Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

"I don't know why I called it that nor why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had 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 for a song about Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

Julian

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden

1963 - 2009

When you listen to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, it sounds like a psychedelic dream. Even childlike with the opening chords of a music box with a ballerina twirling around. When the song was released in 1967 on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, many assumed it was a drug song; especially with the initials spelling out LSD (I guess in, the, and with were chopped liver? Technically the initials are LITSWD but since Lucy, Sky, and Diamonds were capitalized, LSD stuck). I think some people still believe that the drug LSD was the inspiration for the song. Nevermind that the title was really inspired by a three year old's title of his school painting.

Julian was quite an artist; which isn't surprising considering that John and Cynthia were both artists. At three years old, Julian was attending a local nursery school in Weybridge, Surrey called Heath House. Julian made a lot of friends, all of whom were from similar economic backgrounds… come to think about it, Heath House was probably the only school Julian was in his peers. In his other schools, he was singled out as a rich kid, son of a Beatle, going to school with middle class children yet he wasn't rich at all… but more on that another day. Julian seemed to have lots of girlfriends. I swear, I think in every visiting fan's photos of Julian playing in the yard with a friend, that friend was always a girl. One particular girl was definitely Julian’s best pal: Lucy O'Donnell.

Lucy, around the age of being schoolmates with Julian

Lucy O'Donnell was born in 1963 and lived near the Lennons in Surrey, England since 1964. Her parents were Michael and Katherine O'Donnell. Michael was a Doctor, an author, and a radio presenter while Katherine was a jazz pianist before settling into family life. Lucy also had a sister Fran and a brother Jamie. Julian and Lucy became like partners-in-crime.

"I can remember Julian at school. I can remember him very well. I can see his face clearly, we used to sit alongside each other in proper old-fashioned desks. The house was enormous and they had heavy curtains to divide the classrooms. Julian and I were a couple of little menaces from what I've been told"

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden

“We were two very energetic school kids. He would say, 'Come on Lucy' to get me to do things. He was the bravest boy in school whom I recall jumping into a freezing swimming pool."

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Artwork by Julian Lennon

Unfortunately, I don't know the exact date Julian drew his now famous painting. A lot of sources say 1966, which is possible. Julian started school around the same time as John and the Beatles quit touring by September of 1966. But John went to Spain from September until the first week of November filming How I Won the War. So, anytime between early November of 1966 until near the end of February 1967 when the Beatles started recording the song was when Julian showed his art to his father who wrote a song around the title of the drawing.

“I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant. Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school.”

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, 2007

Ok, I admit that I awed when reading John picked Julian up from school. Maybe occasionally? I don't know how often but at least John did picked Julian up from school! But I don't think that was when Julian drew Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Maybe around the same time, but not when John picked him up because there's a series of memories of Julian coming home from school while John was already home. Perhaps housekeeper Dot picked Julian up that particular day because Cynthia seemed to have been home with John and their guests, Pete Shotton and Ringo Starr. What John, Cynthia, Pete, and Ringo were doing is unknown (but I am guessing they were hanging out, watching TV and such).

Julian in the neighborhood playground in early 1967 during the time John was recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Photographed by Dorothy Jarlett

"When he was very small, four years old, he had a little girlfriend called Lucy, and one day he came home with a drawing - he used to draw a lot - of Lucy in the sky with diamonds. And John said, great, wonderful!"

Cynthia, 1996

"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’. I immediately wrote a song about it."

John, 1971

"My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Simple"

John, 1980

"I was with John when Julian came in with this little kid's painting, a crazy painting, and John (as the dad) said, "Oh, what's that?" and Julian said, ‘It's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, and then John got busy."

Ringo Starr

"I also happened to be there the day Julian came home from school with a pastel drawing of his classmate Lucy's face against a backdrop of exploding, multicolored stars. Unusually impress with his son's handiwork, John asked what the drawing was called. "It's Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Daddy," Julian replied..."

Pete Shotton, 1983

“I remember him coming home from school with it and showing it to his dad, who was sitting down. At the time he didn’t say, ‘Oh, my God! What a great title for a song,’ but it obviously stuck”

Cynthia

Julian playing by the pool with Cynthia and John watching him from the sunroom in Kenwood, Spring of 1967

Photographed by Dorothy Jarlett

Later that day, Paul McCartney showed up at Kenwood when John proudly showed his son’s artwork to him.

"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."

