On January 31, 1967 the Beatles went to Knole Park near Sevenoaks in Kent to make the promotional film for Strawberry Fields Forever. "There was an antique shop close to the hotel we were using in Sevenoaks," remembers former Apple employee Tony Bramwell. "John and I wandered in and John spotted this framed Victorian circus poster and bought it."

Inspired by the finely-wrought language and the evocative names of the performers on the poster, John began to compose a song based on it.

The poster mentions "The Celebrated Horse Zanthus" (not Henry, the horse's name in the song), contains several references to the Hendersons, and advertises Mr. Henderson's "TRAMPOLINE LEAPS AND SOMERSETS! Over Men & Horses, through Hoops, over Garters and lastly through a Hogshead of REAL FIRE!"

Paul : 'Mr. Kite' was a poster that John had in his house in Weybridge. I arrived there for a session one day nad he had it up on the wall in his living room. It was all there, the trampoline, the somersets, the hoops, the garters, the horse. It was Pablo Fanque's fair, and it said 'being for the benefit of Mr. Kite', almost the whole song was written right off this poster. We just sat down and wrote it. We pretty much took it down word for word and then just made up some little bits and pieces to glue it together. It was more John's beacuse it was his poster so he ended up singing it, but it was quite a co-written song. We were both sitting there to write it at his house, just looking at it on the wall in the living room. But that was nice, it wrote itself very easily. Later George Martin put a fairground sound on it.

Although Lennon originally stated of the song that he "wasn't proud of that", in 1980, he described it as "pure, like a painting, a pure watercolour."

A total of 15 stereo and mono mixes were ultimately prepared. The background circus effects create more of a swirling sensation in the stereo version, but the mono version contains more tape loops.

• full-size poster
• Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite lyrics
• info about the poster/performers @ sideshow world
  
• notes on Mr Kite
• audio snippit of Branimir Krstic's Classical Guitar version
  
• tab and chords
• Wikipedia entry
  
• pick up Sgt. Pepper's @ Amazon

previously on wtg:

• behind the beatles: dear prudence
• behind the beatles: she said, she said
• the beatles: the biography
• Inside ILM: Beatles, Sythesizers and VD
• Before Mama Mia, Moving Out...There Was Sgt. Pepper's
  

Filed In: music, beatles