Strawberry Fields Forever?

[Knightonian]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13361287,00.html

Strawberry Field closes - This does relate to music in a way. I thought it was a shame anyway.

[davieG]

Great Song:

Strawberry Fields Forever

(Lennon/McCartney)

Recorded: 24th, 28th, 29th November and 8th, 9th, 15th, 21st December 1966. Location: Abbey Road 2

Producer: George Martin. Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Musicians (version 1): John Lennon - lead vocal, acoustic guitar; Paul McCartney - Mellotron, bass guitar; George Harrison - electric slide guitar; Ringo Starr - drums

Musicians (version 2): John Lennon - lead vocal, acoustic guitar, bongos, Mellotron; Paul McCartney - Mellotron, bass guitar, 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 and Stanley Roderick - trumpets; John Hall, Derek Simpson and Norman Jones - cello

John wrote this whilst filming his part in How I Won The War. It was the first song to be recorded at the Sgt. Pepper sessions.

'Strawberry Field' was an old Salvation Army children's home down Beaconsfield Road, where John used to play when he was a little kid. The only part that's standing today is the old gate-post.

It was the most complicated song they'd done since 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and John kept changing his mind about what he wanted. After a couple of days they had two completely different versions - one was light and slow (like the first half of the song), and the other was a lot more intense (like the second half). John decided that he liked both versions equally, but because they were so complicated there was no way he could re-record it, so he asked George Martin to splice the two together. But the problem was that, because they were both in different keys and tempos, they didn't match! But by speeding up the first one and slowing down the second one, Martin pulled off a miracle the likes of which hadn't been seen since Jesus and his five thousand fish dinners.

Martin had to make two separate edits to pull it off, because each version had a different structure. The first edit occurs at 0:55, where he spliced in a chorus intro from another part of the song (...necessary because the original version went straight into another verse), and the second one is at 1:00. John explained: “Have you ever noticed how my voice changes to a completely different tone on the second verse? That's because it's two separate takes stuck together. Sometimes when I had a song I really loved, like 'Strawberry Fields', we'd try so hard with it, that we'd ruin it. We did so many versions of this, because it was a real hard one to record. The first half is one take and the second half is another take, but they were both in different keys, because, by then, we'd got a different rhythm, and we tuned it different. So I start off singing in my own voice, and then, in the second half, you hear my voice all slowed down a bit. It sounds as if it's not my voice.” He described the words in Jann Wenner's 1970 interview for Rolling Stone magazine: “When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed [laughs]. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? 'No,' I said, 'I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius.' Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius - I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.” In his Playboy interview he said: “I was always hip. I was hip in kindergarten. I was different from the others. 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 I must be high or low,' the next line.”

The whole thing took over fifty-five hours to complete - by far the longest they had ever spent on a single song. (It took them longer to record this one song, than it did to record the whole of their first album!) And it was also the first time that he used his Mellotron, which he bought for £1,000 in 1965 (about £12,000 in today's money). It was basically 70 tape-recorders in a box, and every time you pressed a key it would play a section of the tape. The sounds could be anything from pitched strings and brass, to entire musical passages. It had just one flaw... the longest note that you could hold was ten seconds, because after that the tape ran out! You can hear it's eerie effects at the beginning of the song.

The fade-out/fade-in at the end was inspired by 'Caroline No' on The Beach Boys Pet Sounds LP, which uses a similar idea. George Martin explained: “They would come to me and say, 'We don't quite know what we want, but we'll try and indicate it to you.' And it was my job to get inside their minds and find out what kind of noises were inside their brains and translate it into practical terms. They would come in and say, 'We've got an idea for a bit here, but we're not quite sure how it's going to develop. So, let's put it down and we'll go away and think about it.' In many instances, this just grew... I found it enormously absorbing. It was rather like painting an enormous canvas in a way, and putting a bit of extra colour on it every day and standing back and looking at it, saying, 'Yes, I think we'll do a bit more here.'” He later described it as “a complete tone poem - like a modern Debussy.”

Some people thought that John was saying “I buried Paul” at the end, which added weight to the 'Paul is dead' rumour. Other people thought he was saying “I'm very bored.” But what he's actually saying is “Cranberry sauce, cranberry sauce.” (You can read about the 'Paul is dead' clues here.)

