In his enlightening new book, Jonathan Cott thinks about a pair of songs that represent The Beatles at their creative pinnacle, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields.”
Cott interviewed John Lennon several times and is one of the great conversationists among cultural writers. Half of Let Me Take You Down is the author’s analysis, the other half consists of his conversations on the two songs with guitarist Bill Frissell, polymath Jonathan F.P. Rose, actor Richard Gere, performance artist Laurie Anderson and Jungian analyst Margaret Klenck.
Cott explores the many resonances of those songs, lyrical and musical, with the people he interviewed for Let Me Take You Down.
With a remarkable ability to quote poets and philosophers in the course of his discussions, Cott goes deep and ranges widely in those discussions.
“These two songs are crystalized and distilled,” Frissell said. "They’re not long but they’re epic, and there’s so much there, “Penny Lane” mostly “stays in the same world for the entire song” where “Strawberry Fields” shifts, breaks pattern with a freedom he compares to Delta blues or Bill Evans. “It’s as if the melody is asking the question, and then there’s an answer to it”.
The conception, creation, recording, and significance of the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”
John Lennon wrote “Strawberry Fields Forever” in Almería, Spain, in fall 1966, and in November, in response to that song, Paul McCartney wrote “Penny Lane” at his home in London. A culmination of what was one of the most life-altering and chaotic years in the Beatles’ career, these two songs composed the 1967 double A-side 45 rpm record that has often been called the greatest single in the history of popular music and was, according to Beatles producer George Martin, “the best record we ever made.”
In Let Me Take You Down: Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, Jonathan Cott recounts the conception and creation of these songs; describes the tumultuous events and experiences that led the Beatles to call it quits as a touring band and redefine themselves solely as recording artists; and details the complex, seventy-hour recording process that produced seven minutes of indelible music. In writing about these songs, he also focuses on them as inspired artistic expressions of two unique ways of experiencing and being in the world, as Lennon takes us down to Strawberry Fields and McCartney takes us back to Penny Lane.
In order to gain new vistas and multiple perspectives on these multifaceted songs, Cott also engages in conversation with five remarkable people: media artist Laurie Anderson; guitarist Bill Frisell; actor Richard Gere; Jungian analyst Margaret Klenck; and urban planner, writer, and musician Jonathan F. P. Rose. The result is a wide-ranging, illuminating exploration of the musical, literary, psychological, cultural, and spiritual aspects of two of the most acclaimed songs in rock and roll history.
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