I just don’t buy it. BTW, for those of you that haven’t guessed, I’m speaking of the subtle but clearly audible line somewhat hidden at the end of the Beatles tune “Strawberry Fields”. I generally consider snopes a reliable and informative place to learn of urban legends that have been debunked, but this just doesn’t seem right.
click on “music”
click on “hidden messages”
click on the first listing under the Beatles “Paul is Dead”
It claims
And this is proof?! John Lennon’s own admission? Why the heck would he say “cranberry sauce” right there at the end of the song in such a way that you have to be paying attention to really hear it? as if it were a secret message?
I just don’t buy it.
There are some outtakes of the recording on one of the Beatles Anthology Cds that came out a few years ago. They have that track separated from the other tracks. It’s
“cranberry sauce.” Really. He’s just saying it in a slow “upper crusty” sort of British drawl.
If it’s not clear enough on the original recording, try listening to the version on The Beatles Anthology (2nd one, I believe) released a few years ago. It has the ending of Strawberry Fields Forever including only the drum tracks and vocal tracks (I think); anyway, the point is that it seems pretty clear to me John is saying “Cranberry sauce”, as he claimed.
Why would he say “cranberry sauce” at the end of the song? I don’t know, on the same CD he’s recording saying “Sugarplum fairy, Sugarplum fairy” for the lead-in to A Day in the Life. That’s just John.
I, too, wonder sometimes how much of that whole story is coincidental and some intentional (certainly some of it’s intentional, even if it’s only the line “Here’s another clue for you all, the walrus was Paul”). I tend to think that even more of it was intentional, maybe not a lot more, but some. I don’t think this example was intentional, though.
Like cher3 says, it is on the Beatles CD Anthology #2. John clearly repeats “cranberry sauce” 3 or 4 times on the pre-final mix version. The final “Magical Mystery Tour” album version only has him saying it once.
“Crrrrrannnbeddy sawwsssss.”
If this is your cup of tea, you might also enjoy the Anthology version of “A Day in the Life,” where Paul screws up the “woke up, got out of bed” part and quietly, but clearly says “Oh shit,” before moving along with the rest of the song.
Well, I’m late, but yes, on the Beatles Anthology CD John clearly says “cranberry sauce.”
Re: “The walrus was Paul”:
pepperlandgirl, you may be interested in knowing that Ty has made a “beatle” beanie baby. It’s a walrus named Paul, and the little poem that goes with it says:
Traveling the ocean in a submarine
Singing and playing a tambourine
One day hoping to lead a band
First he needs to find dry land!
I just bought it last week for a friend of mine, a fellow beatles lover (I also like the Beatles and have all their albums.)
You can see what it looks like if you go the Ty web page:
click on “find a friend” (upper right of screen)
in “search by name” put in “paul”
in first drop-down list box choose “any”
select radio button “any”
in second drop-down list box choose “mammals”
click on “search now” (bottom of screen)
Well, though I have somehow convinced my company that I’m worthy of supporting their internet administration department, I’m actually not the most savvy of computer users in the world. What is ICQ?
ICQ is kind of like a chat program, a lot like AIM. go to http://www.icq.com
You can send files through it, so I could just send a file transfer of the wav file.
I listened to this several times with a friend of mine when we were 14 or so. We determined to our satisfaction that John said, “Awwww … bury [or berry] … posss”. But I’m not going to bet my hat on it.
You’re welcome pepperlandgirl. By the way, if you can’t find it (the Ty web page said this particular one was “retired”), let me know and I can go look at the store where I found mine to see if they still have one.
Arnold, I would appreciate that so much! My mom and my sisters are always buying Beanie babies, and I’ve never seen this one, and they probably haven’t either.
I tire of the “Paul is Dead”/“I buried Paul”/“Cranberry sauce” controversy, I have long since tired of Beanie Babies, and I now, officially, tire of this thread. I refuse to respond on the grounds that . . .
So what do I do once I’m at ICQ?
(it’s really not that important since I’m going home very soon and I’ll listen to it when I get home, but if you want to tell me I’m still interested)
You DL the ICQ program and set up an account. It’s all pretty easy and self explanatory, but it’s a lot of trouble for a .wav file of a song that you have already
No worries Pepper. Thanks for the offer anyway. I’ll just listen to it this weekend (I forgot the CD is at my parent’s house). But I believe everyone. I was expecting, when I started this thread, for everyone to come say, “Yeah Moe! that’s what I think too, no way could it be cranberry sauce, no way, just John puttin us on again, you go Moe, you da man, let me buy you a drink,” etc. but as it turns out, it seems this cranberry sauce thing is common knowledge. It also turns out that John really was telling the truth (according to snopes research) when he claimed he was completely unaware of the initials of Lucy in the Sky =LSD
As hard as I find that to believe, snopes has done a helluva lot more research than I have.
Whatever.
FWIW, there’s an interesting guide to interesting things (beyond the well-known, popularly available ones) that can be heard in Beatles recordings–things like studio chatter, squeaky drum pedals, obvious edits, etc. It’s available online at http://www.pootle.demon.co.uk/wgo.htm.
Some of the items they describe can only be heard using something they refer to as OOPS (Out Of Phase Stereo), which can be done with a decent sound editing program on a PC. Having used it a few times, my favorite instance occurs on “Revolution #1” (on the “White Album”). By using the OOPS procedure, following the first verse of the song, just before the brass comes in, George Martin can be clearly heard counting them in with a very military, “One-two-three-four!”