Monday, March 3, 2008

Music Monday - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - the Beatles and William Shatner



For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

Okay, so week two of pure silliness for Music Monday.

My sister was eleven years older than I. When I was very little, none of that made a difference, and I just worshiped her like the puppy dog I was. She was actually my half sister - my father's daughter - and I didn't get to see her as often as I would have liked (which would have been 30 hours out of 24), so when she did come and stay with us, I would trail her in a way that probably drove her crazy.

But as I grew older, jealousy reared its ugly head around Christmas and birthdays. Oh, we were equally loved, and my parents were inherently fair, but darn it, for some reason they felt that a seven-year-old and an 18-year-old might have different needs in terms of presents, and I decided that my sister got all the cool stuff.

I coveted.

And the coveting started with my sister receiving Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I mean, come on, I loved The Beatles, too!

But my sister was a sweetie, and she shared when she was home. And we both loved the record. And even my dad would go around the house whistling "When I'm 64." I loved drawing and painting, though, and by far, my favorite song was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." I had no idea what the actual context/meaning was, of course, but I sure loved those images and had a great time drawing tangerine trees and kaleidoscope eyes.

And my friend showed me this absolutely hysterical version this weekend, so I just had to share it. See it below and let your 60s groove come flying back!

28 comments:

soccer mom in denial said...

My parents bought the Sgt. Pepper album because it was on the cover of Time Magazine. They weren't exactly the hippest folks with music.

I too sat and stared at the album cover and loved listening to it.

And Shatner! Tee-hee. Thanks again for being a part of the music.

Goofball said...

your comment "I had no idea what the actual context/meaning was, of course"...makes me realise that I probably don't know it either...guess I have never truly listened to the text anyway. But now I am curious.


Yet I have to think back of a story that was in a children's magazine that almost all classes in elementary school in Flanders have a subsciption too. It was a story about archeologists discovering what would turn out to be as one of the oldest skelletons of the homo sapiens to be found. And that evening they were sitting in their baracks still marvelling over their discovery while "lucy in the sky with diamonds" was playing. One of them walked to the bones, kissed it and said "Lucy, I love you".


...now I always see a skelleton in some dusty hot archeological spot when I hear the song :)

Anonymous said...

Some of the imagery from the Beatles songs are actually fantastic for children in an Alice and Wonderland sort of way. If you look at it innocently, it's pretty cool to think about.

William Shatner is always a bit creepy though.

Jen said...

SMID - yes, the Shatner angle is priceless - and the images were fun in this.

Goofball - it was written about (or during) an LSD trip. ;-)

Lilac - this is true, but I don't think the Beatles intended it for the consumption of children, lol. And I agree about Shatner, but he does manage to send himself up sometimes, and I believe this was one of those times.

Melissa said...

I totally love this version, sometimes more than the original because it is so freakin' weird. Thanks for the video.

thailandchani said...

I remember that album only too well. It was very popular when I was a kid and I was too dense then (just as now) to get all those "hidden messages". :)

Anonymous said...

You know, of course, that until the day he died John denied the intentional LSD reference.... yup. It was Julian's drawing.

Luisa Perkins said...

Sgt. Pepper is a perfect album. And anything William Shatner has ever recorded is hilarious!

Jen said...

Melissa, there is also a very funny Star Trek White Rabbit video out there.

Well, Chani, I guess I was wrong - I'd forgotten or not known what Cable Girl caught me up on.

CG - I had no idea of that. I just figured it was the acid connection.

And yes, Luisa, I really do feel it's the perfect album. Each piece was unique and wonderful.

anno said...

This is too funny! How do you find these things?!

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

Hahaha, this song makes people "high" and they said has some "meaning". Well, I love Beatles, that's all the matters!!!

Jenn in Holland said...

Oh, I have my own Sgt. Peppers story to tell. I wonder if I should flashback that one or follow suit and music monday it? hmmmm... must ponder.

I love the BEATLES!

Jen said...

Anno - Kitleigh's mom showed me this while the kids were watching Coneheads on Saturday. ;-)

Mariposa and Jenn - I LOVE the Beatles, too. Somehow I find it totally RIGHT that so many of my blogfriends just love them. It all makes sense. ;-)

Jenn - I actually have another Sgt. Pepper flashback story, too, that's pretty funny. Maybe we can coordinate on a flashback day?

Jientje said...

What a great memory, and indeed a hilarious version of Lucy!

Jen said...

I agree jientje - I think it's just too funny. And thanks so much for stopping by!

Anonymous said...

I had all of the Beatles albums..because..well..I am old. But for the longest time, it was Davy Jones of the Monkees that had the key to my heart....

Carol said...

You MUST see Across the Universe! FABULOUS movie!

Carol

Jen said...

Marye, oh, me too! When I could buy them for myself... My best friend loved Davey, but I was a Peter Tork fan, believe it or not. And Ringo. I always loved the humor guy.

Carol, that's what several friends have told me, so I guess I will. It got such horrendous reviews here that I didn't see it at the time. My loss!

Flower Child said...

I OWN THIS ALBUM! "Golden Throats" - the best best song is Shatner singing Mr. Tambourine Man. Leonard Nimoy, Jim Nabors etc. Oh my god, frickin hysterical.

And I too love the Beatles - look for a post in April on that.

Jen said...

I will definitely need to check out Golden Throats, Flower Child! BTW... Have you heard Hasselhoff's "Hooked on a Feeling"? The video is hysterical for that, too.

Goofball said...

aaah an LSD trip!? I didn't know...they must have had a vision about an old skelleton in a desert night then ;)

Jen said...

But, actually, CG set me straight on this. And once she brought it up, I had memories of hearing that somewhere.

La delirante said...

I also felt that my parents were not fair when it came to gifts :)

I love "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" It is absolutely brilliant :)

Jen said...

I think, actually, that my parents were fair, Wendy, but it was more my perspective as a 7-year-old. And yes, whatever the origin of Lucy, it's a brilliant song.

Tui Snider said...

How funny! I, too, have an older sister and can really relate to that sisterly adoration.

She also had a copy of Sgt. Pepper, and I'd listen to it in her room when she was out (on yet another date) and stare at the cover. I have vivid mental videos for each song on that wonderful album, in fact.

As for the Shatner version; it's a classic in and of itself! Ya gotta love Shatner. Did you know he did a whole film in Esperanto once? Quirky guy!

Thanks for the memories...

Jen said...

He is quirky, Mosaic! And it really was kind of fun to have dreamy older sisters we could emulate, wasn't it?

Anonymous said...

I love The Beatles (particularly John Lennon) and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It isn't exactly a coincidence that my daughter's names - Julia and Lucy - can each been found in songs written by John. Shatner's version of this song is hilarious. I just love that guy. Anyone that can laugh at themselves is cool with me.

Jen said...

I love the song "Julia" - I didn't realize that those were factors in your daughters' names - how cool!