Displaying items by tag: John Lennon

A good many people just assume that one of the Beatles’ best-known songs from the Sgt. Pepper era, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is about drugs. I mean, the initials spell out L-S-D, amirite?

Not so fast. John Lennon has always claimed the inspiration for the song’s title came from a picture his young son, Julian, drew. Julian said the picture was of his young schoolmate, Lucy O'Donnell, and that he did, in fact, tell his dad that it was a picture of Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

That the song contained such trippy lyrics should surprise no one. Lots of pop songs of the period also contained such lyrics; and Lennon always said his inspiration for the song’s imagery came from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, a favorite of flower children everywhere.

Julian Lennon’s drawing still exists. It now belongs to Pink Floyd member, David Gilmour. Alas, there was no happy ending for Lucy. She married and became Lucy Vodden, but passed away from complications arising out of lupus at the very young age of 46 in 2009.

1964: On this night at 8 PM (Eastern), every Baby Boomer worthy of the name remembers where they were and what they were doing. We were tuned in to CBS to watch the Beatles make their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. Performing 3 songs at the start of the show and 3 songs at the end, the Fab Four help Sullivan pull in 73 million viewers, a record at the time and still one of the highest rated shows of all time.

New York police report that not a single hubcap was stolen during the hour (also apparently a record).

Unnoticed at the time, a young Davy Jones (later to become part of the Monkees) appears on the same show as part of the Broadway cast of Oliver! where he leads the cast in singing “I’d Do Anything.”

Lotsa Rock ‘n’ Roll Birthdays today: John Lennon (1940), John Entwistle (1944), Jackson Browne (1948) and Peter Tosh (1944)