Kairos in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Rebecca Tomilchik

Kairos is an important rhetorical term that describes the appropriateness and time period of a piece of literature, photograph, etc. that one is writing about.  The 1960’s attends to the Kairos of The Beatles, as that time period was crucial in molding the music written by the famous band.  The song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” was released on June 2, 1967 to the American public as a part of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.  This song fit perfectly in the revolutionary era known as the sixties due to what was going on in the United States at the time.  This decade was categorized by social revolution; changes in gay rights, women’s rights, African American rights, new technology, and pop culture.  “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” exemplified the changing attitude towards drugs in the sixties.  Many people believe this song was inspired by psychedelic drugs, as the initials of the song spell out “LSD,” but it was actually written after John Lennon was presented with a drawing done by his 4 year old son.  Although it is important to note that the artists were believed to be greatly impacted by LSD and other hallucinogen use.  With lyrics such as “... where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies” and “Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers that grow so incredibly high,” it is fairly obvious that the artists were inspired not only by their artistic tendencies, but by psychedelics as well, which was also the case with other bands of the time, such as the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.