[13][14] The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of their most difficult periods,[15] which included the "more popular than Jesus" controversy and being the target of mob violence in reaction to their unintentional snubbing of Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos.

[8][16] Working on Lester's film without his bandmates left Lennon feeling vulnerable; according to his wife Cynthia, he was also distraught to learn in late October that Alma Cogan, the English singer whom "he'd earmarked to replace Aunt Mimi in his affections", had died in London at the age of 34.

Author Steve Turner says that at this stage, Lennon most likely drew inspiration from Nikos Kazantzakis's autobiographical novel Report to Greco, which he was reading in Almería and "tells of a writer searching for spiritual meaning".

Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius – "I mean it must be high or low" ...[19] Like "Penny Lane", which Paul McCartney wrote in late 1966 in response to Lennon's new song,[20] "Strawberry Fields Forever" conveys nostalgia for the Beatles' early years in Liverpool.

[22][nb 1] As with his Revolver compositions "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said She Said", "Strawberry Fields Forever" was informed by Lennon's experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which caused him to question his identity and seek to dissolve his ego.

[40] This avant-garde-style section features the Mellotron playing in a haunting tone – one achieved by recording the instrument's "Swinging Flutes" setting in reverse[41] – scattered drumming, discordant brass, and murmuring, after which the song fades for a second time.

[78] Described by Winn as a "cacophony of noise",[77] the 8 December tape also included timpani and bongos, played by McCartney and Harrison, and other percussion, which, in Harries' account, was provided by Beatles associates Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and Terry Doran.

[87][85] Author Ian MacDonald comments that Martin's contribution heightens the song's Indian qualities, as represented first by the swarmandal, through his scoring of the cellos to "[weave] exotically" around McCartney's "sitar-like" guitar figures before the coda.

[113] Bramwell recalls that, inspired by Voormann's comment on hearing "Strawberry Fields Forever"[115] – that "the whole thing sounded like it was played on a strange instrument" – he spent two days dressing up a large tree in the park to resemble "a piano and harp combined, with strings".

[119] In addition to a horseshoe moustache, Lennon wore his round "granny" glasses for the first time as a member of the Beatles,[112] in keeping with his look as Private Gripweed in How I Won the War,[120] for which he had also shorn off his long hair.

[115] Instead of a performance of the song, the clip relies on abstract imagery and features reverse film effects, long dissolves, jump-cuts including from day- to night-time, superimposition and extreme close-up shots.

[112][118][nb 11] In his commentary on the promo clip, music critic Chris Ingham writes: Beautifully and spookily lit ... much attention is given to close-ups of The Beatles' faces and facial hair, as if the viewer is invited to contemplate the significance of the newly furry Fabs.

[133][134] The front of the sleeve contained a studio photo that again demonstrated the band's adoption of facial hair; on the back cover were individual pictures of the four Beatles as infants,[133] which heightened the connection to a Liverpool childhood.

[142] In the description of author Doyle Greene, the varied opinions towards the "rebranded 'counterculture Beatles'" and their new music demonstrated a "gendering" of popular culture: male reaction was marginally more favourable than female, and women variously focused on the "weird", "ugly" or "grandfather"-like appearance of the band members.

[143] Courrier says the hostility towards "Strawberry Fields Forever" was reflective of how pop fans felt abandoned by the Beatles, with one teenager commenting that the group had turned "deliberately weird"[144] and "ought to stop being so clever and give us tunes we can enjoy".

[150][151] At the time, McCartney said he was not upset because Humperdinck's song was a "completely different type of thing",[152] while Harrison acknowledged that "Strawberry Fields Forever", like all of the Beatles' latest music, was bound to alienate much of their audience but would also win them new fans.

[102] Among contemporary reviews of the single, Melody Maker said that the combination of musical instruments, studio techniques and vocal effect on "Strawberry Fields Forever" created a "swooping, deep, mystic kaleidoscope of sound", and concluded, "The whole concept shows the Beatles in a new, far-out light.

[166]Time concluded by saying that the multitude of "dissonances and eerie space-age sounds" on the track were partly the product of altered tape speed and direction, and commented: "This is nothing new to electronic composers, but employing such methods in a pop song is electrifying.

"[168] According to music critic Tim Riley, the song "transformed Lennon's creative arc" by "expand[ing] the hallucinogenic drone of 'Rain' into layered colours that shifted when lit by his vocal inflections" and by inaugurating his use of free-form verse as a lyrical device.

[171] Featuring backwards cymbals, cascading Indian harp … guitar solos, timpani, bongos, trumpets and cellos, this was the lushest music The Beatles had recorded up to then … From its weird Mellotron opening to its fake drum forward reprise where John's voice could be heard saying "Cranberry sauce", "Strawberry Fields Forever" inaugurated 1967 like no other song on earth.

[184] Although the Mellotron had been a feature of Manfred Mann's late 1966 hit single "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James",[185] its appearance on "Strawberry Fields Forever" remains the most celebrated use of the instrument on a pop or rock recording.

[63] Together with the resonant tone of Starr's drums, the cello arrangement on "Strawberry Fields Forever", as with "I Am the Walrus", was much admired by other musicians and producers, and proved highly influential on 1970s bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard.

[203][nb 16] In July 2017, the Salvation Army began raising funds – through the sale of T-shirts and mugs emblazoned with "Nothing is real" and other lines from Lennon's lyrics – to help finance the construction of a new building at Strawberry Field.

[206][nb 17] In addition to referencing "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its title, the 2013 Spanish film Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed is a fictional account based on real-life events when a 41-year-old teacher from Cartagena visited Lennon in Almería when he was writing the song.

[209] In the June 1997 issue of Mojo magazine, Jon Savage included "Strawberry Fields Forever" in his list "Psychedelia: The 100 Greatest Classics" and wrote: "When this first came on radio in early 1967, it sounded like nothing else, with its wracked vocal, out-of-tune brass section and queasy strings.

[215][216] The stereo version of the Magical Mystery Tour LP contained a 29 December 1966 mix of "Strawberry Fields Forever", in which the trumpets and cellos pan abruptly from left to right at the point where takes 7 and 26 are joined.

[224] "Strawberry Fields Forever" returned to the charts in 1990 when the duo Candy Flip, one of the British acts associated with the Madchester revival of 1960s psychedelia and fashion,[226] released an electronic version of the track.

[234] In his review of Candy Flip's debut album, Madstock..., Tim DiGravina of AllMusic describes "Strawberry Fields Forever" as an "extremely successful" reworking of the Beatles' original, and admires it as one of the tracks that convey "the joys of perfect, happy places that simply can't exist".

Highlighting the line "Living is easy with eyes closed", Gabriel's recording accompanies newsreel footage of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace for our time" declaration after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938.

[242] The song has also been covered by the Bee Gees, the Bobs, Eugene Chadbourne, Sandy Farina, Laurence Juber, David Lanz, Cyndi Lauper, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Mother's Finest, Odetta, Andy Partridge, the Shadows, Plastic Penny, the Ventures and Cassandra Wilson.