We were comparing the poem Kubla Khan to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The lyrics were haphazard and didnt frequently make much sense, until you considered that they were probably high as a damn bird. So here is the question: Is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds about lsd, or drugs in specific, or is it just a big coincidence.
Yes.
I think Lennon denied it was about LSD, and said it was about a drawing his son (Julian?) did in grade school of his friend Lucy, in the sky, with diamonds.
I don’t see why he’d lie about it, it wasn’t exactly a secret they did drugs.
The drawing itself can be seen here on the site of our frequent friend Snopes.
BTW this belongs in Cafe Society.
OK, but what are the rest of the lyrics about?
It’s just made up nonsense, fantasy stuff. Lennon was just making up stuff a kid would draw the world as. The Beatles’ lyrics were, as often as not, about mundane, everyday things.
If it HAD been about LSD, he absolutely would have said so. It wasn’t in Lennon’s nature to lie about that sort of thing, or even go to a lot of trouble to avoid talking about it.
We’ve done this in Café Society. I’ve searched on several key words and can’t find it, but I think it was started by commasense complaining about Snopes and affirming and reaffirming his belief that “Lucy” was about drugs no matter what anybody else said. And everybody else said nay.
Apologies if I’m remembering the OPs name incorrectly.
Yeah, but knowing Lennon and his penchant for wordplay, he must have slyly enjoyed the joke how the initials formed “L-S-D.” Even though he really did get the title from Julian, the coincidence of the initials would not have been lost on him.
For that matter, James Joyce put “l.s.d.” into Finnegans Wake at least ten years before LSD was even discovered! (In Ireland, it meant “pounds, shillings, pence.”)
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
And to close the circle and bring it back around into Pop Music Station, Amber did a song called “Yes” a few years back, the lyrics of which are Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses (“I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes”). Realizing what this techno dance song I’d been listening to for weeks WAS once I stopped and actually heard the lyrics was kind of cool…
You don’t have to be high to be imaginative. Lennon was a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and similar works. Look at I am the Walrus.
Your question however has a few faults. The title is a coincidence, the lyrics probably aren’t.
Man you should’ve seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
Are we really willing to believe that someone with the lyric-writing experience of JL did NOT notice the possible meaning of the initials, especially with the trippy stuff he’d put in there?
There’s no court=type proof of where he got the idea, but he has to have been ok with people thinking it was about the drug, or he wouldn’t have left it that way.
OK, I read the Snopes page, and I’ll admit it’s pretty damaging to my theory, but I just can’t quite accept that he didn’t notice that entire time.
Is it reasonable at all to think that he’d had his records burned before because of his comments, and he just didn’t feel like going through it again?
I’ve noticed a few things about John (and Paul) after watching countless hours of interviews and reading many more. He liked to talk about himself, and he was pretty much brutually honest. If he was thinking it, he’d say it. He was never shy about his drug use or his enjoyment of said use, and he even admitted that a few songs were drug influenced (I believe there is a story in Many Years From Now by Barry Miles where he pretty much said “Yeah, I Am the Walrus was heavily influenced by drugs…”)
Given his honesty in nearly all of his interviews, and in his songs (“Help” was really a cry for help, at the time) I believe him on this issue.
I think if the Internet had been around at the time, he probably would have noticed. In these days of quick communications, we tend to notice and use significant letters and abbreviations (LOTR, NATO, scuba, laser, NASA). It may be hard to imagine that thirty-five years ago, it took “clever people” (according to the Snopes cite) to notice the connection. It may never would have occurred to Shakespeare that “Taming of the Shrew” spells TOTS. But perhaps he never did.
I’m also inclined to believe those who said Lennon was honest—and given his other admissions, why keep the secret for so long unless it truly didn’t exist?
(Just adding to pepperlandgirl’s comment)
There is a paperback collection of Playboy interviews with Lennon in which he runs down the inspiration and collaborative responsibility for numerous Beatles songs. These were from the mid to late '70’s, well past the time he felt any pressure from the Beatle image. He freely gives Paul both credit and criticism, openly describes how “Tomorrow Never Knows” and other songs were drug influenced, and trashes some of his own songs as filler. He remained true to his story about “Lucy in the Sky,” if he was perpetuating a fraud I can’t imagine why.
Hmm…on preview I see that last sentence is almost lyrical
“Paul is dead” but Lucy in the sky is not…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm
For you lazy brothers and sisters, we have a newly discovered star in the cosmos called “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” God bless the Grateful Dead and hippy astronomers.
This was my rant a couple months ago:
It meant that in the UK as well. It’s just a coinkydink.
As to the letters; the Sgt Pepper movie had “L-S-D” print itself across the sky in huge letters in time with the song, and I hear Lennon was not entirely happy about that.
What on earth are those sounds and lyrics describing if it’s not an acid trip; the whole thing is the personification of an acid trip.
What are you people not on drugs !