Is the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” about LSD?

The classic tune “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” appeared on the Beatles’ album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in 1967.  Given the song’s psychedelic imagery, and the Beatles reputation for drug use, soon it became widely believed that the title was actually a hidden reference to L-S-D.  The rumor has persisted for the past 50 years, to the point it has become accepted as fact.

Songwriter John Lennon said the lyrics were influenced by Alice in Wonderland (and no doubt also by his many drug trips).  But the title?  That was pure coincidence.  John’s four-year-old son Julian brought home a picture he had drawn of his classmate Lucy, flying through the air surrounded by sparkling diamonds.  Lennon liked the drawing so much he decided to write a song about it.

Lennon said in a 1980 interview, “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 bother to look at initials of a title?  It’s not an acid song.”  His story remained consistent throughout the years, repeated in multiple magazine and television interviews.

In The Beatles Anthology documentary series, Paul McCartney weighed in on the rumors: “I showed up at John’s house and he had a drawing Julian had done at school with the title ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ above it … We never noticed the LSD initial until it was pointed out later – by which point people didn’t believe us.”

Bonus Fact: Julian Lennon’s classmate Lucy O’Donnell did not learn that she had inspired the song until 1976.