For my money, Strawberry Fields Forever backed with Penny Lane is the greatest single ever released. Both Lennon and McCartney wrote songs remembering their youths and early days in Liverpool. Lennon's SFF is much more the "dream", and I've heard it described as an unsure conversation with himself (listen to the indecisiveness of the lyrics), as if he's remembering earlier days, but isn't quite sure it is real or not. McCartney's PL is much more concrete, remembering specific people and places from Liverpool in a happier, more secure frame of mind. Both are squarely "psychedlic" with their word play and choice of instrumentation. You are right Caroline, they are entering a phase where they are quite literally willing to try anything in their songs. And let's not forget George Martin's contributions in scoring the awesome string and horn sections. Great songs, great reaction!
@@ansc6472 Listen to the chord structure, minor on the chorus, lots of changes in mode and key. Sure compared to Strawbery Fields Forever, it isn't, but it has a dreamlike quality. Remember, SFF's dreamlike attributes have a lot to do with the changing tape speed to match keys. Both highlight the difference between the two writers and how much they complimented each other.
@@Dude0000 I also seem to remember that the original concept for "In My Life" was about memories of Liverpool, like a proto-Strawberry Fields. So it seems this idea was ruminating within them for quite a while.
Rain is one of those songs you don’t find very spectacular when you hear it for the first time. But as you go the more and more into the depth of the Beatles catalogue, you realise how special and crazy good that song is. AND ITS ONLY A B-SIDE
Liam Gallagher who’s obsessed with Lennon, calling his first kid Lennon, called the band Rain, and on Wonderwall (a Harrison reference) used the same lights in the sunglasses affect. Noel changed it to Oasis after a swimming pool in Swindon to not be too obviously Beatle inspired.
Paul and John were unstoppable in this time period. The Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane single is generally considered to be one of the best singles of all time.
It is sobering and sad (as a 68 year old) to know full well that there will be people for whom "single" has no meaning. I am now reminiscing on orange label CBS singles, Pye's pink Kinks' singles and labels like Track, Immediate and Deram and many others that haven't existed for years. Happy days :-)
And yet back in the day the number one song of the year for 1967 on the Billboard charts was "To Sir, With Love" by Lulu. "Penny Lane" ranked number 55 for the year. Great as the Beatles were (are), it's interesting to contextualize their songs in the incredible outpouring of pop songs of the mid to late 60's. Anyone with a radio back then was overwhelmed by the incessant cavalcade of hits from both sides of the pond.
I live on Penny Lane and not much has changed, the barbershop etc is still there... And although it's very cold here today I'm looking out at very beautiful 'blue suburban skies'! Love from Liverpool x
correct. Strawberry Fields is probably the single greatest song the Beatles made. And that's saying something since almost everything after Help! was genius.
@@ToneSherpa yes it is certainly among the very best but it is a studio invention and the Beatles could not reproduce it live, they were just not good enough!
@@g2tennis that's where you're mistaken... Pink Floyd has the immensely complex composition opener to their 1st album called "Astronomy Domine" and, yes, they were able to perform it live... there's even footage here on youtube (with impressive sound quality for the time too) So it just goes to prove that yes, it was humanly possible to reach that level of craftmanship in a musical instrument (and band)
@@andrewdoubtfire4700 it's a shame that advances in electronics have made things like the Mellotron obsolete. I'm sure there are YT videos about it, it's one of those contraptions that are impressive that they work at all, and it had an utterly distinctive sound.
@@andrewdoubtfire4700 It's effectively the first sampler ever made, a keyboard that plays back a pre-recorded tape loop for each key pressed. Register is not the right word to describe it, it would come with different banks of pre-recorded tape loops, in this case a flute.
The most brilliant part about Strawberry Fields is how it was stitched together from two different takes recorded in two different keys by slowing the tape down. You can hear the cut when John sings "going to" and the percussion comes in.
@@SM-dt1pr Technically, it is, like ADT, an innovation that came about from the demands of the creative genii of the Beatles. A lot of bands wanted to do things the Beatles did at this time. The Beatles had the best engineer and producer around to make what they wanted work. Listen to John's acoustic demo. It's good but not that interesting. The mix of artistic reach and engineering genius is what makes them great. As with Tomorrow Never Knows. How many bands wanted to do that but didn't have the talented crew behind them? We will never know.
Rain was the first song with reverse vocals. I love it. Strawberry Fields is a great great masterpiece. So Penny Lane is. Strawberry Fields is for me one of the best songs ever written.
SFF is indeed one of the finest, if not the finest, pop song ever written. I don't like lists or rankings in things that cannot, and should not, try to be judged and ranked, but SFF is so transcendent that it really does merit the blue ribbon. It is simply that good.
@@Neal_Schier You can't really say which is the finest song of theirs because they wrote so many flawless songs. My favorites change on a daily basis...lol
@@MICKEYISLOWD There is obviously no objective metric to say that SFF is better than Hey Jude or Something. But as Caroline points out, the ARRANGEMENT of SFF is "better" - more creative - than with any other Beatles song. They use all the instrument families., and they use them well. Give some credit to George Martin's scoring. As arrangements go, SFF and "Good Vibrations" would have to be the top two pop songs of all time. Brian Wilson used up a ton of studio time recording the latter.
Paul McCartney's bass line in "RAIN" is mindblowing - he single-handedly brought the bass guitar to the center of the stage with that 1966 track. Playing in a high-G octive was a bit unusual at the time and it alone inspired me to pick up a bass guitar and learn to play it. Thank you, Mr. McCartney, from the countless number of young musicians you've encouraged.
Yep, he really knew what to do with the bass to elevate every song. He could have been a guitarist but I’m glad he was a bassist, he was innovative as hell.
@@thesilvershining Note that he learned from The Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' regarding mixing the bass more up front and more melodic. Good Vibrations from The Beach Boys is the template for McCartney's new approach to bass and piano style on Penny Lane which became very evident in Sgt Pepper and With A Little Help From My Friends.
This is a John song, what about praising John great songwriting and Ringo‘s drumming. You McCartney bass people Think that every song becomes a masterpiece when Paul plays his bass without recognizing the other members of the group, shame.
Penny Lane is written in two keys. The verses are in Bmaj and the chorus is in Amaj which means there is a downward whole step modulation happening on the lyric 'Meanwhile Back'. This mod happens 6 times seamlessly throughout the song and nobody notices it. Then there is an upward mod on the final chorus which is easy to hear. The song sounds simple however it is so beautifully crafted and very cleverly written. This is one of the reasons why The Beatles are so dammed good. The sophistication is always there to serve the song, unlike what came after The Beatles during the prog rock era where everyone was trying to dazzle the listener with complex lines and time signatures just to appear masterful when in fact anyone can write a song just so people can say 'wow...that's so complex'. Penny Lane is a 'perfect' song and writing perfect songs is about as difficult a task as one can imagine.
Pop suggests super popular mainstream things like Backstreet Boys, Steps, Vengaboys, Britney etc. who obviously, while good enough in context, are not the Beatles
@@SnabbKassa different types of pop. Radio pop is not the same as the pop the Beatles and the Kinks etc made. And then there's pop as in not classical (and often also distinct from folk).
For my money, Rain is the better track but not as commercially accessible as Paperback Writer. It was going to be the next single till Paul came in with Paperback Writer - an excellent song, but Rain has so much more texture and the lyrics (Caroline, please try to focus a bit more on their lyrics) are subtle with irony and as others have said, drum and bass are awesome. But then I have to admit I am more of John than a Paul fan!
In response to your question about which song drew us in more, you have to travel back in time to the 1960's...this was a time when there was no social media, no internet, only radio and TV. Music wasn't at our beck and call unless we were lucky enough to have a friend who had the 45's or the album of the band you wanted to hear or we were lucky enough to buy them ourselves. So you must understand that when new music came out you had to wait until it was played on the radio to hear it and if you liked a new song enough you found a way to buy the record or find a friend who bought it to hear it, it made for a different listening experience than kids have today. So when you bought a new record you played it over and over again till you knew all the words and could sing along with it. Now as to The Beatles, those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with them first heard their music as young teenagers and as we grew older each year, The Beatles musically grew right along with us...that's why we never outgrew them. And as they developed more sophisticated musically we started looking more and more for the inner meanings to the songs. Each new song, each new album was a revelation. If you think about it The Beatles changed the publics record buying habit from buying 45's to buying albums...before The Beatles most recording artists put out albums with one or two hit singles on them and the rest of the album was just kind of crappy filler songs to fill out the album. The Beatles from the very beginning put out albums that you wanted to listen to from beginning to end...very little filler songs. And as the years passed Beatle albums became works of art...they were pushing all the boundaries of what a band could do and what the public would accept. They changed music forever and the effects are still felt to this day. Before The Beatles it was all one hit wonders by singers and groups controlled by the record companies...The Beatles broke that bond and freed all after them to pursue their own musical visions. They gave the listening world a gift which we never can repay. So to ask us to say which Beatles song grabbed us the most when we first heard it is kinda a moot point because every new Beatles song grabbed us and became our favorite Beatle song until they released a new record. Honestly when you look back at The Beatles full catalogue it's amazing that they put out so many great songs in so short a time...truly amazing. I just really want to thank you for letting me see The Beatles again through your young eyes and ears and to again experience what it was like to hear these wonderful songs for the first time again.
This is the best answer I’ve read to the question of which one of these songs impacted us the most. This is basically how I feel. They ALL impacted me greatly and each one has been a joy to hear.
Rain is my fav Beatles tune since 1966 when I played it at 13 for my friends on a sunny/rainy scottish afternoon. This tune may likely grow inside your brain !!!!
@@twj2002 I would never denigrate John's ability, but the backward tape loops are Pauls. Done upstairs in the attic of his flat in the Ashers I believe.
Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were Paul and John, respectively, reflecting on their boyhoods in Liverpool. They’re real places. Strawberry Fields was a technical marvel in its time. They hobbled together two different takes with different tempos, instrumentations, and keys, and literally adjusted the electric power sources of their equipment to speed up and slow the takes to make them match. You can hear the edit point at like 0:59. Also check out the music videos of the two songs the Beatles channel. Iconic!
Caroline I was 16 when "Rain and "Paperback writer" came out and I remember thinking what can be better than this? And then it happened with "Strawberry fields forever" and "Penny lane"!! There was a big promo at the time and I was really looking forward to the next Beatles single which in my opinion is the best single ever!! From "I want to hold your hand" and "She loves you" to "Strawberry fields forever" and "Penny lane" in less than 3 years is remarkable!! I'm really thankful for growing up in such incredible times!!
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane is absolute peak Beatles and probably the most important pair of songs they ever did, really showing off the different strengths of Lennon's (more abstract, nonsensical, inward-looking) and McCartney's (more melodic, emotional, outward-looking) styles. As much as I'm usually a Paul man of the two, to me, Strawberry Fields is the single greatest Lennon song and possibly even the best Beatles song altogether: it taps into something universal and almost unspeakable that lives inside everyone, a sort of twinned "certainty of my uncertainty." There's a reason its lyrics are so broadly quoted, and it's sonically breathtaking, too.
The flutes in Strawberry Fields are actually a Mellotron, a precursor to the synthesizer that used a whole rack full of strips of recorded tape that play samples of various instruments, all controlled by a keyboard.
Almost basically an analog sampling synthesizer no less! The early electronic instruments are fascinating. I would have loved to have played an ondes Martenot at some point.
The delight on your face as you listen is making my day! John Lennon said years later in his interview for "Playboy" magazine that the lyric, "No one I think is in my tree/I mean it must be high or low" referred to a feeling that nagged him his entire life, that he was either a genius, so much brighter than everyone around him (a common thought among bright school boys), or that he was insane or going insane, he was so out of step with everyone around him.
I was just about to comment this LOL. I had a surround system stereo in the 1990s. I could almost isolate the background vocals. So many layers to Their music!! Take care!!
I'd say "Penny Lane" just makes me happy. As I got older "Rain" is extraordinary. The drum and bass lines are just incredible. I do love "Strawberry Fields", too.
@@dout0rm942 No, there’s change in speed of both the vocals and the backing track - one moved slower, the other faster. There’s a great TH-cam clip of the making of “Rain”. Only about 10 minutes long, and fascinating.
Not King Lear, but Edward Lear who was a big influence on John Lennon's two books he wrote in 1964 and 1965 " A Spaniard in the Works" and " In His Own Write".
I wouldn't be surprised if you found you started liking "Rain" more the more you heard it. I find myself singing it to myself from time to time, even if I hadn't heard it for a very long time.
I love Rain, one of my favorites, but if someone doesn't love it immediately, I wouldn't expect that to change, really..... All I can say is that it signaled the start of the Beatles wanting to get seriously philosophical and revolutionary. Like, not just a fun diversion anymore - he says "can you hear me? can you hear me? I can show you..."
The bass and drums on “Rain” are amazing, and the way Paul and Ringo are working together on that like they’re reading each other’s minds the whole time.
When the single came out, I was not yet 10 and I fell in love with Paperback Writer's clever/funny lyrics & driving tempo. But when I re-listened to the Beatles catalog as an adult it was Rain that blew me away. My first thought was what demon possessed Ringo and can we have some more? My second thought was, my god! Are they using the bass as the LEAD guitar on this song? Still one of my top 5 Beatles tracks.
Strawberry Fields Forever is one of the greatest songs of all time. It took its name from the Salvation Army home near John when he was growing up. It's still there now, helping people, and you can visit.
Rain pointed forward - Strawberry Fields is the point where everyone realized that the Beatles transcended the realm of pop acts to the level of actual artists.
By common agreement, "Rain" features the finest drumming of Ringo Starr's career. Even he said he couldn't imagine where it came from, and he could never capture the same spirit again.
I was floored, stopped in my tracks, when 1st heard Strawberry Fields. I immediately exclaimed to my Mom. “That’s it. The Beatles will go down in history.” I was 14. It has remained my favorite Beatles song.
When I first heard it, I really didn't find it much attractive(half the reason is that I didn't really care about the lyrics at the time). But there was something special in that song which really made me think about it at times. Then I started to listen to it frequently and the more I listened to it the more it revealed. In this track Lennon is at the utmost level of his songwriting brilliance. It's a shame he was never satisfied with the way track turned out.
Strawberry Fields Forever, definitely. I heard John's haunting voice say "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me": the arrangement is so delicate, so elegant; the imagery crystal clear. I wept when I heard it.
Strawberry fields is one of my favourite songs of all time. The intro with Mccartney playing the melotron sets the dream like quality of the song before it takes you on fantasy journey through Lennon's mind. Simply superb 👌
I'm 29 so my experience is different then most of the commenters. But I love all these songs but hands down Strawberry Fields is one of if not the most important song in my musical life. When I first heard it as a young teen it really struck me and opened my eyes to what music could be. Penny Lane is a wonderful nostalgic masterpiece that's much more accessible than Strawberry Fields yet still has that psychedelic overtone. Paperback Writer is a fun example of middle Beatles song crafting And I love Rain. Some of Ringo's best drumming there. Literally every time it rains hard that song gets stuck in my head.
I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
Just wanted to say that I’m 61 and watching someone with musical knowledge discover the brilliance of The Beatles in 2021 is such a joy. Getting to know this music was some of my best memories. I was 14 in 74 when I really got into them and the journey has continued ever since. (McCartney III is amazing) .
When it 1st came out, Strawberry Fields was mind-blowing. "Nothing is real." Nobody had ever put a line like that in "rock." ("You're making me feel like I've never been born?") SF was an orphanage where John chilled a lot growing up. Paul lived close to Penny Lane. They were both writing abt their childhoods in Liverpool. Both records were Double A sides. Read a ton more. And Ringo was so phenomenal I've decided lately they could not have been what they were without them
What if Paul hung around Strawberry Fields instead of John? What if John was more emotionally attached to Penny Lane than Paul was? Two VERY different songs would have been produced and I WANT TO HEAR THEM (LOL)
"Strawberry fields" wrote by John about his memories of an orphanat he used to get in its yard to let his imagination go. "Penny Lane" is the about memories Paul's answer to John's song. Greetings from Mexico.
There’s an amazing video on WHY Penny Lane’s chord progression is literally mind blowing. Yeah Strawberry Fields is on the first listen more interesting but as a composition Penny Lane is so damn good. Also, as many people have pointed out, these two songs stand as counterpoints to each other. Both Lennon and McCartney wrote these songs about their upbringing. Also, it’s a perfect representation of their songwriting philosophies and really where they begin to really diverge from each other.
They were all along competing with each other for the "A"-side and first track on the LP. So they weren't "diverging"; they were simply more individually distinctive. One actually sees that throughout their career. McCartney sings, "I have to admit it's getting better," and Lennon responds, "It can't get no worse"". It's who they were together.
Rain had a hard rock edge to it that was pretty new to the Beatles bag of tricks at that time (and has been mentioned backward vocals on the fade out). For some reason Rain rewards repeated listening. Paperback Writer with its cascading harmonies toward the end (and the Frere Jaques bit!) is a classic pop song. Penny Lane is a jaunty happy sound which does the Motown thing of sounding happy but having sad elements in the lyrics. Strawberry Fields Forever was - at the time it was released - a very new listening experience and fascinated everyone who heard it. When DJ Kenny Everett (at that time out on the pirate radio ship Radio London) first got a promo copy of it, he played it, on-air, six times in succession because he was so blown away by it! Strawberry Fields is the most interesting of these, but Rain is the one I go back to the most - but I'm not sure I could say why. All four would be in my Beatles top 10 though.
Rain is more about the bass and drums than it is about the melody. For me, anyway. That could be why Caroline mentioned that the melody didn't grab her.
I heard "Rain" once as a very young boy, probably on the car radio as my family was driving between our home in northern Minnesota and my grandparents' farm in South Dakota. I didn't hear "Rain" again until I was a young adult, but that single snatch of music would come back to me from time to time. But my imagination had to fill in all I hadn't heard that one time, or couldn't remember accurately. Over the years the song became something called "Green" in my imagination with a different set of lyrics. When I finally heard "Rain" again, in its entirety, it purged my childhood memory and, for the life of me, I can't recall anything of the pastiche I invented.
Wonderfully explained. Pre-internet/pre-apps something vague but impactful could sear into your memory. Years would go by. You’d wonder if the mystery would ever be solved - how much was real, how much did I fill in the blanks from the fog. Then one day, maybe decades later ... an omg moment and it’s all unlocked. Been there.
It could be the favorite Beatles song we each pick DOES bring back a certain memory of where we were at the time. Or even the weather of a certain feeling, memory or season. For me: Rubber Soul/Christmas…SgtPep/summer vacation….She Loves You/pig tails & bubble gum.
When they made Strawberry Fields Forever, Jhon and Ringo were 26 years old, Paul 24 and George a mere 23 (practically a kid). Really blows the mind what they were able to accomplish at such a young age and all the instruments and studio experimentation they dived into with George Martin's help. Add to that the fact that there was zero previous history in the 60's of pop artists doing these innovative things such as using classical instruments with backwards or slowed down tapes. It's truly marvelous.
The amount of genius that was packed in that band was just staggering. After The Beatles both of Ringo and George had very fine careers on their own. Ringo had some very good singles (my favorite was Photograph) and George Harrison had probably the best Beatles solo album when he made All Things Must Pass. They were all brilliant artists and their music meant a lot to me growing up, and it still does. Every time I put it on it sounds just as good as it did when I 1st heard it. It never wears out
@@doriskray1430 I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
@@doriskray1430 California-centric writing about cars as a theme established by Chuck Berry. It was "The Beatles" who woke him to the reality that there is a world beyond California and wealth. Listen to the chauvinist "California Girls" -- then hear the contrasting -- it CRUSHES "The Beach Boys" harmonies -- "Back in the U.S.S.R."
Rain is one I also didn't like at first, but it's now completely grown on me. It doesn't have any rain samples but it sure feels like it does, then we get a little peek of sunshine as they sing out the word
I guess you can't really say The Beatles are known for any one sonic signature. They're known for changing music as we know it. From how it's written to how it's consumed and who it's consumed by to how it's produced and how it's recorded
@@thomast8539 I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
In Penny Lane, when the chorus of the fireman starts, Paul sings "In his pocket is a portrait of the queen". This is a reference to a British coin. They loved to throw little things like that in their songs.
