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Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

John Lennon: Vocals, electric guitar, piano
Paul McCartney: Organ, bass guitar, vocals
George Harrison: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, tamboura, vocals
Ringo Starr: Drums, maracas

Recorded March 1, 2 1967.

Available on:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles/1967-1970
Anthology 2

It's a well-known theory that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds really stands for LSD (Lucy-Sky-Diamonds).

But John Lennon always disputed this.

Lennon said he got the idea to the lyrics one afternoon when his then four-year-old son Julian came home from nursery school with a drawing. Julian had drawn a sky, stars and a girl, and told his dad that it was Lucy in the sky with diamonds. Lucy was in fact Lucy O'Donnell, one of Julian's school friends.

This triggered John's imagination. He had always been fascinated by the surreal, and in particular by two of Lewis Carroll's books, Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. He later said that the hallucinary images in the song were inspired by the chapter Wool and Water in the latter book, where Alice is taken down the river in a rowing boat ("Picture yourself in boat on a river").

However, Lennon did admit in later interviews that he frequently used the drug LSD between 1966 and 1968, and it's of course possible that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was an attempt to describe a LSD trip. It is also possible that the lyrics were written while Lennon was under the influence of the drug. Nevertheless, the fact that the song title could be shortened to L-S-D is most likely to have been a coincidence.

The Beatles used several effects in the recording studio to create the dream-like, surrealistic atmosphere that surrounds Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Firstly, Lennon's child-like, high-pitched voice was created by recording him at slow speed before playing the track back at normal speed. In addition, his microphone was put through a Leslie amplifier inside a Hammond organ (Beatles had used the same technique on Tomorrow Never Knows from 1966's Revolver).

George Harrison played the Indian tamboura on the song, an Indian, guitar-like instrument which makes a drone sound. Together with McCartney's delightful bass line and Ringo's timely use of cymbals it all sounded weird and wonderful at the same time.

It was McCartney who played the song's distinctive opening passage on a Hammond organ. The organ was taped with a special organ stop to create the celeste-like sound.

Several artists have covered Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, the most famous version is Elton John's remake which was recorded in 1974 and which features John Lennon on backing vocals and guitar (he used the pseudonym Dr. Winston O'Boogie). This version was released as a single and topped the US charts for two weeks in January 1975.

Lennon's last live appearance was at Elton John's Madison Square Garden concert in 1974. The two friends did a version of Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, which can be heard on the CD box set entitled Lennon from 1990. The single version is available on a number of Elton John's greatest hits records, such as The Very best of Elton John.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds