Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds & Beatles Background

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds & Beatles Background

John Lennon got his primary inspiration for this song from his son, Julian Lennon. Julian had a painting of his classmate Lucy at his nursery and described it as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". This theme stuck in John's mind and he developed the music from there, also adding in more dream-like ideas influenced from his love for surrealism. (With reference to 'A Hard Day's Write' by Steve Turner)

It is also interesting that there were persistant rumours of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" sending a cryptic message about LSD. Despite John's denial, this accusation was quite believable as the Beatles were into drugs and LSD was the latest fad then. Ever since they started tripping out on drugs, it was very evident the type of drug they took affected the kind of music they produced. They tripped from alcohol in 1964 to marijuana in 1966 to acid (LSD) and finally heroine in the last few years.

This text I came across (Rock and Roll: an introduction by Michael Campbell) draws specific relations between this song and the drug very aptly. "The verse creates a dreamy state. The lyric contains numerous psychedelic images (e.g., "marmalade skies") and the music floats along in waltz time. It gives the impression of a person in the middle of an acid trip. By contrast, the chorus is straight-ahead rock and roll, which conveys a sense of normalcy. The repetition of the title phrase suggests a second persona in the song: someone observing the person who's tripping in the verse."

Aha! This explains the surprising shift to the tonal functional harmony of T PD D T in the refrain section from the non-standard function verses! (refer to section on harmonic and functional analysis) Way cool.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Other Features

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Other Features

The intro to this song (fig.10) is a short 4-bar melody. Despite it being very angular, it manages to blend in well with Verse 1 which follows immediately after. The reason being, it is actually a compound melody. After the intro, this descending line of A G F# F E then shifts to the bass and recurs throughout the first section of Verses 1, 2 and 3.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Modulations

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Modulations

A Common Note F is used across b.22-26 (fig.8) to ensure a smooth transition from Amaj to Bbmaj. Another feature which contributes to the modulation is the C# note rising a semitone to D as the key rises a semitone as well. It serves as a form of preparation so the listener can expect this change.




On the other hand, the second modulation at the refrain (fig.9) does not have any form of preparation like the first modulation. It shifts from Bbmaj to an unrelated key of Gmaj. The change sounds drastic and must have been done deliberately.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Harmonic and Functional Analysis

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Harmonic and Functional Analysis

-The entire first section of verse 1 from b.5-19 (fig.4a&4b) can be seen as a T Exp. It then ends with a T Sub in b.20.

-In the Bbmaj section from from b.24-35 (fig.5), the repeating note D in the melody line forms an inverted pedal. This section can also be taken as a T exp.

-The refrain section (fig.6) comes as a surprise as it sounds distinct from the rest of the song. It is completely tonal and makes use of only the primary chords I, IV, V. This is to emphasize the theme which is 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'.

-This song ends in an interesting way. (fig. 7) Initially I simply thought it ends curiously on a PD. However, I realised it actually ends on T of Amaj, which is the first chord of this piece. There is no resolution here. This is also a common practice in pop music.

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Lyrics and Overall Structure

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Lyrics and Overall Structure

The structure of this song is in a simple and straightforward verse-refrain form. However, the only anomaly would be that verse 3 is half the length of what it should be like in verses 1 and 2. It goes straight into the refrain and makes up for the loss of half the verse by repeating the refrain.

{VERSE 1}
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.

{REFRAIN}
Lucy in the sky with diamonds(diamonds).
Lucy in the sky with diamonds(diamonds).
Lucy in the sky with diamonds(diamonds).
Ah... Ah...

{VERSE 2}
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 taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you're gone.

{REFRAIN}

{VERSE 3}
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.

{REFRAIN REPEATED}

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

I've selected Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds as my first piece to work on. It's taken from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and this album has been hailed for its lyrical and musical brilliance. The Beatles made waves throughout the world again when this album was released in June 1967 as this kind of music they created was considered unconventional then.

The history aside, here are some things I’ll be looking at:
- Harmonic and Functional (H&F) analysis of selected portions
- Overall Structure
- Modulations

The Beatles

The Beatles!

As you can see, I'll be working on The Beatles!! =) Been listening to Beatles for the past few weeks and found that their songs do have rather unique harmonies. However they mostly sound somewhat similar to me and gets less interesting after awhile. Nevertheless, they were able to capture the hearts and ears of people all over the world with their music throughout the 1960s. Which aspect of their music led to their resounding success? We'll find out.