John Lennon changed line in iconic Beatles song over fears of sounding 'arrogant'

John Lennon remains one of the most iconic musicians of the 20th Century, but one of his most famous hits could have sounded a little different, claims Ian Leslie

John Lennon changed a lyric in one of the Beatles’ most iconic songs over fears of sounding arrogant, an author has claimed.

Ian Leslie writes in ‘John & Paul A Love Story In Songs’ that John changed one of the lyrics in 1967’s Strawberry Fields Forever because he was worried it suggested arrogance. Due to his concerns, the lyric “wavelength” was changed to “in my tree”.

Leslie wrote: “‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ began as an odd-shaped pebble that Lennon rubbed away at patiently until it began to glint.

“In Almeria he recorded a series of demos on a portable tape recorder, making adjustments to the words and music each time, groping towards whatever it was he wanted to say. In its first iteration, he began by singing about how no one is on his ‘wavelength’.

“John had always felt different, apart from others. The idea of a wavelength led him to a line about people finding it hard to ‘tune in’ to him. Later, he altered the first line to being ‘in my tree’ because he was wary of sounding arrogant.”

Leslie also said that the song had a deeper meaning for Lennon, whom he said described it as “‘psychoanalysis set to music’.”

58 years after the release of the record and nearly 45 years after his assassination, both the song and the man who wrote it continue to inspire people around the world.

However, as the era of the Beatles fades further into living memory’s rear-view mirror, so too are the people who made up that era.

One of those people was Andy Peebles, a BBC journalist who was the last man to interview John Lennon before he was killed in December 1980 at the age of just 40.

Peebles, who interviewed the Beatle just two days before he was assassinated, died at the age of 76 shortly before he was due to start presenting on Heritage radio.

Speaking about what that interview, and Lennon’s death, did to him, Peebles said it “blighted” his life. He told the Daily Mail: "I lost all sense of self-worth in the aftermath.

“It blighted my life, and stunted me. The obsession nearly drove me mad. I tormented myself with survivor’s guilt. He was the creator of some of the most brilliant music of the 20th century and will never be forgotten. I was nobody.”

Following his death, famous faces from the music industry have paid tribute to Peebles, who retained a friendship with Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono in the years after the assassination, including fellow radio DJ Tony Blackburn and Mike Read.

The remaining Beatles, after the death of George Harrison from cancer in 2001 at the age of just 58, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, continue to perform. Last year Paul, 82, and Ringo, 84, performed together at the 02 Arena in front of 20,000 people.

Speaking about what it was like playing with his musical comrade, Paul told Mojo: “It’s just amazing, actually. It’s just, yet, it’s like wearing a very comfortable pair of shoes, if that’s the right metaphor.”