40 Years of Sgt. Pepper
1 June 2007
So it was 40 years ago today that The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper. Whilst not my favourite Beatles album (I would put it in 4th place behind The White Album, Revolver and Abbey Road), there is no doubting the influence it had on popular culture in the 60s and beyond.
There is little argument that Pepper is a classic album, but there are several aspects of the album and it’s folklore that have been cause for debate over the years, not least of which is the claim that it was one of the first examples of a ’concept album’. Those against Pepper being a true concept album argue that after the first two songs, (’Sgt. Pepper’ and ‘With a little help from my friends’) the rest of the tracks, with the exception of the Pepper reprise, could appear on any other Beatles album. While this is perhaps true Pepper is one of those albums where after several listens you simply expect ‘Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds’ to lead into ‘Fixing A Hole’, ’Good Morning’ to follow ‘Lovely Rita’ and so on. When you take the songs out of their natural order, it almost seems incomplete. Perhaps the concept is more the world of music that Pepper immerses you in, than the fictional Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band themselves.
There can certainly be no doubting the influence Sgt. Pepper had on other artists at the time. Watching a recent documentary on BBC, the excellent 7 ages of rock, I found out for the first time that it was indeed Pepper that influenced Hendrix to really explore what could be achieved in the studio. The result was the classic Electric Ladyland album.
The album has consistently been voted the greatest album of all time and was until recently the largest selling album of all time in the UK. It has now been overtaken by Queen’s Greatest Hits (Volume 1).
I’ve not listened to the album for a while, so tonight I’ll be immersing myself in the world of music that is Pepper again and raising a glass to the Lonely Hearts Club Band and those 13 classic tracks.
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
8. Within You, Without You
9. When I’m Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning, Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. Day in the Life