@@piaraskelly1038 Mabee, not from that source synecdoche is a poetic device where you use a part to represent the whole or the whole to describe the part. So it's possible they both used the same device without reference to each other.
Do we want to tell her what the "full of fish and finger pie" line in Penny Lane is all about? (hint: kind of the equivalent to the American line "getting to third base")
@@penfold7455 I read about that years ago, probably in the Hunter Davies biography. And was gong to keep my mouth shut...but now that you bring it up...🤣...today, watch Paul try to deny it in some interview lol
The song Rain is not meant to evoke the same manic existential panic of Paperback Writer. Listening to Rain is like watching a torrential down pour in a monsoon climate. The phrasing you mentioned of the word "rain" evokes the wind shears and twisting sheets of rain coming down like a punishment for prayers to circumvent our deserved mortal punishment of broiling sun. There's a mixed message in the tense harmonies that could signal a quenching release from an insufferable drought or just cuing a drenching shift in tortures.
George Martin was actually the seventh Beatle. Stu Suttcliffe was the fifth and Brian Epstein was the sixth and Billy Preston was the eighth. No, Pete Best doesn't count.
@@TheSpikehere I expect that there were whispers that Martin was the hidden hand. As a kid, I found it hard to believe that the Beatles wrote all their songs. I suspected that they were ghost written. It just seems so incredible that such an accomplished act was more than an act. That it was a creative force. Before the Beatles, performers mostly were puppets on a string.
When they made the song Rain they slowed down the music tracks a little and sped up the vocal track a little. That's why it has a kind of hypnotic effect.
Yup at this stage John was into any new studio effects that George Martin could come up with to change his voice. That enthusiasm was waning after the White album, and by the time of recording' Let it be' Lennon didn't want any kind of studio tricks at all, and was openly rude and dismissive to Martin about this kind of production contribution. Martin only agreed to do the following 'Abbey Road' album if he was allowed to produce it the way he had previously collaborated with them.
Also to your question, it was strawberry fields that drew me in. It’s a quintessential John Lennon song. No one writes like Lennon. he writes songs as if you’re hearing him think. “I think er no I mean er yes but it’s all wrong. That is I think I disagree” listening to that was delightful. Playful and honest. It’s a bitter sweet song once you sink into it. After a couple replays the weight of it begins to settle. This is an absolutely personal song. It actually brings tears to my eyes. “Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see.” It’s all magic. For me the lyrics are perfect. Add on top of that an absolutely blow out performance by Mr. George Martin and you get a teary, fun and unique thrash through John Lennon’s psyche. Also the acoustic version (demo) on the anthology is tragic.
@@perhapsxarb7226 yes it is, a quick Google search will tell you this. Check all the lyric books. *But it's all wrong* talks about what John *knows is all wrong* , hence the, *I think I know, I mean* -- implying ego death, LSD psychedelia stuff. The *er no, er yes* you seem to think it is, is just nonsense and that is more akin to Walrus than Strawberry Fields
In answer to your question.... Rain was the song that hit me the most... I bought Paperback Writer when it came out... when I was 13. Flipped the single over to hear the other track that wasn't being played on the radio and out came Rain... Bloody Hell... Drones, Eastern Influence, Backwards Guitar, Fuzz Bass... (All of which I picked up on when I was older) but what an illustration of what was to come with Revolver.... Keep on Rocking..
Rain would not make my top 100 Beatles songs. Yet it's your favorite. What sets the Beatles apart is the depth of their catalogue. Two different people could make a top 40 and not have a single sing in common. And every one of those 80 songs would be number 1 on someone's list, somewhere. What other band could that ever be said of?
Strawberry Fields was my favourite of the four back when they were released, but Rain still blows me away because that is Ringo's best drumming performance on a record, in my books. Every fill is different.
Paperback Writer is really the beginning of what we call classic rock in America. You've got distorted guitar, it's more of a head banger than a dancing ditty, and there's nothing about love in it - it's a song guys can dig even more than the chicks. The Beatles started out as a boy band for girls, at Paperback Writer they're becoming a cool guy's band for guys. Classic rock.
All four of these tracks are fantastic. All four of them will be listened to and admired for generations to come. This cannot be said for most pop music of today.
It is said that there is a world before The Beatles and a world after the Beatles... One could say that music today is what it is because of The Beatles.
Well that doesn't speak well for the Beatles considering the rather dismal state of current pop music. But you could say all music stems from Bach and Beethoven as well.
Let’s not forget it is only 3 years from She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand. The amount of progression stylistically is astonishing. Most bands never change styles or very little in their entire career. The Beatles completely reinvented themselves. For me Strawberry Fields Forever followed by Rain are my favorites out of the four. John’s voice and lyrics connect with me on a deep level. The dreamlike quality of both are very comforting. Cazza you put a very big smile on my face this morning. Happy Thanksgiving!
Can’t believe you don’t like “Rain”; fantastic recording. “Strawberry Fields Forever” is one of my all time favorite songs. A truly revolutionary recording.
Rain is great.. but as far as Beatles stuff goes, it's a bit meandering and sloppy. It's not a tight written perfectly executed pop song like some of there other stuff. some might consider the sloppiness a benefit though. and I'm inclined to agree depending on my mood. love the backwards stuff as well.
I have been a huge Beatles fan for decades and whenever I am asked which of their songs is my favorite (even though there are so many, really) I always say "Penny Lane". The reasons are that it is, in my opinion, the perfect pop song: it has a superb melody, great evocative storytelling lyrics based on an actual "lane" in Liverpool (which I have been fortunate to visit !), a fantastic arrangement and production and of course an outstanding lead vocal from Paul McCartney. It's so enjoyable to watch someone young like you, and obviously gifted with a great ear, discover the Beatles music. It's easy to understand how they were truly instrumental (and vocal... pardon the pun) in shaping and innovating popular music. Keep on enjoying the Fabs !
From the simplistic 'Love Me Do' to 'Strawberry Fields'...how far they'd come musically in 5 short years.......absolutely astounding isn't it Caroline?
Their career was astonishing at all: in september 1962 they released 'love me do' as a relative unknown band and one year later they played a concert in front of the british royals.
Strawberry Field is a musical revolution on it’s own. One of the best songs of all time. Still amazes me. And not just because of the groundbreaking production and arrangement. It is still amazing played with one ukulele.
Caroline, it's pleasing to see someone of your generation speak out in such educated appreciation of the band that changed popular music forever, and I applaud your style, your talent and the hard work you put in to share your reactions with us. Paperback Writer: Ha! Does it take an ancient gentleman from Texas to remind you all that Harrison and Lennon are singing "Frère Jacques" in BG vocals behind McCartney's "It's a thousand pages give or take a few ... ?" Silly trivia, but a fun fact. This song also represents one of the band's uses of an early magnetic tape repeating delay machine at Abbey Road Studios: the "Send Tape Echo Echo Delay" or STEED. It's most easily heard filling the pause after the word "writer" 47 seconds in. Slapback was in use, but feedback multiple repeats were really new in those days. As for the more prominent bass guitar sound in this recording compared to previous Beatles tracks, the Beatles were somewhat pissed that their low end sounded wimpy compared to what they heard coming out of Motown and California, so engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with using one of the huge "White Elephant" studio monitor speakers as a microphone positioned in front of PM's bass amp, fed into an input and preamp in the EMI REDD desk (the studio-built console in use at the time), reasoning that a large speaker as transducer would capture more sound than a tiny mic capsule as transducer. As can be heard, it worked very well -- too well, actually. Not only did it make the bass guitar signal sound much larger, but it also picked up every stray noise in Studio 2 and therefore the practice was finally abandoned. In addition, it was on this recording that McCartney set aside his short-scale Hofner violin bass guitar in favor of the mighty Rickenbacker 4001, which output a significantly more powerful tone. People forget that the Hofner was a cheap instrument, until The Beatles were seen with one. I've heard he originally bought it because the violin shape was bilaterally symmetric (unlike other basses) and could be flipped over, re-strung and played left-handed without it looking too funny. All that said, I remember persuading my parents to drive me to the store to buy the 45 rpm record when it came out, because I wasn't yet old enough to drive, but I was at that age when my mind was like a sponge, soaking up incredible music right smack dab in the middle of the Beatles' historic journey. Imagine hearing that a new album was just released, and it turns out to be Pepper, which was unlike anything ever heard at that point. Those were the days! Anyway, between Paperback Writer and Rain, I always preferred Rain (gasp!), which I think is the first instance of backward vocals in a pop recording. But Strawberry Fields tops them all. Thank you, Sir George Martin. P.S. I also run a Focusrite Scarlett series through Mackie near-fields. Coincidences abound!
What I really loved about these songs is just remembering sitting at home, in your bedroom or wherever with all the mundane stuff that goes on, siblings, parents, rules, and then all of a sudden your listening to this music and you are gone I mean instantly transported to a better place in mind & spirit. As a teen in the 60's I just couldnt get enough. A new song or new album coming out was the anticipation of where will I go now, where will the Beatles take me. Remember, this was only the 60's & the Beatles took a generation to new limits! I am a different person no doubt...
Strawberry fields was recorded in two keys and rhythms and they sped up one part and slowed down one until they met in a middle key and rhythm (mostly).
"Rain" was a hard track to come by when I started listening to the Beatles, and when I eventually heard it, I loved it. It's a great pop song, but it's also has a unique, trippy vibe because of how it plays with time. And the harmonies are great.
And it seems they are vocally replicating the sitar sound here. They are droning the vowel in "rain" by repeating it to stretch the word: rai, ai, ai, ai, ain. It's like a sitar droning an A note. And it mirrors what they are doing by slowing down the track slightly; stretching it out. Just a really cool little pop song
I'm so happy you listened to Strawberry and Penny Lane before Sgt. Pepper. It's so cool you got to sort of replicate how audiences were introduced to the music The Beatles were working on during that era. Can't wait for the next one as Sgt. Peppers was the first album I can remember listening to as a kid!
Strawberry Fields blew my mind when I heard it on the radio as a young teenager. "What was THAT?!" As you say, quite different from regular pop tunes, both then and now. Producer George Martin had a substantial effect on the Beatles use of instrumental variety, in terms of translating what they were after into specific musical arrangements.
