December 15, 1966
15 Thursday Dec 2016
Written by Bungalow Bill in 1966, Notes/Additions/Corrections
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Today four trumpet players and three cellists were in the studio to bring to life George Martin’s score for “Strawberry Fields Forever.” This probably pleased John Lennon, who — and this is pure speculation on my part — may have been jealous of all the attention lavished on Paul’s Revolver songs (a string quartet for “Eleanor Rigby,” a French horn for “For No One,” a whole horn section for “Got to Get You into My Life”).
After the major production of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which featured lots of exotic instruments and technicians stretching tape loops all over the studio, the songs John contributed to Revolver had been straightforward guitar-bass-and-drums numbers. Not so “Strawberry Fields,” which already had gone through several iterations and now was well on its way to becoming one of The Beatles’ most labor-intensive songs.
For the real heads out there, I feel compelled to mention that some of my sources place John’s utterance of the legendary words “cranberry sauce” — (willfully) misinterpreted by many as “I buried Paul” — during today’s session, whereas others put it on December 8. Since this is of no importance whatsoever, it can safely be made the subject of endless speculation and argument; I’m going to stick with the earlier date and dare the world to disagree with me.