John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the 1967 Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds have sold $237,132 (£145,644) at an auction in the US. The sale of the sheet, which features the song’s third verse and the opening words to She’s Leaving Home, took place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. Both songs feature on 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
When Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was released it was speculated the song was about the mind-altering drug LSD. However, The Beatles denied this, with Lennon saying the inspiration had come from a picture his son Julian had drawn of a classmate named Lucy Vodden – who died of the immune system disease Lupus in 2009
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
