*
Click on the ‘Play’ button above to hear the song and read the lyrics below. If the player doesn’t start straight away, wait and then press the ‘Play’ button again.
*
John in Strawberry Fields is an original song from the album Influences.
Written, produced and with lyrics and vocals by Paul Robert Thomas
*
“John in Strawberry Fields is a heartfelt ballad tracing John Lennon’s journey from a fractured Liverpool childhood and Beatlemania to his activism, tragic assassination by Mark David Chapman, and lasting legacy of peace“.
*
downlaod John in Strawberry Fields at all download stores HERE
*
Paul – Upon reading about Lennon as I did in order to help me write factual song lyrics for the song, I found there were similarities between us. Firstly, I went to school a stone’s throw from The Abbey Road Studio, and although in growing up in the 60’s I was well aware of The Beatles impact on the world, I never really paid attention to their music until after they had split up, with the exception of their songs blaring out of the radio and on TV broadcasts. Like John, I never knew my father and because my Mum was so young and had to work long hours to support us, I was effectively raised by my Auntie Ann, or Aunt Annie, and of course growing up without a father also affected my childhood development as much as I believe that it had affected John’s childhood development with his bouts of argumentativeness and aggression, his use of alcohol and drugs and for his search for a mother figure to hold on to, that maybe he’d found with Yoko, who John used to refer to as ‘mother’.
I had visited Liverpool in 96 for a couple of Dylan concerts at the Empire and had visited all of The Beatles related places in Liverpool like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields etc., but I always considered Paul McCartney as the main Beatle, maybe also influenced by the fact that his house was not far from my mother’s in St. John’s Wood.
I considered that at nearing 70 I was in fading health and decided to take the opportunity to see New York for the first time last year in June 2025, as it could also have been my last opportunity. My son and I packed as much as we could into the few days that we had there. Because of his work, we managed to stay at the iconic New York Palace Hotel with our room overlooking the landmark St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the hotel is a regular haunt of the likes of The Rolling Stones and Elton John, to name but a few.
We had started that day by making our way to The Chelsea Hotel, where the receptionist was so kind and helpful and allowed us to walk around taking photos and she also discussed the many musical and literary icons that had stayed at the hotel with us, at the time I was completing a 4-volume album about the artists that had stayed at The Chelsea as part of ‘Les Paul’s’ (The Paul’s). Then it was on to the largest I-max cinema screen in the USA to see Tom Cruise’s new action movie, and from there to Central Park and to The Dakota building, where I was just about able to stand on my feet considering that we were walking about 30 kilometers a day around New York, no problem for most people, but I suffered from Spinal Stenosis and walked with a stick and had unbearable pain in my right leg. You can see the state I was in at the end of the song video ‘John in Strawberry Fields – the Strawberry Fields Monument being across the road from The Dakota Building in Central Park where the ashes of John Lennon were scattered the day after his death.
Seeing a place on TV or reading about it doesn’t compare with seeing it for yourself in person, as was the case seeing the alleyway where John Lennon was shot, and I must say that the Dakota’s doormen were friendly and informative about what happened on that fateful night when Chapman shot Lennon, even though they must have recounted the story thousands of times. I put the video together using my newly written lyrics with my vocals and with photos mostly taken from the internet, as well as with some of my photos from the scene and with the short video that I made at the end explaining the sequence of events that night.
‘John in Strawberry Fields’ is from my album ‘Influences’ at https://www.paullyrics.com/album/influences and is one of a number of songs about those that have influenced my life to some degree.
*
Watch the video promo of John in Strawberry Fields on Youtube HERE
*
John in Strawberry Fields lyrics
I grew up in London in the sixties, seems such a long time ago
And I went to school near the Abbey Road Studios
The Beatles were ‘The Band’, they were number one
They were adored both near and far by nearly everyone
John’s Irish father was never there, he was always at sea
John was sent to live with his Aunt Mimi
Julia his mother just couldn’t cope
John would have a better life with Mimi she hoped
John had a broken childhood, though he wasn’t unique
He’d never find that mother’s love that throughout his life he would seek
The alcohol and drugs didn’t help to ease the pain
Once you’re broke as a child, you can never be the same
His mother Julia was killed by a car when he was just seventeen
She had left him as a child, and now she’d left him forever in his teens
Paul’s mother had also died just two years before
John and Paul would be united in many things including grief forever more
John would fight and argue as an angry young man
And have fits of rage that no one could understand
No one took the time to really try to understand him enough
What he didn’t have enough of, is what he’d later sing we all needed, love
It’s a twisted world, we know it’s true
Nothing that happens should surprise me or you
He ran away with Brian to Spain after Julian was born
Maybe it helped to calm that raging inner storm
He said ‘nothing happened’ and he shrugged it off
It would never happen again, it was a one off
John first went with the band to America in sixty four
He would return there many times more
He made New York his home and sang about peace
But the masters of war wanted him to cease
He stood up to Nixon who wanted to throw him out
In the end Nixon fell no matter how much he’d twist and shout
All the money that John made didn’t go to his head
He staged a plea for peace alongside Yoko in a hotel bed
Although many blamed Yoko for breaking up the band
There were so many other factors that many didn’t understand
Sometimes it’s time to move on to pastures new
And to view life from a different point of view
Sean was born and his birth was planned
From then on John became a devoted family man
He’d cut his hair and shaved his face clean
He was as happy and content as he had ever been
But life can be cruel and so unfair
Sometimes bad things happens everyday everywhere
No one knows when it will be their time
John would soon be cut down at forty in his prime
It’s a twisted world, we know it’s true
Nothing that happens should surprise me or you
John had signed Double Fantasy for Chapman outside a few hours before
Chapman later spoke to Sean with his nanny at the buildings entrance door
He waited outside for all of Monday the 8th of December nineteen eighty
And at ten fifty pm his shot came to change the course of history
John came back from the studio and wanted to see his son
Chapman came out of the shadows and shot him with his gun
He shot John in the shoulder, John staggered towards the door
Chapman took aim and shot John in the back three times more
John staggered inside and collapsed on the lobby floor
A police car came and drove him to Roosevelt Hospital, but John would be no more
There was no hope for John, he had no chance of survival
The doctor’s tried but he was pronounced as ‘Dead on Arrival’
I’ve been to the alley at The Dakota where John died
People who were there with me bowed their heads and cried
The Dakota’s doormen told it all to me with a sigh
Chapman waited for the police to come as he read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’
Chapman said that all of his life he’d been a nobody
And that now he had become a real somebody
John was sacrificed for Chapman’s shot at fame
What a waste of so many lives, what a downright crying shame
It’s a twisted world, we know it’s true
Nothing that happens should surprise me or you
John was just a Liverpool lad
When I heard he’d been shot, I felt so sad
John tried to bring peace to this world as far as he could
But the devil will always try to destroy what is good
And across in Strawberry fields in Central Park
They sing John’s songs of peace from dawn until dark
Where John’s ashes were scattered in the air
You can feel John’s presence there everywhere
May his songs for peace never cease
May John forever rest in peace
*
Lyrics and vocals Paul Robert Thomas PRS No. 497904008 (London)
PRS Tunecode: 109184RL * ISWC: T-343.766.659-2
Audiosparx Catalogue ID: 1460555 * ISRC: US5UL2688903
Released by Swiss Cottage Recordz, London
Publishing Admin – UL Sounds LLC, Studio City, USA and Budde Music Ltd.
Licensing (Non-exclusive) by Audiosparx, Florida USA.
No comments