One of the most striking things about these films was that the Beatles had grown facial hair, which many fans, especially younger ones, did not like.
Several female fans, young teens at the time, described their look as "unattractive." A female fan born in '46, saw the band's new look as "a statement that they were sympathetic to the movement and hippie culture." Like the younger fans, she saw it as "a move away from their original cuteness," but she wasn't upset by it. To the contrary, politically involved young people now saw the Beatles as powerful, supportive allies.
Those who heard "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the radio, without the film's "nothing is real" imagery, also found it disturbing: "I was scared when I heard "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the car radio. My mom had to explain to me why I didn't need to be scared of it," recalled a male fan born in '58.
Though the song is familiar to us now, it's easy to imagine how "Strawberry Fields Forever" could have scared a sensitive child or baffled a preteen—Lennon's vocal and the use of innovative production techniques create an otherworldly quality; the layered instrumentation, including a ghostly mellotron, created an intense aural landscape. It was hard to pin down what this peculiar song was about, though many sensed it was trying to tell them something important.
Like other recent Beatle offerings, "Strawberry Fields Forever" asked fans to reconsider their relationship with reality. The song expressed an odd mix of insecurity, motivation, and resignation, along with self-awareness and utter confusion. Despite a hopeful undercurrent, it seemed sad. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fun. And you certainly couldn't dance to it.
A week after the Bandstand broadcast, "Penny Lane" was number one; "Strawberry Fields Forever" peaked at number eight in April. These two songs, each memorializing the author's Liverpool childhood, provide one of the purest examples of John and Paul's essential difference.
By this point, fans felt like they were indeed on a journey with the Beatles—an adventure, a trip. They wanted to "continue the journey" or "go along for the ride" because they were challenged and enriched by the new sounds, images, and ideas the band was presenting; they wanted to stay tuned. It was doing something to them, and whatever it was, they liked it.