Loved and still love all four of these songs. As great I feel that they all are, Strawberry Fields ... no, they are all very different and all fantastic. Why can't we just enjoy them instead of comparing them and saying a song or an album is the best ever. It just raises expectations for someone hearing it for the first time to a point where they may be disappointed. Enjoy it for what it is and was. Your reaction, Caroline, to Strawberry Fields Forever was priceless. I love seeing you light up when you hear something you really like.
The Beatles’ use of classical instruments in their music inspired me to listen to the great composers like Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart and others. They definitely were instrumental in helping me expand my musical tastes beyond rock n roll. And that’s yet another reason why I love this band. They were never conventional, but were always branching out and experimenting.
Compare that unwillingness to be tied to one particular sound or style to today's bands and even individual singers. I asked my dear wife about Adele, who she loves. Do All her songs sort of sound the same?? "Well, yes, sort of !!"
@@scottski51 I couldn’t agree with you more. My kids often tell me that they wished they grew up in the time of the Beatles. They find today’s music so boring.
Most people do not know that Paul McCartney has written and recorded five classical music albums within the last 30 years: Liverpool Oratorio (1991), Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999), Ecce Cor Meum (2006), Ocean's Kingdom (2011).
@@daddyguerrero Think "safe" is another word that could be used for today's pop music...Beatles were real catchy pop & ultra edgy experimental all at the same time, simply because they were extremely talented and got bored easily with doing the thing musically over and over again....who could or would try to pull that off again....Will never happen!....and I never say "never"....but in this case, "that will never happen again"....Beatles forever!
@@Bipbop66 This could have happened to the Beatles, as well. Had they been successful in their Decca audition, they would never have connected with George Martin. Instead, they would have been under the control of pop producers and A&R men. The pressure would have been to create songs that had certain proven tempos and other elements. They would not have gotten the education that George Martin, a classical music producer who heard their potential, provided. He took them to the symphony, where they heard all those instruments. That wouldn't have happened at Decca.
Rain was recorded at a faster tempo in a higher pitch and lowered a full step in the mixdown to give it that woozy sound. It required, per Ian MacDonald, 16 hours of overdubbing and bouncing down, with varispeeded multitracked vocals. Strawberry Fields comes out of the identity crisis Lennon found himself in from way too much lsd. He's celebrating his uniqueness, no one in his tree, as everyone else is either not as good or much better than himself. Fascinatingly, Lennon insisted on the first part of the original version being spliced to the second part of a newer version. Geoff Emerick said it couldn't be done because they were in different tempos and keys but they found when the tempos were matched the parts were in the same key a few cents shy of Bb.
@@patricknelson5151 Yes, it was written or started anyway in Spain. The line he then inserted into A Day in the Life, but it's also based on or initially inspired by a newspaper account of the death of Tara Browne, the young Guinness heir who the Beatles knew quite well. He crashed his Lotus at high speed. On the next page of the paper Lennon found the item about finding 4,000 holes in a road in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Nice to see and hear your enthusiasm, interest, analysis, curiosity, fascination, surprises, smiles, emotion and joy from this music. As for my own reaction, Penny Lane hit me strongest when I was a 13 year old in 1967 and it's still a brilliant piece of joyfullness, but Strawberry Fields is, by far, my favourite of these 4 songs nowadays, partly through an understanding of it's musical complexity and originality.
Rain is my fav Beatles song ever. I love everything about it and it was the song that got me to take notice of the Beatles. It's the perfect middle ground between who the Beatles were and who they would become.
It's a piccolo trumpet. They had it around the studio since it was used in The Brandenburg Concertos . It is also used in "Daydream Believer" by The Monkeys.
One of the genius of Penny lane is this: In the chorus, while the vocals go up, the music goes down. This creates a not 100% joy but a wistful nostalgia, which is the point of the song. This is not an original thought, but an observation made by Howard Goodall in his Beatles episode of his music documentary series.
@@youngbloodk Agree 100%, wait till the end, and then find out what an orchestral composer think of the Beatles contributions, and who they find themselves sharing the accolades with.
I love Paperback writer. I remember the first time I heard it. It came on the radio in the kitchen when we were getting ready for school. I was 11 years old. The guitar sound blew me away. The vocals though are just amazing. So many parts. With passing years I only appreciate it more and more. There's a backing vocal, a couple of parts, in which they are singing, "Frere Jacquer".
Rain: Ringo's favorite song because that's arguably his best drumming for any song he's on and I think he mentioned it was his most "natural" played song. That coupled with the great bass and reversed vocals at the end makes it possibly their best song. It's one of those songs I think only Beatles fans could give 10/10 score because it's the perfect combination of the early stuff like She Loves You and later stuff like SPLHCB. If I would pick one song to define the Beatles it would probably be Rain.
![Day Tripper [Beatles Reaction] We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Rain (Dev's first time hearing)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gLh6xpMCRyE/mqdefault.jpg)
For my money, Strawberry Fields Forever backed with Penny Lane is the greatest single ever released. Both Lennon and McCartney wrote songs remembering their youths and early days in Liverpool. Lennon's SFF is much more the "dream", and I've heard it described as an unsure conversation with himself (listen to the indecisiveness of the lyrics), as if he's remembering earlier days, but isn't quite sure it is real or not. McCartney's PL is much more concrete, remembering specific people and places from Liverpool in a happier, more secure frame of mind. Both are squarely "psychedlic" with their word play and choice of instrumentation. You are right Caroline, they are entering a phase where they are quite literally willing to try anything in their songs. And let's not forget George Martin's contributions in scoring the awesome string and horn sections. Great songs, great reaction!
If I remember rightly, it was the first two songs of an abandoned project album about Liverpool.
I agree that it's the best single ever.
Penny lane is not psychedelic compared to Strawberry Fields Forever
@@ansc6472 Listen to the chord structure, minor on the chorus, lots of changes in mode and key. Sure compared to Strawbery Fields Forever, it isn't, but it has a dreamlike quality. Remember, SFF's dreamlike attributes have a lot to do with the changing tape speed to match keys. Both highlight the difference between the two writers and how much they complimented each other.
@@Dude0000 I also seem to remember that the original concept for "In My Life" was about memories of Liverpool, like a proto-Strawberry Fields. So it seems this idea was ruminating within them for quite a while.
Rain is one of those songs you don’t find very spectacular when you hear it for the first time. But as you go the more and more into the depth of the Beatles catalogue, you realise how special and crazy good that song is. AND ITS ONLY A B-SIDE
Wasn't it also the first record ever that used some backwards vocals?
Rain blew me away on first hearing!
It’s one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar… It must’ve been… 1976
Paul"s bass is just phenomenal on Rain.
Liam Gallagher who’s obsessed with Lennon, calling his first kid Lennon, called the band Rain, and on Wonderwall (a Harrison reference) used the same lights in the sunglasses affect. Noel changed it to Oasis after a swimming pool in Swindon to not be too obviously Beatle inspired.
Paul and John were unstoppable in this time period. The Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane single is generally considered to be one of the best singles of all time.
By whom? The Beach Boys' God Only Knows/Wouldn't It Be Nice double A-side is also often mentioned in that regard.
It is sobering and sad (as a 68 year old) to know full well that there will be people for whom "single" has no meaning.
I am now reminiscing on orange label CBS singles, Pye's pink Kinks' singles and labels like Track, Immediate and Deram and many others that haven't existed for years. Happy days :-)
@@thetragicyouth By whom? (Just a joke. I'm not really asking.)
@@thetragicyouth the operative word being "one"...
And yet back in the day the number one song of the year for 1967 on the Billboard charts was "To Sir, With Love" by Lulu. "Penny Lane" ranked number 55 for the year. Great as the Beatles were (are), it's interesting to contextualize their songs in the incredible outpouring of pop songs of the mid to late 60's. Anyone with a radio back then was overwhelmed by the incessant cavalcade of hits from both sides of the pond.
‘Rain’ is one of my favorite Beatles songs. It’s also one of the best examples of great bass and drum playing ever.
I live on Penny Lane and not much has changed, the barbershop etc is still there... And although it's very cold here today I'm looking out at very beautiful 'blue suburban skies'! Love from Liverpool x
Rain is Ringo's favorite drumming of all of his.
Strawberry Fields Forever is a timeless masterpiece.
Both
correct. Strawberry Fields is probably the single greatest song the Beatles made. And that's saying something since almost everything after Help! was genius.
@@ToneSherpa yes it is certainly among the very best but it is a studio invention and the Beatles could not reproduce it live, they were just not good enough!
@@pmoran7971 not about being good enough, it is impossible to reproduce it live because of how it was edited
@@g2tennis that's where you're mistaken... Pink Floyd has the immensely complex composition opener to their 1st album called "Astronomy Domine" and, yes, they were able to perform it live... there's even footage here on youtube (with impressive sound quality for the time too) So it just goes to prove that yes, it was humanly possible to reach that level of craftmanship in a musical instrument (and band)
In "Strawberry Fields" the woodwinds are made with Mellotron on flutes register.
I wish I was smart enough to have the faintest idea as to what you are talking about
Simultaneously peaceful and haunting
@@andrewdoubtfire4700 it's a shame that advances in electronics have made things like the Mellotron obsolete. I'm sure there are YT videos about it, it's one of those contraptions that are impressive that they work at all, and it had an utterly distinctive sound.
@@andrewdoubtfire4700 It's effectively the first sampler ever made, a keyboard that plays back a pre-recorded tape loop for each key pressed. Register is not the right word to describe it, it would come with different banks of pre-recorded tape loops, in this case a flute.
@@tomwaite5127 Those mellotron flutes have a haunting sound.
You can't not love Strawberry Feilds. It's just not possible. It's a masterpiece.
it is their best song and lyrically Lennons best too
Strawberry Fields Forever = Perfect Song
The most brilliant part about Strawberry Fields is how it was stitched together from two different takes recorded in two different keys by slowing the tape down. You can hear the cut when John sings "going to" and the percussion comes in.
When John suggested this the engineers thought he'd finally lost it, but it worked perfectly.
