“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles

The Real Lucy

There is something about this world that doesn't trust the child. We grow up and regard a kid's view as stupid, naive... of little value. Through out his life, John Lennon insisted that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" wasn't inspired by an LSD trip, but a simple drawing his son Julian had done of a classmate. Sure, everyone knew that the Beatles were using drugs (after all, they let Ringo sing) but Lennon was under the influence of Lewis Carroll as he wrote this beautiful, dream like song.

Julian's classmate, Lucy O'Donnell (later Lucy Vodden), was enrolled at the private Heath House School, in Weybridge, Surrey. In a 1975 interview John Lennon said, "Julian came in one day with a picture about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." That was the inspiration for the song.

Julian Lennon re-connected with Lucy many years later after she appeared on a BBC broadcast where she stated: "I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant... Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school."

The original drawing by Julian Lennon

"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," Lucy told the Associated Press. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Recently Julian Lennon helped his old friend as she battle lupus by sending her gifts and messages to brighten her day. "I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," he told the Associated Press. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

In her last months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits. In 2009 she lost her battle at the age of 46. To me, it is important to know the real muse of the song and understand that it is a playful portrait of childhood wonder. During Lucy's life, people didn't get that. It embarrassed her to be associated with a "drug song." That is a pity. The next time you read the lyrics or hear the song, remember the drawing and the real Lucy in the sky. Art, to me, is the ability to suddenly see something you have seen a thousand times -- for the first time.

Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
(by Lennon and 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 marshmallow 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 turnstile,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes.