ANTHOLOGY 2 - side four

From the promotional film for Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Fields Forever (Demo Sequence) - John made countless demo versions of his haunting stream-of-consciousness song before the Beatles reunited after a three month break from one another.  He tries finger picking on this attempt, then stops, mutters "I canna do it" and strums instead.  At this point, he has not finished all of the verses or put the ones he has in their final order.  Also note that the line was originally "Let me take you back" rather than "down."

Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 1) - On November 24th, 1966, the first day of sessions for the next album, the boys recorded this magnificent first take of John's now-complete composition.  Numerous overdubs indicate that they thought they had already achieved the master, but a month's worth of work still lay ahead of them.  John had indeed found the vocal style he wanted to use to convey the world-weary tone of the lyrics, but the instrumental backing would change dramatically over many attempts.  Paul's Mellotron was in place from the start (though he had yet to come up with the brilliant mood-setting introduction), but George's prominent slide guitar would give way to a more straightforward guitar sound overall.

Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 7 & Edit Piece) - Several days later, the Beatles once again believed they had completed work on the song using a new arrangement.  In fact, the first minute of take 7 is used in the master, the remainder coming from take 26.  We hear all of take 7 here, then Ringo's wild drum track which was overdubbed onto take 26 for the fade out/fade in/fade out at the end of the record.  Though still incomplete, this sequence of tracks is by far the best on the Anthology series at showing the development of a recording over time.

Penny Lane - In this Anthology amalgam of many different takes, we have Paul's lead vocal single-tracked, a wonderful overdub of cor anglais and trumpets (which was either omitted from the master or mixed so low as to be inaudible) in place of Dave Mason's piccolo trumpet solo, and Mason's full final phrase continuing into some crazy run-on playing from the Beatles before coming to a full stop with a comment from Paul.

A Day in the Life - Another combination of takes is presented here beginning with some pre-recording chatter from John and tinkering on the piano by Paul.  The verses are from take 2 and they include John's guide vocal and acoustic guitar, Paul on piano and assistant Mal Evans' echoed counting of the 24 measures where the first orchestral crescendo would eventually fit in to the song.  For Paul's bridge, we hear his vocal, piano and bass, plus Ringo's drums from take 6 before returning to take 2 for the final verse.  Finally, we do hear the second orchestral build-up followed by some chatter lead by Paul with the guests invited to that orchestral overdub session on February 10th, 1967.

Good Morning Good Morning - Those who think the Beatles didn't rock during their work on Sgt. Pepper should listen to the basic track of this Lennon composition.  Rhythm guitar, Paul's bass and Ringo's drums plus John's vocal are proof enough.

Only a Northern Song - Harrison's first offering for the album wouldn't see the light of day until the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.  This is take 3, the basic track from February 13th, with vocals that were not recorded until April featuring many variations from the lyrics on the master version.