MALCOLM CAMPBELL'S SHADOWS WEBSITE



THE VENTURES & THE SHADOWS:
WALK, DON'T RUN, APACHE AND BEYOND

[31] STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER



STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
(John Lennon/ Paul McCartney)
Ventures: June 1967 LP Super Psychedelics (US No.69)
Shadows: September 1990 LP/CD Reflection (UK No.5)

As with ‘Hey Jude’ [48], so with this jewel in The Beatles’ crown, with its dark textures, shifting tempos, and outlandish dissonances, the prime requirement for any imitator must surely be Handle With Care. It is hard to fathom the effect The Shadows aimed to achieve, visiting the track at a time when the spirit of the 60s was a dim and distant memory, with an upbeat though hardly very absorbing run-through rounded off incongruously with an ever so sombre, forbidding outro. The Ventures at least in their outstanding set from 1967 took the bull by the horns and jollied the whole thing up in showtime mode, rounding off a delightful frolic with a wonderfully vamping outro. John Lennon would surely have approved. In one of his occasional flashes of impeccable taste, Dave Henderson included “the instrumental twang” of The Ventures among his “ten best versions” (The Beatles Uncovered, The Black Book Company [2000], p.30).



Return to Home / The Ventures & The Shadows