Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever Meaning

Song Released: 1967

Strawberry Fields Forever Lyrics

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to (too.)
Strawberry fields
Nothing is real, and
Nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone...

1. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 25th 2007 !⃝

   ok, I didn't read all the interpretations, but I actually visited liverpool two summers ago. Strawberry fields is actually an orphanage close to where one of the beatles lived (I think John, but I'm not sure). I actually saw it and have pictures in front of its gates. Like Penny Lane, the sign is painted on a brick fence because people were stealing them.
2. 674_098

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 21st 2007 !⃝

   I think the term strawberry fields is about heroine, they are talking about life changing and how it isn't as simple as used to be and the Beatles were druggies no matter how much you don't want to admit it and when drug addicts have problems they turn to it and when they are high they felt the way they used to or that their problems are gone.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 20th 2006 !⃝

   To me, Strawberry Fields Forever is an articulation of the existential dilemma. That dilemma concerns finding answers for questions relating to one's existence such as who am I? why am I here? how do I make sense of everything outside of me? The hesitation expressed in the lyrics represents the dilemma Lennon experienced in not knowing the answers to questions such as these. Very likely also the realisation that he never would know such answers with any degree of certainty. That dilemma can produce frustration, even despair. Lennon endeavours to be 'cool' in his response to the dilemma, hence: "it doesn't matter much to me", "that is I think it's not too bad" & "that is I think I disagree". Put another way, Lennon is expressing his resignation as to the existence and continuation of the uncertain resolution of the existential dilemma. The 'Strawberry Fields forever' refrain reflects nostalgia for his childhood ignorance of such dilemma and a wish to return to that situation ["let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to ... "], as well as something concrete with which to link his abstracted personal monologue.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 18th 2006 !⃝

   I reckon with all of the beatles songs, its really got to do with your own interpretation of it, which parts of the songs mean different things to you etc. My opinion is that strawberry fields is a place/state your in when contemplating the "big Questions" of life and then relizing that maybe you shouldn't know the secrets, you should just live your life instead.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 16th 2006 !⃝

   I think things from John's background are important, but I think John uses these things to express ideas beyond just the literal identity of the reference. For example, he surrounds "Nothing is real and nothing to get hung up about" with reference to strawberry fields--almost as if he's defining strawberry fields by what's between the two references to them. Strawberry fields is a state of mind where nothing's real and nothing really matters (nothing to get hung (up) about, where people don't really understand what they see (so they might as well not see anything--living with their eyes closed), and again "it doesn't matter much." Let's just float off into a numbing fantasyland--Strawberry Fields. It's like the holes that fill the Albert Hall--the empty people. But the Beatles hope we'll see through this: they'd love to turn us on.
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 12th 2006 !⃝

   When a counselor came to my school to give a bullying lecture once, she showed us a picture of a child who lived in England somewhere in the early 60's. She told us that the child was now deceased because he had committed suicide from constant bullying. He had committed suicide in a grove in strawberry fields. She then claimed that the Beatles had written the song for the child because they heard the story. I dunno whether its true, I haven't heard the song all that much, just thought it might have been interesting to post.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 28th 2006 !⃝

   This is driving me nuts! I've uncovered two very different interpretations of the "I think I disagree" verse:
   
   always, no sometimes, think it's me,
   but you know I know when it's a dream.
   I think I know I mean a 'yes'
   but it's all wrong,
   that is I think I disagree.
   
   Always know sometimes it's me
   but you know I know when it's a dream
   i think a "no" will mean a "yes"
   but it's all wrong
   that is I think I disagree
   
   which one is correct?
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 15th 2006 !⃝

   I think people should find their own meaning to songs and not be swayed by someones opinion just because they think they know what they are talking about. Some people really have strong convictions and that's ok, but really only the writer of the song knows what it was about and wouldn't want his art disected and misconstrued. My opinion.
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 8th 2006 !⃝

   Yes, there is a passage in the bible that states something along those lines, and I think it regards heaven and its paradise. This also draws the parallels between childhood and heaven.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 7th 2006 !⃝

    The interpretation from 2006-04-08 12:31:51 is the most accurate to me...although the song also incorporates John's naive childhood.
    
    Also, I believe the passage "nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about" is also a passage from the bible ("nothing is real, nothing to get hung about")...the chapter/verse escapes me now, though.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 3rd 2006 !⃝

    It's about Buddhism, how everything is just a dream and we're not really in control of what and who we are. Many of the Buddist beliefs are: This is all a dream of desires...
    
    With some ego loss in there that sometimes happens with LSD or shroom use...It's about nothingness and everything...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 21st 2006 !⃝

    It's about the fact that you can go through life not caring but you might be alone because of that.
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 29th 2006 !⃝

    I think that strawberry fields is a place of mind when you are high. It says that nothing is real. nothing is real when your high.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 28th 2006 !⃝

    John was into heroin from '68, not '66 when the song was written, however.
15. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 25th 2006 !⃝

    As far I know they weren't into heroin, but strawberry fields is a refrence to heroin. Strawberry fields are the bumps on a heroin addict's arms.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)