Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 11
The Lasting Popularity of “Strawberry Fields Forever”
of newspapers and magazines; his love of words and sharp
observation of unexpected phrase; [and] his own frailties and
rejection of the tough-guy Beatles image (115; order inverted
for the sake of quotation).
“Interaction” is a term one critic has used to refer to an unconventionality
audible in some popular musical communication: addressing listeners personally
through the use of the second person (see Williams). Conventionally, rock lyrics
are first person narratives (Van Der Horst 48). Indeed, for novelist E. L. Doctorow,
“All songs are [conventionally again] songs of Justification” (61). Lennon’s use of
the second person in SFF not only addresses listeners directly but cloaks any glaring
^-^/Z-Justification in the lyrics. The use of the