The Beatles Bible

The Beatles' songs, albums, photos, places and much more, including a day-by-day guide to their career from 1957 to 1970 and beyond, plus profiles of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and many others.
The Beatles' songs, albums, photos, places and much more, including a day-by-day guide to their career from 1957 to 1970 and beyond, plus profiles of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and many others.
The Beatles Bible
The Beatles Bible
Share this page:
  • email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • MySpace
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Netvibes
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Live
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • Add to favorites
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Home
  • History
  • Songs
  • Albums
  • Discography
  • People
  • Features
  • Books
  • Map
  • Gallery
  • Fab forum
  • Store
  • Subscribe:
  • RSS icon RSS feed
  • Email envelope icon By email
  • Twitter icon Twitter updates
You are here: Home » The Beatles' songs » Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Fields Forever

  • Page 1 of 3
  • « Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next »

Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane single cover artwork Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 24, 28-29 November; 8-9, 15, 21-22 December 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Released: 17 February 1967 (UK), 13 February 1967 (US)

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, bongos, Mellotron
Paul McCartney: Mellotron, bass, electric guitar, timpani, bongos
George Harrison: electric slide guitar, svarmandal, timpani, maracas
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion
Mal Evans: tambourine
Neil Aspinall: guiro
Terry Doran: maracas
Tony Fisher, Greg Bowen, Derek Watkins, Stanley Roderick: trumpets
John Hall, Derek Simpson, Norman Jones: cellos

Available on:
Magical Mystery Tour
Anthology 2
Love

One of The Beatles' undisputed masterpieces, Strawberry Fields Forever was written by John Lennon and first released on a single along with Penny Lane.

Buy from Amazon

Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered)

The Beatles. EMI 2009, Audio CD, $8.65

4.5


Anthology 2

Beatles. Capitol 2000, Audio CD, $12.11

4.5


Love

The Beatles. Capitol 2006, Audio CD, $8.43

4.0

Strawberry Fields was psychoanalysis set to music.
John Lennon
Anthology

Lennon wrote the song in Almerí­a, Spain in autumn 1966, while filming his role as Private Gripweed in the Richard Lester movie How I Won The War.

Dick Lester offered me the part in this movie, which gave me time to think without going home. We were in Almerí­a, and it took me six weeks to write the song. I was writing it all the time I was making the film. And as anybody knows about film work, there's a lot of hanging around.
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever was a nostalgic look back at The Beatles' past in Liverpool. Strawberry Field was the name of a Salvation Army children's home near John Lennon's childhood home in Woolton.

I've seen Strawberry Field described as a dull, grimy place next door to him that John imagined to be a beautiful place, but in the summer it wasn't dull and grimy at all: it was a secret garden. John's memory of it wasn't to do with the fact that it was a Salvation Army home; that was up at the house. There was a wall you could bunk over and it was a rather wild garden, it wasn't manicured at all, so it was easy to hide in.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

With his childhood friends Pete Shotton and Ivan Vaughan, Lennon would roam the grounds of Strawberry Field. Additionally, each summer there would be a garden party held in the grounds, which he especially looked forward to.

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.'
Mimi Smith
The Beatles, Hunter Davies

Through the lens of LSD, however, the song song turned from simple nostalgia into inward reflection. Lennon's self doubt came to the fore, at times clouded by inarticulacy and hallucinogenic sensations.

He later described Strawberry Fields Forever, along with Help!, as "one of the few true songs I ever wrote... They were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it."

The second line [sic] goes, 'No one I think is in my tree.' Well, what I was trying to say in that line is 'Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.' It's the same problem as I had when I was five: 'There is something wrong with me because I seem to see things other people don't see. Am I crazy, or am I a genius?' ... What I'm saying, in my insecure way, is 'Nobody seems to understand where I'm coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.'

