@@Tom-hk6ub I believe this video was also aired on _American Bandstand_ in early 1967 (you might find it here on TH-cam) --- you can clearly see that even some of the youth at the time just did not know what hit them and what to make of it and did not come to appreciate it till later on. Ahead of their time.
@@Hernal03I think the point being that if you weren't around to catch one of only a few broadcasts of it, chances are you never saw it. No way to access it on your own.
It did play on Dick Clark (American Bandstand). I watched it with my older sister in B/W. Clark was interviewing kids on the show. We were all shocked at how much they changed physically. It blew this 9 yr old way.
Yeah he really is. But the whole band is atypical in a way... but together, they were the greatest band ever. Of course on their own they did great too but they were titans together.
@@L33Reacts absolutely, the sum is greater than the parts. It's the same with Pink Floyd. Sometimes I think it's fate that certain people met, like how John and Paul bonded over their childhood traumas, or how Stills, Nash and Crosby just happened to be at a party together and started singing harmonies.
Yep, he's certainly an unmissable part of their various sounds...Also, this song is an amazing feat of arrangement and production. It could so easily have become overloaded with strange stuff, but it manages to keep up the assured flow of a dream.
As a drummer I’m constantly defending Ringo’s talent His drumming was brilliant, listening to his drumming on “Something “ People say he wasn’t like Keith Moon , John Bonham, Neal Peart or some silly comment like that. That wasn’t the music he played to . He played the right beats in the right places Most other drummers would approach a song like “Come Together “ probably a straight forward 4- 4 beat without that great beginning he dose.
@@louise_roseIt did become overloaded with strange stuff. The Anthology version pre the edit was superior in my view and could've been a standalone A-side single. This weird version could've gone onto Pepper. As it is Strawberry Fields got buried somewhat effectively becoming the B-side of the more commercial Penny Lane.
I am 73. I was in High School. I grew up enjoying The Beatles's evolution. Every album or single was different fron the previous!!!! I wouldn't be who I am without The Beatles.
I'm not a drummer, but I'm a 71yo lifelong Beatles fan, and I really appreciate your very insightful comments on Ringo's skills and creativity. He really is a master artist. Keep up the great work you're doing!
Your instincts are on point. It was a TREMENDOUS time to grow up. Imagine going from pop to psychedelic in middle school! The world opened like a flower bloom ...
It really is. He was doing some really different stuff here. It fit the dream like vibe very well. But my dreams are basically lsd trips anyway, so my dream is maybe psychedelia to others 😆
@@L33Reacts There seemed to be 2 Ringos...the Ringo who kept absolutely the right time, giving the song no more or less energy or tempo than it needed, but not choosing to do anything particularly noticeable, serving the song... then the Ringo who'd decide 'ok, this song is asking for something peculiar, let me invent something'...and then you get this funny, offbeat, trippy, playful drum track that it seems only Ringo would deliver. If you already knew this is what you wanted for your song, how could you explain it to the drummer??? Ringo plays like a precisely clumsy stumbling happy puppy. Stumbling, but stumbling precisely in time. Very fitting that Paul's beloved sheepdog Martha is in the video because Ringo's playing makes me think of a playful happy sheepdog..
Right? I can’t even say how much I love the fact that Lee is telling US how good Ringo is and WHY. He truly gets it! And it saves me from having to point it out. Great reaction to one of my top Beatle songs of all time. Something in this song and video set the course and tone of my life. Believe it.
Ringo influenced a load of drummers. Now i name only one, as an example, his drumming Is so "Ringoso", i'm Talking about Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson...and non only KC)
Not everyone loved the Beatles. They were too 'out there' for many and scared the older generation, but the Beatles moved music forward and affected everyone. They brought real ideas into pop music and were unafraid to blow people's minds......sailing into uncharted waters. We are all blessed for that.
So true. This song in particular confused non Beatles believers, the lack of simple melody and simple words confused those not prepared to move with it.
😄That "low" lyric you heard at the end of the song was John saying, "Cranberry Sauce", but some people thought he was saying, "I buried Paul". What a time!!☮️
@@DerekDominoes I agree with you. To admit it would have spoiled the mystery they were creating, so they told one interviewer that they were saying "I'm very bored," and they told another interviewer that they were saying "cranberry sauce." It was easy enough to read between the lines.
The weird thing was; at the time, there was really nowhere to watch this video. As I recall, it played once on one of the three networks. There was literally no other infrastructure for videos to be seen. That said, I watched because it was kind of a big deal in Beatle fan world. Mind blowing. It was all we were talking about at school the next day
the video was certainly innovative for the time but the music was even more so but the thing is utube reactors always put up the video and focus on mostly only that just like this guy did on top of chatting throughout
It wasn't video. It was 35 mil film which is about the same detail as 4k today. As you say, there was nowhere to watch it for me either except BBC special (black and white in my family at the time). They advertised its airing for about two weeks before.
On a side note, the sheepdog that appears in the final shot belongs to Paul, Martha, who would be the subject for a later McCartney song "Martha My Dear". Strawberry Fields was a very real place in John's early life..
I feel so lucky to have had a Dad that listened to The Beatles, Blood Sweat And Tears, The Who and Cream on his reel-to-reel. And a Mom who loved The Carpenters, Simon And Garfunkel and Led Zeppelin. Being introduced to great music at an early age truly does shape one's belief and character. I wish you could have been around at that time too. It was a magical time, great music everywhere, of all genres.
My mom (Queens, NY) was current pop, even to the point of discarding the old. My dad (the token white boy in the black neighborhood) was a trifecta of prog rock, southern rock & DCI. Therefore while I was listening to Genesis @ age 9 (due to MTV @ age 4), my mom was like: I know you are listening to current stuff, but it is lame.
@@joeybonin7691 In 67, my mum went to Covent Garden, London to see Ravi Shankar. She wore a tangerine sari. She wishes my sibs and me would forget it. But,,,,we can't/won't. lol.
Plus they started making songs with more and more advanced production. If they had still done the odd live show they would have had start doing like The Beach Boys eventually did in the early 70's and bring extra musicians on stage.
and backwards tracks.......nobody, but nobody was even thinking that was possible to release a track with that in it, then the Beatles just said "hold my beer..."
Lee, this is when music on the radio became colorful from black and white. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was supposed to be on the Sgt. Pepper album but the label needed a single to release, George Martin would later regret not keeping it on it. Mel Evans was a longtime assistant to The Beatles.
A little Beatle trivia about this song. Strawberry Fields was the first song recorded for the Sgt. Pepper album, followed by Penny Lane. Because they were released as a single, they weren't included on the album. Can you imagine that album with those two songs included? John liked two different takes of this song, but each one was recorded in a different key. He told George Martin that he liked the first half of one the takes, and the second half of another take, They were in different keys and tempos,, so George Martin told John he couldn't put them together. John told him to figure it out. And he did, He altered the speeds on the tapes until they matched, that's why the song has its own incredible sound. The rumor was that the last words John said at the end of the song was "Paul is Dead", but he what he actually said is "Cranberry Sauce."
I haven't heard Penny Lane yet, but damn... if they had this on sgt. Pepper it would have made it even stronger! Idk where to put it, though (on the album figuratively)
I find "cranberry sauce" unlikely simply because it wasn't around in Britain until about a decade later, why the hell would they pick those words? The stupid Paul died rumours and conspiracy theories is what buried idea references.
I was eleven years old and a massive Beatles fan when this came out and they showed this on some tv show. It was like whoa, six months ago they were touring the US on stage in matching suits and haircuts. They just kept knocking over boundaries. It really was kind of supernatural watching them in real time just steer history into another direction. I’ve never seen anything like it.
As a fully-fledged, 16 year old, beatnik/hippie, (we called ourselves "Heads"), the year this was released, I can tell you that the Beatles were, without doubt, the trailblazers. They didn't invent Psychedelia, but they did pick it up by it's pants and turn it into the real deal. Without them, and Dylan, we would have just carried on listening to two-and-a-half minute, bubble-gum pop. God-forbid!
Don't discount The Dead who pretty much single handedly forced the bands of the time into long format, improvisation based cuts...there was far too much cross pollination to accurately diagram. Everybody listened to everybody, the audience demanded a change to the standard set of record cuts, the greats of the age piled through the breach. I remember my first concert, '68 I think, and the Chambers Brothers doing Time Has Come Today. Procol Harum and the Grass Roots were there too;)
@@cuebj Little to do with filling up vinyl sides , live music was exploding and the 2.5 minute AM radio format was dying. The better artists of the time had to make it with the Filmore, East and West crowds, a more sophisticated audience that came to listen, dance, and trip, and the bands had to offer proper fare;)
@@gettinhungrig8806 The song! Heard it on the AM radio in 1965. Was so different from anything my parents were listening to. Those guitars, those harmonies!
I know that TH-cam is a nightmare of copyright bullshit but I'm glad that you persevere. This is some amazing stuff and you have the experience and the acumen and the curiosity to actually kind of understand it from a chronological distance, which I find not only impressive but enjoyable.
@@L33Reacts That's all we had in 1967 especially for location shots, That's why the old quality is so good. 35 mil film contains detail which transfers today to hi def at around 4k video without loss.
Watch TV shows from the 60s, they hold their quality because they were shot on film. I believe they changed to digital in the 80s because it was available and, of course, less expensive. My choice for best picture quality for a Beatles video from this era is for the song 'Rain'.
The Beatles shot just about everything on film, making it easier to cleanup and present in HD. The Paperback Writer and Rain videos, released before this, are pretty great too.
I was born soon after they broke up and their music has always been a part of my life. There one of the bands that I will always come back to. They had so many great songs but this in particular has always say up on the top of the heap. Such a wonderful song. This video is a little older now but I would highly recommend listening to "Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 and edit and piece; mono)" on Anthology 2. The extended drum solo on that version of the song is freaking amazing
I love your reactions! I watched this video played on American bandstand. The audience was pretty shocked by the change in The Beatles. A couple of people said they liked them the way they were before in their suits and playing their fun music. I remember one young woman in her early 20s saying, “they used to be so cute. “ But then there was a young man. Dressed in a black turtleneck, and looking a lot like Bruce Lee, who smiled and said. “That was great.” he got it immediately. The Beatles lead the way. Some could not follow. Most followed in time. Some followed immediately. It was a great time to be alive. You never knew what you were going to hear on the radio. The top 10 could consist of anything from instrumentals like Telstar to country crossover hits like Harper Valley PTA to hard rock like Born to be Wild to psychedelia like Strawberry Fields. It was great.
This is first time I’d heard this in at least 15 years. Such a treat. I’d forgotten how alternative this was to what was happening in music at the time. Ringo’s drumming sublime.
The Beatles had been making films for TV for a few years. That way Top of the Pops had somethng to show when they were on tour. This was just another step forward.
My love affair with the Beatles started when I was 15 years old, 30 years ago. AOL just started and I picked my handle to be StwBryFld...and has been the same all these years. It's brilliant and unique as hell.
Oh, I'd never really thought of it like that before. Don't other cultures have melancholic songs? Perhaps it's climate related...? In England it must go all the way back to John Dowland, at least. Sting has a wonderful album full of his super-melancholic love songs.
In high school when this came out. They had not put out a record in a while and then this mystical imagery of video and sound came out. Quite unique at the time
Ringo is the glue that held the band together both musically and relationship-wise. His light-heartedness softened the sometimes tense relationships between John and Paul. Google what Strawberry fields actually was and what the tree had to do with it. Real not make up places in John's youth.
I was nearly 16 when this was released and it blew my mind. I'd never heard anything like it. It was revolutionary. So different from the mainstream 'pop' music of the time and fitted perfectly with the spirit of rebellion that was growing in young people of the time. The amazing thing is that, if it were released today, I suspect it would have the same impact, as is true of many of the Beatles' songs.
I think that many would agree that The Beatles broke the mold when they did Strawberry Fields. I encourage you to learn about the accomplishments and the innovations they came up with during the recording session for this song. What they did was truly a remarkable feat that showed others what could be done in the studio. While George Martin gets (and rightly deserves) much of the credit, their recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, also deserves a lot of recognition. As you noted, this is what they called a 'promotional video' back in their day. They figured that distributing these videos was the perfect alternative to giving live performances to showcase their new songs. They didn't realize they were, yet again, creating a new trend in the music industry. At the time this was released, the critics were heavy-handed on the Beatles, claiming they had run dry and they were finally at the end of the road with respect to their creative streak. The Beatles typically released new songs every five to six months and there was some concern that they had been quiet for too long. As it were, they were working on Sgt Pepper and still had a long way to go, so they were pressured to come out with something to satisfy the demand. Being that both this, and Penny Lane, were near completion and intended to be on Sgt Pepper, they reluctantly gave in and released them together. It was tough decision on which song was better and which one deserved the honor of being on the A-side. It was a fitting that both songs were given equal recognition because they are both fantastic songs in their own way. They are essentially polar opposites of one another. Each song was unique and reflective of its author. John's song, Strawberry Fields, was eerily dreamlike and surreal while Penny Lane, written by Paul, was bright and cheerful. Releasing them together was an ideal decision that kept the wide spectrum of Beatles fans feeling wholly satisfied. Love your Beatles reactions, dude. I'm anxiously ready for more.
Listened to the Beatles since I was 5 (older brother had the albums) and never really thought much about Ringo and was always skeptical when people would go on about his greatness. The more I analyze the music, his drumming really does make these songs pop.
The opening notes are played on a Mellotron (which had a strip of tape and playback mechanism for every key) on the flute setting. It had a lot of wow and flutter, giving it a wavery sound. Back in the '70s, a friend's band was sharing a studio with John Lennon at The Record Plant in NYC. John had that Mellotron with him, and my friend got to play it. The big surprise was that the tape strip for the lowest key was the opening guitar arpeggio from Bungalow Bill.
The Mellotron sounds different enough from its recorded source instruments to be an interesting additional sound in itself. Rick Wakeman has said one of his tickets to session work was that he’d figured out how to play it in tune. Mike Pindar of the Moody Blues had worked for the company that produced them, so he could fix his when it broke. They broke frequently. On “Seventh Sojourn” Pindar used the Chamberlin, the original tape keyboard. Reports say the musicians who played the recordings for that instrument were members of Lawrence Welk’s orchestra.
Another first: The Beatles basically invented the music video. They couldn't keep going to TV shows to promote their singles, so they made music videos that were sent to the shows to be played.
Lee, thanks for the reaction. As multiple people have said in the comments here, SFF was made from two takes. The Beatles released a full version of take 7 (the quieter first minute of the final recording) on the Beatles Anthology, vol. 2. There is an edit piece at the end of that version that includes Ringo going a little bit nuts on the drums for a minute. Very cool.
Even though you weren't alive back then you can relive it through the music and videos and through those of us who DID live through it and were immersed in that magical experience.
Lee always enjoy the sixties psychedelia such as this and others they did such as I Am The Walrus , I'm Only Sleeping , Glass Onion , Flying , Being For The Benerit Of Mr Kite , Across The Universe -yes the Beatles were quite exceptional ! I'd like to offer an aussie one too by the Master's Apprentices known as Living In A Child's Dream Lee. Yer a survivor so am I ! 🐨
I Don't think I saw the video until the 80s or 90s, but definitely not when it was released. Doing Xmas shopping in a Dallas mall in 1967 & hearing John singing "Nothing is real" just a few years after I Want To Hold Your Hand was mind-blowing. Excellent analysis,! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
It’s written in history, the Beatles changed the world forever. Absolutely iconic and I was one of the luckiest people to be around from the very beginning right through to the end. The sixties were awesome and Ringo remember, was a left handed drummer playing right hand drums 😊👍❤️
Just getting started but so glad you are doing this. Yeah it wasn't their first steps in this incredibly creative and groundbreaking direction, because you could easily go back to the album Rubber Soul at least on a couple songs to see that this was kind of a direction. And then of course the iconic Revolver album after that, leading ultimately to this.
Thanks for your perceptive appreciation of this classic song…and with regards to your comment ‘what a time to be alive’…trust me , man it was….keep on rocking 👍🎶
Good reaction. As others have commented, for those of us in their teens at the time the promotional film clip (initially it wasn't a video) had almost no bearing on how we experienced the music. We just played the records over and over and looked at the covers. I have no idea when I first saw the clip and maybe never saw it during the Sixties. Things were different and there was no regular, easily accessible way to see such clips. I agree that George Martin was very important to the Beatles' sound and contributed his own ideas, but it needs to be remembered that his main role was to find ways to produce the sounds that the Beatles wanted and the ideas they came up with in their heads. You're right about Ringo and I think these days he gets the credit he deserves, although there are still a few who just parrot some old thing they heard from someone who knows nothing about drumming.
The thing John mumbles during the fadeout is “cranberry sauce”. This was misheard by some as “I buried Paul” which was one of the key pieces of “evidence” in the Paul is dead theory.
Or “I’m very stoned”. I never heard “cranberry sauce” before. We would turn the volume way up on the record player to try to hear the words - listening for “clues” to whether Paul was alive or not. “I buried Paul” was a clue, as was playing some songs backwards, which we really couldn’t do on kiddie record players. Also Paul being the Walrus in “Glass Onion” and on the cover of Magical Mystery Tour. And the license plate on Abbey Road, which was supposed to mean Paul would have been 26 IF….
I think you're imagining things .. we had strawberries then and it sounds like strawberry field slowed down which is far more logical, cranberries just weren't around until about a decade later.
@@jonathanroberts8981they worked in Hamburg for a long time, where's the Pils and Pilze references? But just change the song title and lyrics to Cranberry Fields if you want despite England having other berries, often with regional names. I know the Wiki article has Paul in 1974 telling somebody John said CS, but Paul would give silly answers to stupid questions. He knows the conspiracy theories and that must have been annoying. There's many references to crazy chit people spread in the US so I just think that was a sarcastic answer.
This song was played on the car radio of one Brian Wilson, who wept bitterly upon hearing it and lost all faith in finishing working on the Beach Boys' "SMiLE" album. He only returned to it 35 years later, after everyone had given up on it. Yes, the Beatles changed everything.
The national music show American Bandstand showed the vid and a teen girl started crying. Dick Clark asked why. She cried, "they look so old!" The kids weren't quite ready yet. Pepper was released shortly after, the teens got hip to the new stuff and the rest is history. Music and the world were never the same. Great reaction vid.
At the end, what was actually said is "cranberry sauce," but people mistook it as "I buried Paul" which became "evidence" to support the Paul Is Dead theory.
Ringo is unpredictable. I listen to his drumming now more than ever. Very instinctive, one-off experimental. Could change with every take. Very solid jazz-rock.
This is a master class in drumming by Ringo. So many people don't appreciate his abilities. Nobody did a shuffle like Ringo... at just the right time. He always enhanced the song.
Aaah!! The album of my Summer 1967… at 9 years old… simply ‘Magical Mystery tour! ❤…( still have the Original Japanese import Vinyl and DVD) Fantastic timeless Beatles!!
I was 5 years old in 1967, but I vividly remember when my friend's big brother played this 45 and the whole Sgt. Pepper's album on his record player. That and he let us have the cardboard cutout badge and mustache that came with the album.
Strawberry Fields Forever: recorded on November 24, 28, 29 & December 8, 9, 15, 21, 22 and it's based on both Takes 7 and 26!! Check out the Sgt Pepper's 50th Anniversary Edition on TH-cam too.
I was twelve when this song came out. My first major Beatles song. The one I still love the most and had the biggest influence on my musical tastes Imagine that THIS is the soundtrack to your middle school years.
So much pre-Beatles was about trying to capture the perfect “live” performance feeling on a recording. So a great recording was great musicians and vocals melding to the best performance. The Beatles (and G.Martin) opened people’s ears and eyes to the broader potential of the recording studio. Layers and instruments combined with studio tricks and processing to achieve unique sounds and experiences. They threw out the restrictions of capturing what could be done live on stage and re-invented what could be achieved in a studio. Revolutionary! Bands, musicians, and artists after the Beatles were challenged to find ways to play live what they’d achieved in the studio instead of the reverse. The Beatles blew up the old restrictive mentality of performance capturing and opened up the music world to imaginative realization through technology and innovation.
Glad to see you enjoy the lads. Back in the day it was very rare to see a Beatles video such as this. If it was promotional , that means the general public usually didn't have access. I never seen it until MTV started. They made videos in lew of making an appearence on shows like Ed Sullivan. I always looked forward to them. Cheers!
It must be remembered that there was no easy access to this video in 1967.
I think it got played on Ed Sullivan .
@@Tom-hk6ub I believe this video was also aired on _American Bandstand_ in early 1967 (you might find it here on TH-cam) --- you can clearly see that even some of the youth at the time just did not know what hit them and what to make of it and did not come to appreciate it till later on. Ahead of their time.
I never saw the video before the 1990s. The song itself was all I needed.
@@Hernal03I think the point being that if you weren't around to catch one of only a few broadcasts of it, chances are you never saw it. No way to access it on your own.
It did play on Dick Clark (American Bandstand). I watched it with my older sister in B/W. Clark was interviewing kids on the show. We were all shocked at how much they changed physically. It blew this 9 yr old way.
Ringo's weird off beat fills on this song fascinate me. He's such an atypical drummer.
Yeah he really is. But the whole band is atypical in a way... but together, they were the greatest band ever. Of course on their own they did great too but they were titans together.
@@L33Reacts absolutely, the sum is greater than the parts. It's the same with Pink Floyd. Sometimes I think it's fate that certain people met, like how John and Paul bonded over their childhood traumas, or how Stills, Nash and Crosby just happened to be at a party together and started singing harmonies.
@@DrStrangelove3891they were round at Joni’s. So Graham says.
Also the drums are double-tracked.
@@thehotyounggrandpas8207 and backwards in some places.......it's genius and mindblowing at that time.
The beatles weren't just music visionaries,they also lend the way with music videos
and elvis with jailhouse rock.
Everything began with the Beatles. Ringo was an integral part of their sound. No one else could have taken his place.
Yep, he's certainly an unmissable part of their various sounds...Also, this song is an amazing feat of arrangement and production. It could so easily have become overloaded with strange stuff, but it manages to keep up the assured flow of a dream.
Listen to disc one of the Anthology in sequence, things start escalating rapidly once Ringo joins.
As a drummer I’m constantly defending Ringo’s talent
His drumming was brilliant, listening to his drumming on “Something “ People say he wasn’t like Keith Moon , John Bonham, Neal Peart or some silly comment like that. That wasn’t the music he played to . He played the right beats in the right places
Most other drummers would approach a song like “Come Together “ probably a straight forward 4- 4 beat without that great beginning he dose.
Jimmy Nicol says hi.
@@louise_roseIt did become overloaded with strange stuff. The Anthology version pre the edit was superior in my view and could've been a standalone A-side single. This weird version could've gone onto Pepper. As it is Strawberry Fields got buried somewhat effectively becoming the B-side of the more commercial Penny Lane.
I am 73. I was in High School. I grew up enjoying The Beatles's evolution. Every album or single was different fron the previous!!!!
I wouldn't be who I am without The Beatles.
I always anxiously awaited the next release, and was usually surprised.
Thats is Evolution
When I started to listen to them they had broken up for 5 years. But they definitely changed my life
Critics always say each band gets the drummer they deserve. Ringo was their bonus
Any true Beatles fan would agree. This was a true band.
I'm not a drummer, but I'm a 71yo lifelong Beatles fan, and I really appreciate your very insightful comments on Ringo's skills and creativity. He really is a master artist. Keep up the great work you're doing!
Your instincts are on point. It was a TREMENDOUS time to grow up. Imagine going from pop to psychedelic in middle school! The world opened like a flower bloom ...
1 second ago
How did The Beatles evolute from Love Me Do to Strawberry Fields Forever in the space of just 5 years is beyond me… How?!
How did they evolve? That's easy - LSD.
This is some of Ringo's best work.
It really is. He was doing some really different stuff here. It fit the dream like vibe very well. But my dreams are basically lsd trips anyway, so my dream is maybe psychedelia to others 😆
@@L33Reacts There seemed to be 2 Ringos...the Ringo who kept absolutely the right time, giving the song no more or less energy or tempo than it needed, but not choosing to do anything particularly noticeable, serving the song... then the Ringo who'd decide 'ok, this song is asking for something peculiar, let me invent something'...and then you get this funny, offbeat, trippy, playful drum track that it seems only Ringo would deliver. If you already knew this is what you wanted for your song, how could you explain it to the drummer??? Ringo plays like a precisely clumsy stumbling happy puppy. Stumbling, but stumbling precisely in time. Very fitting that Paul's beloved sheepdog Martha is in the video because Ringo's playing makes me think of a playful happy sheepdog..
@@L33Reacts
Greetings, brother.
I am the King of weird dreams. Shall we compare?
@@mikewa2 "Why can't you play it like Ringo?" ~ John Lennon. I'll consider Lennon's opinion before yours.
We didn't confuse our listening experience with these videos we just put albums on the turntable and sat back and absorbed the greatness
I think it's so beautiful how familiar you're getting with this generation and their music... much mad respect for you
Thank you Hope I truly appreciate that 🙏
Right? I can’t even say how much I love the fact that Lee is telling US how good Ringo is and WHY. He truly gets it! And it saves me from having to point it out. Great reaction to one of my top Beatle songs of all time. Something in this song and video set the course and tone of my life. Believe it.
Ringo influenced a load of drummers. Now i name only one, as an example, his drumming Is so "Ringoso", i'm Talking about Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson...and non only KC)
Not everyone loved the Beatles. They were too 'out there' for many and scared the older generation, but the Beatles moved music forward and affected everyone. They brought real ideas into pop music and were unafraid to blow people's minds......sailing into uncharted waters. We are all blessed for that.
Yes. Their Ideas, their shared beliefs about love won and love lost-all that was what made Beatlemania a worldwide phenomenon.
My father who would be over 100 had he lived. He played jazz and flamingo guitar. He loved them.
So true. This song in particular confused non Beatles believers, the lack of simple melody and simple words confused those not prepared to move with it.
Funny how now saying the Beatles are overrated is cool. But their footprints on the musical word is super obvious
They changed their generation radically to what generations were previously
😄That "low" lyric you heard at the end of the song was John saying, "Cranberry Sauce", but some people thought he was saying, "I buried Paul". What a time!!☮️
I've never been convinced that he didn't say "I buried Paul." The cranberry sauce line just never rang true to me but who knows?
@@DerekDominoes I agree with you. To admit it would have spoiled the mystery they were creating, so they told one interviewer that they were saying "I'm very bored," and they told another interviewer that they were saying "cranberry sauce." It was easy enough to read between the lines.
There's a demo where he did say cranberry sauce. He said it clearly, doesn't sound anything like what he says here.
"I'm very bored"
Debatable.
The weird thing was; at the time, there was really nowhere to watch this video. As I recall, it played once on one of the three networks. There was literally no other infrastructure for videos to be seen. That said, I watched because it was kind of a big deal in Beatle fan world. Mind blowing. It was all we were talking about at school the next day
the video was certainly innovative for the time but the music was even more so but the thing is utube reactors always put up the video and focus on mostly only that just like this guy did on top of chatting throughout
It wasn't video. It was 35 mil film which is about the same detail as 4k today. As you say, there was nowhere to watch it for me either except BBC special (black and white in my family at the time). They advertised its airing for about two weeks before.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from this song, "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see"
John always had the words
On a side note, the sheepdog that appears in the final shot belongs to Paul, Martha, who would be the subject for a later McCartney song "Martha My Dear". Strawberry Fields was a very real place in John's early life..
I believe that the first music video was by The Beatles in 1966 for their song “Rain”.
And Paperback Writer
Garbage! First video of someone singing their song? Probably 1927
To be real, "soundies" were first Look it up.
I feel so lucky to have had a Dad that listened to The Beatles, Blood Sweat And Tears, The Who and Cream on his reel-to-reel. And a Mom who loved The Carpenters, Simon And Garfunkel and Led Zeppelin. Being introduced to great music at an early age truly does shape one's belief and character. I wish you could have been around at that time too. It was a magical time, great music everywhere, of all genres.
Not too late to start listening.
Amen. Same here. I brought my daughter up the same. Worked like a charm.
My mom (Queens, NY) was current pop, even to the point of discarding the old. My dad (the token white boy in the black neighborhood) was a trifecta of prog rock, southern rock & DCI.
Therefore while I was listening to Genesis @ age 9 (due to MTV @ age 4), my mom was like: I know you are listening to current stuff, but it is lame.
So mom like Zep. Wow, my mother couldn't handle Jimi, who was one of my faves, but thought Cream were OK.
@@joeybonin7691 In 67, my mum went to Covent Garden, London to see Ravi Shankar. She wore a tangerine sari. She wishes my sibs and me would forget it. But,,,,we can't/won't. lol.
Strawberry fields was a childrens home near where john lived.
He spent some time skiving off there, even climbing a tree there.
The best Beatles look.
No longer wanting to risk touring, they decided to send images of themselves out instead.
plus the crowds were so loud the band could not hear themselves play. got frustrating.
Plus they started making songs with more and more advanced production. If they had still done the odd live show they would have had start doing like The Beach Boys eventually did in the early 70's and bring extra musicians on stage.
Plus after the Jesus comments, they were in real fear for their lives. The Shea Stadium footage is scary
Their use of discordant harmonics and classical instrumentation was wildly innovative on mid-1960s pop music.
and backwards tracks.......nobody, but nobody was even thinking that was possible to release a track with that in it, then the Beatles just said "hold my beer..."
George's outfit and sunglasses at the end is one of the greatest Beatle moments.
Lee, this is when music on the radio became colorful from black and white. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was supposed to be on the Sgt. Pepper album but the label needed a single to release, George Martin would later regret not keeping it on it. Mel Evans was a longtime assistant to The Beatles.
And that story is told on the documentary “Sgt Pepper Forever”.
Same with television -- which switched to color only the year before. Remember all those B&W shows that turned to color during the 1965/1966 season?
*Mal* Evans :-)
@@doplinger1 Thanks, I look forward watching it!
@@SpuzzyLargo I do remember the switch!
A little Beatle trivia about this song. Strawberry Fields was the first song recorded for the Sgt. Pepper album, followed by Penny Lane. Because they were released as a single, they weren't included on the album. Can you imagine that album with those two songs included? John liked two different takes of this song, but each one was recorded in a different key. He told George Martin that he liked the first half of one the takes, and the second half of another take, They were in different keys and tempos,, so George Martin told John he couldn't put them together. John told him to figure it out. And he did, He altered the speeds on the tapes until they matched, that's why the song has its own incredible sound. The rumor was that the last words John said at the end of the song was "Paul is Dead", but he what he actually said is "Cranberry Sauce."
It sounds like "I buried Paul", but as you say, John claimed otherwise. Cranberry sauce indeed! 😅😂
I haven't heard Penny Lane yet, but damn... if they had this on sgt. Pepper it would have made it even stronger! Idk where to put it, though (on the album figuratively)
@@damonhines8187nah he's definitely saying Cranberry sauce
I find "cranberry sauce" unlikely simply because it wasn't around in Britain until about a decade later, why the hell would they pick those words?
The stupid Paul died rumours and conspiracy theories is what buried idea references.
Always thought it sounded like, "I'm very slow"
The best selling band in history and the greatest band in history
George Martin and the Beatles what a match!
George Martin was a genius
Living is easy with eyes closed
I was eleven years old and a massive Beatles fan when this came out and they showed this on some tv show. It was like whoa, six months ago they were touring the US on stage in matching suits and haircuts. They just kept knocking over boundaries. It really was kind of supernatural watching them in real time just steer history into another direction. I’ve never seen anything like it.
As a fully-fledged, 16 year old, beatnik/hippie, (we called ourselves "Heads"), the year this was released, I can tell you that the Beatles were, without doubt, the trailblazers. They didn't invent Psychedelia, but they did pick it up by it's pants and turn it into the real deal. Without them, and Dylan, we would have just carried on listening to two-and-a-half minute, bubble-gum pop. God-forbid!
Don't discount The Dead who pretty much single handedly forced the bands of the time into long format, improvisation based cuts...there was far too much cross pollination to accurately diagram. Everybody listened to everybody, the audience demanded a change to the standard set of record cuts, the greats of the age piled through the breach. I remember my first concert, '68 I think, and the Chambers Brothers doing Time Has Come Today. Procol Harum and the Grass Roots were there too;)
We called ourselves "freaks". Same people tho.
@@terrycunningham8118 Yep, that's the question I asked my SLC friends before moving there on my 10 speed..."are there any freaks there?"
Long format... a way to fill up long player records.
@@cuebj Little to do with filling up vinyl sides , live music was exploding and the 2.5 minute AM radio format was dying. The better artists of the time had to make it with the Filmore, East and West crowds, a more sophisticated audience that came to listen, dance, and trip, and the bands had to offer proper fare;)
This song is very appropriate for 2024....the lyrics fit perfectly.
I lived thru this. “Help” got me hooked, “Strawberry Fields” took it to the next level for me.
'Help' the song or the movie?
@@gettinhungrig8806 The song! Heard it on the AM radio in 1965. Was so different from anything my parents were listening to. Those guitars, those harmonies!
John's chord progressions in 'HELP' are just classic.....Beatles always had memorable melodies.
When the Beatles stopped touring, they created the "music video"
Perhaps the best way to explain things is that The Beatles were simply enlightened.
I know that TH-cam is a nightmare of copyright bullshit but I'm glad that you persevere. This is some amazing stuff and you have the experience and the acumen and the curiosity to actually kind of understand it from a chronological distance, which I find not only impressive but enjoyable.
I have often thought that I would not trade being young now for having been young then
This video in USA was released and played in PRIME TIME television at 8pm. I remember the day I saw it.
The quality of this video is stunning, like it was just taken yesterday.
Yeah, it looks like they just filmed it. So wild....
@@L33Reacts That's all we had in 1967 especially for location shots, That's why the old quality is so good. 35 mil film contains detail which transfers today to hi def at around 4k video without loss.
Watch TV shows from the 60s, they hold their quality because they were shot on film. I believe they changed to digital in the 80s because it was available and, of course, less expensive.
My choice for best picture quality for a Beatles video from this era is for the song 'Rain'.
The Beatles shot just about everything on film, making it easier to cleanup and present in HD. The Paperback Writer and Rain videos, released before this, are pretty great too.
I was twelve years old back then, a great time to be an Earthling!
I was born soon after they broke up and their music has always been a part of my life. There one of the bands that I will always come back to. They had so many great songs but this in particular has always say up on the top of the heap. Such a wonderful song. This video is a little older now but I would highly recommend listening to "Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 and edit and piece; mono)" on Anthology 2. The extended drum solo on that version of the song is freaking amazing
I love your reactions! I watched this video played on American bandstand. The audience was pretty shocked by the change in The Beatles. A couple of people said they liked them the way they were before in their suits and playing their fun music. I remember one young woman in her early 20s saying, “they used to be so cute. “
But then there was a young man. Dressed in a black turtleneck, and looking a lot like Bruce Lee, who smiled and said. “That was great.” he got it immediately.
The Beatles lead the way. Some could not follow. Most followed in time. Some followed immediately.
It was a great time to be alive. You never knew what you were going to hear on the radio. The top 10 could consist of anything from instrumentals like Telstar to country crossover hits like Harper Valley PTA to hard rock like Born to be Wild to psychedelia like Strawberry Fields.
It was great.
This is first time I’d heard this in at least 15 years. Such a treat. I’d forgotten how alternative this was to what was happening in music at the time. Ringo’s drumming sublime.
Feb 1967 a few months before Sgt Pepper album. Almost every artist at the time thought What the .....Glad you "got it" and well said.
The Greatest.
Ever.
The Beatles had been making films for TV for a few years. That way Top of the Pops had somethng to show when they were on tour. This was just another step forward.
My love affair with the Beatles started when I was 15 years old, 30 years ago. AOL just started and I picked my handle to be StwBryFld...and has been the same all these years. It's brilliant and unique as hell.
Eleanor Rigby and Strawberry Fields introduced me to a little thing called British melancholy
Isn't it wonderful?
Oh, I'd never really thought of it like that before. Don't other cultures have melancholic songs? Perhaps it's climate related...? In England it must go all the way back to John Dowland, at least. Sting has a wonderful album full of his super-melancholic love songs.
How is it possible to be that good!
In high school when this came out. They had not put out a record in a while and then this mystical imagery of video and sound came out. Quite unique at the time
I’ve been loving your Beatles reactions.
I’m glad to hear it!! We got plenty on here! lol. I love the lads
So glad you mentioned Mal!!!!
Anything Beatles on this channel gets a ton of views and deservedly so Fab Four are Leaps and Bounds ahead of anything of their time❤
Ringo is the glue that held the band together both musically and relationship-wise. His light-heartedness softened the sometimes tense relationships between John and Paul. Google what Strawberry fields actually was and what the tree had to do with it. Real not make up places in John's youth.
He was mellow, cordial, patient, and a dedicated drummer.
I was nearly 16 when this was released and it blew my mind. I'd never heard anything like it. It was revolutionary. So different from the mainstream 'pop' music of the time and fitted perfectly with the spirit of rebellion that was growing in young people of the time. The amazing thing is that, if it were released today, I suspect it would have the same impact, as is true of many of the Beatles' songs.
There are several youtube videos of people trying to find the the precise location where this video was shot. The tree , the landscape. All good fun.
What great quality on that music video, best one I’ve seen.
Ringo is the most understood drummer of all time Just perfect for a band
You had me when you said 'We're in for a show'..pure Gold..thank you
Glad you enjoyed Mark! 😉
Been my favorite Beatles song since I was 10 in '81. So trppilly groovy🎶🎶🎵🎶✌️
You are so right re. Ringo. Everyone is underrated to someone on TH-cam but in Ringo's case it's actually true.
I think that many would agree that The Beatles broke the mold when they did Strawberry Fields. I encourage you to learn about the accomplishments and the innovations they came up with during the recording session for this song. What they did was truly a remarkable feat that showed others what could be done in the studio. While George Martin gets (and rightly deserves) much of the credit, their recording engineer, Geoff Emerick, also deserves a lot of recognition.
As you noted, this is what they called a 'promotional video' back in their day. They figured that distributing these videos was the perfect alternative to giving live performances to showcase their new songs. They didn't realize they were, yet again, creating a new trend in the music industry.
At the time this was released, the critics were heavy-handed on the Beatles, claiming they had run dry and they were finally at the end of the road with respect to their creative streak. The Beatles typically released new songs every five to six months and there was some concern that they had been quiet for too long. As it were, they were working on Sgt Pepper and still had a long way to go, so they were pressured to come out with something to satisfy the demand. Being that both this, and Penny Lane, were near completion and intended to be on Sgt Pepper, they reluctantly gave in and released them together. It was tough decision on which song was better and which one deserved the honor of being on the A-side. It was a fitting that both songs were given equal recognition because they are both fantastic songs in their own way. They are essentially polar opposites of one another. Each song was unique and reflective of its author. John's song, Strawberry Fields, was eerily dreamlike and surreal while Penny Lane, written by Paul, was bright and cheerful. Releasing them together was an ideal decision that kept the wide spectrum of Beatles fans feeling wholly satisfied.
Love your Beatles reactions, dude. I'm anxiously ready for more.
All our lives changed in those days. And Ringo kept the the beat for all of us.
Listened to the Beatles since I was 5 (older brother had the albums) and never really thought much about Ringo and was always skeptical when people would go on about his greatness. The more I analyze the music, his drumming really does make these songs pop.
Another first of many firsts by this group videos.
The opening notes are played on a Mellotron (which had a strip of tape and playback mechanism for every key) on the flute setting. It had a lot of wow and flutter, giving it a wavery sound. Back in the '70s, a friend's band was sharing a studio with John Lennon at The Record Plant in NYC. John had that Mellotron with him, and my friend got to play it. The big surprise was that the tape strip for the lowest key was the opening guitar arpeggio from Bungalow Bill.
Just noticed this after my comment. I used to work on them in Liverpool in the 60s and they were a nightmare. Great sound though.
@@cliff481 The word "ethereal" comes to mind.
An arpeggio is just the notes of a chord played separately. I'd call it a guitar piece.
The Mellotron sounds different enough from its recorded source instruments to be an interesting additional sound in itself.
Rick Wakeman has said one of his tickets to session work was that he’d figured out how to play it in tune.
Mike Pindar of the Moody Blues had worked for the company that produced them, so he could fix his when it broke.
They broke frequently.
On “Seventh Sojourn” Pindar used the Chamberlin, the original tape keyboard. Reports say the musicians who played the recordings for that instrument were members of Lawrence Welk’s orchestra.
love the mellotron string sound that John Evan of Jethro Tull uses on 'Witches Promise'
Talk about being glad they did all these videos, man , am I glad
Another first: The Beatles basically invented the music video. They couldn't keep going to TV shows to promote their singles, so they made music videos that were sent to the shows to be played.
Lee, thanks for the reaction. As multiple people have said in the comments here, SFF was made from two takes. The Beatles released a full version of take 7 (the quieter first minute of the final recording) on the Beatles Anthology, vol. 2. There is an edit piece at the end of that version that includes Ringo going a little bit nuts on the drums for a minute. Very cool.
A masterpiece…revolutionary indeed! You got it..
Even though you weren't alive back then you can relive it through the music and videos and through those of us who DID live through it and were immersed in that magical experience.
Lee always enjoy the sixties psychedelia such as this and others they did such as I Am The Walrus , I'm Only Sleeping , Glass Onion , Flying , Being For The Benerit Of Mr Kite , Across The Universe -yes the Beatles were quite exceptional ! I'd like to offer an aussie one too by the Master's Apprentices known as Living In A Child's Dream Lee. Yer a survivor so am I ! 🐨
I'm only sleeping is so good. Only Lennon could make a song like that work LOL
Oh yeah!!! And “Turn up your Radio”!
Funny, 5 out of 6 songs noted are Lennon compositions. Coincidence? I think not.
Sweetie you represent yourself just awesome, I wouldn't come back to your channel every morning to watch you if you weren't💖✌️🥰
I Don't think I saw the video until the 80s or 90s, but definitely not when it was released. Doing Xmas shopping in a Dallas mall in 1967 & hearing John singing "Nothing is real" just a few years after I Want To Hold Your Hand was mind-blowing. Excellent analysis,! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
It’s written in history, the Beatles changed the world forever. Absolutely iconic and I was one of the luckiest people to be around from the very beginning right through to the end. The sixties were awesome and Ringo remember, was a left handed drummer playing right hand drums 😊👍❤️
Just getting started but so glad you are doing this. Yeah it wasn't their first steps in this incredibly creative and groundbreaking direction, because you could easily go back to the album Rubber Soul at least on a couple songs to see that this was kind of a direction. And then of course the iconic Revolver album after that, leading ultimately to this.
They had no one to reference. They just created. Awesome stuff.
Thanks for your perceptive appreciation of this classic song…and with
regards to your comment ‘what a time to be alive’…trust me , man it was….keep on rocking 👍🎶
Good reaction. As others have commented, for those of us in their teens at the time the promotional film clip (initially it wasn't a video) had almost no bearing on how we experienced the music. We just played the records over and over and looked at the covers. I have no idea when I first saw the clip and maybe never saw it during the Sixties. Things were different and there was no regular, easily accessible way to see such clips. I agree that George Martin was very important to the Beatles' sound and contributed his own ideas, but it needs to be remembered that his main role was to find ways to produce the sounds that the Beatles wanted and the ideas they came up with in their heads. You're right about Ringo and I think these days he gets the credit he deserves, although there are still a few who just parrot some old thing they heard from someone who knows nothing about drumming.
Thanks Bob for "enlightening" The Beatles. The world changed forever!
For me, the best music video ever.
Double A-side single, meaning that both songs were intended for radio and the charts. (Like releasing 2 singles on one disc.)
The thing John mumbles during the fadeout is “cranberry sauce”. This was misheard by some as “I buried Paul” which was one of the key pieces of “evidence” in the Paul is dead theory.
Or “I’m very stoned”. I never heard “cranberry sauce” before. We would turn the volume way up on the record player to try to hear the words - listening for “clues” to whether Paul was alive or not. “I buried Paul” was a clue, as was playing some songs backwards, which we really couldn’t do on kiddie record players. Also Paul being the Walrus in “Glass Onion” and on the cover of Magical Mystery Tour. And the license plate on Abbey Road, which was supposed to mean Paul would have been 26 IF….
@@johnnyparis10it's cranberry sauce
I think you're imagining things .. we had strawberries then and it sounds like strawberry field slowed down which is far more logical, cranberries just weren't around until about a decade later.
Regarding cranberries, remember they’d toured the US extensively, and George’s older sister lived there.
@@jonathanroberts8981they worked in Hamburg for a long time, where's the Pils and Pilze references?
But just change the song title and lyrics to Cranberry Fields if you want despite England having other berries, often with regional names.
I know the Wiki article has Paul in 1974 telling somebody John said CS, but Paul would give silly answers to stupid questions. He knows the conspiracy theories and that must have been annoying.
There's many references to crazy chit people spread in the US so I just think that was a sarcastic answer.
This song was played on the car radio of one Brian Wilson, who wept bitterly upon hearing it and lost all faith in finishing working on the Beach Boys' "SMiLE" album. He only returned to it 35 years later, after everyone had given up on it. Yes, the Beatles changed everything.
The national music show American Bandstand showed the vid and a teen girl started crying. Dick Clark asked why. She cried, "they look so old!" The kids weren't quite ready yet. Pepper was released shortly after, the teens got hip to the new stuff and the rest is history. Music and the world were never the same. Great reaction vid.
At the end, what was actually said is "cranberry sauce," but people mistook it as "I buried Paul" which became "evidence" to support the Paul Is Dead theory.
Ringo is unpredictable. I listen to his drumming now more than ever. Very instinctive, one-off experimental. Could change with every take. Very solid jazz-rock.
This is a master class in drumming by Ringo. So many people don't appreciate his abilities. Nobody did a shuffle like Ringo... at just the right time. He always enhanced the song.
Another great one L33, enjoying the channel dude glad you're here.
Aaah!! The album of my Summer 1967… at 9 years old… simply ‘Magical Mystery tour! ❤…( still have the Original Japanese import Vinyl and DVD)
Fantastic timeless Beatles!!
I was 5 years old in 1967, but I vividly remember when my friend's big brother played this 45 and the whole Sgt. Pepper's album on his record player. That and he let us have the cardboard cutout badge and mustache that came with the album.
This is the first, or one of the very first music videos ever released. The Beatles were the masters of innovation and creativity.
The whole world shifted at the advent of the Beatles.
Strawberry Fields Forever: recorded on November 24, 28, 29 & December 8, 9, 15, 21, 22 and it's based on both Takes 7 and 26!! Check out the Sgt Pepper's 50th Anniversary Edition on TH-cam too.
Ii had just turned 12 a few months before, and this was the first 45 record I ever bought. The two songs blew my young mind. 😮
I was twelve when this song came out. My first major Beatles song. The one I still love the most and had the biggest influence on my musical tastes Imagine that THIS is the soundtrack to your middle school years.
Yes, it was a very interesting time to be alive. Thanks darlin for appreciating "our" music. We were weirder than you thought, huh?
❤😊
So much pre-Beatles was about trying to capture the perfect “live” performance feeling on a recording. So a great recording was great musicians and vocals melding to the best performance. The Beatles (and G.Martin) opened people’s ears and eyes to the broader potential of the recording studio. Layers and instruments combined with studio tricks and processing to achieve unique sounds and experiences. They threw out the restrictions of capturing what could be done live on stage and re-invented what could be achieved in a studio. Revolutionary! Bands, musicians, and artists after the Beatles were challenged to find ways to play live what they’d achieved in the studio instead of the reverse. The Beatles blew up the old restrictive mentality of performance capturing and opened up the music world to imaginative realization through technology and innovation.
Glad to see you enjoy the lads.
Back in the day it was very rare to see a Beatles video such as this.
If it was promotional , that means the general public usually didn't have access.
I never seen it until MTV started.
They made videos in lew of making an appearence on shows like Ed Sullivan.
I always looked forward to them.
Cheers!
Late 1960s as a child this was my favorite Beatles song. Of course more fantastic Fab Four music was still ahead in my future.