Beatles Music:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Reviews:
Ground Breaking Rock
2006-06-08 - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has to be one of the most debated albums in the history of music, if not the most debated. Many people, particularly those born in the 70s and later, are struggling to understand how this album can make any list of the greatest rock albums. Others fail to understand how this album could fail to be on any list of the greatest rock albums of all time. Depending on your perspective, perhaps both sides are right.

If "Sgt. Pepper" was released today, it would fail disastrously. Comparing this music to that released since 1967, it appears to be nothing special. Ah, but there is the rub. For those people who seem to think that umpteen other groups are better, they fail to remember that "Sgt. Pepper" is considered by PERFORMERS to be a ground breaking album that was influential in their careers. So, it is true that "Sgt. Pepper" is primarily great because of what it was when it was released, and how it influenced rock music. So when you see lists of rock albums, what is the title? If the title is greatest or most influential, then likely "Sgt. Pepper" will be in the top 10, and perhaps even #1.

What made this album influential? Partially it was underlying theme of the album. The album is not a concept album as such, but it began life as a concept album, and enough of the concept remained that the theme running through the album influenced other rockers to make unified concept albums. Another reason the album is influential is the experimentation the Beatles did. The transitions between songs, the sound effects, the unusual instruments and the speed variations between songs foreshadowed the coming of progressive rock.

This CD opens with the eponymous "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The song combines a pseudo live performance with orchestral and rock instruments in one of the ground-breaking moments of rock. This song alone is probably one of the most influential songs of its era. The song serves as an introduction to the pop song "With a Little Help from My Friends," with Ringo taking a rare lead vocal and doing so marvelously.

The song that follows is one of the more controversial songs of the classic rock era. Many critics suggested the song was about drugs, but John Lennon and the other members of the Beatles suggested a more prosaic origin. John's son Julian Lennon showed his father a picture of a schoolmate named Lucy and told his father that the picture was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Any association of the initials of the words Lucy Sky and Diamonds with LSD was purely coincidental. The imagery in the song, while psychedelic, was largely inspired by "Through the Looking Glass" and English children's shows. The song has maintained its popularity over the years and returned to the charts sung by Elton John and supported by John Lennon in the 70s.

"Getting Better" and "Fixing a Hole" are two relatively mundane songs for this album. While the songs are more typical of the Beatles' style prior to this album, they seem slightly out of place with many of the surrounding songs.

I consider "She's Leaving Home" to be a song much like "Yesterday." The song is elegant and understated, with beautiful harmonies and simple musical themes. The Beatles could be at their best with the mundane topics of everyday life, bringing a power to a situation that few others have managed. This song is one of the best songs on this CD.

The song "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" is clever and sinister. Multiple recordings of various instruments were cut and randomly spliced together to generate the sound effects heard prominently during the song, especially at the end. The song was intended to have a carnival feel, I think I am influenced by "Something Wicked this Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury, which this song always brings to my mind. The song is wonderfully experimental in its own way another of the ground-breaking moments on this album.

The song "Within You Without You" is technically not a Beatles song at all, as George Harrison recorded the song with a group of Indian musicians. The song is perfect for this album, in retrospect. I have always thought George Harrison's contributions, though fewer than Lennon and McCartney's helped influence the Beatles significantly.

The next three songs, "When I'm Sixty Four," "Lovely Rita," and "Good Morning, Good Morning," are like the pair of songs I noted earlier. Their style is more similar to earlier Beatles' music, though the use of clarinets on "When I'm Sixty Four" is extremely unusual for rock. Though the music is serviceable, the better songs on this album overshadow these.

After a reprise of the opening track, this album ends with "A Day in the Life," which is one of the best Beatles songs ever, and one of the best songs in rock music. The topic is very mature, the music well organized, and provided the perfect ending to one of the best albums in rock music.

As a side note, this album received four Grammy Awards in 1968, including album of the year, sandwiched between a Frank Sinatra album the year before, and a Glen Campbell album the year after. I believe this album was the first rock album to obtain a Grammy Award for album of the year.

There are numerous resources that explain the importance of this album in far greater detail than a 1000 word review will permit. I suggest those who continue to scoff at the importance of this album to review those resources. Everyone else is already aware of this album's greatness and significance. Enjoy!


CUTTING EDGE...
2006-04-23 - With this, their eighth release, The Beatles continue on their musical journey. A conceptually brilliant recording, as well as highly creative for its time, it is a much more musically cohesive work than its predecessor, "Revolver". Yet, I believe "Revolver" had better songs, overall, even though it can't touch the production values inherent in this recording, nor the social impact that this recording had. Quite simply, it summed up an era.

This recording was on the cutting edge for its time, and it was a very definite, new direction for the Fab Four, as they seemed to want to shed their original mop haired image with all due speed. It was a psychedelic precursor of the youth revolution that was to come. Flower power was just around the corner, as was the so called psychedelic drug craze.

Some of the songs on this recording heralded the new era. The whimsical "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was the mantra for this movement, while the mournful refrains of "She's Leaving Home" illustrated the general disaffection of youth which was so prevalent at the time. "A Little Help From My Friends" was certainly the blueprint for getting along for many baby boomers during that era which this recording heralded.

For many reasons, this remains one of the most important and seminal recordings ever made, and no music collection should be without it.

Huh?
2006-01-29 - Please. It's 2006, and I'm the first person to review SPLHCB? Huh?
OK...Here goes...It's the greatest recording of all time. Buy it now.