@@mikeknowles5848 That John guy, kinda had good ideas !:)
With respect, that's an interesting fact, but it's not "the most brilliant part..."
@@SM-dt1pr Technically, it is, like ADT, an innovation that came about from the demands of the creative genii of the Beatles. A lot of bands wanted to do things the Beatles did at this time. The Beatles had the best engineer and producer around to make what they wanted work. Listen to John's acoustic demo. It's good but not that interesting. The mix of artistic reach and engineering genius is what makes them great. As with Tomorrow Never Knows. How many bands wanted to do that but didn't have the talented crew behind them? We will never know.
Yes, David Bennet has a brilliant video on it
All four are great Beatles songs, but there is something extra special/magical about Strawberry Fields Forever.
Rain was the first song with reverse vocals. I love it. Strawberry Fields is a great great masterpiece. So Penny Lane is. Strawberry Fields is for me one of the best songs ever written.
SFF is indeed one of the finest, if not the finest, pop song ever written.
I don't like lists or rankings in things that cannot, and should not, try to be judged and ranked, but SFF is so transcendent that it really does merit the blue ribbon. It is simply that good.
@@Neal_Schier You can't really say which is the finest song of theirs because they wrote so many flawless songs. My favorites change on a daily basis...lol
@@MICKEYISLOWD There is obviously no objective metric to say that SFF is better than Hey Jude or Something. But as Caroline points out, the ARRANGEMENT of SFF is
"better" - more creative - than with any other Beatles song. They use all the instrument families., and they use them well. Give some credit to George Martin's scoring.
As arrangements go, SFF and "Good Vibrations" would have to be the top two pop songs of all time. Brian Wilson used up a ton of studio time recording the latter.
Tomorrow Never Knows wasn't first?
@@MrKeychange Rain was released on may 30, 1966 and Tomorrow never knows august 5, 1966.
Paul McCartney's bass line in "RAIN" is mindblowing - he single-handedly brought the bass guitar to the center of the stage with that 1966 track. Playing in a high-G octive was a bit unusual at the time and it alone inspired me to pick up a bass guitar and learn to play it. Thank you, Mr. McCartney, from the countless number of young musicians you've encouraged.
And that is just ONE of his great bass lines!
Yep, he really knew what to do with the bass to elevate every song. He could have been a guitarist but I’m glad he was a bassist, he was innovative as hell.
@@thesilvershining Note that he learned from The Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds' regarding mixing the bass more up front and more melodic. Good Vibrations from The Beach Boys is the template for McCartney's new approach to bass and piano style on Penny Lane which became very evident in Sgt Pepper and With A Little Help From My Friends.
And also some of Ringo's best work.
This is a John song, what about praising John great songwriting and Ringo‘s drumming. You McCartney bass people Think that every song becomes a masterpiece when Paul plays his bass without recognizing the other members of the group, shame.
It's amazing how Penny Lane makes me feel nostalgic towards a place I've never been. Such a wonderful song!
Penny Lane is written in two keys. The verses are in Bmaj and the chorus is in Amaj which means there is a downward whole step modulation happening on the lyric 'Meanwhile Back'. This mod happens 6 times seamlessly throughout the song and nobody notices it. Then there is an upward mod on the final chorus which is easy to hear. The song sounds simple however it is so beautifully crafted and very cleverly written. This is one of the reasons why The Beatles are so dammed good. The sophistication is always there to serve the song, unlike what came after The Beatles during the prog rock era where everyone was trying to dazzle the listener with complex lines and time signatures just to appear masterful when in fact anyone can write a song just so people can say 'wow...that's so complex'. Penny Lane is a 'perfect' song and writing perfect songs is about as difficult a task as one can imagine.
I don’t understand why people don’t like you calling them “pop songs.”
They’re the most brilliant pop songs ever written!
Pop suggests super popular mainstream things like Backstreet Boys, Steps, Vengaboys, Britney etc. who obviously, while good enough in context, are not the Beatles
@@SnabbKassa different types of pop. Radio pop is not the same as the pop the Beatles and the Kinks etc made. And then there's pop as in not classical (and often also distinct from folk).
yeah it's pop music. in every sense of the word. not just because it's popular but because it's in the style of pop songs of the era.
Might be a British thing. Townsend and Clapton referred to their music as pop constantly.
@@bfish89ryuhayabusa i would consider the beatles and the kinks more of rock than pop
Rain is, for my money, Ringo's finest performance.
He said so himself
Absolutely.
Maybe Paul's on the bass too.
For my money, Rain is the better track but not as commercially accessible as Paperback Writer. It was going to be the next single till Paul came in with Paperback Writer - an excellent song, but Rain has so much more texture and the lyrics (Caroline, please try to focus a bit more on their lyrics) are subtle with irony and as others have said, drum and bass are awesome. But then I have to admit I am more of John than a Paul fan!
100%
In response to your question about which song drew us in more, you have to travel back in time to the 1960's...this was a time when there was no social media, no internet, only radio and TV. Music wasn't at our beck and call unless we were lucky enough to have a friend who had the 45's or the album of the band you wanted to hear or we were lucky enough to buy them ourselves. So you must understand that when new music came out you had to wait until it was played on the radio to hear it and if you liked a new song enough you found a way to buy the record or find a friend who bought it to hear it, it made for a different listening experience than kids have today. So when you bought a new record you played it over and over again till you knew all the words and could sing along with it. Now as to The Beatles, those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with them first heard their music as young teenagers and as we grew older each year, The Beatles musically grew right along with us...that's why we never outgrew them. And as they developed more sophisticated musically we started looking more and more for the inner meanings to the songs. Each new song, each new album was a revelation. If you think about it The Beatles changed the publics record buying habit from buying 45's to buying albums...before The Beatles most recording artists put out albums with one or two hit singles on them and the rest of the album was just kind of crappy filler songs to fill out the album. The Beatles from the very beginning put out albums that you wanted to listen to from beginning to end...very little filler songs. And as the years passed Beatle albums became works of art...they were pushing all the boundaries of what a band could do and what the public would accept. They changed music forever and the effects are still felt to this day. Before The Beatles it was all one hit wonders by singers and groups controlled by the record companies...The Beatles broke that bond and freed all after them to pursue their own musical visions. They gave the listening world a gift which we never can repay. So to ask us to say which Beatles song grabbed us the most when we first heard it is kinda a moot point because every new Beatles song grabbed us and became our favorite Beatle song until they released a new record. Honestly when you look back at The Beatles full catalogue it's amazing that they put out so many great songs in so short a time...truly amazing. I just really want to thank you for letting me see The Beatles again through your young eyes and ears and to again experience what it was like to hear these wonderful songs for the first time again.
This is the best answer I’ve read to the question of which one of these songs impacted us the most. This is basically how I feel. They ALL impacted me greatly and each one has been a joy to hear.
Rain is my fav Beatles tune since 1966 when I played it at 13 for my friends on a sunny/rainy scottish afternoon. This tune may likely grow inside your brain !!!!
Rain is one of the best song of all time
I love the song, too! I hope with a few more listens she's able to appreciate it a little more.
Yup!
Yep!
Both Paul and Ringo (drums and bass) are absolute BEASTS on Rain. One of my favorites.
Probably the first 'pop' song where the bass and drums are the 'lead' instruments and the rhythm and lead are the backing.
And, Ringo's drumming on Strawberry Fields Forever is pure brilliance.
@@twj2002 I would never denigrate John's ability, but the backward tape loops are Pauls. Done upstairs in the attic of his flat in the Ashers I believe.
@@twj2002 The tape loops were all done by Paul at home and brought in. The 'seagull' shriek at the beginning is Paul laughing backwards.
@@NigelT57 They were all involved with the tape loops and backwards tapes.
Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were Paul and John, respectively, reflecting on their boyhoods in Liverpool. They’re real places. Strawberry Fields was a technical marvel in its time. They hobbled together two different takes with different tempos, instrumentations, and keys, and literally adjusted the electric power sources of their equipment to speed up and slow the takes to make them match. You can hear the edit point at like 0:59. Also check out the music videos of the two songs the Beatles channel. Iconic!
TH-cam has stupidly moved your time to a timestamp of the video. Good luck fixing that.
I prefer the song Penny Lane, but Strawberry Fields has my favorite music video ever made, so it all balances out.
Caroline I was 16 when "Rain and "Paperback writer" came out and I remember thinking what can be better than this? And then it happened with "Strawberry fields forever" and "Penny lane"!! There was a big promo at the time and I was really looking forward to the next Beatles single which in my opinion is the best single ever!! From "I want to hold your hand" and "She loves you" to "Strawberry fields forever" and "Penny lane" in less than 3 years is remarkable!! I'm really thankful for growing up in such incredible times!!
Don't you think Caroline is remarkable for 70 ! Michael ? 🤡
No I being inebriated misread that - back to bed ! 🎱
And one never knew, couldn't guess, what the next record would be like.
@@jnagarya519 The whole point of the the journey they took us on. What's next / You knew it would be good .. the future's looking good.
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane is absolute peak Beatles and probably the most important pair of songs they ever did, really showing off the different strengths of Lennon's (more abstract, nonsensical, inward-looking) and McCartney's (more melodic, emotional, outward-looking) styles. As much as I'm usually a Paul man of the two, to me, Strawberry Fields is the single greatest Lennon song and possibly even the best Beatles song altogether: it taps into something universal and almost unspeakable that lives inside everyone, a sort of twinned "certainty of my uncertainty." There's a reason its lyrics are so broadly quoted, and it's sonically breathtaking, too.
The flutes in Strawberry Fields are actually a Mellotron, a precursor to the synthesizer that used a whole rack full of strips of recorded tape that play samples of various instruments, all controlled by a keyboard.
And The Moody Blues used it a great deal.
On the mellotron, the note could only sustained based on the length of the tapes.
Almost basically an analog sampling synthesizer no less!
The early electronic instruments are fascinating. I would have loved to have played an ondes Martenot at some point.
The delight on your face as you listen is making my day!
John Lennon said years later in his interview for "Playboy" magazine that the lyric, "No one I think is in my tree/I mean it must be high or low" referred to a feeling that nagged him his entire life, that he was either a genius, so much brighter than everyone around him (a common thought among bright school boys), or that he was insane or going insane, he was so out of step with everyone around him.