John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
  • Page 1 of 3
  • « Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next »
Related articles:

  • John Lennon's Mellotron is delivered to Weybridge
  • UK single: Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever
  • Anthology 2
  • BBC chart reveals best-selling UK Beatles songs
  • Flying

14 responses to “Strawberry Fields Forever”

  1. richard calvert says:
    Tuesday 28 July 2009 at 5.28pm

    'Strawberry Fields Forever', the song + music video were so cutting edge for it's time when I would play it for school mates, they thought that I was a little strange for liking such an avant- guard song, ( a Beatles song) mind you? In middle school an orphanage called 'Maryvale' was the perfect backdrop for this song. I befriended the girls there, loaning the 45rpm to them, + they thought I was hip! The moral of the story.... Lennon was 'far ahead' of his time, both musically + lyrically! His heart spoke to the 'real' people of life; the not so fortunate, the not so loved in society! After all these years I still miss his Genius! It felt like Christmas Day, as a child, whenever a new Beatles album was released!

    Reply to this comment
  2. michael richardson says:
    Thursday 6 August 2009 at 11.11am

    you have the recording date wrong. it reads 67 should be 66

    Reply to this comment
    • Joe says:
      Thursday 6 August 2009 at 3.00pm

      Oops - thanks for that Michael.

      Reply to this comment
  3. Roger says:
    Saturday 8 August 2009 at 2.26am

    If you'll watch the DVD "The Beatles in America" (may also be called something else), just as they are getting ready to go to the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, John Lennon is sitting in a chair with a some sort of mouth organ (with keys), inventing the intro to Strawberry Fields Forever. It's a great DVD to watch.

    Reply to this comment
  4. John says:
    Sunday 27 September 2009 at 6.16am

    My favorite song by The Beatles when I was 8 years old 1982. Started listening to them when I was 4, I will always be a big fan.

    Reply to this comment
  5. B.H.Z. says:
    Friday 4 December 2009 at 5.13am

    Would be nice to see a little mention of its inclusion on "Love" here.

    Reply to this comment
  6. Judy Birch says:
    Sunday 13 December 2009 at 5.05pm

    I lived in strawberry fields orphanage, and I wish someone could post more pictures of inside... these are my memories, eating together, playing together the Queen the Beatles and Cilla Black

    Reply to this comment
  7. Scott says:
    Thursday 7 January 2010 at 3.01am

    Great info. Now that I know about it, I can hear exactly when the edit took place. The slight change in tone and tempo, particularly noticeable on the vocals, contributes to the overall psychedelic quality of the song, I think.

    Listening to it now, I can believe John said "cranberry sauce", but listening to it on vinyl as a kid, I was convinced he said "I buried Paul". It didn't sound anything like "cranberry sauce" to me at all. I'm not sure how much of that is the enhanced sound quality and how much of it is me.

    In my mind, this may be the band's most complex and interesting song of all time. Amazing how well it holds up after I've heard it about a million times.

    Reply to this comment
  8. Elsewhere Man says:
    Monday 25 January 2010 at 9.40pm

    When you compare the Take 7 (mellotron flutes) version to the Take 26 (orchestral) version, you realize that George Martin performed a feat of sheer genius by editing the two together at the 60 second mark.

    You also realize that Lennon was absolutely right to request it, because neither take really holds up on its own, but the two spliced together constitute a masterpiece that starts off soft and beautiful and builds up to riotous intensity.

    And how about Ringo's performance on this track? He & Mitch Mitchell were the absolute best at interpreting psychedelia for drums...

    Reply to this comment
  9. Byron says:
    Wednesday 10 February 2010 at 3.38pm

    Ringo's opening drum fills are genius in their use of space. Much like his drumming on A Day In The Life.

    Reply to this comment
    • Joseph Brush says:
      Monday 1 March 2010 at 2.44am

      Yes indeed, Ringo is the man!

