The true-but-little-known story of how John Lennon came to compose one of the most iconic songs ever written: “Strawberry Fields Forever”
In Autumn 1966, following the Beatles’ retirement from touring amid global controversy, John Lennon found a new part to play, as an actor in Richard Lester’s film How I Won the War. This took him to Almería, in southeastern Spain, where he wrote and recorded the first demo of the legendary song “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
But how would this Spanish town help shape a song named after a children’s home in Liverpool? How would the man “more popular than Jesus” respond to the ongoing press backlash? How would he handle himself in a cast of established actors? Why did he help a local teacher with song lyrics? And why did he start wearing those trademark specs?
Strawberry Fields in the Desert unfurls a colorful tapestry of lesser-known moments from Lennon’s brief Spanish sojourn, accompanied by a range of vivid real-life characters, from the now legendary members of Lennon’s inner circle to those all-but-forgotten locals, who long remembered that short but pivotal time. These real-life witness testimonies are adapted from those shared with author J. Adolfo Iglesias and strikingly imagined by illustrator Rafa Amat: a unique view through a narrow window into musical myth.