This has been bugging me for a while. In narrowing down just what that line is, I used both the
handwritten draft lyrics which were donated to the British Library in May last year (be sure to click ".JPG 3.2MB" to download a high-res image that's actually readable!) and what demos and early/alternate takes I could scrounge up.
Here's what all the takes of the elusive line sound to my (admittedly not golden) ears:
Vocal overdub (double-tracking lead vocal) onto demo:
"I mean I think I know uh yes but it's all wrong"
Electric guitar demo take 8:
"I think I know I mean uh yes but it's all wrong"
Mellotron/vocal overdub onto composing sequence:
"I mean I think I know uh yes but it's all wrong"
All studio takes:
"I think I know I mean uh yes but it's all wrong"
Now look at the lower-left part of Lennon's handwritten lyrics. Looks to me like:
"I think I know I mean -- er -- yes, but it's all wrong". A non-rhotic British "er" can just as easily sound like "uh", so despite the handwritten lyrics being considerably different in some spots, I think that particular line is exactly what's on the record.
The
first line of this verse is also sometimes mistranscribed as "Always know, sometimes think it's me". The handwritten page has "I always, no, sometimes think it's hard". With this in mind, the final lyric is most likely
"Always, no, sometimes think it's me", not "know".
A side effect of listening to so many takes all at once is that the join between takes 7 and 26 is now glaringly obvious to me. Yes, it was a great big hassle to wrangle all those bits of tape in 1966, but even so, there it is...in the second refrain, take 7: "Let me take you down, 'cause I'm..." Slowed-down take 26: "...going to Strawberry Fields..."
On the lower-right part of the page are some intriguing words that look to me like "Little Miss Mouse / In the house / Showing everyone the price of her hair". Unused SFF lyric? (I have no idea where or how it'd fit in). Half-remembered childhood rhyme? Sketch of a song that never made it to record? Just as one mystery's solved, another pops up!