Strawberry Fields as a Place of Pilgrimage for John Lennon Fans

By Melissa Jacobson

Strawberry Fields has become a prominent site of recognition, in relation to John Lennon. This is because his family home was located next Liverpool's Salvation Army orphanage, which was named “Strawberry Fields”. Lennon spent much of his childhood playing in the large field in the allotment playing with the children from the orphanage (Kruse, 2003). Wanting to share the memory of these years, Lennon produced the song “Strawberry Fields”. In addition it has been stated that "...Lennon's strawberry Fields Forever', problematizes the link, or crisscrossing, between our inner and outer worlds and in so in doing re-imagines the relations between selfhood, culture, and contemporary political life (Kruse, 2003; Elliot 1999).

Sources

Elliott, A (1998). Celebrity and Political Psychology: Remembering Lennon. International Society of Political Psychology. Political Psychology, 19 (4). pp. 833-852.

Kruse, R (2003). Imagining Strawberry Fields as a Place of Pilgrimage. The Royal Geographical Society . Blackwell Publishing. 35 (2). pp. 154-162.