Stream of consciousness

Free-associative flow of images and thoughts without conventional narrative logic

songs

From 1967 to 1970, thirteen songs use it. More of the Let It Be album has it than any other album, three of its twelve tracks. It starts with 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and ends with 'Dig It'. John takes the lead on nine of the thirteen, against two for Paul. Lennon wrote eleven of the thirteen, including 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun' and 'Across the Universe (Wildlife version)', 11% of his songs against 4% of Harrison's. On 'Revolution 9', the disconnected fragments without logical flow. On 'I Am the Walrus': images flow without logical connection. Among them, 'Fixing a Hole' has Burns Nu-Sonic, and only two other recordings do.

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Beatles songs with 'Stream of consciousness' also have 'Surrealism' about 9.7x as often as the catalogue average (11 of 13, vs an overall rate of 19 in 217 songs).

Surrealism

Analysis

By Year

Song count per year

By Songwriter

% of each member's catalogue with this tag (by writing credit)

By Era

Early0 · 0%

Mid-period4 · 31%

Late9 · 69%

By Album

Let It Be3

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band2

Magical Mystery Tour2

The Beatles (The White Album)2

Abbey Road2

Past Masters2

Book

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics

Alan Aldridge

Book

All the Songs

Margotin & Guesdon

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Songs(13)

Year

Album

Writer

Lead vocal(s)

#	Title	Year	Album	Lead Vocal(s)	Notes
1	Strawberry Fields Forever	1967	Magical Mystery Tour	John	'I mean-er-yes'
2	Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds	1967	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	John	Free-flowing surreal images
3	Fixing a Hole	1967	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	Paul	Wandering thought as form
4	I Am the Walrus	1967	Magical Mystery Tour	John	Images flow without logical connection
5	Happiness Is a Warm Gun	1968	The Beatles (The White Album)	John	Disconnected surreal images in verse 1
6	Revolution 9	1968	The Beatles (The White Album)	-	Disconnected fragments without logical flow
7	You Never Give Me Your Money	1969	Abbey Road	Paul	Disjointed suite of scenes

8	Come Together	1969	Abbey Road	John	Free-associative nonsense images
9	Across the Universe (Wildlife version)	1969	Past Masters	John	Images flow without logical connection
10	You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)	1970	Past Masters	John, Paul	Scat, gibberish, free interjections
11	Dig It	1970	Let It Be	John	-
12	Dig a Pony	1970	Let It Be	John	Disconnected images without logic
13	Across the Universe	1970	Let It Be	John	Images flow without logical link