From: open.culture@bbs.alt119.net.remove-t21-this

The story of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is more or less the story in miniature
of the Beatles' reinvention after they swore off touring in 1966 and disappeared into the studio to make their most innovative albums. It was not, as some Beatles fans might
remember, an easy transition right away. Some of their fans, it turned out, were fickle, easily swayed by gossip as the latest TV trends. "While unsubstantiated break-up rumors swirled, some music fans became disenchanted with the group," writes Ultimate
Classic Rock. "You need only watch a 1967 clip from American Bandstand to see how many teenagers in the audience thought the Beatles were has-beens."

Eager to get something out and fight the whims of fashion, Parlophone and Capitol both released John Lennon's latest, "Strawberry Fields Forever," with Paul McCartney's "Penny Lane" as the B-side, in 1967. Since the band no longer toured, they were "
directed to make film clips to accompany each song and promote the single."

Here, they debuted their new psychedelic look, and in the singles they demonstrated the new direction their music would go. Thematically, both songs are nostalgic trips through childhood, with Lennon taking a mystical, psych-rock approach and McCartney
diving headlong into his sentimental music hall ambitions.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" also firmly established the band as studio wizards,
thanks to the wizardry, primarily, of George Martin. In the video at the top from You Can't Unhear This, we learn just what a marvel-as a technical achievement-the band's new
single was at the time, containing "the craziest edit in Beatles history." The song itself went through a very lengthy gestation period, as Colin Fleming details in Rolling Stone, from sketchy, ghostly early acoustic demoes called "It's Not Too Bad" (
below) to the wild cacophony of crashing rhythms and looping melodies it would become.

Recording take after take, the band spent 55 hours in the studio working on "Strawberry Fields Forever." Nothing seemed to satisfy Lennon, though he was leaning toward a darker, heavier take, Fleming notes:

This was a version approaching proto-metal. Lennon couldn't decide if he wanted
to go the ethereal route, or the stomping one, and famously told George Martin to combine the two versions. This was less than practical. 

"Well, there are two things against it," Martin informed Lennon. "One is that they're in different keys. The other is that they're in different tempos."

But for a man who had started his most personal, honest musical journey, within
the parameters of a single song, back in Spain, this was merely part of the process. 

"You can fix it, George," Lennon concluded, and that was that, with Martin now tasked with finding a solution to a problem that seemingly violated the laws of
musical physics.

Martin's solution involved slowing one version down and speeding up the other until they were close enough in pitch that "only a musicologist, really, would know that there was that much of a difference," Fleming writes. Speeding up and
slowing down
tracks was common practice in the studio, and is today, but given the incredible number of instruments and amount of overdubbing that went into making "Strawberry Fields," the endeavor defied the logic of what was technologically possible at the time.

While the time spent on the song might seem extravagant, we should consider that these days bands can pluck the sounds they want, whatever they are, from pull-down menus, and splice anything together in a matter of minutes. In the mid-60s, Brian Jones,
Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and other studio pioneers dreamed up sounds no one had heard before, and brought together instrumentation that had never shared space in a mix. Producers and engineers like Martin had to invent the techniques to
make those new sounds come together on tape. Learning the ins-and-outs of how Martin did it can give even the most die-hard Beatles fans renewed appreciation
for songs as widely beloved as "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Related Content:

Hear John Lennon Sing Home Demo Versions of "She Said, She Said," "Strawberry Fields Forever," and "Don't Let Me Down"

Lennon or McCartney? Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence to Figure Out Who Wrote Iconic Beatles Songs

A Virtual Tour of Every Place Referenced in The Beatles' Lyrics: In 12 Minutes,
Travel 25,000 Miles Across England, France, Russia, India & the US

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

How "Strawberry Fields Forever" Contains "the Craziest Edit" in Beatles History
is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online
Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/XdrQL6RoU_4/how-strawberry-fields-forever-contains-the-craziest-edit-in-beatles-history.html

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From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net

On Fri, 22 May 2020 09:22:36 -0300, "Open Culture" <open.culture@bbs.alt119.net.remove-t21-this> wrote:

The story of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is more or less the story in
miniature of the Beatles' reinvention after they swore off touring in
1966 and disappeared into the studio to make their most innovative
albums. It was not, as some Beatles fans might remember, an easy
transition right away. Some of their fans, it turned out, were fickle,
easily swayed by gossip as the latest TV trends. "While
unsubstantiated break-up rumors swirled, some music fans became
disenchanted with the group," writes Ultimate Classic Rock. "You need
only watch a 1967 clip from American Bandstand to see how many
teenagers in the audience thought the Beatles were has-beens."

