Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

"We hope you have enjoyed the show." Indeed, we have.

If you've read any of the better biographies of The Beatles, you'll find that the flow of their creative waters were not moved by just their own internal thoughts. As writers, they often picked up on external inspirations rather easily and were able to expand lyrically on the simplest of stimulae. For example, their landmark 1967 album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" contained two key songs that were directly inspired by works of art. One was the 1843 circus poster that John Lennon had obtained in an art gallery that contains the lyrical script of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" nearly verbatim. The other was "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", which came from a drawing done at pre-school by Lennon's young son, Julian.

Relax and give a listen to The Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" in case it's been a while.

Julian Lennon's drawing of Lucy in the sky. With diamonds, of course.

Far from being Lennon's overt paean of admiration for the virtues of the psychedelic drug LSD, (to which Lennon was admittedly no stranger by then), the idea for the song presented itself in a sketch by 4 year old Julian Lennon, depicting his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell, floating in the sky with diamonds as stars. In a 2009 interview, Julian Lennon said, "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show Dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea."

Although Paul McCartney did have some lyrical input on the song, he acted mostly as a sounding board for Lennon on this one, who said this about the song's alleged drug glorification in 1980. "I had no idea it spelt LSD. This is the truth; my son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange looking woman flying around. I said, 'What is it?' and he said, 'It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds', and I thought, 'That's beautiful', and I immediately wrote a song about it. It was purely unconscious that it came out to be LSD. Until somebody pointed it out, I never even thought of it. I mean, who would ever bother to look at the initials of a title?"

The real Lucy O'Donnell-Vodden, as a pre-schooler and in her early 40's.

But Lennon also revealed that many of the song's trippy images were adapted from Lewis Carroll's book "Alice In Wonderland". "It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep, and the next minute they are rowing in a boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me; a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be 'Yoko In The Sky With Diamonds'. But she was my imaginary girl that we all have."

And as for the real Lucy of the title? Julian's classmate Lucy O'Donnell didn't know she had been immortalized in a Beatles song until 1976, when she was 13. Sadly, Lucy O'Donnell-Vodden passed away from complications of Lupus in September of 2009 at age 46. Earlier that year, Julian had released an EP, "Lucy", when he found out that his childhood friend was suffering from Lupus. All the proceeds from the EP benefited the Lupus Foundation in the United States and UK. Julian then revealed that the original drawing had been lost, but was later discovered to have been bought at auction by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Gilmour permitted the drawing to be reproduced for the EP sleeve, but retains ownership of the original to this day.

Partake at your own risk.

Even by the mid-1970's, the heartbreak of The Beatles being no more was still a relatively fresh wound on the musical heart of the public, but the love for their music continued unabated. Each of The Fabs had racked up solo successes by then, and some of that would be arguably the best music of their careers. Assorted soundtrack recordings and tribute covers of varying degrees of quality were selling well, including the numerous and numbingly bad cover versions of Beatle songs by TV personalities; best represented by William Shatner's notoriously hammy take of "Lucy In The Sky..." that can be cordially described as... unique.

When Elton met John, and vice versa.

It was in this Beatle-receptive environment that Elton John released his cover recording of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" as a stand-alone single in November of 1974. Recorded at the Caribou Ranch In Colorado around the time of other sessions that resulted in Elton's 1975 hit album, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy", the single featured backing vocals and guitar by John Lennon under the pseudonym of Dr. Winston O'Boogie. The single topped the US Billboard pop charts for two weeks in January of 1975.

There's not much info I can find regarding how or where the two met, but it happened during Lennon's infamous "Lost Weekend" period earlier in 1974 when he was separated from Yoko Ono and getting around quite a bit, but generally adrift and behaving badly. Their meeting resulted in Lennon appearing on Elton's cover of "Lucy...", and the intended b-side for the single, which was Lennon's song, "One Day At A Time." In return, Elton was featured on "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night", which appeared on Lennon's "Walls And Bridges" album. Later that year, on Thanksgiving Day, in what would be Lennon's last major live performance, the pair performed these two #1 hits along with the Beatles classic "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lennon made the rare stage appearance with Elton and his band to keep his end of a wager Elton had made with him that Lennon would appear on stage with Elton if "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" became a #1 single. It was also that same evening that Yoko and John were reunited; for good this time.

Here is the Elton/Lennon version of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"; a remarkable recording in that it features the author participating in a thorough reinvention, which completely respects the original song while sounding like absolutely no one except the artist doing the cover. Enjoy!

The Hooters

It's one thing for musicians who are fans to perform straight covers of their favorite songs, and that's the most common approach. It's quite another to attempt another reinvention; especially when it was previously done so well and with considerable success. That takes a brave band with a unique sound.

The ride taken by The Hooters from the suburban bars of Philadelphia to the big stages of the world went into overdrive starting in 1983 with the release of a self-produced, 8 song EP which sold over 100,000 copies. The success of their first 2 releases for Columbia, "Nervous Night" and "One Way Home" in 1985 and '87 respectively, led to appearances opening Philadelphia's Live Aid concert in 1985, and later, a featured spot at the Amnesty International concert alongside the likes of U2, The Police, Bryan Adams, Lou Reed and Peter Gabriel. The band is also remembered for co-writing "Time After Time" with Cyndi Lauper; a fine song to be remembered for, indeed.

During their peak years, they played a series of shows at Philadelphia's legendary Tower Theater, recording and filming the proceedings. During the Tower shows, The Hooters unveiled a new arrangement of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" that served as a break in the set, and a vocal spotlight for bassist Andy King. Such was the regional popularity of The Hooters at the time, they could have busted out a Hooterized rendition of "Turkey In The Straw" and the fans would have lost their minds, but "Lucy..." was a fine choice for a band that was already known for making clever choices for their infrequent cover songs. Parts of the live concert footage saw release on VHS, but "Lucy..." only got a limited release as the b-side to the single, "Johnny B". It's great how they build tension in the arrangement by saving the release of the chorus for the very end of the song, and by stripping things down to dual mandolins, a keyboard pad, and vocals. Enjoy!

The Hooters' version of "Lucy..." can be found on this anthology, which is the best of a few collections of their work out there. The original EP, "Amore", is a fantastic ball of 80's energy that has become one of the cornerstones of Philly Rock. Their 3 Columbia albums are all still available for a most agreeable price. The band is still active and tours Europe regularly. Check out their website for current info.

There is more music available from Elton John than anyone would ever know what to do with. From what I can see, nearly everything he's ever recorded is in print in some form or another at varying price points. Choose as you will. "Lucy..." can be found on most editions of Elton's "Captain Fantastic" album.

This leads us back to The Beatles, as does most things. Our featured song, "Lucy...", is available on their essential "Sgt. Pepper" album. But honestly, all of their albums are essential, aren't they? So if you haven't already done so, or have been putting it off, just dig deep and pop for the box and be done with it. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.