THE BEATLES - "Strawberry Fields Forever"

The Beatles
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
Single / A-side: "Penny Lane"
Released: 13 February 1967 (US), 17 February 1967 (UK)
Album: Magical Mistery Tour (Released: 27 November 1967 <US LP>)
Writer: John Lennon
Label: Capitol (US), Parlophone (UK)
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. The song was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The song was the first track recorded during the sessions for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), and was intended for inclusion on the album. Instead, with the group under record-company pressure to release a single, it was issued in February 1967 as a double A-side with "Penny Lane".

The Beatle's single: "Strawberry Fields Forever" (US, 1967)

The Beatles - "Strawberry Fields Forever" (45 rpm Vinyl)

Numerous music critics consider it to be one of the group's best and most adventurous recordings. Among the breakthroughs it established in studio techniques of the time, for a single release, the track incorporates reverse-recorded instrumentation and tape loops, and was created from the editing together of two separate versions of the song – each one entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. The song was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP (although not on the British double EP package of the same name). 

 The song was the opening track of the compilation album 1967–1970, released in 1973, and also appears on the Imagine soundtrack issued in 1988. In 1996, three previously unreleased versions of the song were included on the Anthology 2 album: Lennon's original home demo, an altered version of the first studio take, and the complete take seven, of which only the first minute was heard in the master version. In 2006, a newly mixed version of the song was included on the album Love. This version builds from an acoustic demo (which was run at the actual recorded speed) and incorporates elements of "Hello, Goodbye", "In My Life", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Penny Lane" and "Piggies".

 "Strawberry Fields Forever" is one of the defining works of the psychedelic rock genre and has been covered by many artists. The Beatles made a promotional film clip for the song that is similarly recognised for its influence in the medium of music video. The Strawberry Fields memorial in New York's Central Park is named after the song.

The Beatles' single: "Strawberry Fields Forever", 1967

The Beatles - "Strawberry Fields Forever" (2009 remastered)

Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children's home just around the corner from Lennon's childhood home in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. Lennon and his childhood friends Pete Shotton, Nigel Walley, and Ivan Vaughan used to play in the wooded garden behind the home. One of Lennon's childhood treats was the garden party held each summer in Calderstones Park, near the home, where a Salvation Army band played. Lennon's aunt Mimi Smith recalled: "As soon as we could hear the Salvation Army band starting, John would jump up and down shouting, 'Mimi, come on. We're going to be late.'"

Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" and McCartney's "Penny Lane" shared the theme of nostalgia for their early years in Liverpool. Although both referred to actual locations, the two songs also had strong surrealistic and psychedelic overtones. Producer George Martin said that when he first heard "Strawberry Fields Forever", he thought it conjured up a "hazy, impressionistic dreamworld".

The period of the song's writing was one of change and dislocation for Lennon. The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of the most difficult periods of their career, including the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and the band's unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. Lennon talked about the song in 1980: "I was different all my life. The second verse goes, 'No one I think is in my tree.' Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius – 'I mean it must be high or low'" and explaining that the song was "psycho-analysis set to music". 

A distorted voice at the end sounds like "I buried Paul," which fueled rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. The voice is actually Lennon saying, "Cranberry sauce." Over the end credits of the Simpsons episode "D'oh-in In The Wind," you can hear Homer saying "I buried Flanders" in reference to this. 

The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever" session, 1967
Among initial reviews of the single, the NME‍ '​s Derek Johnson confessed to being both fascinated and confused by "Strawberry Fields Forever", writing: "Certainly the most unusual and way-out single The Beatles have yet produced – both in lyrical content and scoring. Quite honestly, I don't really know what to make of it." Time magazine hailed the song as "the latest sample of the Beatles' astonishing inventiveness".

"Strawberry Fields Forever" has continued to receive acclaim from music critics. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic describes the song as "one of The Beatles' peak achievements and one of the finest Lennon-McCartney songs". Ian MacDonald wrote in Revolution in the Head that it "shows expression of a high order … few if any [contemporary composers] are capable of displaying feeling and fantasy so direct, spontaneous, and original.". In 2004, this song was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone‍ '​s list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2010, Rolling Stone placed it at number three on the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. The song was ranked as the second-best Beatles' song by Mojo, after "A Day in the Life". The song is ranked as the 8th greatest of all time by Acclaimed Music. XFM radio placed the song 73rd in their list of the 100 Best British Songs and 176th in their Top 1000 Songs of All Time list.

The Beatles' single: "Strawberry Fields Forever", 1967

The Beatles - "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Promtional film, 1967)

The promotional film for "Strawberry Fields Forever" was an early example of what later became known as a music video. It was filmed on 30 and 31 January 1967 at Knole Park in Sevenoaks, Kent. The clip was directed by Peter Goldmann, a Swedish television director who had been recommended to the Beatles by their mutual friend Klaus Voormann. One of the band's assistants, Tony Bramwell, served as producer. Bramwell recalls that, inspired by Voormann's comment on hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever" – that "the whole thing sounded like it was played on a strange instrument" – he spent two days dressing up a large tree in the park to resemble "a piano and harp combined, with strings". Writing for Mojo magazine in 2007, John Harris remarked that Bramwell's set design reflected the "collision of serenity and almost gothic eeriness" behind the finished song. The film featured reverse film effects, stop motion animation, jump-cuts from daytime to night-time, and the Beatles playing and later pouring paint over the upright piano. During the same visit to Knole Park, the band shot part of the promotional film for "Penny Lane".


The promotional films for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were selected by New York's MoMA as two of the most influential music videos of the late 1960s. Both were originally broadcast in the US on 25 February 1967, on the variety show The Hollywood Palace, with actor Van Johnson as host. The Ed Sullivan Show and other variety shows soon dropped their time constraints to allow for psychedelic music performances.

Line-up / Musicians:
John Lennon – double-tracked vocal, acoustic guitar, piano, bongos
Paul McCartney – Mellotron, bass, timpani
George Harrison – electric guitar, electric slide guitar, maraca, swarmandal
Ringo Starr – drums, backward cymbals
with:
George Martin – cello and trumpet arrangement
Geoff Emerick – engineer
Mal Evans – tambourine
Neil Aspinall – guiro
Terry Doran – maracas
Tony Fisher – trumpet
Greg Bowen – trumpet
Derek Watkins – trumpet
Stanley Roderick – trumpet
John Hall – cello
Derek Simpson – cello
Norman Jones – cello
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