Chords for The Craziest Edit in Beatles History
Tempo:
98.7 bpm
Chords used:
Bb
Fm
D
C
F
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[F] Strawberry [Am] Fields Forever.
It's one of the most well-known [Eb] and highly regarded
Beatles [D] songs, and [E] rightfully so.
It's a [N] masterpiece.
It also has one of the most
fascinating edits in all of recorded music, one that you might not have even
noticed.
But as a fair warning, once I point it out, you can't unhear this.
The
Beatles started work on Strawberry Fields Forever in late 1966, their first
time back in the studio since the release of the Revolver album a few
months earlier.
By this point, the Beatles were transitioning from being on the
road and performing almost constantly, to spending almost all their time in
Abbey Road Studios.
The band spent a total of 55 hours in the studio working
on Strawberry Fields Forever.
To put that into perspective, they recorded their
entire first album in just 13 hours.
Evolving from a simple acoustic demo by
John Lennon into a complex masterpiece, all with relatively simple four-track
tape machines, required a ton of ingenuity on the part of the Beatles and
by producer George Martin.
There's a ton of really interesting aspects to the
song, and you could spend hours analyzing its musical merits and complex
production.
But I'm gonna focus on the most interesting anomaly on the track.
[Bb] If
you listen closely just before the one-minute mark, you'll notice a weird
shift in the way everything sounds.
You'll notice first that John's voice
changes pretty dramatically between the words "'cause I'm"
and "going to" Let's listen. [Fm]
Suddenly there's an entire [D] orchestral arrangement, a bunch of [Bm] otherworldly sounds [D] like reverse hi-hats and Eastern instruments. Also Ringo's drums become more intense. So what happened? What you're hearing is a very careful splice of two completely different takes of the song in two completely different keys, cut together mid-phrase. The first portion of the song, from the opening through the one-minute mark, comes from take seven. Take seven, recorded earlier in the sessions, is [F] gentle and sparsely arranged. There's a clean electric guitar, Ringo's drumming is methodical, there's a light tambourine here and there, and surrounding it all is the haunting sound of the Mellotron that relied [Am] on tape loops to [A] simulate actual instruments such as a flute. [Eb] [Bb] Here's the same section from take seven without the splice. [Fm]
In the final mix of the track, at just before the one-minute mark, we cross over almost seamlessly into take 26, recorded on a totally [Bb] different day at Abbey Road. [Fm] By this point in the song's [Bm] evolution, John had [D] pushed the sound in a much darker and heavier direction, [C] having George Martin add an orchestral track along with a host of other sounds and instruments that weren't exactly commonplace on pop records at the time. Here's take 26 in the same section. Notice how John's voice sounds a little different here though than in the final version. [Gm]
John liked the style of both of the takes and asked George Martin to figure out a way to put the tracks together. At the time, engineers had to use actual scissors and tape to splice together the different takes, a laborious process that required incredible precision. It was made even more difficult because the two takes were performed in different keys and at different tempos, that is, [Bb] speeds. [C] [Bb] [Fm]
[C] [Gm] [Bb] Luckily, the engineers realized that by slowing down take 26, it shifted the pitch so that the two takes matched, albeit with John's voice sounding a bit deeper and slower than normal because of the pitch shifting. [Fm] Even more impressive [N] is that instead of making the cut, say, between verses or during a quieter portion of the song, it happens in the middle of the first line of the chorus. The result, which would have likely never happened in a modern digital studio environment, is nothing short of brilliant. The transition actually fits the song lyrics well, resembling a disorienting slide into a nostalgic fever dream, and it gives the song otherworldly quality that rivals the Beatles other psychedelic masterpieces such as Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver or A Day in the Life from Sgt. Pepper's. It's worth mentioning that by this point, the Beatles were experimenting heavily with LSD, which probably explains a lot. But I can't stress how much ingenuity went into the creation of this track to bring the Beatles vision to life. There's a bunch of other little oddities and curiosities, such as the wild cacophony during the outro, which I'll save for another video. If you're especially curious, the individual take 7 and take 26, the two that were spliced together in the final version, were released in their entirety as part of the Sgt. Pepper's remix. Check out a link in the description below to hear those tracks. Oddly enough, John Lennon said in a 1980 interview that he wasn't pleased with how the final track came out, even suggesting that Paul McCartney was subconsciously sabotaging John's songs by allowing them to be released in these experimental versions, rather than Paul's typically more polished songs. What do you think about Strawberry Fields Forever? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to my channel You Can't Unhear This for more videos about the oddities and anomalies in recorded music.
