Graves lecture introduces Beatles’ hit

After being introduced to LSD a year earlier, The Beatles created “Strawberry Field Forever” their first psychedelic song. Thirty-five students, faculty, staff and community members joined in the Library with McKay Tebbs, CSC music assistant professor, Tuesday for a presentation on the song “Strawberry Field Forever.”

“No one is sure that the use of LSD had anything to do with the psychedelic tune they produced but their earlier music was different from what they created later, including this song,” said Tebbs.

After their third world-tour, dealing with screaming fans to where you couldn’t hear the music, not being welcome in certain countries, Beatlemania, travel delays due to a typhoon and not showing up for a show in the Philippines, the band decided to split up.

Most members of The Beatles continued with their musical careers, producing their own singles and records. John Lennon, singer/songwriter for The Beatles, became an actor and starred in the movie “How I Won the War,” in his free time he would write and play music.

Lennon started to write “Strawberry Field Forever,” and the band got back together in November 1966. They weren’t sure what sound they wanted therefore it took many takes, different tempo variations and additional sounds to get the song perfect.

By take seven, the slide guitar was under control, the sound of a flute was added, Ringo Starr, drummer for The Beatles, added a drum track but they still did not know how to end it.  In take 27, trumpets and Chellos were added in addition to the backward cymbal sound, and they still didn’t know how to end the song.

“’I like the takes 26 and 27’ he (Lennon) said. ‘Why don’t you join the beginning of the first with the end of the second?’ ‘There are two things against it,’ I replied. ‘They are different keys and different tempos. Apart from that fine,’” said George Martin of Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.

Martin did as Lennon suggested and worked the two different key and different tempo songs into one final product creating, “Strawberry Field Forever.” This song was sold as a single with “Penny Lane” on the other side of the record. They started to produce more tracks which led to the “Magical Mystery Tour” in 1967.