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

What would be some examples of John and Paul lying about what their songs were about or who played which part? I can't think of any off the top of my head, so I'm curious what you're referring to.

Lennon boasted about his LSD consumption, and acknowledged deliberate drug references in other songs. It seems unlikely he would lie about this song's genesis.

 

Who ya gonna believe, Mr Bass or these lyin’ lyrics?

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ahh

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ahh

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Ahh

 

It seems likely that the song title did come from the letters LSD on purpose, but John does seem sincere in his explanation. It just seems too "on the nose" to be a coincidence. Seems like we are missing a link in the story somewhere.

 

I read the lyrics and you read the commentary.

 

You read the lyrics and I’m experiencing a massive lysergic acid diethylamide flashback!

 

There was the lesbians and prostitutes thing from the 66 tour...

We ALL know what Day Tripper and Norwegian Wood were about...

 

Haha ha. So sorry about that. Just be a kid again and it will be OK.

 

Haven't heard that story. Can you elaborate?

Did Lennon lie about the meaning of those songs?

 

I've always been on the fence about it (as are the all-tied-up results of this poll). Sure, Lennon was candid, painfully candid during his primal scream years and he had no reason to conceal an LSD reference if there was one.

Although... maybe not. Maybe he did have his reasons. He certainly wanted the song to get continued airplay whenever possible. More importantly, he was fighting the US Government and the CIA for permanent resident status; admitting to a drug reference on Sgt. Pepper could have been a deal-breaker. That was a MAJOR legal battle for him, a delicate business that lasted many years and it all hinged upon his marijuana bust in England. After it was settled he would have looked pretty silly back-peddling about being inspired by his son's drawing, and it was such a cool story it would have been a shame to debunk it. I don't know if Julian has ever weighed-in on the subject.

In the end it doesn't matter. If it was in inside joke or a personal joke or if it was something he noticed after the fact or was completely oblivious to until it was pointed out to him, who cares? In a way I'd like to believe that it was completely unintended because the coincidence of it all is so delicious and it's a great story about the wonders of parenthood.

 

They were asked in a pretty hilarious interview that it was rumoured those two songs were about a lesbian and a prostitute.

I'm not sure what the follow up question was but I recall Paul responding that "we're just trying to write songs about lesbians and prostitiutes that's all..."

 

First, Hey Jude, and then - *this* ?

Julian Lennon strikes again..........

 

In that era, it was sort of "cool" when bands wrote songs with cryptic intent. It was sort of up to the music listener to solve the puzzle. John Lennon knew exactly what he was doing in spite of him playing down the real meaning in later years. To think otherwise is downright naive.

 

How? He wasn't hounded until the mid 1970's and he was "coming clean" about drug references in his songs years earlier. In fact, on a visit to WNEW in 1974, John makes a few overt drug themed jokes on-air right in the middle of his legal battles. And how would admitting it affect airplay so long after the release of the album and song? It was never a single in the USA at any point so there was no incentive for AM radio to play it (unless they wanted to) and FM was "hip" and still somewhat underground during John's battle with Nixon and the FBI. They wouldn't care about that. If he was that concerned about appearences, I would think he would have shown some restraint and not had his booze and cocaine fueled "lost weekend."

He has, a few times, and he corroborates John's explanation.
http://www.accesshollywood.com/juli...s-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds_video_1909637

 

Quite true. After reading a promo for a concert at "The Joint in the Woods", John says "There's nothing like a joint in the woods .... he says, losing his Green card possibilities in one blow", or something similar.

 

Didn't he start telling the "Julian's drawing" story far earlier than that, back when he was still living in England and his residency battle had not yet begun?

If the song was deliberately about LSD, it seems likely he would have told McCartney. Why would McCartney continue to lie about it all these years?

 

Yeah, John said what was on his mind. I don't think he was capable of lying.

 

Well...not saying anything to Mr Bass, but if one has ever read Alice in Wonderland whilst on the 'dreaded lysergic acid diethylamide' I think one would find the lyrics quite druggy...

 

I'm with those who think Lennon would've admitted the song was about LSD - and would've done so sooner than later.

Why would he have lied? Makes no sense...

 

John would've loved this forum. He'd have sorted us all out.

 

Haha, he sure would!

It kills me everyday, that he's not here because of such a senseless, unnecessary act.

 

He sometimes lied in interviews about things related to his personal life. He lied about silly things like claiming he didn't listen to his ex-bandmates' work when he really did. But I can't think of any known, verified instance of him lying about what a song's lyrics were about.

 

This is an excellent point actually. Lewis Carroll was writing for children so he incorporated their tendency towards arbitrary associations with dream like imagery. People growing bigger or smaller is something that can happen in dreams. Grace Slick could turn that into a druggy song easily but that doesn't mean that it was such all along. It's just that there is overlapping imagery. Bass Strings by Country Joe is a more typical Adult drug song.

 

Excellent thread! Tomorrow let's debate if "Eight Miles High" is really about a plane landing in London, or is that one in the Byrds related thread?

 

To my eyes and ears he had a tell when he did that. When John wasn't being totally forthright about something, he would say "you know" a lot (wayyy more than he usually did) and his cadence at the end of a statement would go "up", as if he were asking a question and waiting for you to agree with him. I've never heard an interview where he was asked about "Lucy..." where he did that.

 

So would it be "incredibly naive" to think that "My Toot Toot" isn't about cocaine?