It's one of the most well-known [Eb] and highly regarded
Beatles [D] songs, and [E] rightfully so.
It's a [N] masterpiece.
It also has one of the most
fascinating edits in all of recorded music, one that you might not have even
noticed.
But as a fair warning, once I point it out, you can't unhear this.
The
Beatles started work on Strawberry Fields Forever in late 1966, their first
time back in the studio since the release of the Revolver album a few
months earlier.
By this point, the Beatles were transitioning from being on the
road and performing almost constantly, to spending almost all their time in
Abbey Road Studios.
The band spent a total of 55 hours in the studio working
on Strawberry Fields Forever.
To put that into perspective, they recorded their
entire first album in just 13 hours.
Evolving from a simple acoustic demo by
John Lennon into a complex masterpiece, all with relatively simple four-track
tape machines, required a ton of ingenuity on the part of the Beatles and
by producer George Martin.
There's a ton of really interesting aspects to the
song, and you could spend hours analyzing its musical merits and complex
production.
But I'm gonna focus on the most interesting anomaly on the track.
[Bb] If
you listen closely just before the one-minute mark, you'll notice a weird
shift in the way everything sounds.
You'll notice first that John's voice
changes pretty dramatically between the words "'cause I'm"
and "going to" Let's listen. [Fm]
Suddenly there's an entire [D] orchestral arrangement, a bunch of [Bm] otherworldly sounds [D] like reverse hi-hats and Eastern instruments. Also Ringo's drums become more intense. So what happened? What you're hearing is a very careful splice of two completely different takes of the song in two completely different keys, cut together mid-phrase. The first portion of the song, from the opening through the one-minute mark, comes from take seven. Take seven, recorded earlier in the sessions, is [F] gentle and sparsely arranged. There's a clean electric guitar, Ringo's drumming is methodical, there's a light tambourine here and there, and surrounding it all is the haunting sound of the Mellotron that relied [Am] on tape loops to [A] simulate actual instruments such as a flute. [Eb] [Bb] Here's the same section from take seven without the splice. [Fm]
In the final mix of the track, at just before the one-minute mark, we cross over almost seamlessly into take 26, recorded on a totally [Bb] different day at Abbey Road. [Fm] By this point in the song's [Bm] evolution, John had [D] pushed the sound in a much darker and heavier direction, [C] having George Martin add an orchestral track along with a host of other sounds and instruments that weren't exactly commonplace on pop records at the time. Here's take 26 in the same section. Notice how John's voice sounds a little different here though than in the final version. [Gm]
John liked the style of both of the takes and asked George Martin to figure out a way to put the tracks together. At the time, engineers had to use actual scissors and tape to splice together the different takes, a laborious process that required incredible precision. It was made even more difficult because the two takes were performed in different keys and at different tempos, that is, [Bb] speeds. [C] [Bb] [Fm]
[C] [Gm] [Bb] Luckily, the engineers realized that by slowing down take 26, it shifted the pitch so that the two takes matched, albeit with John's voice sounding a bit deeper and slower than normal because of the pitch shifting. [Fm] Even more impressive [N] is that instead of making the cut, say, between verses or during a quieter portion of the song, it happens in the middle of the first line of the chorus. The result, which would have likely never happened in a modern digital studio environment, is nothing short of brilliant. The transition actually fits the song lyrics well, resembling a disorienting slide into a nostalgic fever dream, and it gives the song otherworldly quality that rivals the Beatles other psychedelic masterpieces such as Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver or A Day in the Life from Sgt. Pepper's. It's worth mentioning that by this point, the Beatles were experimenting heavily with LSD, which probably explains a lot. But I can't stress how much ingenuity went into the creation of this track to bring the Beatles vision to life. There's a bunch of other little oddities and curiosities, such as the wild cacophony during the outro, which I'll save for another video. If you're especially curious, the individual take 7 and take 26, the two that were spliced together in the final version, were released in their entirety as part of the Sgt. Pepper's remix. Check out a link in the description below to hear those tracks. Oddly enough, John Lennon said in a 1980 interview that he wasn't pleased with how the final track came out, even suggesting that Paul McCartney was subconsciously sabotaging John's songs by allowing them to be released in these experimental versions, rather than Paul's typically more polished songs. What do you think about Strawberry Fields Forever? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to my channel You Can't Unhear This for more videos about the oddities and anomalies in recorded music.
