SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

How good is this album? I'm 17 years old and full of tetosterone, I pick up this brand new release from the Fab Four on the way over to Patsy Warren's house for a little wrestling on her couch and I end up telling her to quit smooching on me so I can concentrate on the music I'm hearing! THAT'S how good it is. When this record hit the racks and airwaves in 1967 it changed the alignment of the planets. It's hard to argue with history. This is the apex of the most influential band of all time. It is seamless and flows with sublime near- perfection from one song to the next. Just reading down the roster of songs leaves me shaking my head even now. It's got everything a great recording requires. And there may never be another song composed like "A day in the Life" ever again. The unique ending leaves you in a daze as you listen to the very strings inside the pianos vibrate in a slow decay into infinity. Rarely does an album live up to a year's worth of hype but this one did. Again, try to listen as if you'd never heard the title track or "Lucy" or "She's leaving home" and perhaps you will get a sense of the excitement that I heard on the first listen and made me ignore Patsy's considerable allure all those years ago. Girls like her were a dime a dozen but music this great only comes along once or twice in a lifetime.