The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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Free Music Notes for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Free Music Review: Sgt. Pepper CD
Hit: 5 Stars
CD arrived in a timely fashion and was in perfect condition. I ordered it to replace an LP I had lost.Free Music Review: And the band plays on
Hit: 5 Stars
Where do you go once you've reached the top?
There stood the Beatles at the end of 1966, having just released their greatest album yet ("Revolver"), "bigger than Jesus" in the words of John Lennon, and exhausted from years of virtually non-stop touring. Their first decision was to stop touring. Permanently. A monumental decision considering that the Beatles were, of course, the most significant band in rock and roll history. This turned out to be a wise decision, allowing them limitless time to focus on recording a new album.
Flying back to England after a vacation in Kenya, Paul McCartney devised the perfect method to resisting the strain of Beatlemania, the perfect way to escape from the millions of screaming, obsessed fans, unyielding in their devotion to the Fab Four. "It was my idea to say to the guys, `Hey, how about disguising ourselves and getting an alter ego, because we're the Beatles and we're fed up,'" McCartney said in 1987, in an interview conducted by "Rolling Stone" magazine. "Why don't we just make up some incredible alter egos and think, `Now how would he sing it? How would he approach this track?'"
Using one of his new and most experimental compositions, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," as a springboard, McCartney, with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, returned to Abbey Road Studios in London, England, and set about recording their eighth album. Intrigued by the notion of a concept album, an album in which the songs combine to form one theme or story, the group began recording on December 6, 1966. 129 days later, they finished recording, and on June 1, 1967, the Beatles released their masterwork: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the greatest album of all time.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the first rock album taken seriously by critics and the general public. When the `60s began, rock music was hardly taken seriously. At the decade's end, it had become an art form, and "Sgt. Pepper" was rock at its most artistic. The Beatles didn't set out to make "Revolver 2," nor did they necessarily set out to top "Revolver," their previous album, released in 1966, in which they pushed the limits of rock and roll with a number of intricately-structured, creative songs. They were the greatest band in the world at the peak of their popularity, and that gave them the freedom to do anything imaginable with "Sgt. Pepper."
They did everything imaginable, and then some. There was no area of artistic expression the Beatles didn't explore on this album. They created an album thematically united like none before. "This is going to be our 'Freak Out!,'" Paul McCartney said before the album's release, referring to Frank Zappa's debut record, released in 1966 and widely regarded as the first concept album. Scrutinizing "Sgt. Pepper," one notices how seamlessly each song leads into the other, how logical a transition it is from the high-flying "Getting Better" to the concise and organized "Fixing a Hole," or from the spiritually reflective "Within You Without You" to the cheerfully meditative "When I'm Sixty-Four." "Sgt. Pepper" has it all, even the crashing sideshow number "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," which John Lennon virtually transcribed from a 1843 circus poster.
If that sounds creative, rest assured there were no limits to the innovation of the four musicians from Liverpool. The music of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" went far beyond the crafty, explorative pop of "Revolver" (or any previous Beatles work, for that matter) and entered a new realm, a realm bursting with lush color and intricate arrangements. The Beatles started playing with a variety of new instruments, like the clarinet (the crucial support for McCartney on "When I'm Sixty-Four") and the harpsichord (on "Fixing a Hole"). They explored new territory in recording technology, inventing a variety of techniques that would be expanded upon for their future albums (particularly "Abbey Road," acknowledged as one of the most crystalline recordings in rock history). They added an endless loop of gibberish to non-U.S. vinyl pressings of the album to finish it off. John Lennon even added a high frequency tone which appears before the "madness loop," a tone which is too high-pitched for human ears to pick up. However, Lennon felt it should be added to irritate the listener's dog.
Even the album's artwork was revolutionary. Designed by Peter Blake and created by Robert Fraser, the front cover depicts the Beatles as their alter-egos, a collection of musicians which play in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band. Surrounding them are cardboard cutouts of celebrities and historical figures, ranging from Marilyn Monroe to psychologist Carl Jung. (Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jesus Christ were also planned for the cover, but they were deemed too controversial.) The lyrics for all of the songs were printed on the back cover, a first for a rock album. On top of that, the album came with a page of cut-outs: a moustache, a picture card of Sgt. Pepper, stripes, badges, and a stand-up of the band. Never before had such attention been paid to the artwork or the craft of a record.