Key:
Bb
Fm
D
C
F
Bb
Fm
D
[F] Strawberry [Am] Fields Forever.
It's one of the most well-known [Eb] and highly regarded
Beatles [D] songs, and [E] rightfully so.
It's a [N] masterpiece.
It also has one of the most
fascinating edits in all of recorded music, one that you might not have even
noticed.
But as a fair warning, once I point it out, you can't unhear this.
The
Beatles started work on Strawberry Fields Forever in late 1966, their first
time back in the studio since the release of the Revolver album a few
months earlier.
By this point, the Beatles were transitioning from being on the
road and performing almost constantly, to spending almost all their time in
Abbey Road Studios.
The band spent a total of 55 hours in the studio working
on Strawberry Fields Forever.
To put that into perspective, they recorded their
entire first album in just 13 hours.
_ Evolving from a simple acoustic demo by
John Lennon into a complex masterpiece, all with relatively simple four-track
tape machines, required a ton of ingenuity on the part of the Beatles _ and
by producer George Martin.
_ _ There's a ton of really interesting aspects to the
song, and you could spend hours analyzing its musical merits and complex
production.
But I'm gonna focus on the most interesting anomaly on the track.
[Bb] If
you listen closely just before the one-minute mark, you'll notice a weird
shift in the way everything sounds.
You'll notice first that John's voice
changes pretty dramatically between the words "'cause I'm_"
and "_going_ to_" Let's listen. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ _
Suddenly there's an entire [D] orchestral arrangement, a bunch of [Bm] otherworldly sounds [D] like reverse hi-hats and Eastern instruments. Also Ringo's drums become more intense. So what happened? What you're hearing is a very careful splice of two completely different takes of the song in two completely different keys, cut together mid-phrase. The first portion of the song, from the opening through the one-minute mark, comes from take seven. Take seven, recorded earlier in the sessions, is [F] gentle and sparsely arranged. There's a clean electric guitar, Ringo's drumming is methodical, there's a light tambourine here and there, and surrounding it all is the haunting sound of the Mellotron that relied [Am] on tape loops to [A] simulate actual instruments such as a flute. [Eb] _ [Bb] Here's the same section from take seven without the splice. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ In the final mix of the track, at just before the one-minute mark, we cross over almost seamlessly into take 26, recorded on a totally [Bb] different day at Abbey Road. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ By this point in the song's [Bm] evolution, John had [D] pushed the sound in a much darker and heavier direction, [C] having George Martin add an orchestral track along with a host of other sounds and instruments that weren't exactly commonplace on pop records at the time. Here's take 26 in the same section. Notice how John's voice sounds a little different here though than in the final version. _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ John liked the style of both of the takes and asked George Martin to figure out a way to put the tracks together. At the time, engineers had to use actual scissors and tape to splice together the different takes, a laborious process that required incredible precision. It was made even more difficult because the two takes were performed in different keys and at different tempos, that is, [Bb] speeds. _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ [Bb] Luckily, the engineers realized that by slowing down take 26, it shifted the pitch so that the two takes matched, albeit with John's voice sounding a bit deeper and slower than normal because of the pitch shifting. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ _ _ _ _ Even more impressive [N] is that instead of making the cut, say, between verses or during a quieter portion of the song, it happens in the middle of the first line of the chorus. The result, which would have likely never happened in a modern digital studio environment, is nothing short of brilliant. The transition actually fits the song lyrics well, resembling a disorienting slide into a nostalgic fever dream, and it gives the song otherworldly quality that rivals the Beatles other psychedelic masterpieces such as Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver or A Day in the Life from Sgt. Pepper's. It's worth mentioning that by this point, the Beatles were experimenting heavily with LSD, which probably explains a lot. But I can't stress how much ingenuity went into the creation of this track to bring the Beatles vision to life. There's a bunch of other little oddities and curiosities, such as the wild cacophony during the outro, which I'll save for another video. If you're especially curious, the individual take 7 and take 26, the two that were spliced together in the final version, were released in their entirety as part of the Sgt. Pepper's remix. Check out a link in the description below to hear those tracks. Oddly enough, John Lennon said in a 1980 interview that he wasn't pleased with how the final track came out, even suggesting that Paul McCartney was subconsciously sabotaging John's songs by allowing them to be released in these experimental versions, rather than Paul's typically more polished songs. What do you think about Strawberry Fields Forever? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to my channel You Can't Unhear This for more videos about the oddities and anomalies in recorded music. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
It's one of the most well-known [Eb] and highly regarded
Beatles [D] songs, and [E] rightfully so.
