These Lines of The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ Are About Drugs, According to Paul McCartney
The Beatles‘ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is often assumed to be about LSD. Paul McCartney said certain lines of the song reflect The Beatles’ drug use. On the other hand, John Lennon said the writing of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” had nothing to do with LSD.
Paul McCartney’s feelings on the trips behind The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed his experiences with LSD. “I had mixed feelings about it, certainly, but we took it and in songs like ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ when we were talking about ‘cellophane flowers’ and ‘kaleidoscope eyes’ and ‘grow so incredibly high!’ we were talking about drug experiences, no doubt about it,” he said.
Paul said he sometimes cried when he was on LSD because he felt like he’d seen God. “And sometimes you were just plain knackered, because it would be like sitting up all night in a train station, and by the morning you’ve grown very stiff and it’s not a party anymore,” he said.
The former Beatle said LSD is ‘freaky’ but he is glad that he used it
Paul said taking LSD had drawbacks. “It’s like the end of an all-nighter but you haven’t danced,” he said. “You just sat. So your bum might be sore, just from sitting.”
Despite this issue, Paul felt like he should take LSD anyway. “I was often quite wiped out by it all but I always thought, ‘Well, you know, everybody’s doing it,'” he recalled. “This is why I am always keen to warn people about peer pressure. I’ve certainly experienced it. It was quite freaky but I guess it was something I wouldn’t want to have missed in many ways.”
John Lennon had a different perspective on ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’
It’s also essential to discuss John’s view of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono has an interview from 1980. During the interview, John was adamant that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was not a song about LSD. He said he was inspired to write the track when his son, Julian Lennon, gave him a drawing of a girl named Lucy in the sky surrounded by diamonds.
John revealed the track was also inspired by a passage from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland where Alice is in a boat. The former Beatle was likely referring to a scene from the book’s sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. In addition, John said he wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” because he wanted to find a dream girl who would save him. He said she turned out to be Yoko Ono. While John was open about The Beatles’ drug use, he insisted it had nothing to do with the famed Sgt. Pepper track.
Whatever inspired The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” it’s still one of the best psychedelic rock tunes.
