“I was on one of those pills”: The song that floored Brian Wilson
For a short period in the 1960s, it looked like The Beach Boys would be a worthy follow-up to the British Invasion. Although songs like ‘Surfin’ and ‘Surfin Safari’ were released around the same time that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were making waves in the rock scene, Brian Wilson had already started to solidify his songwriting genius, crafting elegant chord changes that never entirely resolved but always kept the listener with a smile on their faces. While Wilson knew how to write pop songs in his sleep, he dared to dream bigger for his next project.
Coming after years of making the same brand of song over and over again, Wilson thought he had found his calling when listening to The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. Turning the studio into an instrument, the Fab Four had begun writing mature love songs compared to their usual puppy-love fare while also utilising different instruments that wouldn’t be able to be reproduced live.
Immediately inspired, Wilson knew that the next Beach Boys project had to be able to take the group further than what The Beatles had done previously. Recording alongside the California studio legends The Wrecking Crew, Wilson assembled Pet Sounds featuring the most sophisticated songs of his career, like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and ‘God Only Knows’.
When John Lennon and Paul McCartney first heard Wilson’s vision, though, they were determined to lob the ball back with something just as groundbreaking. Departing from the road for good after 1966, the first song that Lennon showed up with became the basis for their new creative vision.
Writing about his time spent in the gardens of Liverpool, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ became one of rock’s most avant-garde recordings. Rather than go through a single take of the song, the final track features two different takes edited together, drastically switching between a full band arrangement and a dramatic orchestral score playing in the background.
As Wilson started to work on his next album, Smile, he was stunned when he heard ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ for the first time. When discussing the famous Beatles track, Wilson recalled: “I was on one of those pills, downers, and I was really relaxed, and when ‘Strawberry Fields’ came on the radio, I locked in with it. I had to pull over in my car to the side, and I said, ‘I’ve never heard anything like this in my life’”.
Lennon drew on his life in Liverpool to add a certain sentimentality to this otherwise trippy number, “Strawberry Fields is a real place. After I stopped living at Penny Lane, I moved in with my auntie who lived in the suburbs in a nice semi-detached place with a small garden and doctors and lawyers and that ilk living around… not the poor slummy kind of image that was projected in all the Beatles stories.”
For Lennon, the time spent around those houses and fields, losing marbles and having fun was all the symbolism he ever really cared for: “We always had fun at Strawberry Fields. So that’s where I got the name. But I used it as an image. Strawberry Fields forever.”
While Wilson was in awe of The Beatles’ ability to make a turn into psychedelia, he did have a tinge of regret as well. Since he had started extensive work on Smile, he felt that he had been beaten to the punch by the Fab Four, having already kicked down the door for what psychedelia could mean in a pop context.
Lennon’s masterpiece was the calm before the storm, though, with Sgt Peppers following soon afterwards and giving fans songs that no one would have thought of as traditional rock tracks like ‘Getting Better’ and ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’. Wilson would continue trying to paint his masterpiece, but nothing would beat the blend of unabashed creativity and pop smarts as ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.