10/19/2016
Strawberry fields.
Celebrating John Lennon's birthday- Oct 9, 1940
"A genius struggles with his genius"
The song is a lethargic, complacent rambling over the pain and the wonder and the confusion and the ego and the expectations and the frustrations that bemoan the thinking, churning, creative mind. And, what it takes to make that mind quiet, that the soul inside might live freely.
The song opens with the chorus, "Let me take you down cos I'm going to, Strawberry Fields, nothing is real, and nothing to get hung-about. Strawberry Fields forever."
It was written during John's time with the Beatles, and has both figurative and metaphorical representations. One, it is an actual place John went to visit often - Strawberry Fields being an orphanage near John's home in Liverpool where he went as a young boy to escape his troubles — And two, this song is also using Strawberry Fields symbolically - a place he mentally wanders to forget his stress - yearning for simpler times. He also is frustrated and disillusioned with those who go through life blind to things going on around them, and there are indications of Lennon's own insecurities about his genius. John invites us to come on "down" and join him into a world where there is no fussing, fighting, or killing.
"Living is easy with eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see."
-to deliberate about how easy life is when you accept things superficially and don't really confront the illusions. However, John knew that living life easily is not really living at all.
"It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out."
-John finds seeing things as they really are is no easy task, but he trusts that in the end it will all work out.
"It doesn't matter much to me."
-if things don't work out "it doesn't matter much..." because he'd never turn back and give up on the road less traveled.
Next verse begins, "No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low."
-John is struggling with the notion that maybe he is not a genius after all. There's a saying, "There's a fine line between genius and insanity," and John may, at that point in time, have questioned his sanity even for a brief moment.
"That is you can't you know, tune in, but it's all right. That is I think it's not too bad."
-his mental state, not a place where many minds "tune in"....
but it's alll right for him, as he knows there will be just enough intelligent ones who do connect, understand the brilliance of the greater message, and primal emotions that he taps into..
"Always, know sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream."
-confusion about what is the real self...awake or dreaming...
John ends with, "I think I know I mean a yes, but it's all wrong. That is I think I disagree."
Again, the fine line of genius and insanity is gripping. John wants to agree with society, but he knows society is "all wrong," forcing him to disagree with it's direction and conditions. John felt mankind could build reality from it's dreams.
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A direct quote from the man himself:
The second line [sic] goes, 'No one I think is in my tree- I mean it must be high or low.' Well, what I was trying to say in that line is 'Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.' It's the same problem as I had when I was five: 'There is something wrong with me because I seem to see things other people don't see. Am I crazy, or am I a genius?' ... What I'm saying, in my insecure way, is 'Nobody seems to understand where I'm coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.'
From the "I Am Sam" movie soundtrack.
