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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forums7 Famous Songs That Don't Mean What You Think
http://celebs.answers.com/music/7-famous-songs-that-dont-mean-what-you-thinkLucy in the Sky With Diamonds
If you think this song is about drugs, you are mistaken, at least, if you take John Lennon's word for it. The official Beatles story about this song does not mention drugs or anything remotely close. In fact, Lennon claimed that the song was inspired by a drawing his son created. The L, S, and D in the title were purely chance, the band has said, and the imagery in the song was based on Lennon's son's imagination. Of course, most people still believe the song is based on LSD, despite the official story....
Hotel California
Written in the era when rock and roll was thought to be satanic, Hotel California is thought to be a satanic song. According to the band, it isn't. The Eagles claim that they wrote Hotel California in response to their impression of life in Los Angeles' high society. They also claim that the song is a reflection of the excess in America, written in metaphor. Regardless, some people still postulate that playing it backwards reveals satanic imagery, so anything is possible....
Brown Sugar
Mick Jagger has openly admitted that he could not write this song again. It is just too rough for him. The Rolling Stones song is bizarrely popular, considering the topic it covers. Most people assume it is either about brown sugar, or about love for a black woman. That would be a stretch, however. The song is about a slave owner raping his underage slaves in the middle of the night. It is intense if you really pay attention to the lyrics, and more than a bit shocking.
edit: The Eagles? Satanic? And yeah, John, that's the ticket. Like my wife, Morgan Fairchild. Whom I've seen naked.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)The Hotel California explanation is far more likely than not.
i remember back in '84 when the Raygun people used "Born In The USA" until someone explained the lyrics to them. Which was right before The Boss sought an injunction which was granted.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)Especially by the time Sgt Pepper came out. And Lennon's taste for surrealistic wordplay had its origins as much in Lewis Carroll as in drug culture. I'm inclined to believe this one.
mulsh
(2,959 posts)in the sky with diamonds. but perhaps you know way more than the writer or his son do did about how this song came to be.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)While the whole movie is one big acid trip, the part with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is particularly... psychadelic.
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)She died a few years ago
edbermac
(15,941 posts)Read about a dozen books on the Beatles and the only drug related song according to them was Doctor Robert on the Revolver album.
Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)Listen to the lyrics, it's about being addicted.
Wolf
progressoid
(49,992 posts)Wolf Frankula
(3,601 posts)Wolf
Brother Buzz
(36,447 posts)Hat tip to Harry Roy
Myrina
(12,296 posts)Allentown by Billy Joel
Little Pink Houses by John Mellencamp
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)It was at a Michele Bachmann re-election campaign event in 2010. I was watching the livestream and just about fell out of my chair!
jmowreader
(50,560 posts)I know it predates his rise to power.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Though after the song was released, Eisenhower enlisted and served on active duty as an officer in the Navy Reserve.
What Fogerty said about it is included in an exploration of the question at Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/fortunate.asp
Phentex
(16,334 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)it's hard to imagine that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is NOT about an acid trip.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)really? Most people think it is about actual brown sugar?
That's what I was thinking, even I'm not that dense.
Peace
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)it was slang for dark skinned women?
Iggo
(47,558 posts)mucifer
(23,554 posts)Coventina
(27,129 posts)People who don't bother to understand the meanings of songs enrage me.
It's one of my pet peeves.
Initech
(100,085 posts)It's not about the Caribbean or Hawaii, it's about a small town in Indiana.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)jmowreader
(50,560 posts)The first line in the song is, "Off the Florida Keys there's a place called Kokomo."
Iggo
(47,558 posts)Nobody.
(Also, in some neighborhoods, "warm smell of colitas" means "stinky baby farts."