Banned Songs: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

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After a one-day lack of reasoning we get back to “legitimate” reasons for banning a song today! Yeah, right. This is probably one of the most famous songs with a “don’t play that, it’s a bad song!” tag on it. Sing along! Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - The Beatles Can you imagine being a tourist or first time visitor to Chicago and seeing signs about LSD? Good ol’ Lake Shore Drive. (Which, by the way, is a gorgeous drive if you’re ever in the neighborhood.) That’s a little bit of what we had here. John Lennon had a drawing from his kindergarten-age son, Julian. Julian titled the drawing “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.” Lennon, who’d read Alice in Wonderland (that’ll appear again later in the list ), thought the name would make a good song title. Well, here’s the problem. The Beatles had already pissed off a few million people in the South with Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” quote in 1966. While many radio stations in the Bible Belt quit playing Beatles tunes, others didn’t. But when the rumors started circulating (all without Tweeter and Facebag! How’d that happen? ) about the title being code for LSD, it was easier for the stations who’d held out to toss this one into file 13 (the circular file…y’know, the trash can). In hindsight, they admitted they were tripping on something in the Sgt. Pepper era. They were blatant about it: McCartney admitted “found my way upstairs and had a smoke” was a marijuana reference (but the BBC banned “A Day in the Life” by equating the “4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire” with heroin needle marks ). Eight years after the Beatles’ ban Elton John covered the song (with John playing guitar and singing background) and took it to #1 in the US. The people who called for the song’s ban in 1967 were probably stuck on Lake Shore Drive in traffic and couldn’t be bothered. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney Recorded by The Beatles From Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967 Reason banned: perceived drug reference Climb in the back with your head in the clouds: