Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Lyrics



Lennon/McCartney


Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she's gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmellow pies,
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you're gone.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes.

 
Lead Singer: John

Recording: 2/28/67, 3/1/67, 3/2/67
Mixing: 3/2/67, 3/3/67, 4/7/67
Length: 3:25
Take: 8

Anomalies

0:13
Left, click
0:45
Cough ? * NEW * Has also been suggested that this is Ringo's hi-hat banging together more loudly and sibiliantly than expected, possibly as a result of treading on the pedal too hard to close the cymbal, but there is a distinctly cough-like quality :)
0:50
Guitar breaks through on right channel just before the "Lucy .."
1:32
John sings "grows so incredibly high", and a much delayed "igh" is heard. Was this from a previous take?
1:53-1:56
Lead guitar drops out (Right)
2:34
Paul sings harmony on the "Lu" syllable in "Lucy"; he was supposed to sing in tandem with John, and corrects himself by the second syllable.
3:08
Printthrough of "Aaah" audible on right channel
Many people thought this was about drugs, since the letters "LSD" are prominent in the title, and John Lennon, who wrote it, was known to drop acid. Lennon claimed it was inspired by a picture his 4-year-old son Julian drew in school. Julian's picture was of his school friend, Lucy O'Donnell.
The images Lennon used in the song were based on the book Alice In Wonderland.
George Harrison played a tambura on this. It's an Indian instrument similar to a sitar that makes a droning noise. He had been studying with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who is the father of Norah Jones.
This was banned by the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) for what they thought were drug references.
In 1974, this was a #1 hit for Elton John. Lennon sang and played guitar on his version.
Actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on Star Trek, covered this in his dramatic, spoken-word style. In at least one poll, this version was voted the worst Beatles cover of all time.
In 1974, a 3-million-year-old skeleton was discovered. It was named "Lucy" because this song was played over and over at the party after the discovery.
Lennon said "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" turned out to be Yoko.
During the media controversy over this song in June of 1967, Paul McCartney admitted to a reporter that the band did experiment with LSD. (thanks, Adrian - Wilmington, DE)
In 2004, McCartney addressed the issue of drugs in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper: "'Day Tripper,' that's one about acid. 'Lucy In The Sky,' that's pretty obvious. There are others that make subtle hints about drugs, but it's easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on The Beatles' music. Just about everyone was doing drugs in one form or another, and we were no different, but the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time."
A group called John Fred and his Playboy Band had a #1 hit in 1968 with "Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)," a song that was a parody of this.
In the Anthology one of the Beatles referred to being on LSD as like seeing through a kaleidoscope. Although Lennon denied this is about drugs, it does refer to "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes." (thanks, delirium trigger - new brunswick, NY)
 
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