Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

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Artist: The Beatles

Year: 1967

Date of Action: June 1, 1967

Region: Europe

Location: United Kingdom

Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion

Medium: Music

Confronting Bodies: BBC

Description of Artwork: The song, primarily written primarily by John Lennon (but credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney) is part of The Beatles' 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song is visually enticing, instructing listeners to imagine imagery presented in the lyrics.

Lyrics:


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

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah


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 taxies 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

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah


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 kaleidoscope eyes


Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah


Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah


Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

The Incident: While Lennon insisted that the song was inspired by his four-year-old son, Julian's, artwork of the same title, BBC censored the song from radio play due to suspected drug (specifically LSD) references. BBC felt that the song encouraged illegal drug use.

Results of Incident: The song was banned from airing on BBC radio.

Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/apr/12/artsfeatures.popandrock



McCartney revealed in later interviews that the song was "obviously" written about drugs.

link to song: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x68mdx_the-beatles-lucy-in-the-sky-with-di_music

image source: http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/10-great-key-change-songs-221289/6/