Posted on 09/28/2009 9:44:56 AM PDT by Borges
LONDON 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Heir to a 1/4 billion dollar estate and he sends a garden voucher, what a kind gesture. Shit, I could have done that.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember a lot of acrimony in regards to Yoko’s control of all things Lennon...I don’t think Julian is as well off as we would think.
Rock and Roll ping!
Julian was not provided for in John's will. As much as I admire John as an artist he could really be a prick as a person.
You can believe what you want. Why would he write a song for the Sgt. Pepper album at the same time they admitted they were dropping acid, and there just happens to be a very psychedelic song on the album which just happens to have the initials LSD?
My understanding is that Julian was left in the neighborhood of $100,00.
I don’t know. You’d have to ask him.
“Julian was doing pretty well there for a while and then he just seemed to disappear from the music scene. What happened to him?”
Yoko happened to him. She has so much influence by owning 1/4 of the Beatles and the Lennon name. The last two albums Julian has put out, she hijacked the same date and pressured the record company to put Sean’s album out.
Julian loves Sean and will get upset if you talk bad about his brother, but there is NO love lost on Yoko.
He has a new album coming out early 2010 and there is a new song called “Everything changes” and it is BEAUTIFUL. I hope he does well. It’s very adult contemporary and easy listening, but really nice.
Oh, and Julian’s mom was divorced before the age of huge child support and settled for 100,000 pounds for school. That was from the age of 8 until graduation. Even then she had to go THROUGH Yoko to get it because John let Yoko handle all their financial issues and Yoko had her name put on the trust account. So Cynthia would have to call and wrangle around to get Yoko to sign off on releasing a portion of the funds (which power trip allowed Yoko to play with her). Other than that, Julian lived a normal life in a normal neighborhood. Aside from having a craphead for a dad. I would have hoped that would have been remedied some if John had lived. Or he remained with May Pang who unlike Yoko would encourage John to spend time with Julian.
You are wrong. He was not an heir at all. Yoko got EVERYTHING. John died without a will and it all goes to the wife unless otherwise stated. She gave Julian $100 a week when John died and 14 years later settled for less than a million.
You are right. Julian received practically nothing for over a decade. And then it was pennies compared to the amount of money Yoko and Sean got (and continue to receive).
Anyone and noone at all.
Wow that really sucks that that happened to him. I was too young to be a Beatles fan(other than having a young Mother that liked them) but really really liked Julian’s music. Hopefully his next album (are they still called that?) is very sucessful.
Anyone and noone at all.
______
An answer worthy of one on an acid trip.
You seem to know a lot about Julian's situation, but your statement above is wrong factually and legally. You can see an image of John's will at the bottom of this page. It leaves everything to Yoko.
It would have been much better for Julian if John had not had a will because Julian would have received 1/4 of John's estate under New York's intestacy laws. Plus, Julian wouldn't have to live with the knowledge that his father intentionally excluded him.
The 100k that has been mentioned was from the divorce settlement. I believe I read somewhere that the bitch Yoko has thrown Julian a bone or two since then, but not much.
I also read in Cynthia's book that at the time of John's death Yoko told Julian while he was in NY for the funeral service that he could pick out one of John's guitars. Julian, who was a guitar player at the time, was thrilled and chose the one he had always cherished. Yoko said he couldn't have that one because she was going to give it to Sean, which broke Julian's heart more than it already was.
I'm glad to hear that Julian is close with Sean. Hopefully, when the bitch assumes room temperature Sean will do something to correct the inequity perpetuated by his mother.
You are right, I misspoke about the will and everything going to Yoko (said it backwards, he HAD a will and everything went to Yoko-not the other way around- sorry).
I hadn’t heard about the guitar! How terrible!
I do know that Julian and Sean see each other still (Julian is in NY right now). The whole mess makes me sick and despise Yoko for her treatment of this gentle man who didn’t deserve the crap sandwich she gave him.
And that's why we have opinions. Scoutmaster's humble opinion is that, even after 40+ years of hype and analysis, the Beatles remain underrated, musically (have to ignore the politics of just about everybody in the music industry since Scoutmaster was born, or the world would be without any music other than Toby Keith). I haven't forked out the money yet for the remastered set that was just released, but plan to do so soon.
Scoutmaster's other opinion is that John Lennon would have had no qualms telling the world that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was about LSD. Ingestion of LSD may have helped write the song, but I'm one of those crazy believers that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Or that Julian inspired John with his grade-school drawing of a classmate.
John’s denial of the drug connection on the Dick Cavett show, if you’ve seen it, seems pretty darn sincere to me.
“Did Nancy come in through the bathroom window?”
No. She and her man, (who called himself Dan), were in the next room at the hoedown.
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