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Beatles: Sgt Pepper vs Abbey Road |
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moshkito ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 18187 |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posted: February 22 2025 at 11:29 |
Hi, This is sad, because in many ways, it does not take in consideration (afaik) that at the time, all the music on the radio was formulated cereal mish mash, and most of it was so childish and ridiculous as to keep the serious music listeners off the radio. Serious music folks did not listen to radio, then ... and likely don't do so now, or bother with PA or JMA. We discovered, then, with SPR, that the folks listening was a completely different set of folks. But: 1. Sgt Pepper's was in STEREO ... and it blew up the market for more individual players to take home, and this album was a must ... the majority of the radio dial at the time, was in MONO. A few years back, AM tried going stereo but it was too expansive and prohibitive, and almost a complete equipment change. 2, It's content, was different, as compared to the average stuff on radio that sounded the same after 3 songs, however, you did not have the album, because it wasn't in stereo, now. 3. Compared to a lot of stuff on the air in those days, Sgt Pepper's was much more educated and worked through ... the majority of works on the air at the time, did not have as good a rendition on the studio as the Beatles got at Abbey Road, for example, and the production made a lot of the rest of the AM dial music, sound really poor. 4. What you gonna get, and listen to? Crappy sounding AM radio stuff, or the new STEREO thing? And it was a double whammy ... different, and then in STEREO. 5. The Rolling Stones immediately followed up the idea! The "Between the Buttons" album I got was in Stereo, but there was very little separation as if the folks that made it sound stereo, did not know what to do. It was their next album where the STEREO was much more visible. I kinda hope that folks get to see the history of things a bit better, it changes the perceptions ... and I have this weird idea that Internet folks don't have these thoughts in mind when they say some of these things. It MADE a heck of a difference, and helped change the times, and how music was perceived. It was, also, one of the first big production albums (as a manner of speaking) that finally told us all that the recording industry was changing and FINALLY accepting rock music ... it would be a few more years, but classical music was still more important in terms of recording, and the quality ... and no one wanted to spend time and money on a cheap rock band with long hair, as many folks said at Abbey Road ... until one album made them more money than classical music ... mostly because the band did not get paid as much! The BBC owned studios did not pay the artists a whole lot, as they felt they were doing many bands a favor! It will be neat, and far out, when these things get into the public domain in the next 10 years. Already the comedy stuff in the 1950's is available, and its listing is ... way out there and over the top ... you can't even figure out what to listen to! Edited by moshkito - February 28 2025 at 12:07 |
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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TheLionOfPrague ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: March 08 2011 Location: Argentina Status: Offline Points: 1080 |
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Abbey Road is the best Beatles album probably for me.
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I shook my head and smiled a whisper knowing all about the place
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Sean Trane ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() Prog Folk Joined: April 29 2004 Location: Heart of Europe Status: Offline Points: 20457 |
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Abbey Road no contest.
George 's Indian thingie is about 7-mins too long - and if the track is 6" (not 6'), it would be even better. White album is about 50% rubbish, IMHO.
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
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richardh ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 29702 |
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I might even go back to Rubber Soul personally. Lennon and McCartney (take note Paul lol!) were no longer a writing partnership even back then but at least this feels a bit more cohesive. The White Album is interesting in that it mapped the future (again) towards those mad seventies eclectic double albums (Works, The Wall etc). With Revolver, Tomorrow Never Knows towers over everything for me.
Edited by richardh - February 20 2025 at 21:31 |
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Saperlipopette! ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 12548 |
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[QUOTE=Steve Wyzard] Abbey Road, by far. What In a Silent Way did for jazz, Abbey Road did for rock and pop: foreshadow what everybody else would do over the next 10 years. Abbey Road is truly one of the most influential albums ever released by anybody. QUOTE] I kind of agree. It's not an album thought of in that way, but yeah. You have a point.
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MortSahlFan ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() Joined: March 01 2018 Location: US Status: Offline Points: 3092 |
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I actually think these are the two most overrated Beatles albums... Take "A Day in the Life" off Pepper and it's an average album (for The Beatles). And if you remove the first two songs (best) - Come Together, Something, and "Abbey Road" is another average Beatles album. White Album vs. Revolver would be tough.
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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition
https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List |
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moshkito ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 18187 |
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Hi,
Both albums were important differently. Sgt Pepper helped bust up the radio controls with more material that was very different and not the common thing and titles or bubble gum stuff. To me, Abbey Road was about breaking out of any ideas anyone had about the Beatles ... it was, just like The White Album, their breakaway from it all ... and they showed, one more time, that they were not exactly stupid ... but sadly, after that, John went to cheap music and George to even sillier music and Paul ... well, at least he was trying something different, and was having some fun with Linda and it showed ... unlike all the other Beatles, there was some serious harmony here and you could easily see it. So what else is new? We saw a bunch of boys grow up and become men! Wow ... what a novelty that is!