It's a [N] masterpiece.
It also has one of the most
fascinating edits in all of recorded music, one that you might not have even
noticed.
But as a fair warning, once I point it out, you can't unhear this.
The
Beatles started work on Strawberry Fields Forever in late 1966, their first
time back in the studio since the release of the Revolver album a few
months earlier.
By this point, the Beatles were transitioning from being on the
road and performing almost constantly, to spending almost all their time in
Abbey Road Studios.
The band spent a total of 55 hours in the studio working
on Strawberry Fields Forever.
To put that into perspective, they recorded their
entire first album in just 13 hours.
_ Evolving from a simple acoustic demo by
John Lennon into a complex masterpiece, all with relatively simple four-track
tape machines, required a ton of ingenuity on the part of the Beatles _ and
by producer George Martin.
_ _ There's a ton of really interesting aspects to the
song, and you could spend hours analyzing its musical merits and complex
production.
But I'm gonna focus on the most interesting anomaly on the track.
[Bb] If
you listen closely just before the one-minute mark, you'll notice a weird
shift in the way everything sounds.
You'll notice first that John's voice
changes pretty dramatically between the words "'cause I'm_"
and "_going_ to_" Let's listen. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ _
Suddenly there's an entire [D] orchestral arrangement, a bunch of [Bm] otherworldly sounds [D] like reverse hi-hats and Eastern instruments. Also Ringo's drums become more intense. So what happened? What you're hearing is a very careful splice of two completely different takes of the song in two completely different keys, cut together mid-phrase. The first portion of the song, from the opening through the one-minute mark, comes from take seven. Take seven, recorded earlier in the sessions, is [F] gentle and sparsely arranged. There's a clean electric guitar, Ringo's drumming is methodical, there's a light tambourine here and there, and surrounding it all is the haunting sound of the Mellotron that relied [Am] on tape loops to [A] simulate actual instruments such as a flute. [Eb] _ [Bb] Here's the same section from take seven without the splice. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _
_ In the final mix of the track, at just before the one-minute mark, we cross over almost seamlessly into take 26, recorded on a totally [Bb] different day at Abbey Road. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ By this point in the song's [Bm] evolution, John had [D] pushed the sound in a much darker and heavier direction, [C] having George Martin add an orchestral track along with a host of other sounds and instruments that weren't exactly commonplace on pop records at the time. Here's take 26 in the same section. Notice how John's voice sounds a little different here though than in the final version. _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ John liked the style of both of the takes and asked George Martin to figure out a way to put the tracks together. At the time, engineers had to use actual scissors and tape to splice together the different takes, a laborious process that required incredible precision. It was made even more difficult because the two takes were performed in different keys and at different tempos, that is, [Bb] speeds. _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ [Bb] Luckily, the engineers realized that by slowing down take 26, it shifted the pitch so that the two takes matched, albeit with John's voice sounding a bit deeper and slower than normal because of the pitch shifting. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ _ _ _ _ Even more impressive [N] is that instead of making the cut, say, between verses or during a quieter portion of the song, it happens in the middle of the first line of the chorus. The result, which would have likely never happened in a modern digital studio environment, is nothing short of brilliant. The transition actually fits the song lyrics well, resembling a disorienting slide into a nostalgic fever dream, and it gives the song otherworldly quality that rivals the Beatles other psychedelic masterpieces such as Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver or A Day in the Life from Sgt. Pepper's. It's worth mentioning that by this point, the Beatles were experimenting heavily with LSD, which probably explains a lot. But I can't stress how much ingenuity went into the creation of this track to bring the Beatles vision to life. There's a bunch of other little oddities and curiosities, such as the wild cacophony during the outro, which I'll save for another video. If you're especially curious, the individual take 7 and take 26, the two that were spliced together in the final version, were released in their entirety as part of the Sgt. Pepper's remix. Check out a link in the description below to hear those tracks. Oddly enough, John Lennon said in a 1980 interview that he wasn't pleased with how the final track came out, even suggesting that Paul McCartney was subconsciously sabotaging John's songs by allowing them to be released in these experimental versions, rather than Paul's typically more polished songs. What do you think about Strawberry Fields Forever? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to my channel You Can't Unhear This for more videos about the oddities and anomalies in recorded music. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _