Lucy Of 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' Fame Dies
Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.
Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.
Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.
Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
At the time, John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a landmark album released to worldwide acclaim in 1967.
The elder Lennon seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, replete with haunting images of "newspaper taxis" and a "girl with kaleidoscope eyes."
Rock music critics thought the song's title was a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always claimed the phrase came from his son, not from a desire to spell out the initials LSD in code.
Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents' divorce, but they were reunited in recent years when Julian Lennon, who lives in France, tried to help her cope with the disease.
He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.
"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. "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."
In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.
She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," she said in June. "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."
Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age.
The list includes John Lennon, gunned down at age 40, manager Brian Epstein, who died of a drug overdose when he was 32, and original band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage at 21.
A spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, said they were "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.
Angie Davidson, a lupus sufferer who is campaign director of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, said Vodden was "a real fighter" who had worked behind the scenes to support efforts to combat the disease.
"It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long," said Davidson.
Of course, without Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, we may never have known of the best cultural reference sequences from The Simpsons. "Last Exit to Springfield" may very well be the greatest episode of my favorite TV show.
To learn more about Lupus:
Courtney & I saw a great show on Saturday night. I had almost forgotten how fun these guys are to see live. Unfortunately, mother nature cut the show at least an hour short with a major storm that went threw the southern part of the metro. Metal stages and lightning, along with torrential rain, do not mix well. We waited around as long as possible, but they had to send people home. I was soaked - may as well have jumped into the pond behind the stage. At least we got to see a phenomenal show, even if it was short - for this band.
I'm playing in the Wifflin' for Wishes Wiffle Ball tournament during the day, and then Courtney & I are headed to the MN Zoo to see Yonder Mountain String Band.
Hopefully, I won't pull any muscles while swingin' my mighty Wiffle bat.
From the MN Zoo, in 2006.
Since I'm still awake, a sadly funny story involving Bob Dylan, from the Associated Press. I love this exchange:
"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.
"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.
"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.
"I'm on tour," the singer replied.
A great blog post from the NYT about Pink Floyd performing "Moonhead" during the Moon Landing.
The You Tube video (just stock footage over the song) in the blog post:
David Gilmour's quote, from The Guardian:
"We [Pink Floyd] were in a BBC TV studio jamming to the landing. It was a live broadcast, and there was a panel of scientists on one side of the studio, with us on the other. I was 23.
The programming was a little looser in those days, and if a producer of a late-night programme felt like it, they would do something a bit off the wall. Funnily enough I've never really heard it since, but it is on YouTube. They were broadcasting the moon landing and they thought that to provide a bit of a break they would show us jamming. It was only about five minutes long. The song was called Moonhead - it's a nice, atmospheric, spacey, 12-bar blues.
I also remember at the time being in my flat in London, gazing up at the moon, and thinking, "There are actually people standing up there right now." It brought it home to me powerfully, that you could be looking up at the moon and there would be people standing on it.
At the time, Pink Floyd had been doing rather well. For a while, the band had been somewhat erratic and its reputation was sinking. I joined in 1968, 18 months before the moon landing. By then we were beginning to climb back up again.
It was fantastic to be thinking that we were in there making up a piece of music, while the astronauts were standing on the moon. It doesn't seem conceivable that that would happen on the BBC nowadays.
It didn't have a significant impact on our later work. I think at the time Roger [Waters], our lyricist, was looking more into going inwards, going into the inner space of the human mind and condition. And I think that was sort of the end of our exploration into outer space.
We didn't make any songs out of the jam session. We did, on occasions, do music live that would be a jam session of some sort; that would have some structure which we would organise ourselves. And I've heard documentaries where I recognise my music. It's very odd to be watching a documentary and to hear something that you know is yourself, but you have no recognition of when you did it or how. I've never forgotten Moonhead, though.
After all, it's not hard to remember exactly where I was."
• Moonhead was broadcast at 10pm on 20 July 1969.
How cool is this?
Wishing a very happy birthday to a good friend.
We're not that old...
This morning, I was going to post some tunes off of the new Ben Harper and Relentless 7 album, White Lies For Dark Times. I ran into a few minor issues however (posted the songs without pictures - nuts!) so I'll get to those over the weekend. In the meantime, some great footage from Harper's Geo Sessions. I would love to see Harper in a venue like this. I love a good crowd. Sometimes, it's just nice to sit and listen to the music. Thank you, National Geographic.
While we're at it, how about some more nice slide guitar work?
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