# Poll: Is “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” about LSD / drugs / psychedelia, or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 9, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334 "2025-03-09T15:24:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/21 "2025-03-09T20:56:37Z")
It’s kind of a silly question. No matter how the vote goes we won’t know the answer. Because the only person who knows the answer is dead. Despite what you see on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” you cannot get an answer to a factual question by conducting a poll. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/22 "2025-03-09T21:07:46Z")
Even if John conceived and wrote the song, even if for some reason his brain was so addled by drugs that he couldn’t detect the glaringly obvious LSD relationship yet somehow he could still compose and perform some of the most popular and endeared music of all time, someone would have mentioned it to him. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/23 "2025-03-09T21:27:14Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > It’s kind of a silly question. No matter how the vote goes we won’t know the answer. Because the only person who knows the answer is dead. It’s an opinion poll. Which I created because it became a debate in the other thread. Yes, we’ll never know for sure how much drug influence actually inspired the song, even if we were to bring Lennon back in a seance. Few members of rock bands are reliable narrators of their own history from that era. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/24 "2025-03-09T22:25:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Maybe once, sure, but over the year, he denied it over and over in multiple interviews, sometimes getting a bit angry even. After throwing his son the bone of being the inspiration for the song, there was no way Lennon could back out of the story without hurting his son’s feelings. Especially after Paul had famously recorded a song inspired by Julian (“Hey Jude”.) ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/25 "2025-03-09T22:32:31Z")
Next maybe we could do Puff the Magic Dragon, which was totally never about smoking pot or the boy who grew out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/26 "2025-03-09T22:45:53Z")
There’s one word of that song that makes sense as a marijuana reference, and every single other word that doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/27 "2025-03-09T22:48:18Z")
All i want is the truth. Just gimme some truth. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/28 "2025-03-09T22:56:17Z")
Pi can’t be the result of the division of any two ‘rational’ numbers (which can be). And that’s the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/29 "2025-03-09T23:10:10Z")
There was a widespread belief that The Move’s 1966 hit\* song “Night of Fear” referenced a bad LSD trip. Sample lyrics: _Image on your bedroom wall_ _Shadows marching in the hall_ _Just about to flip your mind_ _Just about to trip your mind_ _Just about to flip your mind_ _Just about to trip your mind_ _The green and purple lights affect your sight_ _Your mother cannot comfort you tonight_ _Your brain calls out for help that’s never there_ _The silent night has turned to a night of fear_ Druggy references in this and other songs by Roy Wood were denied by drummer Bev Bevan, who claimed they were based on fairy tales from Roy’s childhood. Well alrighty then. 😃 \*in the UK. \*rhyming “there” and “fear” suggests a certain amount of neuronal distortion, whether drug-enabled or not. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/30 "2025-03-09T23:23:15Z")
Oh, and this song has absolutely _nothing_ to do with drugs. It’s about medical research. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rs8GW_Q_eF8/maxresdefault.jpg "19-The Fuzztones- Romilar D") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs8GW_Q_eF8) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2025, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/31 "2025-03-09T23:50:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But yes, it is psychedelic rock, no doubt. And the Beatles were in their drug phase- no doubt. > > But the song isnt directly about drugs or LSD. It isnt a sneaking reference to LSD. Did some drug fueled visions get in there? Maybe. These are also my thoughts. Not everything is about something specific, sometimes things are just fun. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, rather than a spade a spade. _(I’m not sure if that made sense)_ ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/32 "2025-03-10T02:40:30Z")
Lennon was a huge fan of Lewis Carroll, who was one of the biggest influences on his “psychedelic” era. Edward Lear was another. Both Carroll and Lear created their “trippy” art long before tripping was a thing. I mean, there are some people who think they “must have” eaten some blue mushrooms, but it’s highly unlikely either was into anything stronger than a nice cup of tea. Creative people create. I’ve been around plenty of drugged out people in my life, and I’ve never seen one create anything that approaches greatness. It’s usually mindless burble, if anything. A highly talented creative person on psychedelic drugs might use the experience to fuel their creativity, but the drugs - any drugs - do not lead to creativity. Quite the opposite in my experience. So, no. Lennon created the song in question (and all the rest of his oeuvre) because he was a hugely talented artist, not because he took LSD. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/33 "2025-03-10T02:43:27Z")
Lennon was full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/34 "2025-03-10T12:50:01Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I’ve been around plenty of drugged out people in my life, and I’ve never seen one create anything that approaches greatness. It’s usually mindless burble, if anything. > > A highly talented creative person on psychedelic drugs might use the experience to fuel their creativity, but the drugs - any drugs - do not lead to creativity. Quite the opposite in my experience. I don’t agree with you about LitSwD not being about LSD, but I do agree that drug use does not lead to increased creativity. In 1968 when the Beatles swore off drugs and went to the TM retreat in India, it was one of the most productive periods for their songwriting. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/35 "2025-03-10T19:41:33Z")
