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Beatles - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds Song Meanings

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This song was inspired by a picture John Lennon's son drew of a girl named Lucy.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2005-06-27 13:50:20     Rating:

LSD

Submitted by: Lisa
Added: 2005-06-27 19:08:48     Rating:

The whole LSD thing is total crap, the song was inspired by a picture that julian lennon made of a girl in a park called lucy, and it happened that the 3 main words initials spelt LSD.. this fitted in with the bands drugs phase and to be honest, they probably noticed themselves and thought it was funny. If you read the lyrics there are 'cellophane flowers', and 'newspaper taxis', all things that a child would incorporate into a picture. The picture was on display in a London art gallery until the late 90's.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2005-07-09 20:38:20     Rating:

Its about cocaine, I was thinking. Lucy, is in the sky, obviously high, and with diamonds. Maybe he really meant crystals?

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2005-09-14 20:25:16     Rating:

Paul McCartney recently admitted that the song was about being high on LSD.

Submitted by: babykicker
Added: 2005-11-01 14:01:17     Rating:

All I know is that the Beatles stated that it came from John Lennon's son who drew a picture of one of his classmates, her name was Lucy. John asked what's that picture of? His son replied ... 'it's lucy in the sky with diamonds.'

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2005-11-01 18:42:56     Rating:

I've heard that it's a combination of both LSD and the picture by Julian. Julian brought the picture home, then while John was on a LSD trip he was inspired and wrote the song. He included things that Julian had in the picture, but also included things that wouldn't be from a child's mind. I feel it's just an inspiration from both and he combined parts from them to write the song. Either way, it's a fun song to listen to.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2005-11-26 06:53:14     Rating:

The Simpsons even did an episode where Lisa Simpson trips on somethings accidentally producing an LSD-like effect. She flys around the sky and they use the lyrics "Lisa in the Sky with Diamonds" Although it is a comedy cartoon, they writers are very well informed on pop culture history. If you need to be sure about this then take a hit and listen to the song. You will know the answer for yourself after that.

Submitted by: DrunkenLlama
Added: 2006-01-18 22:12:44     Rating:

According to the Beatles, one day in 1966 Lennon's son Julian came home from nursery school with a drawing he said was of his classmate, a girl named Lucy. Showing the artwork to his father, young Julian described the picture as "Lucy - in the sky with diamonds."

Julian later 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 for a song about Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
Who was Lucy?
Four year old Lucy O'Donnell was about a year older than Julian Lennon when he enrolled at the private Heath House School in Weybridge, Surrey. John Lennon and the other Beatles visited her family's antique and jewellery shop now and then, so the family knew Julian. When the little boy became homesick or unsettled at school, Lucy would be called out of class to sit with him while he drew pictures.

In 2005, her sister Mary Foster said, "One day John Lennon came into the shop and said, 'Hello, Lucy in the sky with diamonds.' We thought it was just John being John." When the song appeared on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Richardsons noticed the name but weren't sure of any connection until 1975, when Lennon told an interviewer the story of his son's picture.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-02-01 13:38:08     Rating:

It makes good sense to believe that Lucy O'Donnell was a real person and the initial inspiration for this song. But to say the whole song is about Julian's picture is absurd. The idea and some lyrics came from the picture, but the song is clearly about LSD.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-02-22 00:21:44     Rating:

The song was inspired by the picture drawn by Jullian, but I think John wasn't stupid he knew what Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was LSD I think he played on that so people like me and you will sit here debating what it's about over 35 years later even if he did include what he saw on a LSD trip but he was really

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-03-09 21:08:45     Rating:

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, main word's first letters are "L" "S" "D"
it's about acid people

Submitted by: SurferManHead
Added: 2006-03-09 22:42:24     Rating:

I know John Lennon has been on acid (LSD) many times before this song was written but whether that is what the song name is about is up to you. John was working with Bob Dylan at the time and he wanted to write a song relating to Alice in Wonderland. Thus all of the weird trippy things in the song.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-03-12 13:01:20     Rating:

Everyone who said it's about a picture Lennon's son painted is right. It's not about LSD.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-03-23 22:53:48     Rating:

It's actually none of those things; this song is the mirror to "I am the walrus" and is actually about being a walrus in the USSR.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-03-25 22:16:37     Rating:

here are the lyrics, don't tell me this isn't about LSD:

Picture yourself in boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalde 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,
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,
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.

Now with that written, how in the world is a kid supposed to draw that? I do know that this song is influenced by the picture, but also LSD. look at the lyrics carefully.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-03 18:15:20     Rating:

OK, all you people who are looking for an excuse or a sign to like point out drugs in EVERY BEATLES SONG are full of shit. Yellow submarine isn't about drugs, this song isn't about drugs, and strawberry field forever isn't about drugs. They are just great musicians.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-25 18:30:45     Rating:

It was said before that this song is a mirror to I am The Walrus. This is sort of correct, but it's really that I Am The Walrus reffers to THIS. I'm sure that this had some socialist means, because I Am The Walrus did, and it refers to Lucy in the Sky in that song.

I'm sure most of you are saying "it's not about LSD" and those saying "ITS SOOO ABOUT LSD" have both probably never experienced this stuff. I'm SURE he was either high, or drawing from past experiences of being high when he wrote it, but it odsnt mean that's what the whole things about.

Being a lyricist, and a strange one at that, I know where you get these things from. Sometimes ill be writing a song and say to myself "hmm I remember that one time when..." and make a small refference to something, but not make the whole song about it. It probably had refferences to Julians picture, and lucy herself, but he was clearly high or thinking of haullucinations when he wrote it.
Kaleidascope eyes gives it away. I was thinking today "when you look through a Kaleidascope, you see these shimmery things swirling around (diamonds) and then he thought about Lucy, being in this kaleidascope. Something he might have seen when high on LSD.

So look, it's based on the picture, but inspired by a trip. That's the short story. But I'm sure that everything means somthing else, even "rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies".... Its all metaphoric and based on SOMETHING. That's how the brain works.

Just don't assume it was scrambled down on paper randomly while tripping, but also don't assume that those crazy lyrics where written while clean for a week.

-Matt Vituccio

Submitted by: klayfox
Added: 2006-05-06 07:22:16     Rating:

I was doing research, and the effects of LSD last for about 8 to 12 hours which is definitely enough time to write lyrics with a basic tune you want for the song. I'm not saying they wrote this song on LSD, but I'm saying that if they did, they surely had enough time to do it.

Submitted by: mightymuffin5042
Added: 2006-06-12 17:07:55     Rating:

Well, above, you don't exactly decide to write a song and go "Ok. I've got between 8-12 hours to write this song since I must be high the entire time or it won't come out right. Ready. Set. Go."

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