The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever (Drum & Percussion Cover)

Music has been lowered and pitched down to avoid copyright. Watch for changes in volume where drums cut out

Is this the most complex Beatles recording? Well, it certainly is one of them.

Like “Penny Lane”, “Strawberry Fields Forever” was intended to be included on the Sgt. Pepper album but eventually released as a non-album single on February 13. Their last single, the double A-side “Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby” was released on August 5, 1966, as was their latest album Revolver. This song, along with “Penny Lane” brought along a new sound in The Beatles’ music and laid the groundwork for their upcoming material. John Lennon wrote the song based on memories he had as a child playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a mansion used as a Salvation Army community home for children. On Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2004, the song was ranked 76, the same placement in 2011, and number seven on the 2021 edition of the list. Definitely one of the greatest songs of all time in my opinion!

After going through multiple versions of the song, starting from a simple solo acoustic demo from John and ending to a complex psychedelic arrangement of multiple sounds, “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the most complex recording The Beatles made at the time. The first full band version of the song was recorded on November 24, 1966 and featured Lennon on his Epiphone Casino, George on lead guitar (maybe his Epiphone Casino but not sure. Go to guitar focused channels, they would know more about it then I would), Ringo on drums (his usual Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster kit) and Paul on the Mellotron (MarkII), an instrument introduced to John and Paul by Mike Pinder who famously used the Mellotron in his group The Moody Blues from 1967-1978. After going through different changes of the song, two new versions were recorded. Take 7, a moderate tempo version with a similar musical arrangement to the first take, and take 26, a faster version with an orchestra, a percussion heavy track with reverse cymbals, and swarmandal. These alternate takes can be found on Anthology 2 and the 50th anniversary release of Sgt. Pepper.

After combining 7 and 26 into one performance, the song was done. The whole song took about 45 hours to record over five weeks. Almost four years earlier, The Beatles recorded ten songs for their debut album in 12 hours. How they went from “Please Please Me” to this in just three years is remarkable!

Let me just say that this video took what seemed forever to figure out. Before recording the main drum track, I first recorded the reversed drum parts. I listened to the finished track backwards to hear what was being played, wrote the parts on a notecard, and recorded them while playing the song backwards. You can see the notecard on the rack tom. After a little bit of editing, I got the parts in the right spots. The recording has a very high pitch cymbal which may be finger cymbals or a crash cymbal played at a faster speed. I am using a splash cymbal as it is the closest thing I have to getting that sound.

With the main drums, I started with listening to each and every fill in the song and writing them out on paper and practicing each fill until I was able to play them. I watched multiple videos of other drummers covering the song including the great batmankozyy, a legend in Beatles drum covers on YouTube and how they play the song. The hardest part was figuring out what was being played in the whole outro. This involved me listening to the song and half speed, and transcribing each measure based on what I heard. This process took nearly three hours. Once I had that written down, I then had to figure out how to play what was written down. That took a couple of days to master but I eventually got there. Most covers include both drum tracks played at once while playing 16th notes on the floor drum, which is how I used to play the song, but I decided to include two different drum tracks to get a closer sound to the recording. I also included the percussion parts including maracas and tambourine. You can see me looking at my notes in the video. It is a hard drum part and I needed a reference.

The rapid 16th notes heard in the recording are played by Paul on a timpani. As I do not have a timpani, I am using my floor tom but with cymbal mallets. It is not the exact sound but I had to use what I have. I think it sounds pretty good. There is also a snare part heard in the right headphone on beats 2 & 4 and quarter notes in the outro which I have included in the cover.

I apologize for this rather long description, but I wanted to discuss a lot of stuff. I hope you enjoy the video. If you are new here and like what you see/hear, please consider subscribing.