The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane

I received this EP as part of a radio call-in prize, and at the time it was the first extended play bit of vinyl that I’d ever owned. I thought it was sheer magic, hit singles, and while it wasn’t a proper album, the package did have that feel, and it didn’t require me to flip the record over after each song. So with that in mind, and having written reviews for “Strawberry Fields Forever” along with “Penny Lane,” I’d like to focus on the John Lennon track “I’m Only Sleeping,” another mystical hazy atmospheric song from the same time.

With the title being reworked from the Bob Dylan track “It’s Alright Ma, (I’m Only Bleeding), “I’m Only Sleeping” was another dreamy psychedelic number that was filled with surreal lyrical splendor, complete with the words held nearly in suspension by a simple dreamy musical structure that certainly inferred that Lennon had been quietly roused from an altered state of consciousness, one I could certainly relate to as I was being roused from a Sodium Pentothal Wonderland. I’ld just had my wisdom teeth removed, and I did not want to be waken from this warm comfortable and far too short blissed out intoxication, though when I finally did open my eyes, I said to my mom in a wasted voice, ”I know just want John Lennon was singing about in “I’m Only Sleeping.” My mom said, Who’s John Lennon?, which really brought me back to reality, realizing that she didn’t know that The Beatles had individual names. With Quaaludes, Tuinals, and Valium soon to be so ever present in my life, this song has always wandered in and out of my consciousness during those delicious moments. So I ask you, ”Is it any wonder that I thought the voice of my generation was singing about being in the same altered state during this enchanted song?”

With “I'm Only Sleeping” rising from the Revolver album, and being known for its backwards guitar, all conceived by George Harrison during a late night session which had been inspired when a studio engineer had accidentally flipped the tape which amazed Harrison at the effect, and then decided to try and do it for real … writing down the solo and then playing it twice, once forwards and once backwards, complete with fuzzed out effects on one take. While the song’s construction may have been amazing, it’s concept surely wasn’t, as John Lennon again breathes in a slice of reality alongside of his surreal-ness.

Maureen Cleave wrote of John Lennon saying, ”He can sleep almost indefinitely, and is probably the laziest person in England.” She clarified that by saying that she meant that he was physically lazy, not intellectually lazy. And John does seem to have a penchant for both sleeping and dreaming. As far back as the movie Help, we find the boys walking in through separate doors, only to find that it’s one huge flat, with Lennon immediately jumping into bed, selecting one of his own books to read, and lounging back, while the other lads set about to do actual things. It’s worth taking a moment to realize that Harrison at this point in the movie instructs his gardener [his super ego?] to trim the grass around his bed with plastic chattering teeth, foreshadowing Harrison’s lifelong penchant for tending his own massive garden. Of course most fans considered the song to be about drugs as well, though the reality of this situation was that Mr. Lennon just liked being in bed, sleeping, dreaming, reading, eating … with perhaps sex being his only physical activity between the sheets. And as with Harrison’s foreshadowing of gardening, in a couple of years Lennon and Yoko would stage their Bed-In, with the world hanging out at their bedside. Again, the truth behind the mask is a bit less interesting, or perhaps more so due to the prevalent rumors, with the song being penned on the back on an envelope after Paul woke John from a nap in the recoding studio.

The Fun Facts: The handwritten lyrics for “I’m Only Sleeping” was estimated to fetch between £250,000 and £350,000. Many saw / heard the song as a reflection of a drug induced reverie, but it is also a personal statement on John’s love of sleeping.

Other Beatle songs about sleeping, dreaming, and being under the influence:

“A Day In the Life,” “Blue Jay Way,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Fixing A Hole,” “Flying,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “I Am The Walrus,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” “I’m So Tired,” “It’s All Too Much,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

Review by Jenell Kesler

This EP contains the UK mono mix of 'I'm Only Sleeping'

The 1971 reissue is easily identified by the smooth 'non-flip-back' back cover.