Here’s the Book Passage That Inspired The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’
John Lennon said The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. However, the track appears to have been inspired by its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. The passage in question is surreal.
The Beatles’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was inspired by a passage about a sheep
In a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John was asked if the tune was inspired by drugs. After all, many fans believed the song was about LSD. He denied the song had anything to do with LSD.
Instead, John said he drew from a passage from Alice in Wonderland where Alice met a sheep. He appeared to refer to a scene from Through the Looking-Glass, as Alice doesn’t meet a sheep in the original book.
“‘Can you row?’ the Sheep asked, handing her a pair of knitting needles as she spoke,” the passage says. “‘Yes, a little — but not on land — and not with needles — ‘ Alice was beginning to say, when suddenly the needles turned into oars in her hands, and she found they were in a little boat, gliding along between banks: so there was nothing for it but to do her best.”
The passage that The Beatles drew from to write the song only gets stranger
The bizarre sequence goes on from there. “‘Feather!’ cried the Sheep, as she took up another pair of needles,” the book continues. “This didn’t sound like a remark that needed any answer, so Alice said nothing but pulled away.
“There was something very queer about the water, she thought, as every now and then the oars got fast in it and would hardly come out again,” Carroll wrote. “‘Feather! Feather!’ the Sheep cried again, taking more needles. ‘You’ll be catching a crab directly.’ ‘A dear little crab!’ thought Alice. ‘I should like that.'”
The passage isn’t exactly the same as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” but there are some notable similarities. For example, the song and the passage take place in a boat. In addition, Carroll and John both used avant-garde imagery. Who knows if John would’ve written such odd songs if he didn’t read Carroll?
How ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ performed on the pop charts
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was not a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which topped the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks. It lasted on the chart for 233 weeks in total.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” never charted in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was No. 1 in the U.K. for 28 weeks. The record remained on the chart for a total of 277 weeks.
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is classic psychedelia — and it wouldn’t be the same without Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.
