The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
They don’t know, they can’t see. Are you one of them?
Produced by: George Martin
1. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
3. LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
7. BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE
10. LOVELY RITA
11. GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING
12. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (REPRISE)
Often considered the best and most important album of the Rock Era, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has taken on mythic proportions in the Rock world. Some people embrace it and try to emulate it. Some rebel against it and try their best to do everything BUT what would sound like it. One thing is for sure, though: What The Beatles started with Revolver, they finished with Sgt. Pepper’s.
When The Beatles quit touring in August of 1966, they had time to tinker around in the studio like never before. Sure, there had been a lot of tinkering on Revolver (enough to where none of the songs from the album could be played on stage), but Sgt. Pepper was something different. There’s not a sound on the album that wasn’t somehow altered in the studio. There were things done on this album that are STILL difficult to reproduce today. The Beatles, along with producer George Martin, pushed the studios at Abbey Road to their limits, often using every studio in the building.
When it came time to take the cover picture, they knew that they wanted something different. Something big. They collected lifesize pictures of dozens of celebrities from beautiful (Marylin Monroe) to infamous (Hitler, who was eventually cut out). They also had wax figures made of their old selves with forlorn looks. With all of these people standing around a gravesite with the word “BEATLES” spelled out on top in red flowers (and marijuana plants all around), this was the end of what everyone thought of as The Beatles. Their old lives were over. They were ready to embark on a celestial journey that only the 60s could have allowed.
Released on June 1, 1967 (a day later in the US), Sgt. Pepper’s ushered in the Summer Of Love. People had never heard anything like it. Their single leading up to the album’s release (“Strawberry Fields Forever”/”Penny Lane”) had warned them, but nothing could prepare them. With a loose concept of a band playing a gig of vaudeville proportions and no real space between any of the songs, the album changed a lot of people’s perceptions of what Rock Music really was. Could it be art?
It isn’t often that you could drive around the country for a whole summer and hear the same music coming from everyone’s stereos. I would have to say that the last time that happened was probably (shudder) in 1982 when Michael Jackson’s Thriller came out. And that wasn’t really stereos playing the music. It was televisions. But The Beatles did something that very few bands did before or since: they united the world with an album. Sure, there were still wars being fought. There were still people being killed. Sgt. Pepper didn’t really “change the world.” But it did do something amazing: everyone was listening to it. From your cool older brother to your grandma. Everyone had a favorite song. Everyone knew the lyrics (partly because, for the first time, they were printed on the cover). And everyone liked the music.
Well, almost everyone. There were a few critics who thought that it heralded the end of Rock As We Know It. And, in a way, it did. Rock would never be the same. Now it was something bigger. It wasn’t just a collection of notes thrown together in a semi-pleasing way. Now it was something that was thought out. Something that had a purpose. Something…artful!
Now, it’s hard to say that this is The Beatles’ best album. Some of it has dated a little bit more than some of their earlier albums (Rubber Soul and Revolver in particular are better, in my opinion). But, because of its place in history, Sgt. Pepper has grown a life of its own. It’s become the album that a lot of people aspire to. And The Beatles themselves were never such a cohesive unit again. After this, they would start to fall apart. Their next official album (The White Album) would be basically a collection of solo songs. But, for one brief, shining moment, they did something amazing together. Paul might have taken over quite a bit on this album (spending more money and time than any other album in the history of Rock had ever cost), but he kept them all together as a band.
It’s hard to understand now how important this album was when it came out. We hear it these days and think, “Wow. It sounds so 60s.” But at the time, no one had ever heard anything like it. To them, it sounded like The Beatles had raced ahead to the future of music, found something they liked and brought it back for all of us to listen to and learn from. Who was the last artist to do that? You could say that Beck, Radiohead or even David Bowie did the same thing. But even they didn’t have the impact that Sgt. Pepper did. There were people who gave up because they could never do anything that sounded new ever again.
But it’s amazing what a little competition can do. Sgt. Pepper came about after Paul heard The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds…and wondered what they could do to top it. (See Revolver for the other part of that story.)
1. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
With sounds of an orchestra tuning up and a crowd getting ready for a concert, the world was introduced to Sgt. Pepper and his Band, an “act you’ve known for all these years.” But nothing like you’ve ever heard before. Kind of a trippy marching band.
LISTEN FOR: John’s bit in the middle…my favorite part.
2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
Ringo’s (or Billy Shears’) showcase is John’s song about needing your friends to get by…and high. It got them in a bit of trouble because of that line. Oh well. So did John Denver. Fuck ‘em.
LISTEN FOR: Ringo trying his best to hit that high note at the end.
3. LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
From the mouths of babes…Julian drew a picture for his dad. When John asked him what it was, he said, “Lucy in the sky with diamonds!” So, NO, it doesn’t stand for LSD. Shut up!
A great (if overplayed) fantasy song that started more of a trend than “Yellow Submarine” did a year before. After all, who wouldn’t want to go to a place with newspaper taxis and cellophane flowers?
Check out Elton John’s version with John on guitar and backing vocals. Pretty good.
LISTEN FOR: Paul’s bass that takes you on the trip with them. It just kind of lopes along.
