Assail the Unassailable: Sgt. Pepper's

-- Austin Still (austin.swinbur...), August 25th, 2005.

Yeah, one tack that occurred to me is to say "Hey, ever heard of Bonzo Dog Band?"

*My Beatles OPV: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Help, Hard Day's Night, Meet the/With the Beatles.

one of my high school substitute teachers overheard a classmate talking about the Beatles and told us stories about how you could walk down certain streets in San Fran in 1967 and hear the entire album from one block to another.

The guitar solo salvages it though.

Except this hasn't happened for over 20 years, has it?

a day in the life
sgt. peppers reprise
good morning good morning
getting better
sgt. peppers lonely hearts club band
lovely rita (the last thirty or so seconds especially)
for the benefit of mr. kite
within you without you
she's leaving home
when i'm sixty four
with a little help from my friends (the first twenty or so seconds especially)
lucy in the sky with diamonds
fixing a hole

This is incorrect. George Martin had little influence on the band's direction. Sgt Pepper was mostly Paul's baby.

"It's easy to see why it's too frivlous for rock crits...."

Whoa! That's not at all what its defenders thought! They defended because it was a Serious Rock Statement. The (over)estimation of Sgt Pepper is the beginning of rockism.

Ha ha, is that the one where he goes thru the solo records too? And demolishes all of them, but especially George Harrison. I think he quite liked some of Ringo's albums.

Whoa! That's not at all what its defenders thought! They defended because it was a Serious Rock Statement.

Yeah, but not any longer. Not so much anyway. Look around you, the "Serious Rock Statement" has swung towards Revolver and maybe even Abbey Road a lot more, I'd say.

What is that supposed to mean?

Age 10: Paul is the best, his songs are great!

Age 15: John is the best, he's COOL!

Age 20: George is the best, I'm in COLLEGE!

Age 25: Fuck the Beatles!

Age 35: Paul's new album is his best since Tug of War!

Age 40: Yoko really was a genius!

Age 45: The Traveling Wilburys were really good, really!

Age 50: Fuck the Beatles!

Absolutely. Sgt. Pepper was the Big Bang for me being a music fan, but I don't think I've listened to it in its entirety since junior high. These days I go to Odessey and Oracle for my Big '60s Rock Statement fix.

The Anthology version of "Good Morning" is stripped down and, imho, superior to the overdone LP version.

Age 18: The Beatles and Stones are great but the Beach Boys suck.

Age 21: The Beatles, the Rolling Stones AND the Beach Boys are great.

Age 24: Classic Rock sucks! But the Beach Boys rule.

(1) It was really reactionary. It was dominated by McCarthy's music-hall sensibilities, which drew in all of the pre-rock generations. That's why it was the only rock record that lots of peoples' parents bought. Up until then, rock had been about generational and social conflict, drawing the line between their music and ours. Sgt. Pepper's was about generational and social reconciliation. It acknowledged the conflict -- She's Leaving Home, the sitar on Within You, the drug subtext of Lucy and Friends -- but even those songs pulled all the punches in the context of the time. She's Leaving Home treats the parents with sympathy, Lucy is very conventionally pretty, Within You serious and philosophical. And the rest of the songs -- When I'm 64 was the first "rock" song (not really a rock song at all) to acknowledge aging and imagine a life beyond 30. Lovely Rita had someone with a real job treated sympathetically. A Day In The Life dealt with bourgeoise ennui in a way that adults could relate to. Help From My Friends was another totally conventional music-hall song that celebrated community, not rejection. Getting Better is an obvious adult-friendly song.

Lots of those elements were there in Revolver, too, but it was more dour and something like Eleanor Rigby still felt like the youngsters mocking their elders. Post-Sgt. Pepper's, Revolver could be much more appreciated for how reactionary it was as well.

So there was an enormous sigh of relief from the oldsters, much like we see now with Kanye West, except much, much bigger because it was the first sigh of relief, The Beatles were enormous, and 1967 was a pretty scary time if you were over 30. And the wishful thinking engines of the media really went to work on the concept that if this is where rock is headed, we'll be alright.

(2) The whole concept-album idea, and the accompanying declarations of Artistic Ambition, were pretty new. Not unique, but unique from any artist as popular and visible as The Beatles. This was another strong signifier of Adulthood, and reinforced the lyrical/musical themes of the record and its vibe of continuity with the past rather than rejection of it.

So anyway, there you have it: It was an album parents and kids could both love. The Doors and Surrealistic Pillow were not albums parents could love. It was a message of hope in troubled and confusing times, holding out at least the possibility of ultimate reconciliation and continuity. People loved that shit.

Also: Vornado's #2 holds a lot more weight than his #1.

Age 26: "No it's not!"

Age 29: "Eh, who cares?"

Age 24: "There's only like 3 or 4 decent songs on it. Cool that Aleister Crowley is on the cover, though."

Age 31: "Still don't really like it."

What's so strange about that? I got it for 50p or something

What is that supposed to mean?

They bought it because the arts pages in the broadsheets, who had started to think that there might be more to beat music than something for teenagers to dance to, treated it as a respectable work of art, and suggested that something was going on that Mr Jones should be aware of.

In thinking of the contemporary critical reception it's important to remember that Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were originally intended to be part of SP and were released as a double sided single instead purely as a commercial strategy. The sense that The Beatles peaked in the Sgt Pepper era was hugely influenced by this: people tended to lump SP and the double-sided single together taking them together as "what The Beatles are doing now" and it seemed a miraculous increase in sophistication compared to what they had been doing even a couple of years earlier. To some extent the perception that SP was "overrated" arises because later listeners don't have this same tendency to evaluate the period, rather than which tracks happened (somewhat arbitrarily) to be included on the album.

Even at age 12, I thought Rita was being used. She's an underpaid civil-service worker who gets a date with a Beatle. But she has to pay for dinner, AND is asked to perform menage a trois (or quatre) after the date. What is this, R. Kelly circa 1967?

I am still trying to love "OK Computer" but I think if I'd been 16 when it came out it would have the same iconic status, and is similar in being mindblowing for those that were there and in that mindset at the time.

xpost - Strawberry Fields would give SP a massive bump up, eh? thanks frankie

but I can't buy that...

But besides that, top album.

Top !

The very last animal is a chicken, which they edited onto the first note of "Sgt Pepper" reprise which is a guitar note, of which they sped up the tape so the note was the same as the chicken squawk, then returned the tape speed to normal.

So, a guitar made half a chicken.

There's one thing I want to know about the cover. In one interview, John Lennon said that if you look closely at the cover you can tell that two of them were "flying" in the photo session. I presume he meant under the influence.

My guess is John and George.

(That said, I haven't listened in many years and might prefer about 5 other Beatles albums. I swear by white and MMT but no one listens to me anyway. I really like With the Beatles and Help! too.)

And, at the risk of caving into someone fishing for attention, Sundar is basically on the money on this thread, and usually has pretty interesting things to say in general.

fucking hell i can hear carl barat and pete doherty covering 'day in the life' and it's the worst most appalling shit ever.

http://www.shortandhappy.com/images/CVache1.gif
Noooooooo!

"Sgt. Pepper" has been "overrated" since punk. Come up with something new.