So, let us look at the idea that LitSwD was secretly written to be about LSD. So, Lennon writes that song, forges a drawing by his kid, then lies about it for 13 years, taking the secret to his grave- because- he wanted to fool his fans? Even tho other songs were admittedly about drugs in the same album, and the Beatles made no big secret out of LSD use. Here is what Paul said, per wiki- [Paul McCartney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney) _remembered of the song’s composition, “We did the whole thing like an Alice in Wonderland idea, being in a boat on the river … Every so often it broke off and you saw Lucy in the sky with diamonds all over the sky. This Lucy was God, the Big Figure, the White Rabbit.”[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-aldridge-10) He later recalled helping Lennon finish the song at Lennon’s [Kenwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenwood,_St._George%27s_Hill) home, specifically claiming he contributed the “newspaper taxis” and “cellophane flowers” lyrics.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-anthology-8)[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-parkinson-12) Lennon’s 1968 interview with [Rolling Stone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_Stone) magazine confirmed McCartney’s contribution.[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-13)_ _When you write a song and you mean it one way, and someone comes up and says something about it that you didn’t think of – you can’t deny it. Like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” people came up and said, cunningly, “Right, I get it. L-S-D,” and it was when [news]papers were talking about LSD, but we never thought about it.[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-aldridge-10)_ The claim that Paul said it was about LSD comes from _In a 2004 interview with Uncut magazine, McCartney confirmed it was “pretty obvious” drugs did influence some of the group’s compositions at that time, including “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, though he tempered this statement by adding, “[I]t’s easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on the Beatles’ music.”[[28]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_in_the_Sky_with_Diamonds#cite_note-uncut-28)_ So, Paul saying drugs did influence the album is different than Paul saying “Yeah, Lucy was about LSD”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/36 "2025-03-10T20:20:10Z")
OK, DrDeth, you convinced me-- the song with the most psychedelic lyrics on the Beatles’ most psychedelic album, that just happens to have the initials LSD prominently appearing in the title, written during a time period when they were known to be experimenting with LSD, has absolutely nothing to do with LSD-- because Lennon said so. Sure, the song is _only_ about Alice in Wonderland, since Lennon was such a big Lewis Carroll fan. Just like the Jefferson Airplane song of the same year, [White Rabbit](https://genius.com/Jefferson-airplane-white-rabbit-lyrics), was also _only_ about Alice in Wonderland and had nothing whatsoever to do with drugs. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/37 "2025-03-10T20:27:03Z")
> [@solost](#): > > the song with the most psychedelic lyrics on the Beatles’ most psychedelic album Within You Without You is on the same album and is pretty psychedelic, too. Magical Mystery Tour is just as psychedelic, maybe more so. Anyway, I think it was just the drawing. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/38 "2025-03-11T04:58:00Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Sure, the song is _only_ about Alice in Wonderland, since Lennon was such a big Lewis Carroll fan. I don’t think anyone here is saying that _Lucy_ had **zero** influence from Lennon’s use of LSD, just that it wasn’t the **only** influence, or the most important one. What I’m saying, and I think what others here have also said, is that the “LSD” initials were a coincidence, not a deliberate reference. The Beatles made deliberate references to many things, including drugs, and also including people reading meanings into literal nonsense lyrics in Beatles songs. The Beatles never hid any meanings in a way that “clever” fans were supposed to be able to figure out. Their lyrics, and rock lyrics in general, are not coded word puzzles. In as much as there was ever any real meaning, it was obvious, not hidden. And the rare exceptions, like “Got to get you into my life” being a love song about weed, were still not meant to be worked out by sufficiently aware fans, it was just a personal meaning that, if Macca had never mentioned it, would still be unknown to anyone. Lennon’s lyrics, especially during his psychedelic era, were literally nonsense in the same way that Edward Lear’s verse was nonsense. Not having any meaning other than the sound of the words and the feeling they create in the listener. Impressionistic word salad. Never a puzzle to be figured out rationally. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/39 "2025-03-11T12:46:44Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I don’t think anyone here is saying that _Lucy_ had **zero** influence from Lennon’s use of LSD, just that it wasn’t the **only** influence, or the most important one. > > What I’m saying, and I think what others here have also said, is that the “LSD” initials were a coincidence, not a deliberate reference. You make a reasoned, cogent argument. And you may be right, the song may have just the merest slight influence from Lennon’s use of LSD, and the initials are just a coincidence. I remain skeptical, but we’ll never know for sure. Happy Dopeaversary, @RitterSport ! ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334/40 "2025-03-11T12:57:52Z")
Thanks! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-is-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-about-lsd-drugs-psychedelia-or-not/1015334.md?page=3)