Official album • Released in 2016
4:14 • Outtake • E2016 • Take 7 and edit piece. Just five days after that initial take of Strawberry Fields Forever the song's arrangement was undergoing dramatic change. The master was a composite of two separate recordings - the first minute came from Take 7 the remainder from Take 26. Presented here, issued for the first time, is the full Take 7, going beyond those first 60 seconds (indeed, including within that first minute a 23-second verse that was later excised). The sound is mono because the recording presented here is an original mono mix - labelled RM3 - made, like Take 7, on 29 November 1966. The conclusion of the original master (embracing Take 26) included sections flown in from a combination of edit piece taped on 9 December featuring backwards cymbals, a "wild drum track" played by Ringo and some extemporal vocalising by John. A much longer section of this edit piece is released here, again for the first time, crossfaded on to the end of RM3. At the conclusion one can hear John twice mutter "cranberry sauce", a phrase which, less clearly audible right at the end of the master mix, has long puzzled listeners.
Paul McCartney : Bass, Electric guitar, Mellotron, Timpani Ringo Starr : Drums John Lennon : Finger cymbals, Gourd, Guitar, Lead vocals, Maracas, Mellotron, Tambourine George Harrison : Bongos, Maracas, Mellotron, Swarmandal George Martin : Mellotron, Producer Geoff Emerick : Recording engineer Mal Evans : Finger cymbals, Gourd, Maracas, Tambourine Neil Aspinall : Finger cymbals, Gourd, Maracas, Tambourine Terry Doran : Maracas
Session Recording: Nov 29, 1966 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
Session Recording: Dec 09, 1966 • Studio EMI Studios, Studio Two, Abbey Road
