It only took The Beatles a decade to become the most influential band of all time, transforming popular music with their innovative approach to songwriting and production. Not only were the band musical innovators, but they also became cultural icons, representing a shift towards a new counterculture that prioritised progress, youth and liberation from the shackles of traditionalism.
The band started out writing relatively straightforward pop songs, often covering classic rhythm and blues tracks. However, their creative direction truly began to change when they released Rubber Soul in 1965, which featured one of the first instances of the sitar being played in mainstream Western music. Additionally, the Fab Four all expressed a greater level of songwriting skill, with songs such as ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ and ‘In My Life’ reflecting the band’s development.
The release of their subsequent album, Revolver, marked an even greater shift towards experimentalism, which blossomed into full fruition on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. However, during the recording sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s, the band created two songs that became standalone singles: ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’.
These tracks have since become some of The Beatles’ most iconic tunes, representing the band’s burgeoning psychedelic and acid-fuelled influences. ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ documents John Lennon’s childhood memories of living in Liverpool, referencing the name of a children’s home near his house. He begins by introducing us to a journey down memory lane, singing, “Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to/ Strawberry Fields/ Nothing is real.”
Shortly after the song was done, Paul McCartney got started on ‘Penny Lane’, which was released with ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as a double A-side. In Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now, McCartney recalled, “We were often answering each other’s songs, so it might have been my version of a memory song.” Like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, the song features lyrics that recall childhood locations, and Penny Lane was home to the bus depot that McCartney frequently used.
The singer explained in the same book: “When I came to write it, John came over and helped me with the third verse, as often was the case. We were writing childhood memories: recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was a recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us. All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly we could have gone on.”
Both songs proved immensely successful with the public, and the single hit number two on the UK charts. These days, both ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’ have become popular tourist hotspots for Beatles fans to visit, allowing listeners to feel a step closer to the places that shaped the Fab Four as youngsters.
According to George Martin, “The song itself was generated by a kind of ‘I can do just as well as you can, John,’ because we’d just recorded ‘Strawberry Fields’ and they were both significant. And they were both about their childhood.”
Revisit ‘Penny Lane’ below.
