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Arts & Entertainment

So What is that Beatles Song Really About?

Writer Suzanne Rothberg reviews Scott Freiman's presentation "A Trip Through Strawberry Fields."

What is Beatles music really about? The complicated, multi-layered lyrics, enigmatic music and haunting segues from one track to the next have left people worldwide guessing.  Shockingly, in the little village of Irvington—all the way across the pond from Liverpool—a Beatles expert has emerged and is now imparting his knowledge to locals.

Irvington musician, lecturer and Beatles expert, Scott Freiman introduced his multi-media presentation entitled, "A Trip Through Strawberry Fields" at Irvington Town Hall Theater Saturday night to unlock the secrets behind the band's music. The presentation was planned—coincidence?—for the week before John Lennon's birthday on October 9. Had he been alive today, Lennon would have been 70 years old.

Freiman's presentation "demystifies" three of their most popular hits, Strawberry Fields, A Day In The Life, and Penny Lane. The presentation's format was similar tothat of VH-1 Classic Artists DVD series, in which the artists and producers explain how their music was created—only this one was all about the Beatles.

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Freiman gives a behind-the-scenes look at how the Beatles' music was produced, offers some little-known facts and tidbits about  their music,  breaking albums down track-by-track. An avid collector of rare Beatles recordings, Freiman is also a musician himself. Freiman was insightful about the band as a whole and and seemed to truly understand what was going on in the band members' psyche.

From the presentation, I learned several interesting facts. For instance, the song Strawberry Fields, written by John Lennon, was about an orphanage by the same name in Liverpool near which the songwriter would hang out. Penny Lane, written by Paul McCartney, is a story-song about a famous street also in Liverpool that bears the song's name.

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A Day In The Life, written by John Lennon was about some events he had read about in a local newspaper, one of which mentioned a socialite, a friend of his, that was killed in a car crash. The song's lyrics, "4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire"  and "I read the news today, oh boy about a lucky man who made the grade and though the news was rather sad, well I just had to laugh—I saw the photograph— he blew his mind out in a car— He didn't notice that the lights had changed—a crowd of people stood and stared, they seen his face before no one was really sure if he was from the House of Lords," was inspired by a newspaper article.

The Beatles changed the world and the face of pop-rock music and inspired so many artists in the industry today. I highly recommend this informative and educational presentation to any Beatles or music fan. For more information, log on to Scott Freiman's website at: http://www.beatleslectures.com to see where he'll be appearing next!

 

 

 

 

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