Strawberry Fields Forever | Page 8 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Not necessarily. It looks real if you’re looking for correspondences, but in reality it was more likely a subconscious process. They’re just the kind of chords John liked with his melodies, which is an organic process that this kind of analysis does nothing to explain.

Musicologists do like to classify song structures in terms of similar chord sequences (the I – VII numbers representing intervals from the root note), but that doesn’t really tell you anything about any song except it sounds “similar to x”. It helps you understand the structure, you can say something about how original or interesting it is, but it tells you nothing about the influence of the instruments used, the timbres looked for, ie the process. The best you can say is “these are the chords or keys this guy tended to use which go along with these kinds of melodies that he favoured”.

edit: and to get more specific and topical, the line of reasoning Krerowicz employs is particularly wrong-footed when it comes to John Lennon who wrote from the words first and for whom standard song structures were always a bit cramping for his poetic rhythms. In My Life is a good example of where the words make do with the melody they’ve got and they almost spill over the restrictions of the rhythm. His best stuff has these loose, joined-together bits that sound nice together but are an accident of the words coming first and different melodies/chords suggesting the best fits.

The harmony and the middle-eight, were Paul’s contributions said John. Agreed, the moods are quite different, but that’s what you miss by just looking at chord correspondences.

Tony Japanese said
As much as I like Strawberry Fields Forever , doesn’t it demonstrate an example of when John didn’t have a clear vision of the song? I mean, the studio version is two different versions spliced together!

But that’s what makes it so great. Starting with that soft psychedelic take 7 with The Beatles playing their usual instruments then switching to the menacing take 26 with it’s aggressive brass and cellos and IMO Ringo’s best drum performance ever. Had they just used take 7, they’d have the problem of having 2 verses back to back and lacking a proper ending, whereas if they’d just used take 26, it’d lack that dreamy feel and come off as too aggressive, so they made the smart decision of merging the 2 takes at the perfect point.

This is definitely my favorite use of multiple takes in one song. Most songs that use multiple takes like This Boy just use them because they did a good job on one take for the first part but preferred another take’s ending, but Strawberry Fields Forever takes the idea of using multiple takes in one song and brings it to a whole new level by creating something that would never have been created if they decided to use one take the whole way through.

Sure, John didn’t have a clear vision of the song, but i’m glad he didn’t because if he did, i doubt it would’ve turned out as good as it did.

I agree with @Tony Japanese . This is, in my opinion, their best song, but it only became as good as it is after a lot of hard work and experimentation to get the desired results. Whatever John’s vision was, there was no clear path to the finished song.