Discuss the Classics #1: The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
 

I'm reviving this from the old board. Someone post a different 'classic' album every few days for discussing/flaming/ranting/whatever.

This week, The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It still tends to top most critics lists, so it's as good an album as any to start the ball rolling.

I know it tends to divide posters here, but it probably remains the most significant step in redefining ideas of what a 'pop' album could be. That plus the fact that, with the possible exception of George Harrisson's cod-exoticisms on Within You Without You, it hasn't dated at all. An album that deserves every accolade it receives, regardless of how unfashionable it might be these days.

I think that the Jimi Henderx version of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from the box set is much better then the Beatle's album version.

Sonic Youth's version of WYWY is arguably better than the original too, but i'm not sure how important that fact is.

My vote for the worst lyricists of all time goes to The Beatles.

I'd rather hear the annoying little chick from Deerhoof repeat the word Panda 700 times. At least she knows she sounds like an idiot. The Beatles and their fans didn't (and still don't) have that ability apparently.

i've always thought that the only reason sgt peppers is considered a classic is "a day in the life".

this one is kinda crap for my taste. i prefer the white album. actually i prefer the rolling stones. actually...




there.

--


HEY!! HEY!!!!!!!!!!

wanna die before your time????

Sgt Pepper's is not the best Beatles record by far in my opinion. Rubber soul, The White Album and Abbey road are much better. "She's leaving home" and "A day in the life" are masterpieces however.

the white album is way better.

You can see how things are building to Pepper's from Rubber Soul thru Revolver and I know that for lots of people, Pepper's is just too divorced from the r'n'b format of before - something they returned to with the The White Album and Let it Be. Abbey Rd acts more as a companion piece to Pepper's. I think that Pepper's gets the acolades over Rubber Soul and (although increasingly not the case) Revolver because despite the line of progression and clear debt to innovations in 'psychedelic' rock taking place elsewhere, no one quite expected it to take the form it did. That's it's generally judged over Abbey Rd I put down to the fact that the former paved the way for the latter.

The White album seems to totally divide Beatles fans though. Personally, I find its sprawl a little too much, having the feel of an outtakes record, albeit scattered with the odd gem.

"A Day In The Life" is indeed epic but I would be quicker to listen to the White Album or Abbey Road. And I'm not even that big of a Beatles fan.

My parents still have their original Sgt Pepper's vinyl, though.

It always sounded like a cartoon-like album, but not of the entertaining variety. That's possibly because it is so feted as this amazing achievement in pop music, when it is simply the most visible example of it at the time. Part of this I blame on those rotten sixties journalistic notions that say that the music industry was much more innocent at the time, when the very idea of an innocent music industry is only accepted by drugged-out hippies, and unneccessary romantics. The Beatles weren't certainly more creative than other people making music at the time. The Velvet Underground were the commonly known alternative to all that flower power bollocks, but even their second album sounds a little weak compared to what came after, and i love the Velvets. Perhaps it's the fact that these classic albums served their time and influenced many bands that went on to produce great music, but it's been a while now that their influence has become counterproductive to good music making, I'd say something like over 15 years or so. This is not to say that good music hasn't slipped through the net anyway, but those bands that sat down for too long thinking that having all the 'right' records in their music collections would automatically enligthen them as to how great music is produced, don't seem to last for very long or make a significant impact on the history of music.

It was the first album I ever bought, at the age of around 12, and marked the beginning of my interest in music and collecting albums. Today I don't listen to it much but I still consider it an amazing pop rock album, and the cover art is fun. A good, fun album that's not quite as good as others in the Beatles catalog--for me the best are the White Album and Revolver.

"Sgt Pepper" undoubtedly deserves it's place as a cultural (or even social) artefact. As for the music within, I confess a liking for "A Day In The Life", but conversely, don't have a lot of time for "When I'm 64" - it's the combination of the ragtime-inspired musical backing and Noel Coward-esque lyrics that I'm not fond of (also - we used to have to sing this in a primary school I was in).

Sarram: Tend to agree with much of what you say (despite still loving Pepper).

I think your point about the music industry being much more innocent then is a difficult one to qualify either way. Although I would say that, seeing as the pop-culture thing was still relatively in its infancy, companies did seem more willing to take a chance than they appear to now. But, like I say, hard to really qualify.

The Beatles probably weren't the most creative figures in music at that time, but they were definitely one of the most in pop music, and probably did more than anyone else in that field to open it up to new ideas.

The long shadow they've cast over subsequent generations is not some kind of conspiracy, but a testament to the fact that, in the end, the were a damn fine band - whose records still, for some, remain vital.

One of my all time favorite albums. the album which, at age 12, showed me that a band could make 12 completely different sounding songs,a nd still be choesive. I love this through and through. she's leaving home makes me cry. everything about this album is perfect in my eyes.

but then again I see this, abbey road, the white album, , and rubber soul as all perfect albums.

the reason sgt peeprs is so lauded is that it fucking blew everyon's mind! their contemporaries were not wowe by the hippiness of it, but by the incredibly constructed songs, the studio wizardry never before evident on any huge pop album. this album made everyone realize they woudl ahve o step it up, because the beatles were aiming for great art, not just songs you could hum and dance to.

fixing a hole is GENIUS. "where it will goooo....."

