Song
Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beatles
Album:
Song Meaning of Strawberry Field Forever by The Beatles
Although John Lennon was one of the most well-known figures in the world in 1966, "Strawberry Fields Forever" was the song he wrote that was the most achingly lonely. The Beatles' entry into the psychedelic era changed how mainstream music was produced and heard.
But it all started with John Lennon writing a song about his traumatic childhood experiences all by himself on a Spanish beach and playing an acoustic guitar. He used to play and hide from the world as a young boy in a Salvation Army home called Strawberry Field in Liverpool.
In this song, Lennon exposed so much of himself that he felt uneasy performing it in front of the other Beatles. After a brief pause, Paul McCartney broke the silence by exclaiming, "That is absolutely brilliant." George Martin's studio prowess helped them transform it into a ground-breaking audio collage.
The band worked on three different versions of the song for five weeks beginning in November 1966, totaling 45 hours in the studio.
The autobiographical novel Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis, which Lennon was reading in Almera and "tells of a writer searching for spiritual meaning," is most likely where he got his idea.
‘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" ...’ John Lennon said in 1980.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
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, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Always know, sometimes think it's me
But you know, I know when it's a dream
I think a "No," I mean a "Yes"
But it's all wrong
That is, I think I disagree
Let me take you down, cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever
Release Date
1967
Songwriter/s
Lennon–McCartney
Producer/s
George Martin
Label/s
Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)