“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.

"Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos

What If I'm a Mermaid?

"I was with my niece Cody, who was a little girl at the time, and she's very much a part of 'Silent All These Years,' because she loved fairytales and stories, and we would share the Little Mermaid story — Hans Christian Andersen and the idea that she'd lost her voice — and watching Cody respond to this young woman giving up her essence and power, all for something else, and in that moment, I realized that when she had no voice, that just completely took me to the place where I needed to go to reclaim it."

-- Rolling Stone Interview
"Silent All These Years" was written during Amos's search for self (and solo album material) after the failure of Y Kant Tori Read. According to her narrative during VH1 Storytellers, she originally wrote this song with Al Stewart in mind to sing it, and Eric Rosse, who was producing some other songs Amos had composed, heard it and told her, "You're out of your mind. That's your life story." So she kept it.

In the Little Earthquakes songbook, Amos reveals that writing the song was a slow, evolving process and that the light piano riff during the verses came first. This "bumble bee piano tinkle," as she calls it, is one of the more emblematic and recognizable parts of the song.

-- Songfacts



Silent All These Years 

Excuse me but can I be you for a while
My dog won't bite if you sit real still
I got the anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin' at me again
Yeah I can hear that
Been saved again by the garbage truck
I got something to say you know
But nothing comes
Yes I know what you think of me
You never shut-up
Yeah I can hear that

But what if I'm a mermaid 
In these jeans of his 
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These Years

So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thougts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best praya that I bleed real soon
How's that thought for you
My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there's a heaven
Where some screams have gone
I got 25 bucks and a cracker
Do you think it's enough
To get us there

Cause what if I'm a mermaid 
In these jeans of his 
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice
And it's been here
Silent All These...

Years go by 
Will I still be waiting
For somebody else to understand
Years go by
If I'm stripped of my beauty
And the orange clouds
Raining in head
Years go by 
Will I choke on my tears
Till finally there is nothing left
One more casualty
You know we're too easy Easy Easy

Well I love the way we communicate
Your eyes focus on my funny lip shape
Let's hear what you think of me now
But baby don't look up
The sky is falling
Your mother shows up in a nasty dress
It's your turn now to stand where I stand
Everybody lookin' at you here
Take hold of my hand
Yeah I can hear them

But what if I'm a mermaid 
In these jeans of his 
With her name still on it
Hey but I don't care
Cause sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice [x3]

And it's been here
Silent All These Years
I've been here
Silent All These Years

Video: Silent All These Years 

Knee Deep in Elephant Shit

Knee Deep in Elephant Shit
(The Music Industry's Dirty Little Secret)

"She's getting screwed!" That is the upshot of the email I just received. A friend had discovered a dirty little secret. Her favorite cult artist didn't make a DIME off records released on a major label. And my friend didn't know the half of it.

For an artist to make money off a record, it has to hit recoup: the point at which the record company decides they have recovered their investment producing the record, promoting the artist, company overhead... whatever else THEY feel should be added. (One day I'll tell you a nightmare story about what is happening right now with Amanda Palmer with the miscellanies charges idea.) The only way to get a better contract is to sell millions of records... and who, over the age of sixteen, does that these days?

Touring is almost as bad when it comes to screwing the average artist. Most artists (who aren't self releasing their own record) survive on the sales of merchandise from their website or at their show. If you are buying a CD or downloading through a major record company, most artist see little profit unless they are a major chart act.

This is why Jill Sobule, Aimee Mann, Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco and on and on are leaving record labels behind and starting there own. It isn't vanity -- it is a matter of survival. 

I admit I didn't know this until I started working for Jill. I assumed EVERY artist got a dollar of every CD released or a dime for every song downloaded. Nope. Many artist don't see the money. The selfish divas are not the people on stage. They are the ones sitting behind desks -- frighten that if the secret gets out they will run out of people to screw: the new acts eager to sign on the dotted line, not knowing the game.

When I tell people this, the reaction is always the same; "Why do they put up with it?" I ask Jill Sobule that. I could see in her eyes the thrill of meeting the fans and performing for them as she said, "It's just so much fun!"

It's good to hear that the music industry will soon be in the hands of people like her. The artist and fans are cutting out the middle man. So the next time you hear your favorite artist wants money to put out a record, jump up and down... send them a check -- you may be giving them your money for the first time. Even if you been buying their records for twenty years.