Yeah but he couldn't do mundane practical things like dive a car.
He almost died (along with Yoko) when he tried.
@@skarath Same tbh
Just a side note, on Paperback Writer John and George’s backing vocals are the French words “Frere Jacques.”
Sounds like they're singing "Sarah Jackman" by Allen Sherman
I was just about to comment this LOL. I had a surround system stereo in the 1990s. I could almost isolate the background vocals. So many layers to Their music!! Take care!!
And the cymbals were designed to sound like a pencil scratching on paper.
I was hoping she would pick up on that.
Not just the words Frere Jacques, but the exact melody of that children's rhyme.
Imagine being able to hear Strawberry Fields for the first time again! It’s my earliest memory of music
I'd say "Penny Lane" just makes me happy. As I got older "Rain" is extraordinary. The drum and bass lines are just incredible. I do love "Strawberry Fields", too.
In Rain they slowed down the bass?
In an interview, Ringo said he'd never been as busy in a song, before or after, as in "Rain".
@@lawrencefeldman7744 no, that the speed paul recorded in. The only slowed down thing are John's vocals I think.
@@dout0rm942 No, there’s change in speed of both the vocals and the backing track - one moved slower, the other faster. There’s a great TH-cam clip of the making of “Rain”. Only about 10 minutes long, and fascinating.
Not King Lear, but Edward Lear who was a big influence on John Lennon's two books he wrote in 1964 and 1965 " A Spaniard in the Works" and " In His Own Write".
Yep! Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll were big influences. Note "I am the Walrus" - very Alice!
I wouldn't be surprised if you found you started liking "Rain" more the more you heard it. I find myself singing it to myself from time to time, even if I hadn't heard it for a very long time.
All 4 songs are great. You can't make me choose. You are not the boss of me.
I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't. I still don't like it, and I've tried. Cool recording tricks, but the foundation of the song is still weak.
I love Rain, one of my favorites, but if someone doesn't love it immediately, I wouldn't expect that to change, really.....
All I can say is that it signaled the start of the Beatles wanting to get seriously philosophical and revolutionary. Like, not just a fun diversion anymore - he says "can you hear me? can you hear me? I can show you..."
@@jaredbond7908 I originally didn’t like Rain. Now I think it’s quite good.
The bass and drums on “Rain” are amazing, and the way Paul and Ringo are working together on that like they’re reading each other’s minds the whole time.
The bassline in rain is probably my favorite McCartney bassline. Such a smooth and groovy sound
When the single came out, I was not yet 10 and I fell in love with Paperback Writer's clever/funny lyrics & driving tempo. But when I re-listened to the Beatles catalog as an adult it was Rain that blew me away. My first thought was what demon possessed Ringo and can we have some more? My second thought was, my god! Are they using the bass as the LEAD guitar on this song? Still one of my top 5 Beatles tracks.
Strawberry Fields Forever is one of the greatest songs of all time. It took its name from the Salvation Army home near John when he was growing up. It's still there now, helping people, and you can visit.
They have a website, with photos, etc.
Nach meinem Wissen war es ein Waisenhaus...
Rain pointed forward - Strawberry Fields is the point where everyone realized that the Beatles transcended the realm of pop acts to the level of actual artists.
"I'm Only Sleeping" pointed to "Rain" pointed to "Strawberry Fields Forever".
I’m amazed by Strawberry Fields everytime I hear it
Your comment made me think of: "Maybe I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song"
By common agreement, "Rain" features the finest drumming of Ringo Starr's career. Even he said he couldn't imagine where it came from, and he could never capture the same spirit again.
Rain is one of my favorite Beatles songs and sadly it is overlooked a lot, so thanks for reacting to it!
I was floored, stopped in my tracks, when 1st heard Strawberry Fields. I immediately exclaimed to my Mom. “That’s it. The Beatles will go down in history.” I was 14. It has remained my favorite Beatles song.
A masterpiece. 👌
When I first heard it, I really didn't find it much attractive(half the reason is that I didn't really care about the lyrics at the time). But there was something special in that song which really made me think about it at times. Then I started to listen to it frequently and the more I listened to it the more it revealed. In this track Lennon is at the utmost level of his songwriting brilliance. It's a shame he was never satisfied with the way track turned out.
@@ashith1297 A work of art is always a failure in the view of the artist because it never achieves the ideal.
Strawberry Fields Forever, definitely. I heard John's haunting voice say "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me": the arrangement is so delicate, so elegant; the imagery crystal clear. I wept when I heard it.
Keep ROCKIN’ Caroline…
Sgt.Pepper is waiting.
Sgt. Peppers forever!
Strawberry fields is one of my favourite songs of all time. The intro with Mccartney playing the melotron sets the dream like quality of the song before it takes you on fantasy journey through Lennon's mind. Simply superb 👌
I'm 29 so my experience is different then most of the commenters. But I love all these songs but hands down Strawberry Fields is one of if not the most important song in my musical life. When I first heard it as a young teen it really struck me and opened my eyes to what music could be.
Penny Lane is a wonderful nostalgic masterpiece that's much more accessible than Strawberry Fields yet still has that psychedelic overtone.
Paperback Writer is a fun example of middle Beatles song crafting
And I love Rain. Some of Ringo's best drumming there. Literally every time it rains hard that song gets stuck in my head.
Similarly, every time it *stops* raining I get Here Come the Sun stuck in my head.
Ah! The soundtrack of our lives.
I love it when young people enjoy The Beatles. Every time I see somebody in their twenties wearing a Beatles shirt, I always stop and talk to them
I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
I've listened to these songs a million times over the years and never have I had so much fun watching someone listening to them for the first time.
Just wanted to say that I’m 61 and watching someone with musical knowledge discover the brilliance of The Beatles in 2021 is such a joy. Getting to know this music was some of my best memories. I was 14 in 74 when I really got into them and the journey has continued ever since. (McCartney III is amazing) .
When it 1st came out, Strawberry Fields was mind-blowing. "Nothing is real." Nobody had ever put a line like that in "rock." ("You're making me feel like I've never been born?") SF was an orphanage where John chilled a lot growing up. Paul lived close to Penny Lane. They were both writing abt their childhoods in Liverpool. Both records were Double A sides. Read a ton more. And Ringo was so phenomenal I've decided lately they could not have been what they were without them
Amen to what you said about Ringo! I agree!
Paul lived close to Penny Lane but John literaly lived in Penny Lane - it's not only a street but a district in Liverpool.
The line in parentheses is from "She said she said" correct? Just curious.
@@budmcnew7763 Yes
What if Paul hung around Strawberry Fields instead of John? What if John was more emotionally attached to Penny Lane than Paul was? Two VERY different songs would have been produced and I WANT TO HEAR THEM (LOL)
"Strawberry fields" wrote by John about his memories of an orphanat he used to get in its yard to let his imagination go. "Penny Lane" is the about memories Paul's answer to John's song. Greetings from Mexico.
Literally my favorite beatles' songs. Especially Rain. So pumped for the documentary.
There’s an amazing video on WHY Penny Lane’s chord progression is literally mind blowing.
Yeah Strawberry Fields is on the first listen more interesting but as a composition Penny Lane is so damn good.
Also, as many people have pointed out, these two songs stand as counterpoints to each other. Both Lennon and McCartney wrote these songs about their upbringing.
Also, it’s a perfect representation of their songwriting philosophies and really where they begin to really diverge from each other.
Literally?
@@jerryeberts3726 don’t be that guy. We’ve been using “literally” as figuratively since the days of Mark Twain. Don’t be pedantic.
@@DongusMcBongus ... pedantic at times, but you are lazy. Strive for conciseness without sacrificing clarity.
They were all along competing with each other for the "A"-side and first track on the LP. So they weren't "diverging"; they were simply more individually distinctive. One actually sees that throughout their career. McCartney sings, "I have to admit it's getting better," and Lennon responds, "It can't get no worse"". It's who they were together.
@@DongusMcBongus he might be sincerely asking if it was mind blowing how do u know?
If push comes to shove, Strawberry Fields is my favorite song of all my hundreds of favorite songs. I've loved it since it was first released.
Rain had a hard rock edge to it that was pretty new to the Beatles bag of tricks at that time (and has been mentioned backward vocals on the fade out). For some reason Rain rewards repeated listening. Paperback Writer with its cascading harmonies toward the end (and the Frere Jaques bit!) is a classic pop song. Penny Lane is a jaunty happy sound which does the Motown thing of sounding happy but having sad elements in the lyrics. Strawberry Fields Forever was - at the time it was released - a very new listening experience and fascinated everyone who heard it. When DJ Kenny Everett (at that time out on the pirate radio ship Radio London) first got a promo copy of it, he played it, on-air, six times in succession because he was so blown away by it!
Strawberry Fields is the most interesting of these, but Rain is the one I go back to the most - but I'm not sure I could say why. All four would be in my Beatles top 10 though.
I think it's the rhythm section on Rain that does this. It's my favorite bass & drum performance of their catalog.
Rain was also not overplayed on the radio like the rest, so you got to discover it for yourself.
Rain is more about the bass and drums than it is about the melody. For me, anyway. That could be why Caroline mentioned that the melody didn't grab her.
Rain is the most uderestimated song from them. I think it's one of their best songs, really.
I agree with you concerning "Rain."
Strawberry Fields is just amazing.
That is all.
I heard "Rain" once as a very young boy, probably on the car radio as my family was driving between our home in northern Minnesota and my grandparents' farm in South Dakota. I didn't hear "Rain" again until I was a young adult, but that single snatch of music would come back to me from time to time. But my imagination had to fill in all I hadn't heard that one time, or couldn't remember accurately. Over the years the song became something called "Green" in my imagination with a different set of lyrics. When I finally heard "Rain" again, in its entirety, it purged my childhood memory and, for the life of me, I can't recall anything of the pastiche I invented.
Wonderfully explained. Pre-internet/pre-apps something vague but impactful could sear into your memory. Years would go by. You’d wonder if the mystery would ever be solved - how much was real, how much did I fill in the blanks from the fog. Then one day, maybe decades later ... an omg moment and it’s all unlocked. Been there.
