Strawberry Fields Forever (song + video) Appreciation Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by AFOS, Jun 10, 2021.

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  1. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    One of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
     
  2. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Bowie Glam era / Berlin era?
     
  3. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Think Coo Coo Kachoo is from Mrs Robinson - an obvious homage
     
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  4. thewonders

    thewonders Someone that I used to know

    I think that's the reason - they all lived in London and couldn't be bothered to drive all the way up to Liverpool to film.

    Also, Strawberry Fields at the time was a private location while Penny Lane is a public street.
     
  5. Drug music.
     
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  6. cyril sneer

    cyril sneer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Exeter, UK
    I love that part of the video. No health and safety in those days.
     
  7. TheHutt

    TheHutt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Well, the neg wouldn't have been handled much, after the initial copies for TV stations were struck. So they were safe in Apple's vaults.
     
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  8. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    Greatest of the greatest.
     
  9. Zongadude

    Zongadude Music is the best

    Location:
    France
    Exactly.
    All the shots where we can see the Beatles, in both films (Strawberry Fields forever and Penny Lane) were taken in Knole Park, in the town of Sevenoaks, UK.

    I've visited the park, it is magnificent !
    The Penny Lane locations are still there, but the Strawberry Fields tree is now just a stump.

    [​IMG]
    herbergement image
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2021
  10. Juan Hitwonder

    Juan Hitwonder Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC

    No one I think is in that tree.
     
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  11. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Wasn't "the Beatles on film" the Hello Goodbye promo on Sullivan? I didn't know he showed SFF.
     
  12. Juan Hitwonder

    Juan Hitwonder Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    The internet reports that Ed showed both of the "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" videos on his February 12, 1967 show, the day before the single's release.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. RickH

    RickH Connoisseur of deep album cuts

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    May have been…
     
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  14. jtiner

    jtiner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maine
    I always thought that running some of the film backward (tree leap) worked well but "it's been done". But it was pretty clever running backward then reversing the film. The film works perfectly for the song, and as others have stated, there's just a unique blend at that moment with the film/music/their appearance. I really enjoyed the film outtakes from that session that circulated a while back.
     
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  15. xios

    xios Senior Member

    Location:
    Florida
    Both Bruce Spicer and Mark Lewisohn say that the videos premiered in the US on Hollywood Palace 0n 2/25. I know the Sullivan site states the 2/12 date but I saw that show (I remember because the Rascals were on), and I don't remember the Beatles on it. I do remember a Hollywood Palace premier, (I was waiting all week) and that there seemed to be fewer screams from the audience.
     
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  16. mr. steak

    mr. steak Forum Resident

    Location:
    chandler az
    Strawberry Fields and Bowie's Ashes to Ashes are the two songs that come to mind when I consider how much art and envelope pushing a "pop" song could accept.

    I'd put this song as my number one of all time.
     
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  17. Wil1972

    Wil1972 'Nader Dodgin' Champ

    Location:
    Alabama
    Love the song. Love the video. I was watching the DVD set of videos they put out and my teen stepdaughter happened to walk in, and was mesmorized until that final shot of them walking away with Martha. When Paul kicked his leg out she asked in a concerned tone, "Wait, did he just try to kick his dog??" :laugh:
     
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  18. Brewmeister

    Brewmeister Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    Love the song and the video is amazing. Probably one of the first videos/promos or whatever that was not just a band miming the song on a stage.

    Regarding the amazing song: I think it is weird that John had often said he didn't like the recording and felt that Paul sabotaged him, but both being too experimental with John's material and not taking it seriously/not giving his all. I think that is nonsense and John's insecurities.
    Pauls mellotron intro -which I think he composed on the spot- is great!
     
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  19. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    They say that the mark of a great song is that it works when played acoustically.

    So for me, the proof of Strawberry Fields Forever's greatness is that the early demos (like the one of just John on his guitar, on Anthology 2) are utterly spellbinding.

    Indeed I remember that hearing the demo for the first time stopped me in my tracks. Just like the first time I ever heard the final song with full production, years before.
     
  20. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    I happened to watch this video on YouTube last night, and, yes, the latest hi-def/remastered/whatever version of this clip really does look like it was filmed yesterday.

    I would agree that this song, plus “Penny Lane” and “Within You Without You,” do represent the Beatles’ absolute peak.
     
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  21. lord K

    lord K Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Strawberry fields is probably my favourtite song and video of the Beatles. (Hey jude may come second).
    This is pure magic and it does not age at all.
    Pefection !
     
  22. Jack Lord

    Jack Lord Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Yes, it is.

    It is a great song. Sad and haunting with a tinge of whimsey.

    IMHO it is the one song, perhaps the only song, that comes close to capturing the true experience of tripping on Acid. The difficulty in holding on to a thought, the endless contradictions, fixations fading away and then returning only to fade away again, ideas coming and going, the pondering and self-reflection, etc.

    Masterpiece.
     
  23. I would love to have this video in true 4k on disc.

    I'm glad that somebody else, other than me, publicly acknowledges the song's origin, frame of mind, and the lengths the Beatles went to produce a true filmic representation of their new found freedom as artists and human beings. Even more, your sentiments are beautifully put.

    Drug music.
     
  24. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    Perhaps Syd Barrett’s/Pink Floyd’s “Jugband Blues” also achieves this.
     
  25. Bill Larson

    Bill Larson Forum Resident

    For context, I had been exposed to almost nothing except classical music (and ELP). As a teenager in 1984, my knowledge of the Beatles was limited to the hits. I had heard the red and blue albums, but somehow managed to skip over the psychedelic stuff.

    A high school friend of mine went me a tape of a radio show about the Beatles. There was the obligatory interview with George Martin, where he described the two versions of the song running in different keys and tempos, and how they were spliced together. Then Strawberry Fields began. My jaw dropped to the floor. I rewound and set 000 at the beginning of the song, and listen to it over and over and over and over until at least 2 AM. I had never heard anything like this in my life.

    From the mellotron (which I thought were backwards flutes), to the strange sound of John’s voice when the edit happened, to the backwards cymbals, to the sustained distorted trumpet c, to the Freeform coda fading out and back in again...this was musical crack.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2021
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