Paul McCartney

(As you can see in the artwork posted above, there's no title written on)

“I showed up at John’s house one day, and he said to me, ‘Look at this great drawing Julian’s just done, and I remember it very well. It was a kid’s drawing, and kids always have people floating around like painter Marc Chagall does in all his things. I think it’s something to do with kids not realizing that people have to be put on the ground.”

Paul McCartney, 1992

Being songwriters, John and Paul got to work and used Alice In Wonderland as inspiration. There's nothing about a three year old girl related in the lyrics, only the title. The Beatles started on the song by February 28th until March 2nd at Abbey Road Studios in 1967.

“I don’t relate to that type of song. As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, ‘No, it’s not you, my parents said it’s about drugs.’ And I didn’t know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself.”

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, 2009

Lucy as a young teenager

Lucy was 13 when she realized she was immortalized in the Beatles song (around 1976). In 1974, John performed Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds with Elton John at Madison Square Garden which turned out to be his final concert performance. Later in 2014, Julian's brother Sean performed the song on The Late Show with David Letterman with The Flaming Lips during a special Beatles week of different musicians covering Beatle songs.

After John and Cynthia divorced in 1968, Julian was taken out of Heath House and didn't see Lucy again until 1986. The reunion was brief during one of his concerts and, sadly after that, they never saw each other again. But that didn't end their friendship bond: In 1996, Lucy married Ross Vodden- Julian sent a congratulatory greeting. I'm sure somewhere in the back of their minds that they would see each other again. Lucy worked as a Special Needs Children teacher until 2004 when she was diagnosed with lupus; Lucy also launched a Nanny agency and dabbled in advertising. In 2009, Lucy went public with her disease; the news reached Julian. I'm sure that the news devastated him, Julian had to help in some way.

Lucy in 2009, revealing her lupus disease.

"I've been able to help out a bit. I was so upset to hear what had happened."

Julian, 2009

“I wasn’t sure at first how to approach her, I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I’d help with something she’s passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face.”

Julian, 2009

"It was lovely of Julian"

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, 2009

“Julian got in touch with me out of the blue, when he heard how ill I was, and he said he wanted to do something for me.”

Lucy O'Donnell Vodden, 2009

Julian started researching lupus, committing to charity, and became an advocate spokesman and ambassador for St. Thomas Lupus Foundation. He kept in contact with Lucy through text messages and sent her garden centre plant vouchers. Sadly, Lucy died on September 22, 2009.

“Julian and Cynthia are shocked and saddened by the loss of Lucy, and their thoughts are with her husband and family today and always. Shine on Lucy…”

Statement from Julian

Lucy's death gave Julian a whole new perspective of life, including his relationship with his father. Julian got together with musician James Scott Cook, whose grandmother (also named Lucy!) also had lupus. They wrote a song, Lucy, and released it as a single with proceeds going to lupus charities.

“She's also suffered from lupus all her life, and her name is Lucy. The song was done in an evening. We thought, 'If we're going to do this, let's do it now in memory of Lucy, while we're all here and we have the energy.'"

Julian, 2009 (referring to James’ grandmother and his friend)

“I first came to know lupus through my childhood friend, Lucy Vodden, about whom the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was written. It was Lucy’s struggles that opened my eyes to how devastating the burden of lupus is on millions of individuals and their families. It’s our responsibility to get involved and do whatever we can to help fight this unpredictable and misunderstood disease. It is my goal to keep fighting and bringing attention to lupus so we can raise the money needed to develop better treatments, provide support to people affected and fund the research that someday will bring an end to lupus and its brutal impact on people’s lives.”

Julian

“With Dad running off and divorcing Mum, I had a lot of bitterness and anger I was living with. In the past, I had said I had forgiven Dad, but it was only words. It wasn't until the passing of my friend Lucy and the writing of this song that really helped me forgive my father. I realized if I continued to feel that anger and bitterness towards my dad, I would have a constant cloud hanging over my head my whole life. After recording the song, Lucy, almost by nature, it felt right to fulfill the circle, forgive dad, put the pain, anger and bitterness in the past, and focus and appreciate the good things. Writing is therapy for me and, for the first time in my life, I'm actually feeling it and believing it. It also has allowed me to actually embrace Dad and the Beatles."

Julian, 2009

In 2017, Julian listed Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds as one of his favorite Beatles songs. As for Julian's infamous drawing? Well, for a number of years, it was thought to be in Cynthia's possession but after many times moving house, it eventually got lost. It was found and is now owned by David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), he gave Julian permission to use it as a cover for his single release, Lucy, in 2009.