Page 23 - TheWord#16

IT WAS
www.thewordmedia.org.uk POLITICS AND EVENTS February 2017. 23

FIFTY

YEARS

AGO

TODAY!!!

By Jack Cornes different Lennon and McCartney’s
songwriting gifts were but how ut-
I have said before in this paper terly sensational they were when
that The Beatles mean the world to combined together in the greatest
me. They are truly one of the great- songwriting partnership ever. Pen-
est pleasures in my life and are a ny Lane is the perfect companion
creative inspiration both to my own to the masterpiece that is Lennon’s
creative and personal lives. One of Strawberry Fields Forever; McCa-
my most earliest memories is driv- rtney proves just why he is John’s
ing through the dark nights to pick poetical brother with this psyche-
my Mum up from work and my delic suburban opus. Like Eleanor The Beatles recorded as a band. Lennon would climb over the wall today but the majority of youth I
Dad would be playing this extraor- Rigby beforehand Penny Lane is One very much feels that they are into and play) with so many lyrics see around me today don’t appear
dinary music in the car. This music revered for taking the ordinary witness to a work in progress as of memories within the song. to be people who are conscious on
was mysterious; the person’s voice and transforming it into a freaky, each recording seems to offer a new the current state of society. Their
singing it was unlike any voice I had wondrous trip through the shores element and breakthrough in the What also ties Penny Lane/ perception has been compromised
heard before. It was as though the of surrealism. Paul masterfully sonic experience of this piece of Strawberry Fields Forever so neat- by the mass hypnosis that is the Ip-
waves of supernatural mysticism paints a picture that provides the music. The master track provides ly together is the fact that both hone and all manner of other mind
that this song was marinated in were ultimate gateway into the streets the preeminent piece of Psyche- tracks hark back to the childhoods numbing media creations turning
emanating from the speakers. This and memories of the young Beatle delic Rock Music ever created, the of both writers in their very own the populace into earphone wear-
was the first time that I ever heard growing up in Liverpool. While the song is awash with rich, varied, unique and original writing styles. ing Ipad gazing zombies. Penny
the song Strawberry Fields Forever feel of Strawberry Fields is that of surrealist imagery not just in the It maybe a crime that neither track Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever are
and the person singing it was John a submersion into the murky wa- lyrics but in the instruments, in the made it to number one in the UK also examples of when music was
Lennon. Many years passed and ters of clouded psychadelia, Paul sound and the very feel of the mu- but their immortality is secured in treated as a medium of art. The
when I re – established my connec- achieves a feel of peering through a sic. What proves most incredible is the very fibres of our cultural her- lyrics, the sounds and the experi-
tion to Beatle music when I was 16 clear glass reflection into a world of the fact that through this shamanic itage as a race in that they are some mentation were of upmost promi-
the sheer originality and creative ge- ordinariness and routine yet tinted experience we get a glimpse into of the most prime examples of nence, they had something to say,
nius of Strawberry Fields was one of in the embers of illusory, dreamlike the mind’s eye of John when he was what can be echoed from the very they meant something, even if any
the main components which led to imagery. There are many different a child (as Strawberry Field was an perception of the human condi- meaning was ever intended. Music
my constant love affair with the four versions of Strawberry Fields that old Salvation Army children’s home tion. These two tracks are now fifty is a totally different thing now. As a
lads from Liverpool and their work Lennon recorded on his own and in the gardens of which a young years of age. The world from which 25 year old I feel like a man in the
which changed the world forever- they came from is a very different wrong era of time music wise as
more. Strawberry Fields Forever was one. Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields I simply don’t get what it is trying
released as a single on the 13 Febru- and the album that followed were to do or say. Sadly I do sometimes
th
ary 1967 in the US and the 17 Feb- written in a time when masses of feel music has become like a lot of
th
ruary 1967 in the UK. But Strawber- people, not just politicians and ac- other facets of our culture. It is now
ry Fields was only half the story as tivists, wanted to change the world a banal, beige platform for compa-
Lennon’s masterpiece was released around them through whatever nies to simply spew out product
along with McCartney’s equal opus means possible and art was no ex- which doesn’t say or mean any-
Penny Lane as a double A-Side ception to this in 1967 with some thing but will have enough appeal
ahead of the eponymous release wonderful creations across the to go viral or fly off the shelves. In a
of, arguably, the greatest album of different genres. It was an era of time when the purpose and quality
all time – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts questioning ourselves spiritually. of music and talent is dying the im-
Club Band on the 1 June 1967. The youth of this era could think portance of such genius music as
st
for themselves and they generally The Beatles and Penny Lane/Straw-
Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields wanted to get involved in peace- berry Fields Forever continues to
Forever are two tracks of equal bril- ful, harmonious revolution. Of ascend in wondrous significance
liance which both highlight how course this exists in mass pockets and originality.