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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richardh ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: February 18 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 29702 |
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Beatles were massively important to me, growing up in the early seventies I loved their films and the many songs they recorded. I don't believe any of their albums are masterpieces. Sgt Peppers was as everyone knows a game changer in popular music and showed that bands didn't need to make an album that had Radio Hit NO1 followed by Radio Hit No2 and then Radio Hit No3 etc etc ad nauseum. They took full control and too that away from record companies. They became their own beast not beholden to anyone. Everyone took note even if they didn't like exactly what they did stylistically. Personally I rarely listen to any Beatles albums. Recorded music took massive strides forward sonically in the early seventies and all those Beatles sound like ancient history to me. Important yes. Listenable? No sorry. Love - Forever Changes was and still is way more impressive/enjoyable than any Beatles recording imo.
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Finnforest ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 03 2007 Location: The Heartland Status: Offline Points: 17372 |
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A very unpopular opinion, but I'll take Let It Be over both of them.
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...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell"
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AFlowerKingCrimson ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: October 02 2016 Location: Philly burbs Status: Offline Points: 19048 |
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I have recently come to the conclusion that Golden Slumbers (the medley) is my favorite Beatles track. Number two would probably be A Day In The Life. However, these two are pretty much tied for me.
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Rexorcist ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: February 18 2025 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 257 |
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Retrospectively, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road make up my 1 and 2. Sgt. Pepper's was the first Beatles album I had ever heard. At that point I was only familiar with a few of their songs thanks to a middle school viewing of Yellow Submarine, and this album helped change my viewpoint of music entirely. To this day, it's on my top 20 as my highest-rated pop rock album, and second-highest psych pop album directly under Yoshimi. This was the album where their attempts at reinventing pop and rock in a dozen ways ended up as their most consistent and mystifying to me.
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Ivan_Melgar_M ![]() Special Collaborator ![]() Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 27 2004 Location: Peru Status: Offline Points: 19557 |
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Abbey Road by far.
Specially side B, Almost one epic. |
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Lewian ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: August 09 2015 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 15223 |
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Seems I have never responded to this... I take Revolver and Rubber Soul over both of these. I never was much of a fan of Abbey Road but have recently warmed some more to it, but I still have Sgt. Pepper as their no. 3 album after the two mentioned above.
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Floydoid ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: April 02 2007 Location: Planet Prog Status: Offline Points: 1943 |
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Both albums are masterpieces, and even tho I just prefer Abbey Road it is marred by the slight mis-editing on the medley collage of side two.
For an album that was made as the band were disintegrating it is remarkably coherent, and an improvement on the prior endless recordings that eventually became edited down for 'Let It Be' - presumably being back at the EMI studio with their mentor George Martin (with his calming effect) made some considerable difference. Edited by Floydoid - November 29 2024 at 12:55 |
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Is it any wonder that the monkey's confused?
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Starshiper ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: September 08 2024 Location: Englantic Status: Offline Points: 2534 |
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Both are masterpieces in their own way.
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Moonshake ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: November 16 2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 902 |
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Sgt. Pepper
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moshkito ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 04 2007 Location: Grok City Status: Offline Points: 18187 |
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Hi, I have to admit that at the time I loved the Beatles ... like everyone else ... but by the time I heard The Nice, then ELP and some of the "new music", I lost the desire to bother with the Beatles. That said, listening to SGT Peppers these days, seems ... rather boring and I find it better suited for the radio "songs" at the time, than any serious music. By the time Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever came out, I though they had "progressed" to more serious music and ideas, other than just eccentric daily commentary. Listening to Abbey Road, these days, is very different. And it is hard to not state that it is, by far, one of the best "progressive music/rock" albums of all time, SPECIALLY when it came out ... there was nothing like it around, and it blew many folks and stations off their rocks. However, with today's fans, the album is just sent off to the closet to an area that does not think it belongs, and has very little of what "progressive" is .. .mainly a bunch of senseless solos, and a format! At 73, now, I can listen to the albums, but they are not the exciting material that really helped you wake up and learn about the arts and how they were developing, since rock music was not the only thing going nuts at the time. Within that context, both albums are massive for the history of it all ... something that today's fans do not care about much ... because it makes their favorites not look or sound, very good at all ... and in fact, show most of them as empty and a sad excuse for great music. Reminds me of classical music ... Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, PUccini, Verdi ... they STILL take me away ... and those albums did at the time, and they still do some, though not much ... probably from hearing it so much. One last note. Sgt Peppers. The album DID NOT get better for until until I heard the English pressing. The American pressing was a copy taken from a dumpster somewhere and it did not have the ambience that the original pressing had, which Capitol (or whomever) tried to make sure that it was "heard" on the newer "remastered" versions of the album, which were not remastered at all, but direct copies of the English pressing. The last album this happened to? Dark Side of the Moon, where the American version also tried hard to cut down the ambience which the live show made sure you heard ... which made it all better. Later a "remastered" version came out, and again, it was nothing but a copy of the original pressing!
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Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
www.pedrosena.com |
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David_D ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15577 |
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"Why not both?"
Personally, I may prefer Abbey Road, as a more rocky one, but I didn't keep it in my collection when I decided to make it a very selective (small) one, and only found Sgt. Pepper's to be worthy enough.
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quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
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Hrychu ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: November 03 2013 Location: poland? Status: Offline Points: 5751 |
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David_D ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: October 26 2010 Location: Copenhagen Status: Offline Points: 15577 |
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Sgt. Pepper, and I don't see Abbey Road as really something special (for the year 1969).
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quality over quantity, and all kind of PopcoRn almost beyond
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