Beatles and “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
LONDON (AFP) - For years, Beatles fans have thought that one of the band’s most famous songs was about drugs, but a British housewife said Friday it was inspired by a painting of her by John Lennon’s young son.
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” a track on the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” which marks its 40th anniversary Friday, was a 1960s drug culture anthem which was widely believed to be about LSD.
But Lucy Vodden, 43, a three-year-old classmate of Julian Lennon when the song was written, told BBC radio: “Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day, his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school.
“I can imagine him painting a figure and saying: ‘That’s my friend Lucy at school’ and his father consequently asking questions: ‘What’s that in the sky?’ or ‘What’s surrounding it?’”
Vodden’s claims have been backed up by a string of Beatles biographers but she has struggled to persuade her own friends that the story is true, she said.
“When I told a couple of friends that ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ was about me, they said: ‘No, it can’t be, it’s to do with LSD,’” she said.
“I was too embarrassed to tell them that I didn’t know what LSD was.”
The BBC is broadcasting a documentary on the album featuring cover versions of the Beatles tunes by Oasis, The Killers and Kaiser Chiefs among others.
And academics in Leeds, northern England, are preparing to hold a seminar on the significance of the album, which many critics consider the most influential pop album of all time.
