11 PM Music: Julian Lennon – “Lucy”

This is a song which is really upbeat and happy about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” who, sadly, recently died of lupus.

From Spinner here:

‘Lucy,’ the upbeat sing-along pop gem he recorded with James Scott Cook, wasn’t intended to be Lennon’s comeback song. But Lennon, who was originally supposed to sing only background vocals on the track, simply had to do the song as a duet.

It’s hard to deny the fates that brought the two men together, both of whom had a Lucy in their lives who suffered from Lupus. For Scott, it’s his 89-year-old grandmother, and for Lennon, it was childhood friend Lucy Vodden, who his father immortalized in pop music history on ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’ Vodden died from the disease in September at the age of 46.

The video draws heavily on that history, with Lennon seen coloring with crayons — Beatles fans will surely know that the song ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ came from a drawing young Julian did of his friend — and a young girl, presumably a Lucy, seen playing on a schoolyard with friends.

For Lennon, the song, which raises money for Lupus research, is a fitting tribute to his childhood friend. “After hearing of her passing, the least I could do was something in her honor and her name that would bring more awareness and light to the disease she died of.”