It could be the favorite Beatles song we each pick DOES bring back a certain memory of where we were at the time. Or even the weather of a certain feeling, memory or season. For me: Rubber Soul/Christmas…SgtPep/summer vacation….She Loves You/pig tails & bubble gum.
When they made Strawberry Fields Forever, Jhon and Ringo were 26 years old, Paul 24 and George a mere 23 (practically a kid). Really blows the mind what they were able to accomplish at such a young age and all the instruments and studio experimentation they dived into with George Martin's help. Add to that the fact that there was zero previous history in the 60's of pop artists doing these innovative things such as using classical instruments with backwards or slowed down tapes. It's truly marvelous.
I don’t know. We have to consider Brian Wilson.
The amount of genius that was packed in that band was just staggering. After The Beatles both of Ringo and George had very fine careers on their own. Ringo had some very good singles (my favorite was Photograph) and George Harrison had probably the best Beatles solo album when he made All Things Must Pass.
They were all brilliant artists and their music meant a lot to me growing up, and it still does. Every time I put it on it sounds just as good as it did when I 1st heard it. It never wears out
@@jerrytroyanna5090 and don't forget "Give Peace a Chance", that's prior to the solo
@@doriskray1430 I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
@@doriskray1430 California-centric writing about cars as a theme established by Chuck Berry. It was "The Beatles" who woke him to the reality that there is a world beyond California and wealth. Listen to the chauvinist "California Girls" -- then hear the contrasting -- it CRUSHES "The Beach Boys" harmonies -- "Back in the U.S.S.R."
Rain is one I also didn't like at first, but it's now completely grown on me. It doesn't have any rain samples but it sure feels like it does, then we get a little peek of sunshine as they sing out the word
I guess you can't really say The Beatles are known for any one sonic signature. They're known for changing music as we know it. From how it's written to how it's consumed and who it's consumed by to how it's produced and how it's recorded
And how it is performed live...or not.
@@jnielsen1956 true
@@thomast8539 I really wonder what the Beatles fans thought about the Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" when it came out in 1967... because to me it remains as one of the most impressive things I ever heard
@@FeelingShred YAWN.
In Penny Lane, when the chorus of the fireman starts, Paul sings "In his pocket is a portrait of the queen". This is a reference to a British coin. They loved to throw little things like that in their songs.
They all did this (Ringo may have had help bless him). It's why even now, their lyrics can be dissected.
"Pulled out the Queen, smiling, beguiling", The Jam's Down in the Tubestation at Midnight. So that's where Weller got that!
@@piaraskelly1038 Mabee, not from that source synecdoche is a poetic device where you use a part to represent the whole or the whole to describe the part. So it's possible they both used the same device without reference to each other.
Do we want to tell her what the "full of fish and finger pie" line in Penny Lane is all about? (hint: kind of the equivalent to the American line "getting to third base")
@@penfold7455 I read about that years ago, probably in the Hunter Davies biography. And was gong to keep my mouth shut...but now that you bring it up...🤣...today, watch Paul try to deny it in some interview lol
Ooh, a secret late-night video release! I'll take it!
I also wanted to say finding your channel has reignited my interest in The Beatles' music.
The song Rain is not meant to evoke the same manic existential panic of Paperback Writer. Listening to Rain is like watching a torrential down pour in a monsoon climate. The phrasing you mentioned of the word "rain" evokes the wind shears and twisting sheets of rain coming down like a punishment for prayers to circumvent our deserved mortal punishment of broiling sun. There's a mixed message in the tense harmonies that could signal a quenching release from an insufferable drought or just cuing a drenching shift in tortures.
Strawberry Fields Forever is an unbelievably amazing song and gets me somewhere deep down every time, I love it!
Once again, the hand of the fifth Beatle is heard. John owns a lot to George Martin for crystalizing his acid trips into music and studio wizardry.
Geoff Emerick should't be forgoten.
Everyone of them is The Beatles, including that guy on the French horn. They're all - The Beatles.
George Martin was actually the seventh Beatle. Stu Suttcliffe was the fifth and Brian Epstein was the sixth and Billy Preston was the eighth. No, Pete Best doesn't count.
@@TheSpikehere I expect that there were whispers that Martin was the hidden hand. As a kid, I found it hard to believe that the Beatles wrote all their songs. I suspected that they were ghost written. It just seems so incredible that such an accomplished act was more than an act. That it was a creative force. Before the Beatles, performers mostly were puppets on a string.
@@TheSpikehere I see that now, though I still find it hard to believe. Guess you are trying to be provocative.
When they made the song Rain they slowed down the music tracks a little and sped up the vocal track a little.
That's why it has a kind of hypnotic effect.
Yup at this stage John was into any new studio effects that George Martin could come up with to change his voice. That enthusiasm was waning after the White album, and by the time of recording' Let it be' Lennon didn't want any kind of studio tricks at all, and was openly rude and dismissive to Martin about this kind of production contribution. Martin only agreed to do the following 'Abbey Road' album if he was allowed to produce it the way he had previously collaborated with them.
Also to your question, it was strawberry fields that drew me in. It’s a quintessential John Lennon song. No one writes like Lennon. he writes songs as if you’re hearing him think. “I think er no I mean er yes but it’s all wrong. That is I think I disagree” listening to that was delightful. Playful and honest. It’s a bitter sweet song once you sink into it. After a couple replays the weight of it begins to settle. This is an absolutely personal song. It actually brings tears to my eyes. “Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see.” It’s all magic. For me the lyrics are perfect. Add on top of that an absolutely blow out performance by Mr. George Martin and you get a teary, fun and unique thrash through John Lennon’s psyche. Also the acoustic version (demo) on the anthology is tragic.
The acoustic version of SFF on the Anthology album is one of the most beautiful things i have ever heard. Honestly
Great comment, but it's *I think I know, I mean er- yes but it's all wrong*
@@jk4675 It's not "I think I know", it's probably either "I think, er, no" or "I think a 'no', a mean a 'yes' ".
@@perhapsxarb7226 yes it is, a quick Google search will tell you this. Check all the lyric books. *But it's all wrong* talks about what John *knows is all wrong* , hence the,
*I think I know, I mean* -- implying ego death, LSD psychedelia stuff. The *er no, er yes* you seem to think it is, is just nonsense and that is more akin to Walrus than Strawberry Fields
In answer to your question.... Rain was the song that hit me the most... I bought Paperback Writer when it came out... when I was 13. Flipped the single over to hear the other track that wasn't being played on the radio and out came Rain... Bloody Hell... Drones, Eastern Influence, Backwards Guitar, Fuzz Bass... (All of which I picked up on when I was older) but what an illustration of what was to come with Revolver.... Keep on Rocking..
I used to blast Rain in the morning when I got to work. It was like a clarion call to whatever the day may bring.
"Strawberry Fields Forever" is my favourite of those four songs.
Rain is absolutely my favorite Beatles tune. Great lyrics, great vocal performances, great guitar, great bass, great drums. GREAT SONG
Rain would not make my top 100 Beatles songs. Yet it's your favorite. What sets the Beatles apart is the depth of their catalogue. Two different people could make a top 40 and not have a single sing in common. And every one of those 80 songs would be number 1 on someone's list, somewhere. What other band could that ever be said of?
Agreed
Strawberry Fields was my favourite of the four back when they were released, but Rain still blows me away because that is Ringo's best drumming performance on a record, in my books. Every fill is different.
Paperback Writer is really the beginning of what we call classic rock in America. You've got distorted guitar, it's more of a head banger than a dancing ditty, and there's nothing about love in it - it's a song guys can dig even more than the chicks. The Beatles started out as a boy band for girls, at Paperback Writer they're becoming a cool guy's band for guys. Classic rock.
Strawberry Fields Forever is one of favorite songs ever. Perfect.
All four of these tracks are fantastic. All four of them will be listened to and admired for generations to come. This cannot be said for most pop music of today.
It is said that there is a world before The Beatles and a world after the Beatles... One could say that music today is what it is because of The Beatles.
Well that doesn't speak well for the Beatles considering the rather dismal state of current pop music. But you could say all music stems from Bach and Beethoven as well.
If I had to pick two records for the island it would be Handel's Messiah and The White Album. Best sacred and best secular. Never get tired of either
@@jacksonmorganfroghin4815 "the rather dismal state of current pop music" LOL you're right!
Let’s not forget it is only 3 years from She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand. The amount of progression stylistically is astonishing. Most bands never change styles or very little in their entire career. The Beatles completely reinvented themselves. For me Strawberry Fields Forever followed by Rain are my favorites out of the four. John’s voice and lyrics connect with me on a deep level. The dreamlike quality of both are very comforting. Cazza you put a very big smile on my face this morning. Happy Thanksgiving!
It's like going from the Wright Brothers to the Starship Enterprise.
Can’t believe you don’t like “Rain”; fantastic recording.
“Strawberry Fields Forever” is one of my all time favorite songs. A truly revolutionary recording.
"Rain" is great.
“Rain” is all about the backwards recording.
It might too abstract for her.
Rain is great.. but as far as Beatles stuff goes, it's a bit meandering and sloppy. It's not a tight written perfectly executed pop song like some of there other stuff.
some might consider the sloppiness a benefit though. and I'm inclined to agree depending on my mood. love the backwards stuff as well.
@@ToneSherpa “Sloppy”? “Meandering”? You either don’t know what those words mean or you’ve never heard the song before. Absolute nonsense.
Rain and Strawberry Fields are John's voice at its most mesmerizing.
I have been a huge Beatles fan for decades and whenever I am asked which of their songs is my favorite (even though there are so many, really) I always say "Penny Lane". The reasons are that it is, in my opinion, the perfect pop song: it has a superb melody, great evocative storytelling lyrics based on an actual "lane" in Liverpool (which I have been fortunate to visit !), a fantastic arrangement and production and of course an outstanding lead vocal from Paul McCartney. It's so enjoyable to watch someone young like you, and obviously gifted with a great ear, discover the Beatles music. It's easy to understand how they were truly instrumental (and vocal... pardon the pun) in shaping and innovating popular music. Keep on enjoying the Fabs !
From the simplistic 'Love Me Do' to 'Strawberry Fields'...how far they'd come musically in 5 short years.......absolutely astounding isn't it Caroline?
