Strawberry Fields Forever – Accidental Genius Of Word Painting: The Story You Never Heard

Did You Know?

John Lennon spent several days meditating on the band's first recording before deciding he wanted it to sound "heavier." He met with producer George Martin to add cellos and trumpets to the score.

John Lennon decided that he liked the beginning of the first one and the end of the second one. He asked George Martin to join them together.

However, each recording had a different key and tempo!

"Yea," said Lennon "but you can fix it, George"

Martin had two recordings, one in A major and another in C major, and he had to find a way to merge them.

His solution ends up being the secret ingredient that cements the song’s place in stardom.

Martin understood that slowing down a recording has a side-effect: it lowers the pitch. Since the two recordings were close together in pitch, he sped up the first recording and slowed down the second until they matched.

We follow along peacefully as Lennon tells us all about Strawberry Fields, beckoning us to take a closer look, until we pass the point of no return.

In an instant, everything changes. His voice slows down and locks in. The drums stretch and wash out. Like being swallowed by a black hole, we tumble helplessly down with everything around us. There is no escape now: we are in Strawberry Fields. Nothing is real. Every word takes on a deeper meaning. Every guitar stroke has a darker tone.

This precise moment of the merger occurs at 1.00 just as the second chorus opens with “Let me take you down 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields..."

In my previous post we discussed Word Painting as master songwriter’s technique. Word Painting means using music to paint a picture of the words. George Martin pulled off the ultimate Word Painting moment in the Beatles’ catalogue by splicing two tapes together into one recording.

Strawberry Fields Forever is the story of an imaginary, magical place where nothing is real. Lennon charms us, letting us know he’s going somewhere and he wants us to follow. He is revealing a place in his mind where no one, he thinks, is in his tree. That is you can’t, you know, tune in, but it’s alright. We try anyway.

Thanks to the cleverly hidden stretching of time that occurs when we hear the slowed-down tape, we do feel as if we are tuning in to John’s secret world. The magic moment happens and we feel transformed, as if we are discovering the psychedelic entrance to Strawberry Fields.

I believe this is why Strawberry Fields Forever is so beloved. Word Painting elevates it to a higher level of art. Word Painting locks us in to the hypnotic trance of the lyrics.

The instrumentation itself is impressive. Ringo’s drums and Harrison’s guitar play creative licks that invoke the feeling of a distant land, but it’s all tied together and given an extra push by the splicing. The untrained ear would require dozens of listens to notice that anything was different at all. That is the genius of his move.

George Martin met John Lennon’s request and serendipitously further etched the song into legend.