Andy Timmons Band Reimagine ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ — Premiere
If you're going to take on and cover an album as revered as 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is, you better have the chops to pull it off. Luckily for the Andy Timmons Band, they do – and then some.
Lead by Timmons' virtuosic guitar runs, 'Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper' is a fun and inventive take on the classic Beatles album. Noisecreep readers might recognize the guitarist's name from his days with Platinum-selling hard rockers Danger Danger in the late '80s and early '90s.
Since then, Timmons has gone on to have a successful solo career with nine studio albums under his belt, plus not to mention his session work with everyone from Paul Stanley to Paula Abdul.
Noisecreep has been playing the Hell out of 'Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper' and it's our honor to bring you the premiere of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' from the album.
Check it out below along with our conversation with Andy about the track.
Listen to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' From Andy Timmons Band
While on tour in Italy, Timmons rang up Noisecreep to talk about 'Strawberry Fields Forever.'
"That song was the impetus for us to actually record the entire 'Sgt. Pepper' album. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' just sticks out in the Beatles catalog. It's such a great John Lennon composition. It also encapsulates the psychedelic era so well. The Beatles started recording it in late '66, so it was actually one of the first songs recorded for the 'Sgt. Pepper' album, but it got taken off by their label and released as a single with 'Penny Lane' backing it. So when it came for us to start working on the arrangements for our album, it felt right to include 'Strawberry Fields Forever' as kind of a bonus," Timmons tells Noisecreep.
The guitarist first became enamored with The Fab 4 as a child. "I was born in 1963, so the Beatles were just about to explode in America at the time. My brother, Mark, is 12-years older than I am, so I learned a lot about music through him. He used to buy all of the British Invasion records like Dave Clark Five, The Yardbirds, so on and so on.
"I remember when I first heard the Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' My favorite part of the song was when there was no singing. There was this beautiful guitar solo from George Harrison that had this reverb on it that gave it a wet sound. To this day I love that wet guitar tone. The music they did still makes me happy and my fascination for it has never gone away."
'Andy Timmons Band Plays Sgt. Pepper' will hit stores via Steve Vai's Favored Nations Entertainment on Oct. 24th.
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