This site covers the original British Beatles Albums plus analyses of the lyrics of non-album tracks.
Information on how the Beatles wrote the lyrics to their singles can be navigated from below.
Year: 1967
Lyrics: Lennon, McCartney
Length: 4.05
John Lennon wrote the Beatles strawberry fields forever song. The name comes from an orphanage in Liverpool where John and his friends used to play when he was a youngster.
John first started to write strawberry fields whilst filming in Spain for the film how I won the war, and though the song was originally meant to have a nostalgic feel like Penny Lane which Paul was writing it soon slipped into a song about state of mind.
When he was growing up John would often escape from it all by hiding in the grounds of the Strawberry Field children's home, which had its own woodland. The lyrics of strawberry fields forever reflects John place of escape and how he felt that no one was on the same wavelength that he was on, they were either above or below him but not the same; despite these views John was happy to take the listener down to Strawberry fields as he hoped that maybe you could be the one who thought of things the way that he did.
John put some clever inserts into the recording of strawberry fields forever; if you listen carefully you will hear the Morse code for the initials J.L. Tapped out on the drums following let me take you down. The record itself is a mix of two recordings, they were recorded in different keys, this meant that George Martin had to speed up the first half of the song and slow down the second to make the song close to the same key when it was played back.
John Lennon: Vocals, Lead guitar, Harpsichord
Paul McCartney: Bass guitar, Flute, Piano, Bongos
George Harrison: Lead guitar, Timpani
Ringo Starr: Drums
Others: Tambourine, Trumpet, Cellos, Horns