Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band - The Beatles
Posted: Friday, February 11, 2005
by Andrew Olson
The Fountainheads.com
Voted by most Music lovers as the #1 album of all time! Called the "Summer of Love" record, this one was the mind numbing experience of 1967. Not long after the release of singles like 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' a new type of "Beat-Les" emerged. 105 record hours in the studio gave a lifetime of the greatest music ever recorded.
The Story Behind the Album:
It was really Paul's album. He came up with the idea of a psychedelic intpretation of a brass band from the past. Complete with uniforms, artwork inside the album, and lyrics the Beatles created an entirely new Rock Mythology.
The record has social commentary songs like ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, ‘She’s Leaving Home’, ‘Within You Without You’, and ‘A Day In The Life’. It also has British and American Pop with, ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ and ‘Fixin A Hole Where The Rain Gets In’. Rumors still circulate that the reason why Paul was so involved as opposed to John on this album is that John was heavy into drugs at the time… Hence the ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ conspiracy.
Side One:
SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEART’S CLUB BAND:
This song was written so the Beatles could escape the image that had shadowed them and stunted their artistic growth. By writing as different characters the Beatles could be relieved of the pressures of constant success. Legend has it (And there is footage to prove it) Jimi Hendrix bought this album and that night performed this number live at a show in England. Of course Paul was impressed, he was there.
A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS:
Written by Paul and John for Ringo this song touches everyone’s soul. Made extremely popular and mythic when performed by Joe Cocker at Woodstock in August, 1969. A kiddie type song when the Beatles recorded it, no one would expect the popularity it still draws today.
LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS:
John wrote this number and the diamonds in the sky could never have been more powerful! The weirdest thing about this song is that John always denied through his entire life that it had anything to do with LSD. The first Acid Tests by Ken Kesey were a year and a half earlier so it is possible John knew that some money could be made with some tricky word play? But the outfits, the concept, and the flowers? I think this song has something to do with hallucinations. It is based on his son’s drawing, who came up with the title.
GETTING BETTER:
This song is a Lennon/McCartney gem if there was ever one. Paul sings about hope and things improving, while John wrestles with being an angry young man. Some stories report that when the Beatles had a replacement drummer he always said the phrase, "It’s getting better all the time". Well it stuck in Paul’s head and became a great song.
FIXING A HOLE:
Paul wrote this song and it has always been a tranquil beauty. Woven as if by an old woman in a cottage this song fits well on the wall. Rain falling and mind wandering are signs of thinking deeply and trying to concentrate. Another song beat on for drug references, it was all about fixing his beach house in Scotland.
SHE’S LEAVING HOME:
Paul wrote this song about a runaway in England that caught his attention and made him think about the effects. With San Francisco and the hippie wave a flux in runaways was happening everywhere. As the Beatles grew older so did their audience. Songs like this let fans who were once hiding Beatles albums under their beds deal with the harsh realities of leaving home.. And becoming rolling stones in the complete unknown?
BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE:
John wrote this song after staring at a poster while sitting on the piano writing the song. It is almost word for word to what the poster said, except for the occasional fit to rhyme. He had purchased the poster while filming a video for Strawberry Fields. It was printed in 1843 being for the benefit of Mr. Kite.
SIDE TWO:
WITHIN YOU, WITHOUT YOU:
George Harrison wrote this song after studying with Ravi Shankar in 1965. This was a new philosophy pumped into Pop Culture and an Eastern flavored song. About giving up ego and closing the ‘space between us all’, George was writing a way of thinking into Rock and Roll. Embellished by groaning sounds of sitars and strange instruments the song caught on with the Hippies of the late sixties. Many musicians and people who consider this album a pinnacle for the love generation point to this song as the Beatles understanding what was happening.
WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR:
Paul’s ode to long lasting love and simplicity are highlighted in this classic number. Ironically he is facing this question in life today as he gets older today. Originally the song was written when Paul was very young. As he grew as a musician he found a perfect place to fit this song into an album. With cabaret themes in the music, and classic poetic thoughts of love this song transcends generations. John hated it I have read in various sources.
LOVELY RITA:
Written by Paul this song is many peoples favorite of the album. Comical almost in the musical approach it plays with notes and harmonies like a child. Complexity made simple is always the key to great song writing.
GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING:
John wrote this song and said it was one of his worst. Drugs were a constant battle for him at this period in the band. His marriage created difficulties that were coming to a head, and his reputation was still being repaired from years before. George Martin cleaned up the song and added effects.. LUCY IN THE SKY and STRAWBERRY FIELDS WERE AWESOME.. WE FORGIVE YOU JOHN, and this song is probably better than most songs written today?
A DAY IN THE LIFE:
Who does not like this song? A perfect marriage between John’s pessimistic view at the time and Paul’s lightheartedness wrapped into a beautiful song. Continuing on John’s theme of using things around himself to create art, this was based on actual scenes around him. References in the song also point to John’s participation in a war movie at the time. Paul called the song a turn-on song and wrote it in a way to emphasize truth above all things. He has also said in various interviews that his section of the song is a reference to smoking pot. A beautiful song one cannot help but be touched by the grandeur of a great collaboration.
This album is the first in anyone’s collection. It is one of the few that a person can sit and listen to the entire record and not feel like skipping songs. This was the pinnacle and turning point for the Beatles, and all of Rock and Roll. The colors, sounds, lyrics and motives in the album spoke to people everywhere. Today, people still find so many different meaning in these songs. A sign of a great artist is expressing those things nearest to your soul, and then letting everyone around you share in the collective thought. I think it is what was the word on the tips of everyone’s tongues in the sixties: Conscienceness!
Spot on comments about the most complete album ever.
Your article brought back memories about the day I bought the Sgt. Pepper album and how magical it sounded when I first heard it. Thanks.
While some of the comments on the album are relevant, they are so poorly written that reading them is a task in and of itself. Anyhow, great album.
YEa that last commented sucks but great album awwwwwwwwwww
I'm so glad that someone had the good sense to turn the ignorant masses onto this unknown masterpiece! I've never heard of this record before. Guess I'll have to check it out. There is another underground group I heard of called the 'Beachey Boys' or something like that. They made a record called 'Pet Noises' that Sgt. Peppers was a response to apparently... but why would that be mentioned in the article? (The Beatles have said numerous times in many interviews that Sgt. Peppers was HEAVILY influenced by 'Pet Sounds.') But opinions always beat out facts when it comes to good journalism, and this guy apparently has many opinions on where these songs came from or what the songs 'mean' and the 'message' of the record itself that are more interesting to readers than good research.