Jill She Is...

Marion LoGuidice: Sorry

Hi Vincent, what inspired "Sorry"?

Well, I felt like for years I was attracting the wrong kind of support. Situations where in order for me to get support, I felt as if I had to take care of the other person -- you know, keep them happy -- in order for them to stay interested in me enough to want to support me... I never felt that I was enough -- that I had to "do" something extra in order to be loved or supported or valued. I kept pulling in relationships and situations that were so degrading to my spirit and integrity... I would end in apologizing. 

When clearly it would be the other person who needed to apologize to me. But because I thought this was the only way to get support (that was all I knew) I was playing out the roll of the favorite royal subject to a lot of queens and kings.

When I reached my end of that game/myth that I was creating -- I started to say “No” to their outrageous requests of me that, of course, I could never ask of them. They lost interest in me and I started to no longer pull in all the "kings and queens." I walked through 500 miles of nothing for a while -- until I found my own tribe of support where I was valued and respected for who I truly am -- and not for what I can do for them -- finding a new home place to rest. 

That is it in a nut shell, that is what inspired that song. 
xxoo Marion Loguidice 

Tuesday, 5 January, 2010 

"Sorry"
by Marion LoGuidice

I could feel you shadow me
Touch my face
Like the peppermint breath of god
Oh it was cool but it had no place
To rest its grace when it came
And in the strange light of my youth burning
My spirit turning 

I crossed the bridge
To the highway
But I lost you there
I waved my arms
But you won't know where

And I searched the streets
I searched the woods
I searched the bottom of a well
Where all my wishes stood
And I searched the fog
And I searched the dream
But I couldn't find the one
The one who remembered me

All the useless things
I cling to in the mists of change
And what sustains a girl
When there's nothing in her world?

Defending her rainbow
And all my honesty
And my sincerity
Became like crippled 
Feet stumbling over me

And I started saying I'm sorry
I'm sorry all the time
I'm sorry I thought I had a the right
To demand back what was mine.

And I searched the streets
I searched the woods
I searched the bottom of a well
Where all my wishes stood
And I searched the fog
And I searched the dream
But I couldn't find the one
The one who remembered me

And I'm sorry for saying what I think is true
And I'm sorry for asking why you do what you do
And I'm sorry for thinking you might do what you say
And I'm sorry I thought I deserve to ask anyway
And I'm sorry I take up so much room when I cry
And I'm sorry I didn't shut my mouth when you lied
And I'm sorry that here is not where I belong
And I'm sorry it took me forty years too long

And I got so many “sorrys”
Slamming through my door
My rooms all jammed
And I cant find the window no more
I got so many “sorrys”

Hanging out my window pane
All the neighbors down there
Think I’m a woman insane

But I searched the streets
And I searched the woods 
And I searched the bottom of a well 
Where all my wishes stood
I search the fog 
And I searched the dream 
Until I finally found the one
The one who remembered me

I am a woman with no more apologies
I have beaten my heart to death with these
I am a woman with no more apologies

"Sorry" is on God's House 
and is available at
http://www.marionsmusic.com/

This is What it is Like: Anxiety

"Give me your camera," she said. Taking photos of Kmart before closing, Kerry had become serious and quiet. She was hunting an idea. As she squatted before a mirror, she handed me the camera, "Take my picture."

She was in another world.

"Thank you," she said later, "I have always wanted to do that. I wanted to take pictures of what it was like. The anxiety that used to seize me when I had to go into a shop and buy something. Sometimes I couldn't even get inside. I get back in my car and go home."

This is What it is Like: Creativity

"That's so cool," Kerry said. I had just taken a picture of her in front of a Christmas wreath at night. As I looked into the screen, Kerry was in focus but the lights behind her were streaky.

"I must have moved," I shrugged.

Her face lit up. She grabbed my camera and began to turn and bound about like an excited cat. In an instant she stopped and looked down at the screen.
"Oh! This is awesome!" She chuckled and began to run around in the dark --using the camera like a paint brush against a invisible mural. Sometimes when I write, I am in an altered state. I am flying -- time and the world vanishes. I have never taken drugs. Why should I? I bet they would be boring in comparison. There was no doubt about that as I watched Kerry and a camera.  (Photos by Kerry Nolte.)