar to match this thread.

 

Drug songs common? I'm not sure that that was true yet...apart from The Beatles.

And while The Beatles ran into some radio trouble after the Jesus thing, I don't remember any of their songs being actually banned in this era, outside a few pockets of the south. I think "I Am The Walrus" was briefly banned in the UK for the "knickers down" line -- but it certainly didn't stand in the way of The Beatles actually recording it.

More important, do you remember the US Beatles cartoon? Aired Saturday mornings, and in 1967, moved to noon. Still very much kids time. That thing was bonkers. It didn't just look druggy, it looked pyschotic. And indeed, in 1967, there was an episode that had "Tomorrow Never Knows" as the featured song, and "She Said She Said" as the singalong! Which means for the latter that the song was not only played, but the words put on screen.

The aspect ratio of this is messed up, but you'll get the idea:



I hope that this link takes you directly to this part of the episode, but if not, the "She Said She Said" singalong starts at about 8 minutes in. Try this link.

I've posted the clip for "Tomorrow Never Knows" many times, but in this context, it's worth posting again.



This may be more answer than is required, but I want to drive home that by 1967, even before the release of Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles had an absolutely free hand. The Beatles hated these cartoons of course, but even people responsible for children's cartoons had not the least bit of concern about exposing children to the bizarrest parts of the Beatles discography.

To say nothing of my Sgt. Pepper lunchbox.

I'm obviously of the "he'd have admitted it was about drugs because he TOLD us about drug songs that we never imagined were drug songs," but I strongly want to underscore that by 1967, being banned was the last thing that crossed their minds.

 

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was no more of an intentional LSD reference
than "Fire Engine" by The Thirteenth Floor Elevators was an intentional DMT reference.

 

He definitely would have admitted it if it was true just like he did about other songs. He was not concerned about being politically correct. Unlike most of today's "stars".

 

While we ARE here... what do you (or anyone else) think of Elton's take on 'Lucy'?

Believe it or not, Elton's was the first version I heard and I always liked it.