      Reply to this comment
  10. Kathryn says:
    Friday 5 March 2010 at 5.48am

    I love Strawberry Fields Forever, I think it's a beautiful song. I love the line-- 'Living is easy with eyes closed... Misunderstanding all you see...' I think that's a wonderful line...

    Reply to this comment
  11. farseer says:
    Sunday 18 April 2010 at 9.58pm

    Great masterpiece, and in my opinion Ringo at his best. His drumming kicks ass. Listen to take 7 on anthology and go mad.

    Reply to this comment
  12. StarrTime says:
    Monday 19 April 2010 at 8.26am

    Has there ever been a better song than the Love version? It's John at his absolute best in his high, dreamlike voice that just engulfes you, mixed in the middle with some of the best piano bits including In My Life and my favorite, Piggies, then at the end they throw in the last part of Hello, Goodbye with Paul's screams of pure joy over the other two's harmony...it's just unbelievable!

    Reply to this comment

Leave a reply

Click here to cancel reply.


  • Latest posts

    • Paul McCartney live at Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh
    • Paul McCartney live at Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh
    • Paul McCartney live at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
    • Paul McCartney live at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
    • Paul McCartney live at Bell Centre, Montreal
    • Paul McCartney live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto
    • Paul McCartney live at Air Canada Centre, Toronto
    • Apple Records announces best-of compilation and bonus material
    • Paul McCartney live at Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte
    • Paul McCartney live at Bridgestone Arena, Nashville
  • On this day in Beatles history

    • 1968: Ringo Starr rejoins The Beatles
    • 1964: Live: State Fair Coliseum, Indianapolis
    • 1963: Radio: Pop Go The Beatles

    Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.

  • Twitter updates

  • Things we said today

    • vonbontee on Raymond Jones interview
    • Julian on I Want To Hold Your Hand
    • Joe on Raymond Jones interview
    • Joe on Raymond Jones interview
    • Joe on UK LP: Rubber Soul
  • From the forum

    • What does Paul say at the end of "Cry Baby Cry?"

      posted in forum The songs  by paulsbass

    • Bass: Paul v. George

      posted in forum Recording and musicology  by paulsbass

    • Raymond Jones.

      posted in forum Yesterday... and today  by mithveaen

    • About my name...

      posted in forum All together now  by mithveaen

    • Most played song in iTunes (or a similar program)

      posted in forum The songs  by DrRobert9

  • In the gallery

    The Beatles at Tittenhurst Park, 22 August 1969 Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe Mal Evans The Beatles, 24 December 1963
  • Buy on Amazon

    • The Beatles Stereo Box Set

      The Beatles. EMI 2009, Audio CD, $174.99

      4.5

    • Signature Box

      John Lennon. Capitol 2010, Audio CD, $151.99

  • Top Ten Club

    • The Beatles' songs
    • Welcome to the Beatles Bible!
    • Fab forum
    • Beatles photo gallery
    • The Beatles' albums
    • The 'Paul is dead' myth
    • Day after day: the Beatles' history
    • The Beatles (White Album)
    • The Beatles and drugs
    • United Kingdom discography
  • Can buy me love

    The Beatles Bible is run for the love of anything and everything to do with The Beatles. If you've learned something new about the band and wish to show your appreciation, why not make a small donation via PayPal? It'll help with server costs, Beatles books etc...
  • Thinking of linking

    • thebeatles.com
    • johnlennon.com
    • paulmccartney.com
    • twitter.com/paulmccartney
    • georgeharrison.com
    • ringostarr.com
    • applerecords.com
  • Translator

  • Come together

    This fan site is in no way associated with or endorsed by The Beatles, Apple Corps Ltd, associated organisations or any members of The Beatles or their representatives. It is intended as a tribute to the greatest group of all time, to try - in a small way - to help introduce their music to new generations of fans.

© 2008-2010 The Beatles Bible. All rights reserved. | Contact us | About this site | Sitemap | Privacy policy | Word count: 713,906

Top of page