What does Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds mean?

Beatles: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds Meaning

Album cover for Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds album cover

Song Released: 1967


Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds 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...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2008 !⃝

    There are a LOT of reviews of this song already and usually I wouldn't have added another one but it seems like 90 percent of the other reviews were childish and not really helpful there are several opinions I'm not denying that there were a few good points made on what the song is really about, but NOT one person stopped to think. Maybe this song is written to make people think not everything has a clear easy to understand meaning. If the Beatles wanted this song to have a clear meaning they wouldn't have written "rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies" The Beatles most likely wrote this song about more than one thing and know one except them knows what this song is truly about.

  2. anonymous
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    Mar 24th 2008 !⃝

    The LSD thing is complete bullshit created by the media. No, George Harrison did not recently admit it was about LSD, that's bullshit too. In fact, they addressed the issue of LSD interpretation and repeatedly denied it. Julian's drawing is the right interpretation.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  3. anonymous
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    Mar 19th 2008 !⃝

    You guys are so full of it I mean seriously if the song was called lucy's diamonds in the sky would it be about mormons?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  4. anonymous
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    Feb 10th 2008 !⃝

    Inspired by the drawing, but definitely about LSD
    The girl with kaleidoscope eyes is seeing tracers and hallucinating. I've personally done some "research" on this subject. ;)

  5. anonymous
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    Jan 22nd 2008 !⃝

    Would y'all just give it a rest with the LSD stuff! Not everything has to be about drugs you know! maybe it's just a fun song like Yellow Submarine that really doesn't have a meaning.

  6. anonymous
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    Nov 10th 2007 !⃝

    I'm not surprised it's about LSD. That's what I always thought.

    To the guy who brought it up, though, Alice in Wonderland could not have been written under the influence of LSD, since LSD was not synthesized until 1938. Maybe someone really does have a weird imagination, and not everything all leads back to Drugs, hmmm?

  7. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2007 !⃝

    Anyone who has taken LSD would know this song is about the drug, its obvious, even Paul admitted it was about LSD.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
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    Nov 3rd 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about whether or not this song is about LSD

  9. how_am_i_NOT_myself
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    Oct 31st 2007 !⃝

    Although Lucy WAS a student with JULIAN at school, and he did pen a bit on her, more compelling: 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. - source Wikipedia "LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS"

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 25th 2007 !⃝

    I believe the song was inspired by the picture John Lennon's son drew. However, this picture provided the perfect escape goat about a song incorporating the use of the prominent substance, LSD. As later proved, the time period in which this song was produced "coincidently" was the time in which the band used LSD. John Lennon most likely saw his son's picture and had the idea to use the picture as a title for a song about his acid trips as a cover-up. Not only can the apparent "circumstantial" evidence and lyrical references can produce clues to a drug substance, the style of the music certainly does not make one think of childhood imagination. The voices sound shaky, the music creepy and not whimsical (as it would have been had the picture been the main point), and the overall effect is one of euphoric times. The imagery used is certainly less childish and more adult themed. Also, if the song had intended childhood imagination or his son's picture, surely they would have incorporated a reference to a child or something relating to one. All these convincingly point to drugs.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Oct 11th 2007 !⃝

    You guys make me smile. John said it wasn't about LSD, at the same time he wrote the song he admitted he was taking some quite regularly, so what would be the point for him to lie about it? He was always honest.
    And you wrote "look at the lyrics it is about LSD", no it is not. It seems most of you never took LSD, because what Lennon described is actually NOT the effect at all.

    Did you read alice in wonderland? this song is totally inspired by it. There are good chances Lewis Carroll was on drugs when he wrote it, but in 1863 I wonder how he could have got any LSD...

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 18th 2007 !⃝

    I don't know for sure but my interpretation is that when John's son showed John the picture of lucy he got the idea for the song. I think LSD does play a part in the song because I think the song is about hallucinating.

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 22nd 2007 !⃝

    LSD says it all really, I don't think a picture could make you imagine this so vividly and who cares anyway is a great song.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  14. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2007 !⃝

    Ok, here's the idea from piecing all evidence together. First it started with a picture a boy drew, yes. However durring the time they were writing the music for the album they were "experimenting" (which could be easily tranlated as being in love with the stuff)with LSD and Marijuana.

    My deduction:
    They got high on LSD and thought about or saw the picture Julian made and took off...hee hee...from there. I have to admit I've "experimented" with LSD and can offer some interpretation of how things where explained.

    Picture yourself on a boat on a river. descripive of the waves of feeling it kick in plus the feeling a like a bobber in the water.

    With Tangererine trees and Marmalade skys. If they had been experementin for a while they might have known about the strenghthening of the effect by drinking orange juice or any citris, not to mention some trips turn out to look like everything is an old orangy-marmalade like picture show.

    Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly. The effect you feel like time is moving slowly.

    A girl with Kaleidoscope eyes. I've actually stared into a friends eyes while tripping and his eyes changed colors like a kaleidoscope, or it could be the way the world looks on LSD.

    Cellophane flower of yellow and green. The way things look and feel as if they were transparent and soft in substance.

    Towering over your head. You often feel microscopic tripping.

    Look for the girl with sun in her eyes. Could be referenc to the picture Julian made as it is all quite yellow and sunny.

    And she's gone. If your tripping when you look at something you know what it's supposed to be, sometimes your mind will change the look of it.

    Refrain: Lucy in the sky with diamonds. Reveling in their muse with the understanding that it also refelcts the letters in with the drug they were using.

    Aaaah. Obviously enjoyiong themselves.

    Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain. Possibley the description of following a path brewed by the fountains of live.

    Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies. Stiff Upper class buisnessmen used cocaine so this could be their representation.

    Everyone smiles as you drift my the flowers. Mostly just pretty prose, but the drifting is the feeling of moving without touching the ground as one feels on LSD.

    That grow so incredibly high. Again, could be the smallness they were feeling or taking note about how high they are.

    Newspaper taxis appearon the shore. News papaers are black and white...just like police cars. On the shore is between their high and the drop that will eventually take place.

    Waiting to take you away. Back in the '60's Police were not allowed to approach persons on LSD because they feared out of control, violent rage. Or it could just be that they knew if they were caught they would be taken away by the police (more plausable).

    Climb in the back with your head in the clouds. Damn I'm caught, but I just don't care.

    And your gone. Well...they were.

    Picture yoursef on a train in a station. When entering the police station you notice everything is brick and the design is much like a train station.

    With Plasticine porters with looking glass ties. Every one seems faceless and unreal when your tripping and looking glass ties might be the mirrors you have to stand by when being booked in.

    Suddendly someone is there at the turnstile. Some has come to the window after going through the turnstile like check in.

    The girl with the looking glass eyes. Behold, you tripping buddy has come to spring you.

    That's what I have deduced.

  15. anonymous
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    Jun 19th 2007 !⃝

    It's about LSD L for Lucy, S for Sky, and D for Diamond

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway



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