Paul’s song about things getting better because of love. Pretty slight, but a great song, nonetheless. Paul could actually be singing this to John. “You gave me the word. I finally heard.” A reference to “The Word” from Rubber Soul?
LISTEN FOR: Just to show how much John and Paul needed each other, this song never would have been as good if both of them hadn’t been there. After Paul sings “a little better all the time,” John sings, “It can’t get no worse.”
Not too different from “Getting Better,” really. In fact, they could really be the same song. Good thing ’tis a good song.
They got in trouble for this one, too. Is he “fixing” a hole with heroine? I think it was actually inspired by a hole in his roof where the rain got in.
LISTEN FOR: Paul going extra high on the last “And I still GOOOOOOO!”
A very pretty song about the generation gap and how parents think that they’re giving their kids everything they could need…except love. So many kids latched onto this song as evidence that they should head out on their own because their parents just didn’t understand.
LISTEN FOR: John’s lines during the chorus from the parents’ point of view. Makes the song all that much better.
7. BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE
Did the girl in the last song join the circus? Maybe. This song was inspired by an old circus ad that John found somewhere. When it came time to record, John took a recording of a calliope, cut the tape up, threw it in the air and spliced it together randomly so that some parts would be backwards, some forwards, some sideways, just so it didn’t match up with the last section. I love this song.
Yet another song they got in some trouble for: H and Horse are names for heroine. So, Mr. H. and Henry The Horse are prime suspects.
LISTEN FOR: The echo on John’s voice at the end of each verse. Makes for a pretty psycho circus.
8. WITHIN YOU, WITHOUT YOU (Harrison)
George’s only song on the album is another excursion to India. A bit more tedious than “Love You To,” but it has quite a bit of merit. It’s the most serious song on the album, too, with lyrics about (once again) living life to its fullest and sharing love with the entire world before it’s too late.
LISTEN FOR: The burst of laughter at the end, as if George knew that, after such a serious (and long-it’s the longest on the album) song, we would need some laughter.
And Paul breaks whatever is left of the tension with a happy little song about growing old with the one you love. And, hopefully, she loves him back. Against all odds, this became a huge radio hit. It’s a silly song, but it’s very good. I always see the animated versions of The Beatles with long, flowing, white beards.
LISTEN FOR: That firebell. I gotta fever! And the only cure is more firebell! And Paul’s little “HOO!” at the end.
Paul’s love song to a meter maid. Even if she “looks a little like a military man,” he still thinks she’s lovely. Another silly one, but it rocks harder than most of Paul’s other songs on the album (excluding the title tracks). It’s a great one. Love the line, “Nearly made it sitting on a sofa with a sister or two.” Huh?
LISTEN FOR: The combs that the boys are playing at one point. They may have gone all high-tech, but they still liked the low-tech occasionally. And the sex noises at the end are pretty awesome, too.
11. GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING
John’s throw-away that he didn’t think too much of. It’s a great rocker, though. And, if you’re listening on headphones, it’s really confusing. For the first few seconds it seems like the left and right channels are doing completely different things.
The animals at the end are supposed to go in order of what can chase/hunt/kill the animal before it…although there are sheep after the horses. I dunno.
LISTEN FOR: The cock crowing at the end that lines up perfectly with the first note of the Reprise. It was a happy accident, believe it or not. And I love the guitar solo.
12. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (REPRISE)
They needed another track, so Paul got everybody together to do a reprise to the title track. It worked perfectly and actually rocks a little harder than the first version. It’s just The Beatles this time without the orchestra, so maybe that’s why.
LISTEN FOR: John saying “Bye” at the beginning.
The song that made people really stand up and take notice. It’s an apocalyptic track of bad news and remembrance. The first verse was based on an article that John read about a member of the aristocracy dying in a car crash. Next up is the story of the movie he was in (How I Won The War) and how it didn’t do so well.
But John would “love to turn you on.” And he does with a huge crescendo of an orchestra going from their lowest note to their highest, not caring how they get there. It’s big, it’s ugly, it’s perfect.
Paul interjects with a memory of trying to get to school on time and still finding time to sneak a smoke.
Then John comes back with the story of holes in Blackburn Lankashere. And he would still “love to turn you on.”
Then that crescendo again. And, just as it reaches it climax, a huge thud on a piano with at least four people banging on it at once. They set up the mics to catch every last drop of sound from that note.
An amazing track to end an amazing album. Quite possibly the best song The Beatles ever produced.
LISTEN FOR: Well, the whole fuckin’ song, really. But at the end, if you turn your speakers up loud enough, you can hear the air conditioners in Abbey Road Studio.
But wait! That’s not all! On the initial pressings of the album (and on the cd), there was a hidden surprise after every bit of that huge piano note drifted away. As a treat for any dogs who were listening, they put a bit of a dog whistle on the record. Then there was a tape loop of random chatter that would play out until you lifted the needle up so that the fun would never have to end.
Yeah, I usually skip over that part, too. It’s a little bit annoying. But it was something that no one had ever done before and just added to the mystique of the album.
There were also some cut-outs so that YOU, TOO could dress up like a member of The Lonely Hearts Club Band! A little cheese, but fun, all the same.
