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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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THE BEATLES - The Long and Winding Road"

The Beatles
"The Long and Winding Road"
Single / B-side: For You Blue
Released: 11 May 1970 (US)
Album: Le It Be (Released: 8 May 1970)
Writer: Paul McCartney
Label: Apple
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"The Long and Winding Road" is a ballad written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney). It is the tenth track on the Beatles' album Let It Be. It became the group's 20th and last number-one song in the United States on 13 June 1970, and was the last single released by the quartet while all four remained alive. 
The Beatles' single "The Long and Winding Road", 1970  (front cover)
(Photo courtesy of Apple)

The Beatles - "The Long and Winding Road" (1970)

While the released version of the song was very successful, the post-production modifications by producer Phil Spector angered McCartney to the point that when he made his case in court forbreaking up the Beatles as a legal entity, he cited the treatment of "The Long and Winding Road" as one of six reasons for doing so. New versions of the song with simpler instrumentation were subsequently released by both the Beatles and McCartney.

McCartney originally wrote the song at his farm in Scotland, and was inspired by the growing tension among the Beatles. McCartney said later "I just sat down at my piano in Scotland, started playing and came up with that song, imagining it was going to be done by someone like Ray Charles. I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found inspiration."
The Beatles's single "The Long and Winding Road" - "For You Blue" (1970)

The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road" (original version)
The song takes the form of a piano-based ballad, with conventional chord changes. Lyrically, it is a sad and melancholic song, with an evocation of an as-yet unrequited, though apparently inevitable, love.

The "long and winding road" of the song was claimed to have been inspired by the B842, a thirty-one mile (50 km) winding road in Scotland, running along the east coast of Kintyre into Campbeltown, and part of the eighty-two mile (133 km) drive from Lochgilphead. In an interview in 1994, McCartney described the lyric more obliquely "It's rather a sad song. I like writing sad songs, it's a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it. It's a good vehicle, it saves having to go to a psychiatrist."

Th Beatles' album Let It Be, 1970 (front cover)
(photo courtesy of Apple)
The Beatles - "The Long and Winding Road" (album Let It Be, 1970 - 2009 Remaster)

The Beatles recorded "The Long and Winding Road" on 26 and 31 January 1969, the day after the group's final performance on the roof of their Apple headquarters, with McCartney on piano, John Lennon on bass guitar, George Harrison on guitar, Ringo Starr on drums, and Billy Preston on electric piano. This was during a series of sessions for an album project then known as Get Back. Lennon, who played bass only occasionally, made several mistakes on the recording.

In May 1969, Glyn Johns, who had been asked to mix the Get Back album by the Beatles, selected the 26 January recording as the best version of the song. The Beatles had recorded a master version as part of the 'Apple studio performance' on 31 January, which contained a different lyrical and musical structure, but this version was not chosen for release. For both the 1969 and 1970 versions of the Get Back album, Glyn Johns used the 26 January mix as released on the Anthology 3 album in 1996.

In the spring of 1970, Lennon and the Beatles' manager, Allen Klein, turned over the recordings to Phil Spector with the hope of salvaging an album, which was then titled Let It Be.

Spector made various changes to the songs, but his most dramatic embellishments occurred on 1 April 1970, the last ever Beatles recording session, when he turned his attention to "The Long and Winding Road". At Abbey Road Studios, he recorded the orchestral and choir accompaniment for the song. Spector succeeded in remixing "The Long and Winding Road", using 18 violins, four violas, four cellos, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitars, and a choir of 14 women. The orchestra was scored and conducted by Richard Hewson, who would later work with McCartney on his album, Thrillington. 

The Beatles - "The Long and Winding Road" (Let it Be documentary film)

The Beatles - :The Long and Winding Road" (Let It Be,,, Naked version, 2003)

In 2003, the remaining Beatles and Yoko Ono released Let It Be... Naked, touted as the band's version of Let It Be remixed by independent producers. McCartney claimed that his long-standing dissatisfaction with the released version of "The Long and Winding Road" (and the entire Let It Be album) was in part the impetus for the new version. The new album included a later take of "The Long and Winding Road", recorded on 31 January. With no strings or other added instrumentation beyond that which was played in the studio at the time, it was closer to the Beatles's original intention than the 1970 version.This take is also the one seen in the film Let It Be.

The Beatles 1970
(Photo by Bruce McBroom - Apple Corps. Ltd) 

Line-up / Musicians:
Paul McCartney – lead vocals, piano
John Lennon – bass
George Harrison – guitar
Ringo Starr – drums
Billy Preston – electric piano
With:
Phil Spector's orchestral and choral arrangements

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