Eager to get something out and fight the whims of fashion, Parlophone
and Capitol both released John Lennon's latest, "Strawberry Fields
Forever," with Paul McCartney's "Penny Lane" as the B-side, in 1967.
Since the band no longer toured, they were "directed to make film
clips to accompany each song and promote the single."

Here, they debuted their new psychedelic look, and in the singles they demonstrated the new direction their music would go. Thematically,
both songs are nostalgic trips through childhood, with Lennon taking a mystical, psych-rock approach and McCartney diving headlong into his sentimental music hall ambitions.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" also firmly established the band as studio
wizards, thanks to the wizardry, primarily, of George Martin. In the
video at the top from You Can't Unhear This, we learn just what a
marvel-as a technical achievement-the band's new single was at the
time, containing "the craziest edit in Beatles history." The song
itself went through a very lengthy gestation period, as Colin Fleming
details in Rolling Stone, from sketchy, ghostly early acoustic demoes
called "It's Not Too Bad" (below) to the wild cacophony of crashing
rhythms and looping melodies it would become.

Recording take after take, the band spent 55 hours in the studio
working on "Strawberry Fields Forever." Nothing seemed to satisfy
Lennon, though he was leaning toward a darker, heavier take, Fleming
notes:

This was a version approaching proto-metal. Lennon couldn't decide if
he wanted to go the ethereal route, or the stomping one, and famously
told George Martin to combine the two versions. This was less than practical. 

"Well, there are two things against it," Martin informed Lennon. "One
is that they're in different keys. The other is that they're in
different tempos."

But for a man who had started his most personal, honest musical
journey, within the parameters of a single song, back in Spain, this
was merely part of the process. 

"You can fix it, George," Lennon concluded, and that was that, with
Martin now tasked with finding a solution to a problem that seemingly
violated the laws of musical physics.

Martin's solution involved slowing one version down and speeding up
the other until they were close enough in pitch that "only a
musicologist, really, would know that there was that much of a
difference," Fleming writes. Speeding up and slowing down tracks was
common practice in the studio, and is today, but given the incredible
number of instruments and amount of overdubbing that went into making "Strawberry Fields," the endeavor defied the logic of what was
technologically possible at the time.

While the time spent on the song might seem extravagant, we should
consider that these days bands can pluck the sounds they want,
whatever they are, from pull-down menus, and splice anything together
in a matter of minutes. In the mid-60s, Brian Jones, Brian Wilson,
Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and other studio pioneers dreamed up sounds
no one had heard before, and brought together instrumentation that had
never shared space in a mix. Producers and engineers like Martin had
to invent the techniques to make those new sounds come together on
tape. Learning the ins-and-outs of how Martin did it can give even the
most die-hard Beatles fans renewed appreciation for songs as widely
beloved as "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Related Content:

Hear John Lennon Sing Home Demo Versions of "She Said, She Said,"
"Strawberry Fields Forever," and "Don't Let Me Down"

Lennon or McCartney? Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence to Figure
Out Who Wrote Iconic Beatles Songs

A Virtual Tour of Every Place Referenced in The Beatles' Lyrics: In 12
Minutes, Travel 25,000 Miles Across England, France, Russia, India &
the US

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

How "Strawberry Fields Forever" Contains "the Craziest Edit" in
Beatles History is a post from: Open Culture. Follow us on Facebook,
Twitter, and Google Plus, or get our Daily Email. And don't miss our
big collections of Free Online Courses, Free Online Movies, Free eBooks, Free Audio Books, Free Foreign Language Lessons, and MOOCs.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OpenCulture/~3/XdrQL6RoU_4/how-strawberry-fields-forever-contains-the-craziest-edit-in-beatles-history.html

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* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)