Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Like The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” “Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane” didn’t so much hit hard, it was more that they seeped their way into the collective consciousness of the world, and never left.
At the time of its release most people did not know the backstory, hearing the songs as psychedelic messages from the all mysterious Beatles, when in fact, most Beatle songs were deeply rooted in reality and real places, though for those of us traveling the mystic highway of fascination, we were all more than willing to listen to the rumors, even making up some of our own, and dive headlong down the rabbit hole. Of course all these years later, and with countless books having been written, exploring every nuance of the of all things Beatle, I so wish that I could return to those cherished fabricated underground memories from so long ago.
Both of the songs were artistically different, lush, layered, hypnotic, yet with their dream laden musical construction and surreal lyrics, this back to back adventure made for a contextually complete image, one that made it impossible for one song to exist without the other. On first hearing the songs on the radio during the mid 60’s, I remember turning to my friend and saying with eyes wide, “That was astonishing,” shivers running up my arms. These songs were singular moments in time, they were defining points on the map of my life, and certainly were partly responsible for my lysergic manifestations, where under the influence, the numbers became even more alive, more magical, filled with divine purpose and provenance, and etched into my being. Both “Strawberry Fields and “Penny Lane” were musical scripts being played out in my head, and I’m sure that I was not the only one so affected.
With both songs being recorded in late 1966, and released as a single due to pressure from their record company, neither of these tracks would find their way onto Sgt. Pepper, though it was Lennon’s intention that “Strawberry Fields” should be the opening track for Sgt. Pepper, where if one considers the sublime nature of these two numbers, they would have completely redefined that album as we know it, without a doubt making it much stronger and influential.
There was an intimacy that was unfolding as these songs played out, not simply as Beatle compositions, but as an intimacy for my life, nearly stripping away all that I was, all that I thought I would be, and showed me something that to this day I can not quiet put my finger on, though this musical gesture somehow morphed my notions of self-assurance and self-doubt, where I witnessed an epiphanic moment for myself, with these songs defining my subconscious, and defining my ego [my personal identity].
*** The Fun Facts: Penny Lane is where Lennon used to live before moving in with his Aunt Mimi. As such, Strawberry Fields was also a factual place, a Salvation Army home in Liverpool where John Lennon used to go. He had fond memories of the place that inspired this. In 1984, Lennon's widow Yoko Ono donated $375,000 to the home. One of the buildings has been named Lennon Hall.
John's aunt Mimi did not like John going to Strawberry Fields, as it was basically an orphanage and she thought they would lead John astray. John liked going there because having lost his father and later his mother he felt a kinship to the lads. When John and his aunt would argue about his going he would often reply, "What are they going to do, hang me?" Thus the line "Nothing to get hung about." In America, to be "hung up" is to worry about something, so many US listeners thought the line meant that it was nothing to get "hung up about.”
A distorted voice at the end sounds like "I buried Paul," which fueled rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. The voice is actually Lennon saying, "Cranberry sauce."
It turns out Strawberry Fields is not forever. In 2005, Britain's Salvation Army closed the Strawberry Field children's home in Liverpool, stating that it's preferable for children to be raised in a foster or small group home instead of a large orphanage. The home opened in 1936.
Of course there is the Vietnam War [Viet Nam in the 60’s, hence the reason for calling it The Nam] reference: With the Viet Nam War being a totally misunderstood conflict among most Americans during the 1960’s, thousands of young, especially teenagers, were drafted or enlisted to fight against the spread of communism. During 1967, around the turning point for the War, the Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever.” which metaphorically represents strawberry fields as Vietnam, complete with lyrics such as “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.” The Beatles metaphorically represent America’s shaded knowledge about the Viet Nam War by comparing it to a person living ‘with eyes closed’. The 1960’s was a time of misdirection for teenagers who leaving high school during the war, were out to discover their identities as adults, with The Beatles singing, “It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.” Since the lyrics convey a confused or lost character, but also a free spirited one, the song depicts the life of a teenage boy, who enlists to fight in Vietnam in order to find himself. Since Vietnam was until today, America’s longest lasting conflict, it was also a very bloody war for the United States, and because strawberries are red, the suffering and death of American soldiers is conveyed through the construct of ‘strawberry fields’. The Viet Nam War was also until today’s war in Iraq, the longest lasting military conflict in American history. Therefore, Strawberry Fields Forever depicts itself as a well suiting name for the Viet Nam Conflict because the war literally seemed to have lasted ‘forever’ for most Americans at the time.
Open Web Player
![Revolver Special Edition[5 CD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81ghnkDFVpL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