LISTEN! 0:59) Perhaps the most famous Beatles edit ever. In fact, it is actually two edits. The famous one is between take 7 and take 26. Take 7 was slower and a whole note lower in key. The two were edited together right between the words “cause I'm” and “going to”. The less known edit occurs right before the words “Let me take you down”. It's also less noticeable. The edit can be heard clearly by listening to the drums and mellotron on the left. The drums go very dead, and the mellotron stops. At the same time on the right, the orchestra appears from nowhere; 1:17, 2:03) Counting from one to four (centre, whispered); 1:22) The swordmandel fill is flubbed at the end. This mistake should/could have been mixed out! There is a 'ting' remaining at the end, out of place; 2:43-2:44) Nasty click from one of the cellos (right channel); 3:00) Sounds like the guitar gets unplugged (right channel, after first flourish); 3:06) Soft click, like a switch; 3:08) Slight drop in level; 3:09) Soft pop, the guitar returns with next flourish; 3:18-3:23) First a single squeak, then lots of them, sounds a lot like a saw. Could be a comb, though, being actually played; 3:27-4:05) Left channel, lots of talking, sounds like directions of sorts. From bootlegs, this seems to be “that's terrific” and “here comes the 'weeoo'” (referring to the droning guitar note); 3:57, 4:03) John mutters the famous “Cranberry Sauce” line twice, followed by “My mother made it for me” (from bootlegs). Paul-is-dead fanatics insist that what John really says is “I buried Paul”, but that somehow doesn't go with “My mother made it for me.” Note: the “My mother...” line cannot be heard on any commercial version.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Let me take you down,

‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed

Misunderstanding all you see.

It’s getting to be someone.

But it all works out,

It doesn’t matter much to me.

Let me take you down,

‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

No one I think is in my tree,

I mean it must be high or low.

That is you can’t you know tune in.

But it’s all right.

That is I think it’s not too bad.

Let me take you down,

‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Always, no sometimes, I think it’s me,

But you know I know when it’s a dream.

I think I know I mean a ‘Yes’.

But it’s all wrong.

That is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down,

‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

Strawberry Fields forever.

[stez]

dave, please if you know nothing about the subject, please keep out of it

it sad when anywhere for kids shuts, especially as they have so few clubs etc to go to these days, and not just because some geezer wrote a song about it

[Knightonian]

Thanks for posting that davieg - Some very interesting stuff there.

[davieG]

One of the REAL benefits of the Web

[TrickyTrev]

Living is easy with eyes closed

Misunderstanding all you see.

It’s getting to be someone.

But it all works out,

It doesn’t matter much to me.

Let me take you down,

‘Cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields.

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

That little section is my favortie piece of Beatles music, it's brilliant.

[Knightonian]

Apparently it was a double A side with Penny Lane, and was held off the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck .

I imagine that had the crazy frog been released back then- the same would have happened .

[TrickyTrev]

Apparently it was a double A side with Penny Lane, and was held off the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck .

I imagine that had the crazy frog been released back then- the same would have happened .

118383[/snapback]

Quite a famous piece of music history that, possibly/probably the best single ever produced and definately two of the most spectacular compositions of the twentieth century kept off of number 1 by Englebert, who coincidentially is a Leicester fan.

[Guest]

I prefer the Candy Flip version.

[Guest]

Apparently it was a double A side with Penny Lane, and was held off the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck .

I imagine that had the crazy frog been released back then- the same would have happened .

118383[/snapback]

Quite a famous piece of music history that, possibly/probably the best single ever produced and definately two of the most spectacular compositions of the twentieth century kept off of number 1 by Englebert, who coincidentially is a Leicester fan.

118432[/snapback]

Penny Lane is opposite one of Liverpool Uni's Halls of Residence; the street sign is now painted on the wall because the real signs kept getting nicked!

[Cobbo]

Apparently it was a double A side with Penny Lane, and was held off the top spot by Engelbert Humperdinck .

I imagine that had the crazy frog been released back then- the same would have happened .

118383[/snapback]

Quite a famous piece of music history that, possibly/probably the best single ever produced and definately two of the most spectacular compositions of the twentieth century kept off of number 1 by Englebert, who coincidentially is a Leicester fan.

118432[/snapback]

Penny Lane is opposite one of Liverpool Uni's Halls of Residence; the street sign is now painted on the wall because the real signs kept getting nicked!

118545[/snapback]

Thief!