The Beatles
Strawberry Fields Forever

This review of the song “Strawberry Fields” is divided into two parts.

The first is a small exegesis of one of the most beautiful lyrics I have ever read.

The second part concerns the complex "making" of the song, which underwent various revisions before the final work.

 1. The verses

Let's set the historical context. It's the Fall of 1966, and "Revolver" has just been released. Lennon, amidst the critics' celebrations, decides to hide away and goes to Spain to act in the film "How I Won the War" (which he'll reference in “A Day in the Life”). Here, during long pauses between scenes, he took a guitar, a sheet of paper, and a pen and decided to organize his thoughts.

Let's make it clear once and for all. This song is not a celebration of drugs; it is not "a narcotic madness" as John Robertson writes in his excellent book on Lennon. Even John Robertson is wrong on this point. This song only has a psychedelic musical framework; its essence is folk. It is a piece where Lennon bares himself and describes his confused, insecure, and torn soul. As McCartney said: “This is psychoanalysis set to music”.

The lyric is a work of art for how John manages to express “his confusion clearly.” By the end of the song, you'll all understand that Lennon was a mentally ill person, a split personality with absurd insecurities, but with the same certainty, we can say he was a genius, because only a genius is capable of representing his tear so well.

The song begins like this. Let me take you down

Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real

And nothing to hung about

Strawberry Fields forever

This is also the chorus. In the initial version, it was only found at the end. Be that as it may, this verse, is not, as almost everyone writes, an anthem to LSD and the unreal world (“Nothing is real”) created by acid. It's simply an anthem to childhood. “Strawberry Fields” is a place from John's childhood, “near my house, a house near a boys' reformatory where I used to go to garden parties as a kid with my friends Nigel and Pete. We would go there and hang out and sell lemonade bottles for a penny. We always had fun at Strawberry Fields”. (Playboy Interviews, 1980).

Lennon uses that image to say he wishes to return to being a child, when there was no need to face the harsh reality, and where there were no anxieties and worries (“Nothing to get hung about”).

The first verse.

Living is easy with eyes closed

Misunderstanding all you see

It’s getting hard to be someone

But it works out

It doesn’t matter much to me

 

“It’s easy to live with eyes closed, not understanding what you see”. These verses are not a celebration of his LSD trips. Here, Lennon says it’s easy to live life superficially, or worse, to see only what we like to see. It's difficult, however, to live in this world when you have the sensitivity that makes you see what you don’t like. As he said a few months before he died: “Since I was a child, I seemed to see things other people didn’t see, and I was seen as crazy by others”.

In the next verse, John candidly admits he no longer knows who he is (“It’s getting hard to be someone”). He realizes that his life is a mask: he is now a clown on the outside, but desperate when alone with himself. This duality nonetheless “works-out” (“It works-out”). In the end, when he has to say whether this pretense is right or wrong, he gives in to his famous indolence: “It doesn’t matter much to me”.

The second verse.

No one I think is in my tree

I mean it most be high or low

That is, I think, you can’t you know tune in

But it’s all right

That is I think it’s not too bad

 

“No one is in my tree. It must be too high or too low. That is, I can't tune in (with anyone)”. The first verse was originally different: “No one is on my wavelength Here Lennon describes his “alienation”. John feels alone and unique, in a world that doesn't understand him; and he doesn't know if he's a rejected fool or too superior to be understood. In the next verse, his indolence returns: (“But it’s all right”). Then comes his insecurity (“that is”) which slightly negates the previous (too strong) phrase and refines it with a touch of realistic melancholy (“I think it’s not too bad”).

The third verse.

Always, no sometimes, think it’s me

But you know I know when it’s a dream

I think I know, I mean yes,

But it’s all wrong

That is I think I disagree.

His insecurity starts again: “Always, no sometimes”

“Think it’s me” is really hard to understand. To me, it means: “I think I know who I am”

The next verse is even more difficult. It says: “I know what I am means living in dreams” As if to say: “This is an illusion of mine”.

The last three verses, however, are very clear and are the emblem of his inner tear. The words in parentheses are mine.

“I think I know (who I am), I mean yes,

But it’s all wrong,

That is I think I disagree (with myself)”

 2. The Making of the song

We know all the phases of the making of the song thanks to the second double CD of the Anthology (DISC 2) (1995). In some aspects, the unpublished versions are better than the published version.

When George Martin heard the “Demo” version, he said: “Truly enchanting”, and wanted to publish it as it was, bare and folk. And if you go listen to it, you'll understand why.

The Beatles, however, set to work and came up with a more refined first version (called “Take 1”): organ, bass, guitar and slide guitar. The musical part is not exceptional, except at the beginning and the end, with the sober organ in evidence. Lovely is the idea of not putting a drum. The sung part by Lennon is sublime, the most beautiful and touching of all the heard versions, even more beautiful than the demo version.

In the third version, the psychedelic folk-rock one (“Take 7”), there's the mellotron instead of the organ (a choice suggested by McCartney), and there's drums (in my opinion unnecessary, but effective because they represent Lennon's steps towards “Strawberry Fields”), and Harrison's magnificent hypnotic guitar underlying the entire piece.

In the end, Lennon, perhaps understanding that, as it was, the song could be too repetitive, decided to combine the first minute of “Take 7” with an orchestrated part by Martin. The two versions were irreconcilable, but then, by a miracle, with a slowdown of the second part the collage was possible and happens exactly at 1:00. This is the result that was released on record, and that, alas, was not part of “Sgt. Pepper”.

As for the greatness of the song, no comments are needed. You might like it or not like it, but here we are talking about a work of art, not a simple masterpiece song. Paraphrasing Ian McDonald, there are artists who have managed to write things technically superior, but it is rare to find, if any exist, songs so musically rich and at the same time capable of moving so much .

Brian Wilson said: “It is because of this piece that I lost all hope of reaching the Beatles and stopped working on ‘Smile’”.

Regarding the final result, Lennon always said that, despite being one of his best pieces, “it was recorded poorly”. He accused McCartney of sabotage (due to envy), and said that the arrangement is so stunning that it completely overshadowed the lyrics. I fear John was right, but, in fairness, it was he who wanted that arrangement. He wanted to re-record it, but unfortunately, he never did.