Certainly the Beatles pushed the bounds of rock music on "Revolver," but it was on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that they marched up to the walls surrounding rock music and kicked them down. No record before or since is more historically important than this, because after "Sgt. Pepper," there were no "rules" for rock: anything was possible. Author and journalist Geoffrey Stokes wrote, "Listening to the 'Sgt. Pepper' album, one thinks not simply of the history of popular music but the history of this century." The Times critic Kenneth Tynan declared the album "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization." Many people who had never bought a rock album made "Sgt. Pepper" their first. Prominent publications began publishing serious pieces upon rock albums. After "Sgt. Pepper," rock music was taken seriously.
If there is one album you absolutely must have, one sole required record, it is this. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is the peak of creativity, as well as the magnum opus of the greatest musicians of all time. Forty years later, Sgt. Pepper's band plays on.
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #1
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Definitive 200: #1
VH1 100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll: #10
Free Music Review: Not Their Best But A Landmark Nonetheless
Hit: 5 Stars
It's really more about the "Sgt. Pepper's..." album as an entire production than any of the songs in my opinion. How they managed to put it all together is still mystifying even with the latest recording technology. I mean with a 4-track? C'mon! Paul's songs are better and I don't usually say that, but he is truly faultless on this album and he did a lion's share of the writing. Lennon has fewer contributions, one of which, "Good Morning...", is one of his worst in the post-Beatlemania era, but the rest are pure gold nuggets. "A Day in the Life" and "With A Little Help From My Friends" were Lennon and McCartney collaborations, which were becoming more and more of a rarity at this stage. "Getting Better" is a great rock song and "She's Leaving Home" and "Fixing a Hole" are on par with some of Paul's best compositions with the Beatles. "Lovely Rita", "Sgt. Pepper's...", "When I'm Sixty-Four", all of his stuff on this album is fantastic. George's one song, "Within You Without You", is interesting as a departure but doesn't rank with some of his later work (I thought his best foray into Indian music was "The Inner Light", but I'm glad it didn't extend far beyond that). Otherwise, this album is one of the great-classic-music-listening experiences and it should be considered in it's entirety. The whole is greater than the sum in this case. Also, the music shines regardless of it's cultural significance and it's better than "Pet Sounds", which I've heard was the high-water mark that they were aiming for.
Best Beatles? The best was last their last. With "Abbey Road" they created an even greater grandeur without all of the tricks of "Sgt. Pepper's..." while rocking harder and better than any of their contemporaries. But yeah, "Revolver", "Rubber Soul", "THE Beatles", and others not normally mentioned were all exceptional for their own reasons. None of their albums are perfect but it's The Beatles for crying out loud!
Free Music Review: Long live the Beatles...and Sgt. Pepper!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't know why I waited so long to buy this masterpiece. Guess I was just afraid of being disappointed. So I took the chance and bought it. Man, was I wrong! Now I know why everyone talks nothing but praise about this album. From "Sgt. Pepper" to "A Day in the Life" there is not a single bad song on this album. This is one album I can listen to front to back all the way through and not stop until it's done (The other being "Appetite for Destruction")
I should've known how great it was. I've always liked the Beatles. Forget about anyone calling the Beatles "More hype than talent" There are reasons why they are among the top selling/influential/listened to bands of all time and the biggest selling band in U.S. history. Because they have the talent to back it up. Just listen to "Sgt. Pepper" and you'll see exactly what I mean. I also recommend everything else by them as well.
LONG LIVE THE BEATLES!!
Free Music Review: A must have
Hit: 5 Stars
I belive that this Beatles' album just shows how the band evolved from songs such as "She loves you" and "Love me do" to a much more mature music (don't get me wrong I love all the early songs), but albums such as "Pepper" just show how great were the four guys together. Let's just move to the time this record was being recorded...no computer no digital stuff and yet all those crazy and fantastic ideas became true.
I am a Beatles fan since I was 13 years, I've been listening to their music and I can tell you I can never get bored with this album, every single time I hear it I can get to find new sounds, new things that always attracts me more and more to the fantastic world they created.
This is a great album, and although years later the Beatles themselves said that this was a concept album as far as "With a little help of my friends" I do believe it sounds very conceptual as the reprise of "Pepper" is placed at almost the end of the album just before "A day in the life", this is such a great ending that it makes you feel the whole thing is a unit.
Listen to it and enjoy!, and for all those who think this is an overrated album, I guess you just don't want to admit it....they were, are and always be one of the greatest rock bands in music history....their influence is still noticeable and that's they will remain for all the generations to come...