The Beatles had spent nearly one month at Abbey Road Studios working on “Strawberry Fields Forever.” During that time, two different versions (see Pegboy 1008) had been created after 26 takes and countless hours of overdubbing and attending to every recording detail. And yet John Lennon still was not satisfied.
The Legend Behind Version Three (December 22, 1966)
According to Beatles' legend, Lennon listened to the slow dreamy version one (Take 7) and the fast raucous version two (Take 26) and decided that neither version was what he had in mind. He then went to producer George Martin and asked if the two versions could be edited together. Martin's initial reaction was that an edit was impossible, as the versions were in different tempos and in different musical keys.
Nevertheless, Martin went into the studio on December 22, 1966, and studied both versions. He realized that if he sped up the slower first version (Take 7) and slowed down the faster second version (Take 26), the change in tempo would remove the semitone difference in key.
Lewisohn (2008) states that Martin's edit took place at 1:00, with Take 7 sped up by 5% and Take 26 slowed down by 5% to make the join seamless. Thus, version three (the final version) of “Strawberry Fields Forever” consisted of a single edit between version one (Take 7) and version two (Take 26).
Reality Differs From Myth
The reality though is slightly different from the myth. Take 7 begins with the refrain (0:29–0:52), and then goes directly from verse one (0:53–1:14) to verse two (1:15–1:37). Take 26 begins with the trumpets and cellos (0:20–0:38), and then goes directly from the refrain (0:39–0:57) to verse two (1:02–1:20). The odd bit of line spoken by Lennon from verse one suggests that the trumpets and cellos added in Take 26 were recorded over the previous version.
Version three, however, begins with the refrain (0:10–0:33), verse one (0:34–0:55), and then another refrain (0:56–1:18) before verse two begins. A comparison of the three recordings shows that the refrain in Take 7 is precisely as long (23 seconds) as the one used in the final version. Therefore, Take 7 was never sped up by 5%. Instead, only Take 26 was slowed down to make the edit.
But here another problem with the legend arises. Take 26 was never a complete version, but only two thirds of the song, as the opening refrain and verse one were omitted. If Lennon and Martin had wanted to create an entirely new version from Take 7, then they would have started with a song that had the same structure as Take 7: an opening refrain, followed by verse one merging into verse two. Instead, Take 26 starts with the new instrumental score before the refrain leads into verse two. Thus, it seems likely that the decision to edit both versions occurred sometime before Take 26 was recorded.
How Was the Edit Made?
A close study of the recording tapes shows that two separate edits were needed. First, 0:56 of Take 7 is used without any speed variation. Using this section of Take 7, however, was not enough to blend the track into Take 26 by the 1:00 mark. Thus, a second edit was needed.
None of the previous demos or 25 recorded takes had a refrain inserted between verse one and verse two, including Take 7. To allow both versions to merge, the opening refrain from Take 7 had to be inserted and repeated after verse one. At 0:04 of the repeated refrain, the trumpets and cellos from Take 26 are introduced electronically, and then slowed down gradually over those few seconds for the tempo and musical key to merge at the 1:00 mark.
Thus, repeating the refrain was an engineering trick and not the conscious intention of the composer. Nevertheless, the merge was a happy accident of luck and determination.
“Strawberry Fields Forever” is Released
On February 17, 1967, “Strawberry Fields Forever” was released along with “Penny Lane” as The Beatles' 13th single in the United Kingdom. Because the single was released as a double-A side, sales and radio play were divided between both songs. Thus, the single failed to reach number one for the first time since “Love Me Do” in 1962.
Despite this small setback, the critical reception was extraordinary. On March 3, 1967, Time magazine lauded the “astonishing inventiveness” of the single and of Lennon's song in particular. Although the use of “dissonances and eerie space-age sounds” was common in symphonic music, their appearance in “a pop song [was] electrifying.”
In a few months, The Beatles would surpass even this achievement with their next studio album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
References
-------. 1967. Show Business: Other Noises, Other Notes. New York, Time, Inc. (March 3)
-------. 1997. It's Not Too Bad:The Evolution of Strawberry Fields Forever. [CD] Pegboy 1008.
Lewisohn M. 1988. The Beatles Recording Sessions. London: EMI Records, Ltd.
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