FEATURE:
Getting Better
Revisiting The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
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NOT related to any anniversary…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1967/PHOTO CREDIT: David Magnus
or catalyst for inspiration, I have been listening back to The Beatles a lot and re-exploring that timeless question: Which album of theirs is the best? I think that, obviously, is a subjective measure, but through the years there has been a change of position between Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road. There was this period when Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was considered the best, as its cultural impact was so obvious and powerful. I think Abbey Road is seen by most as the crowning achievement from the band, and Revolver has always had a reputation as being this work of genius. To me, I think Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is The Beatles’ most influential album, and I think it is one of their most important. From its release on 1st June, 1967, there was this incredible reaction from the public. From its iconic cover through to the fact that the band were at their experimental best, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had this reputation and enormous legacy. By 1966, The Beatles retreated from touring because of its stress and the fact they could not hear themselves sing, and the group faced hurdles after their first tour following the completion of Revolver in 1966 – there was a threat from Tokyo based on The Beatles’ plans to play the sacred Nippon Budokan arena.
There was less need for the band to tour and, with a real lack of impetus and excitement from the lads, the studio became somewhere where they could channel their energies. I think Revolver was a definite high-point, and I do wonder what kind of follow-up album The Beatles would have produced if they kept touring. Pushing the studio to the limits, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was such a pivotal album. From the band putting out this ‘concept’ of them as a fictional band, to the extraordinary closing track, A Day in the Life, one can understand why Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has this reputation and it was seen for so many years as The Beatles’ best album. I think one of the reasons why Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been ‘downgraded’ in terms of its quality and position in the list of The Beatles’ best albums is because of its consistency. I will mention in a moment why I am revisiting the album, but I think a lot of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’s popularity was to do with aspects away from the songs themselves. The cover and the visual aspects of the album were celebrated, in addition to the way the album changed culture in the 1960s. The band were experimenting more with drugs and LSD was a drug that Paul McCartney especially embraced for the first time. Perhaps in an effort to connect more profoundly with John Lennon as a writer, there is this sense of psychedelia and lysergic influence running through the album.
Of course, 1967 was the Summer of Love, and there was this sense of revolution and positivity from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Whilst the album did not promote peace and a huge change in that sense, one cannot overstate how important Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was in 1967! I think that impression sort of followed the album for decades. John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr felt freer with this band-within-a-band concept, but not every member of the band was as necessary as committed as McCartney. There is this shift in terms of leadership with McCartney taking more control and Lennon, depressed and imbibing LSD more, was less focused and happy – Starr, it is said, was quite bored and not overly-interested. Harrison was not as engaged in McCartney’s concept, and there was this sense of the band being divided. The sheer popularity that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band obtained was unheard of in the twentieth century. The album brought The Beatles music to new age groups and audiences, and there was this sense that The Beatles were ‘serious’ musicians now. In terms of concept, there is not a particularly strong thread that holds the songs together. Apart from the opening title track and the reprise that comes before A Day in the Life, it is quite a loose concept of this fictional band – many have highlighted this as a reason why Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is not that important or significant.
Other reasons why Revolver, and Abbey Road have overtaken Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band through the years is because the material is not necessarily as consistent as that which we find on other albums. I don’t think Revolver has a weak track and, apart from Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Abbey Road is pretty flawless – and with its song cycle on the second side, it is innovative as it is astonishing! Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is not exactly a weak album, but I have seen many critics highlight Lovely Rita, When I’m Sixty-Four, and Good Morning Good Morning as less impressive tracks. Getting Better, and Fixing a Hole are fairly similar in nature and, even if McCartney was the main creative drive, some of his songs were mentioned as less impactful as Lennon songs like Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, and A Day in the Life (McCartney wrote a bit of that track but it was mainly Lennon). Harrison’s Within You Without You is his love of Indian music at its most expressive and potent but, at over five minutes, it is a bit long! Even if Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been reassessed since 1967 and The Beatles put out stronger albums, its relevance and influence is clear. Earlier in the year, Udiscovermusic explained the legacy of the album – I have highlighted a few sections:
“Within five months, Jefferson Airplane released the experimental Sgt Pepper-influenced After Bathing at Baxter’s, which was substantially different to Surrealistic Pillow, a record they had released earlier that year. The Moody Blues were also quick off the mark in adapting to a new musical landscape. Released in November ’67, their Days Of Future Passed album utilised the London Festival Orchestra to help create a psychedelic rock/classical sound that owes much to The Beatles.
In December, The Rolling Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request. The album was branded a cynical psychedelic response to Sgt Pepper, and even Keith Richards admitted: “It ended up as a bit of flim-flam. It was time for another Stones album, and Sgt Pepper was coming out, so we thought basically we were doing a put-on”.
Sgt Pepper is sometimes hailed as the first concept album. Even if that’s not necessarily accurate (drummer Ringo Starr freely admitted that there was no consistent theme to the record, and two superb songs from the very early sessions, ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Penny Lane’, were issued separately as singles), people believed it was a “concept” album and the term became part of music folklore.
Perhaps the best summary of why Sgt Pepper was so influential comes from Roger Waters, who explained why it played a big part in forging Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side Of The Moon. “I learned from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison that it was OK for us to write about our lives and express what we felt… More than any other record it gave me and my generation permission to branch out and do whatever we wanted”.
For me, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is such an important album now as it was back in 1967. At a time when there has been so much hate and division, it seems like things are starting to improve – with the election of Joe Biden to the U.S. presidency. Not that there will be a huge revolution, but I have been thinking about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at a time when it seems like more peace and acceptance will come in.
I have always loved the cover of the album and all the various famous figures included. Even though many people overlook songs like When I’m Sixty-Four, I really love it and the range of McCartney’s work on the album. He penned my favourite song on the album, She’s Leaving Home but, from the incredible title track to the Ringo Starr-led With a Little Help from My Friends, to the great backing vocals on Getting Better (“It couldn’t get much worse!”); Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is a wonderful album that is deserving of all its praise and reputation (I would recommend you listen to this podcast for more information and detail about the album). I can only imagine what people felt like listening to the album for the first time in 1967 and the effect that had, not only in the U.K. but the U.S. and the entire world! I recall hearing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for the first as a child and being fascinated! The anniversary editions came out in 2017, and there is some debate as to whether the sound and mix is better on the 2017 versions compared to the original. At a hard time for everyone, I have been listening to The Beatles more than ever. As much as I love every one of their albums, there is something about the endless scope and influence of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that keeps me coming back. So many years after I first heard it, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains…
SO important to me.