“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” — written and with primary vocals by John Lennon — is one of The Beatles’ most famous songs, but it has often been accompanied by controversy. It wasn’t even that popular upon its release in 1967, only reaching #1 on the Billboard charts in 1974 when Elton John covered the song.
Part of the reason it didn’t take off in the UK was because the BBC actually banned it from the radio. Since the creation of the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was influenced by drugs, the BBC couldn’t really pinpoint which songs were drug references. Many people still claim that “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” refers to a trip on the drug LSD, but Lennon set the record straight.
John Lennon said “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” is not about LSD
In a 1971 interview, John opened up about the true meaning behind the song and it is much more wholesome. He said, “It never was [about LSD] and nobody believes me. This is the truth: My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around.”
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He continued, “I said, ‘What is it?’ and he said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds,’ and I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’ I immediately wrote a song about it. The song had gone out, the whole album had been published and somebody noticed that the letters spelled out LSD, and I had no idea about it. … It wasn’t about [LSD] at all.”
Even though Lennon said many times over the years that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was not about LSD, some people bed to differ. Listen to the iconic song below: