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Beatles
The drug culture that defined the latter part of the ‘60s had an overwhelming effect on popular music. John Lennon, in particular, embraced it unquestioningly and consumed hallucinogens as if they were a brain food. The drug revolution brought a sense of euphoria to everything it touched, and since most of the “hip” members of popular culture discovered psychedelics around the same time, a seemingly limitless universe blossomed before them. Typically, though, the inspirational value of the narcotic would diminish over time, replaced by a feeling of lethargy. In other words, instead of being consumed with a constant stream of drug-induced inspiration, acidheads were slowly becoming a sleepy-eyed bunch of couch potatoes. Lennon had already touched on his desire to do nothing (“I’m Only Sleeping”), but he still believed that hallucinogens held a key that would open up new worlds and help his creativity. While reaching for the cosmos, he ultimately remained as earthbound as anybody else, but he was certainly correct in assuming that drugs would fuel his songwriting.
The laid-back, non-committal and occasionally paranoid mind-set that LSD induced is intricately woven into the lyrics of “Strawberry Fields Forever.” With the casualness of spontaneous thought, Lennon sings what at first sounds like stream-of-consciousness babbling. The indecisiveness of the lyrics-such as “Always, no, sometimes, I think it’s me” or “I think I know, I mean, ah yes, but it’s all wrong- that is, I think I disagree”-speaks volumes without ever saying anything committal at all.
Like Paul McCartney’s lyrics in “Penny Lane”, Lennon’s musings in “Strawberry Fields Forever” were inspired by childhood memories. Strawberry Fields was the name of a Salvation Army grounds near his Liverpool home where he sometimes played as a child. It was a refuge of trees and gardens that offered a magical escape from the dirty brick city that contained it. The adult Lennon sings more about the impressions left by these memories than he does about the memories themselves. What matters isn’t so much what he remembers, but how he feels about what he remembers. His tone is withdrawn and introspective, and the drug-induced apathy shows him to be uncertain of whether he even fits into his own escapist fantasy. He expresses this feeling of alienation (although he is again uncertain) when he sings, “No one, I think, is in my tree.” The best clues as to why Lennon never lost touch with his “inner child” are buried somewhere deep in the mysterious folds of this song. Unfortunately, Lennon’s child wasn’t happy, and it might have done him well to shrug him off, but he lingered. This is something that he never worked out to his own satisfaction, despite numerous attempts, including the primal scream therapies espoused by Arthur Janov.
The bemused hyperreality of McCartney’s Liverpool in “Penny Lane” stands in marked contrast to Lennon’s surreal and somewhat pained memories. While McCartney’s song more or less says, “I don’t understand these people,” Lennon’s says, “These people don’t understand me.” In this sense, these two songs capture, better than anything else the Beatles ever released, the psychological differences and opposing worldviews of Lennon and McCartney.
No single before or since has ever challenged the listener as much as “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Its construction from two separate mixes, combined with loopy sound effects, backward tape splices, false endings, string arrangements and, ironically, a Salvation Army-style brass band, have kept listeners engaged for more than a quarter-century. Amazingly, it never sounds forced or phony, thanks mostly to Lennon’s autobiographical and self-revealing lyrics. Drugs would continue to provide warped inspiration not only to the Beatles, but to practically every other pop group of this time, but never again would one song reveal so much about the character of its author.
 
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