Very early demo Strawberry Fields Forever with only John

[dunkymonkery]

It's amazing how many different versions songwriters go through until they find one they love, or at least tolerate

[Sunking]

gives me chills hearing demos like this, like just think about it! We're listening to audio that was recorded over 50 yrs ago by a guy alone in a room somewhere just working on something that would eventually turn out really great.

[matthewvaughan]

He knew he had something special in ‘that is, you know, you can’t tune in but it’s alright.’ That’s my favourite part of the melody

[Abletoth]

Remind me of Kurt's renditions of anything on his old recorder. He really loved the Beatles melodies.

[zachdods]

When you see the merging between suit and tie Beatles and the colourful 67 upward Beatles it’s truly breathtaking

[ustheserfs]

Ringo was the only member to visit John in Almeria while he filmed Won the War in autumn '66. John played the bits he knew to him and Ringo wondered how there could be a place for him in the tune because it was such a change from their norm. I'd say he did frightfully well on the track.

[plotees]

this makes me feel something that i can not describe

[jjackandbrian]

You can hear that he has the melody, but he doesn't even know what the lyrics are yet. He is not coming up with the lyrics, they were always there. He is just discovering them

[jamesdean]

Always great hearing these classics in their infancy before building them up..

[us-Bahn]

Took him a long time to work it all out and it shows. He found a wonderful progression of chords and harmonic coloring.

[sofraYT]

There’s something about the melody that just makes me feel so comforted

[StacheBigote]

As a songwriter, I know demos like this so well. I have like a thousand recordings on my phone of me mumbling half coherent lyrics over chord changes on either my guitar or piano. It’s an essential part of the process in order to remember stuff and catch things you like when they happen organically.

[eltatoyo]

Amazing how he creates magic out of nothing. Like Michelangelo chiseling a formless lump of clay. working it till he finds the gem hidden inside. My favorite Beatles song. at least for today.

[wilsonking]

45 hours of studio work to go from this to the finished released song… incredible effort with a incredible finished song

[serendipityshopnyc]

Takes a set of geniuses (the band & producer too) to go from that demo to the finished masterpiece. I salute them.

[w.g.]

Love Beatles chord modulations so much!!!

[connormccartney]

Little did he know that 60 years later, we are very much so tuning in.

[CarlosHernandez]

Suddenly a genius appears and so that it is not lost or forgotten you record it even if it is just a sketch.

[bernhardwall]

It's interesting to see how art comes into being. It's like drawing a random shape, then seeing something in the shape, adding to it until you have a finished picture. Though the big problem, for me, is to decide when you've added enough and should let it go.

[mithrasenkidu]

John recorded three demos of this song while he was near Almeria (Andalusia, Spain). He was then playing in the movie "How I Won the War". I discovered these demos through a bootleg CD in the 90s, in which they were entitled "It's Not Too Bad". I don't know if this title was from Lennon himself or from the bootleggers.