Some may think of it as their favorite song. For others it may remind them of a time when Civil Rights, Feminism, and Anti-War movements were at their peak while tied together in the multi-colored bow symbolizing Peace. But what has become a more popular belief about The Beatle’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is that the song is an acronym for the culturally popular drug of the time period: LSD. LSD is commonly known as “Acid,” though some will call it a psychedelic, but for The Beatles it may be more appropriate to call it “inspiration.”
But what is less commonly known about his song is that it was not brought on or even inspired by LSD, but by John Lennon’s, a member of the band, son. Lennon’s son Julian came home from his nursery school one day with a picture to show his father. When Lennon asked his son what the picture was of, Julian’s response was, “Lucy—In the Sky with Diamonds.” The girl “Lucy” that Julian was referring to was a classmate of his, which he later admitted to having something of a childhood crush on.
Lennon was so moved by his son’s response that it inspired him immediately to write the song about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
The public made what they wanted to from this song, they craved some sort of scandal or irony from the band, and so fans dwelled on this mere coincidence and took it as an assumed double meaning. The true story of the origin of this song comes from a tender moment between a father and son, and the art of pure, unexpected poetry.
Had their fans taken the song for what it truly meant, The Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds may have affected people in a vastly different way. This is most definitely not the only time this has occurred in the art world. In this blog we also discuss Georgia O'Keeffe's artwork, and how the art community imposed their own belief and urges onto her artwork. This drastically changed the way we saw and felt about her artwork, and the same imposition happened to this song. We only heard what we wanted to here, or as Sontag would say, we tamed the work of art to make it manageable and comformable.
here