Beatles are god, there is no use denying it.

Word! It takes guts to say you love the Beatles anymore. You and I got guts, Rob.

Really? Why do you not ask that to the trillion people who can't seem to stop saying it, then?

Because I don't feel like it? What the fuck...?

Oh, sorry I forgot that you hardly ever mention the greats. My fault, apologies.

who says they love the beatles? I mean, REALLY? who says it? it is de rigeur to put them down, debase their achievements, deride their later music, I see NOONE praising the beatles. hell, the stone roses keep winning best brit record ever in all polls.

who exactly is praising the beatles?

BEATLES!

read about the EVIL BEATLES here! http://stargods.org/BeatlesEvil.html

Quit hitting the sauce so early in the day, Porkie. That's not how a hero behaves.

I can't help taking the mickey out of you. You're fun.

Porkie, porkie, porkie, porkie... tsk, tsk, tsk...

I can tell you mean well, though.

I listened to my dad's old vinyl copy. The only song that stuck with me was A Little Help From My Friends

Interesting you dis the song Sonic Youth chose to cover. I don't see how "Within You Without You" has "dated" any more than any other piece of recorded music. Recordings do tend to reflect the technology of the time they are created in, but a psych pop song with an Indian influence is no more '60s than a surf tune (both genres have continued to be active since their first inception.) I think the Harrison song is better than some of the circusy moments of the album myself.

I like Sgt. Pepper's, but have always felt it overrated. Revolver is a much stronger album in my book, perhaps because they still had a "live" experience in the back of their minds that they so happily abandoned to do Sgt. Pepper's. Or maybe I just go for a darker feel overall, which Revolver certainly has compared to SP. I do love "A Day in the Life", but the title track stuff, and "When I'm 64" seems as silly to me as "Within You Without You" seems to you. There are times I can enjoy them, but mostly I'd rather listen to something else.

I can play sgt peppers at full volume followed by Mr Bungle's self-titled and I love it allllll

I love W/in you W/out you. Best song on the album.

I say that because, listening to it now, it seems unable to elevate itself beyond a general 60s fascination with Eastern music. Other songs on the album are less obviously 'of their time'. It's what has made certain songs by a band like The Beach Boys appear almost timeless (God Only Knows, for example) whilst others (Student Demonstration Time, for example) seem so entirely locked into their era.

I guess I don't get how Within You is so stuck in the 1960s, and even if I did and it is, I guess I don't understand why that's necessarily a bad thing. Can't something be good while still reflecting its era? As in, moi, fer instance?

It isn't a bad thing necessarily, it's just that if that's ALL it is, then its appeal is quite limited.

I think it's a great song, regardless of its time period. I wish there were more like it on Pepper, in fact. When I first bought the LP, not knowing much about it, I had hoped it would have more of that Indian influence. At the time, I thought that was what the whole psychedelic thing was about.

I guess that whenever I listen to other songs on the album, the imagery I get is related directly to the their theme. Whenever I listen to WYWY I tend to just get images of a scene, like hippies in Golden Gate Park, or something. It was a moment where the Beatles (well Harrison, anyway) were following developments, rather than help shape them.

That's too funny!!!

I don't know. I know there's a lot of history that swirls around albums, and you can't really help that. If you're really into a band, especially, you think about the history, I suppose, that shaped the album as you're listening to it. Maybe. Depends on your interests, I guess. Myself, I've always been far less interested in the history or events surrounding an album (or any work of art) than in the album (or work of art) itself. So I don't get those images when I listen to that song. But now that you've planted it in my head, maybe I will. :)

Just for the record, I like WYWY, a LOT. I just don't think it's quite AS good as the rest of the songs on the album.

From my point of view, how bad can an album be if its worst track is that one. A song that on any other album would probably be its centrepiece.

I find Sgt Pepper a little too patchy to deserve the place in history it holds. The White Album is a much more challenging and innovative body of work and Revolver contained just as many radical (and arguably, more psychedelic) musical ideas. State-of-the-art as it was, I find the production on Sgt Pepper a bit cluttered and over-fussy. Its still an incredible album overall though.

THE BEATLES REQUEST TO USE STOCKHAUSEN'S

PHOTO ON THE COVER OF SGT. PEPPERS LP

Stockhausen is the 5th from the left in the back row. Cover ©1967 EMI/Apple Corps

permission to use his photo on the upcoming Beatles LP "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band".

Click

HERE to view letter.

unable to respond immediately to the Beatles' request. Brian Epstein sent a desperate telegram on May 8th

to obtain permission. Time was impotant since the LP was to go on sale in June 1, 1967.

Click

HERE to view telegram.

 

Original photo of Stockhausen (1964) used by Beatles

on "Sgt. Pepper" LP cover

Great post. Would rep if i could.

Has anyone heard Sonic Youth doing Within You Without You? It's pretty awesome. But it sounds exactly like what it is--Sonic Youth doing a George Harrison song. In other words, SY staying faithful to the song but sounding like SY.

Yeah, I like their version a lot.