Grapthar's Song of the Day: The Beatles 'Strawberry Fields Forever - Demo Sequence/Anthology 2'

grapthar (74)in #music • 7 years ago

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever - Demo Sequence/Anthology 2

It's been a while since

the last Beatles post; I purposefully try and space them out, because without some self-control, I'd be sharing their entire catalog, one a day, lol. I also feel strange about typing out a biography every time, since I think it's pretty rare to find someone who doesn't know the group, but just in case... They were originally formed in 1960 under the Beatlesname, though John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison had already been playing together for a few years. By 1962, Ringo Starr had joined the group, and they began their 8 year long, history altering career.

Listen to Strawberry Fields Forever - Demo Sequence/Anthology 2 by The Beatles here.

This is a demo of the song

Strawberry Fields Forever, which appeared on their 1967 album Magical Mystery Tour. On this demo, you can hear John all by himself, with an acoustic guitar. John stops the fingerpicked/arpeggiated version about 20 seconds in, and begins the strummed demo. The Chord progression at the beginning of each Verse is really what makes this version so incredibly cool.

On the album,

they're in Amajor, though here we are in Cmajor. At the beginning of this version of the song, John plays a G, up to Bmin, then a Dmin (super strange move, but works so well), before going to Aminor. On the top of those 3 chords, we have a little line cliche, G, F# and F natural, which is mirrored in the final version with the use of an E Major chord to an EMaj7, then an EDom7. It's so interesting to me how this progression sort of morphed over time, maintaining the same basic ideas, but altering the harmonies around them.