Lyrics

Beatle bones ‘n’ smokin’ Stones 
The dry sands fall 
The strawberry mouth 
Strawberry moth 
Strawberry caterpillar 
Strawberry butterfly 
Strawberry Fields 
The winged eel slither on the heels of today’s children 
Strawberry Fields forever 

Yeah, roosters, ol’ glass roosters, stick to your race 
In a drag-queen, live-wood farmhouse 
Tractors are clawin’ 
The folks are crawlin’ 
Trees in a row climbing a coach and I blow rich 
Red, blue, yellow sunset 
Where I set and you set 
And I’ve loved and you’ve loved 
And I’ve seen and you’ve seen 

Salt Man has just made his mark - and crumbled 
The dark 
The light 
The dark 
The day 
Porcelain children see through white lights 
Soft-cracker bats 
Cheshire cats named 
The dark 
The light 
The dark 
The day 

Blue veins through gray-felt tomorrows 
Cellular sail-boat – ye ole feathered kind 
Blow it into a pond swayin’ in circles 
Red, blue, yellow sunset 
Where I’ve set and you’ve set 
And I’ve loved and you’ve loved 
What I saw and you saw 

Strawberry Fields forever 

Beatle bones and smokin' Stones 
The rise and fall 
The strawberry mouth 
Strawberry cloth 
Strawberry catenkiller  
Strawberry butterfly 
Strawberry Fields 

The long eels slither down the lanes of today's children 
Strawberry Fields forever 
Ahhhhhhh 

And Junk Man has just made his mark and crumbled 
And I'm gonna call the money so the [ ] 
Sun is all 
And [ ] 
And he said, and I said, and I saw, and you know 
And I saw, and you saw, and I knew 

Porcelain children, see through white lights 
The black dark 
Red, blue, yellow sunset 
And I saw, and you saw, and I know, and I said 
And you knew, and I saw, and you loved 
Strawberry Fields forever 

Porcelain children, see right through white lights on the chairs 
And I said, and you said, and you loved, and I seen 
And you know, and I loved 
The straw [ ] long eel slithered down the throats of today's children 
Strawberry Fields forever 

Commentary

< Post in progress >

“Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smokin’ Stones” was originally recorded by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band for the 1968 album Strictly Personal. It was credited solely to Don Van Vliet (i.e. Captain Beefheart). Beefheart’s collaborator Herb Bermann has claimed that he should have been credited for some of the tracks on Strictly Personal, but this is not one of the songs he has specified.

The song is a parody and surreal critique of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

The Fall’s cover version was recorded on 30 June 1996 for their twentieth Peel Session, broadcast on 18 August 1996. The group for the session consisted of Karl Burns, Steve Hanley, Julia Nagle, Brix Smith, Mark E. Smith and Simon Wolstencroft.

Footnotes

1. “Strawberry Fields Forever” was a 1967 single by The Beatles, a double-A side with “Penny Lane”. The reference is to Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army childrens’ home in Liverpool. ↩︎
2. It sounds like “catenkiller” anyway. I don’t know what one of those is. MES laughs after intoning the word, either because he realises he has mispronounced “caterpillar”, or because of some deliberate private joke of his own. Maybe “caterpillar” just looked like “catenkiller” scribbled on the page he was reading the lyrics from. ↩︎
3. Possibly a call-back to The Fall’s cover of The Groundhogs’ “Junk Man” ↩︎

Sources / Links

• Mackay, Tommy (2018). 40 Odd Years of The Fall. Place of publication unknown: Greg Moodie.
• Pringle, Steve (2022). You Must Get Them All: The Fall on Record. [paperback edition]. Pontefract: Route Publishing Ltd. [Online store]
• Smith, Mark E. (2008). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. London: Penguin.
• The Track Record: “Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smokin’ Stones”
• Wikipedia: Strawberry Fields Forever
• Wikipedia: Strictly Personal
• Wolstencroft, Simon (2014). You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide. London: Strata Books.