This can't be said enough for someone discovering their journey. The Beatles' evolution is head-spinningly fast in the best way possible.
It's actually only 4 years and change. Love Me Do was recorded in Sept '62, and recording of Strawberry Fields started in Nov '66.
Their career was astonishing at all: in september 1962 they released 'love me do' as a relative unknown band and one year later they played a concert in front of the british royals.
Strawberry Field is a musical revolution on it’s own. One of the best songs of all time. Still amazes me. And not just because of the groundbreaking production and arrangement. It is still amazing played with one ukulele.
Caroline, it's pleasing to see someone of your generation speak out in such educated appreciation of the band that changed popular music forever, and I applaud your style, your talent and the hard work you put in to share your reactions with us.
Paperback Writer: Ha! Does it take an ancient gentleman from Texas to remind you all that Harrison and Lennon are singing "Frère Jacques" in BG vocals behind McCartney's "It's a thousand pages give or take a few ... ?" Silly trivia, but a fun fact.
This song also represents one of the band's uses of an early magnetic tape repeating delay machine at Abbey Road Studios: the "Send Tape Echo Echo Delay" or STEED. It's most easily heard filling the pause after the word "writer" 47 seconds in. Slapback was in use, but feedback multiple repeats were really new in those days.
As for the more prominent bass guitar sound in this recording compared to previous Beatles tracks, the Beatles were somewhat pissed that their low end sounded wimpy compared to what they heard coming out of Motown and California, so engineer Geoff Emerick experimented with using one of the huge "White Elephant" studio monitor speakers as a microphone positioned in front of PM's bass amp, fed into an input and preamp in the EMI REDD desk (the studio-built console in use at the time), reasoning that a large speaker as transducer would capture more sound than a tiny mic capsule as transducer. As can be heard, it worked very well -- too well, actually. Not only did it make the bass guitar signal sound much larger, but it also picked up every stray noise in Studio 2 and therefore the practice was finally abandoned. In addition, it was on this recording that McCartney set aside his short-scale Hofner violin bass guitar in favor of the mighty Rickenbacker 4001, which output a significantly more powerful tone. People forget that the Hofner was a cheap instrument, until The Beatles were seen with one. I've heard he originally bought it because the violin shape was bilaterally symmetric (unlike other basses) and could be flipped over, re-strung and played left-handed without it looking too funny.
All that said, I remember persuading my parents to drive me to the store to buy the 45 rpm record when it came out, because I wasn't yet old enough to drive, but I was at that age when my mind was like a sponge, soaking up incredible music right smack dab in the middle of the Beatles' historic journey. Imagine hearing that a new album was just released, and it turns out to be Pepper, which was unlike anything ever heard at that point. Those were the days! Anyway, between Paperback Writer and Rain, I always preferred Rain (gasp!), which I think is the first instance of backward vocals in a pop recording. But Strawberry Fields tops them all. Thank you, Sir George Martin.
P.S. I also run a Focusrite Scarlett series through Mackie near-fields. Coincidences abound!
What I really loved about these songs is just remembering sitting at home, in your bedroom or wherever with all the mundane stuff that goes on, siblings, parents, rules, and then all of a sudden your listening to this music and you are gone I mean instantly transported to a better place in mind & spirit. As a teen in the 60's I just couldnt get enough. A new song or new album coming out was the anticipation of where will I go now, where will the Beatles take me. Remember, this was only the 60's & the Beatles took a generation to new limits! I am a different person no doubt...
Strawberry fields was recorded in two keys and rhythms and they sped up one part and slowed down one until they met in a middle key and rhythm (mostly).
"Rain" was a hard track to come by when I started listening to the Beatles, and when I eventually heard it, I loved it. It's a great pop song, but it's also has a unique, trippy vibe because of how it plays with time. And the harmonies are great.
And it seems they are vocally replicating the sitar sound here. They are droning the vowel in "rain" by repeating it to stretch the word: rai, ai, ai, ai, ain. It's like a sitar droning an A note. And it mirrors what they are doing by slowing down the track slightly; stretching it out. Just a really cool little pop song
The weather's fine
I'm so happy you listened to Strawberry and Penny Lane before Sgt. Pepper. It's so cool you got to sort of replicate how audiences were introduced to the music The Beatles were working on during that era. Can't wait for the next one as Sgt. Peppers was the first album I can remember listening to as a kid!
Strawberry Fields blew my mind when I heard it on the radio as a young teenager. "What was THAT?!" As you say, quite different from regular pop tunes, both then and now. Producer George Martin had a substantial effect on the Beatles use of instrumental variety, in terms of translating what they were after into specific musical arrangements.
Loved and still love all four of these songs. As great I feel that they all are, Strawberry Fields ... no, they are all very different and all fantastic. Why can't we just enjoy them instead of comparing them and saying a song or an album is the best ever. It just raises expectations for someone hearing it for the first time to a point where they may be disappointed. Enjoy it for what it is and was. Your reaction, Caroline, to Strawberry Fields Forever was priceless. I love seeing you light up when you hear something you really like.
glad you didn't skip these! 🙂
The Beatles’ use of classical instruments in their music inspired me to listen to the great composers like Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart and others. They definitely were instrumental in helping me expand my musical tastes beyond rock n roll. And that’s yet another reason why I love this band. They were never conventional, but were always branching out and experimenting.
Compare that unwillingness to be tied to one particular sound or style to today's bands and even individual singers. I asked my dear wife about Adele, who she loves. Do All her songs sort of sound the same?? "Well, yes, sort of !!"
@@scottski51 I couldn’t agree with you more. My kids often tell me that they wished they grew up in the time of the Beatles. They find today’s music so boring.
Most people do not know that Paul McCartney has written and recorded five classical music albums within the last 30 years: Liverpool Oratorio (1991), Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999), Ecce Cor Meum (2006), Ocean's Kingdom (2011).
@@daddyguerrero Think "safe" is another word that could be used for today's pop music...Beatles were real catchy pop & ultra edgy experimental all at the same time, simply because they were extremely talented and got bored easily with doing the thing musically over and over again....who could or would try to pull that off again....Will never happen!....and I never say "never"....but in this case, "that will never happen again"....Beatles forever!
@@Bipbop66 This could have happened to the Beatles, as well. Had they been successful in their Decca audition, they would never have connected with George Martin. Instead, they would have been under the control of pop producers and A&R men. The pressure would have been to create songs that had certain proven tempos and other elements. They would not have gotten the education that George Martin, a classical music producer who heard their potential, provided. He took them to the symphony, where they heard all those instruments. That wouldn't have happened at Decca.
Rain is an incredible song. It's one of my favorites
It's easy to have "eyes closed" to the forest as you approach the various trees.
What I would give to be able to hear the Beatles for the first ever time again….sigh. They were a gift from the one who made us all!
Rain was recorded at a faster tempo in a higher pitch and lowered a full step in the mixdown to give it that woozy sound. It required, per Ian MacDonald, 16 hours of overdubbing and bouncing down, with varispeeded multitracked vocals. Strawberry Fields comes out of the identity crisis Lennon found himself in from way too much lsd. He's celebrating his uniqueness, no one in his tree, as everyone else is either not as good or much better than himself. Fascinatingly, Lennon insisted on the first part of the original version being spliced to the second part of a newer version. Geoff Emerick said it couldn't be done because they were in different tempos and keys but they found when the tempos were matched the parts were in the same key a few cents shy of Bb.
John wrote SSF while he was in Spain filming How I Won the War (“I saw a film today, oh boy! The English Army had just won the war…”).
@@patricknelson5151 Yes, it was written or started anyway in Spain. The line he then inserted into A Day in the Life, but it's also based on or initially inspired by a newspaper account of the death of Tara Browne, the young Guinness heir who the Beatles knew quite well. He crashed his Lotus at high speed. On the next page of the paper Lennon found the item about finding 4,000 holes in a road in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Strawberry fields is One of those songs that when it came out, nobody had heard anything like it.
And nobody has heard anything like it since! 😌
I believe 'the Walrus' was recorded around the same time w/ a similar vibe
Nice to see and hear your enthusiasm, interest, analysis, curiosity, fascination, surprises, smiles, emotion and joy from this music.
As for my own reaction, Penny Lane hit me strongest when I was a 13 year old in 1967 and it's still a brilliant piece of joyfullness, but Strawberry Fields is, by far, my favourite of these 4 songs nowadays, partly through an understanding of it's musical complexity and originality.
Rain is my fav Beatles song ever. I love everything about it and it was the song that got me to take notice of the Beatles. It's the perfect middle ground between who the Beatles were and who they would become.
It's a piccolo trumpet. They had it around the studio since it was used in The Brandenburg Concertos . It is also used in "Daydream Believer" by The Monkeys.
One of the genius of Penny lane is this:
In the chorus, while the vocals go up, the music goes down. This creates a not 100% joy but a wistful nostalgia, which is the point of the song.
This is not an original thought, but an observation made by Howard Goodall in his Beatles episode of his music documentary series.
Howard Godall on the Beatles is also worth a reaction!
That was a really good documentary, but better watched after listening to all of the albums.
@@youngbloodk Agree 100%, wait till the end, and then find out what an orchestral composer think of the Beatles contributions, and who they find themselves sharing the accolades with.
@@youngbloodk Agreed.
Wikipedia has an excellent section on what makes Penny Lane so special from a musical point of view.
As a drummer, Strawberry Fields Forever grabbed my attention first, but I came to realize just how good Ringo's drums are on Rain.
Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever is the holy grial of any single release
I love Paperback writer. I remember the first time I heard it. It came on the radio in the kitchen when we were getting ready for school. I was 11 years old. The guitar sound blew me away. The vocals though are just amazing. So many parts. With passing years I only appreciate it more and more. There's a backing vocal, a couple of parts, in which they are singing, "Frere Jacquer".
Rain: Ringo's favorite song because that's arguably his best drumming for any song he's on and I think he mentioned it was his most "natural" played song. That coupled with the great bass and reversed vocals at the end makes it possibly their best song. It's one of those songs I think only Beatles fans could give 10/10 score because it's the perfect combination of the early stuff like She Loves You and later stuff like SPLHCB. If I would pick one song to define the Beatles it would probably be Rain.