SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

Rolling Stone magazine once called this the most important album in the history of rock and roll. Now, I don't usually subscribe to such superlatives, but I also have to admit that not only is this one a strong contender for such a title, I cannot think of another that is stronger. The story of the album and how it came about with reference to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys is well known. I think Sgt. Pepper's has aged less well but there is a good reason for that. Any album, any work of art, whether it be music or painting, or sculpture, or literature of any kind, is a product of its own times, Sgt. Pepper's included. Yet what makes it such a great album is that it not only reflects its time, it also had a major affect on those times. This album helped to create the psychedelic movement that is such an important precursor to true Prog. And if progressive means innovative, than there is no more progressive album than this one. From the very way the individual songs were recorded, to the exotic instrumentation, to the innovative songwriting, this album is not like any that came before it. It also firmly established The Beatles as members of the very highest echelon of popular music, challenging such stalwarts as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. With all the underlying history, the real question is how well the music stands up. The answer is exceedingly well.

It opens of course with the song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band with its mix of infectious grooves, melodies, and brass band flourishes. Already we are clearly on to something different, something unique. The Beatles had been experimenting with their music and expanding their palettes for a couple of years by now, but they had done nothing close to what we hear here. We then get the segue to With a Little Help From My Friends, often lambasted as merely a catchy ditty. For sure, it is catchy, and Ringo Starr was the least of the Beatle's singers, but what I really like about the song is the question and answer structure it contains. Ringo sings a verse, which is answered by John Lennon as background singer. Then, after some short instrumentation, the sequence is reversed. Lennon sings his background line, and Ringo responds. Brilliant. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds follows, one of their most well-known and controversial songs. Is it really about LSD? Lennon's trippy lyrics certainly add support to that claim, even though he himself denied it. Sometimes songwriter's create titles and lines simply because they sound good (Jon Anderson does this). Getting Better comes afterwards, and is one of the most upbeat songs of the album, as you may surmise from the title. Fixing a Hole slows it down but continues the momentum, followed by the beautiful She's Leaving Home. This song is a mix of teenage bravado and homey sentimentality. The melody and vocal arrangement are both wonderful; all elements fit so well together, their sophistication slides by the listener. Of course they do that, what else could they have done? Many might say that, but they are not really, truly listening. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite closes the original side one, and this is a fun song, absurd, crazy, trippy, and above all, melodic. I now have both my old vinyl version, complete with cut-out sheet, and a digital version. There is some difference in the sound, and on digital, remastered, a lot of the strange background sound effects emerge more clearly. In earlier CD editions, this was too much the case, and sounds that were meant to be heard as a collection were heard individually and this did not sound good.

Side Two opens with one of my favorite George Harrison tunes, Within You Without You. This is the kind of music that became stereotypical of the 60s ? trippy, dreamlike, sitar laden, drenched with Indian instrumentations, a kooky philosophical outlook, and what-not. Well, by this time, the Beatles were starting to follow the teaching of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the title of the song expresses and important concept of Hindu and Vedantic thought. The title itself will not tell you what it is about, but the lyrics will. We also get a very rare extended Beatle instrumental segment, where George plays sitar along with an Indian orchestra. The sarangi is a prominent instrument in this whole song. Many guitarists had taken up sitar at the time (it was Roger McGuinn who turned Harrison onto the instrument), but George was studying under Ravi Shankar at the time and actually played a sitar like a sitar rather than a weird guitar. The next three songs are of the catchy ditty type, the popular When I'm Sixty-Four and Lovely Rita, and the ebullient Good Morning Good Morning. Then we get what I can only call a precursor to Heavy Metal, the crunchy reprise of Sgt. Pepper's, which segues into the immortal Day in the Life. This song is the epitome of what The Beatles had become and each member of the band interacts with each other flawlessly. I like it when McCartney does his bit, ending with the line, "Somebody spoke and I went into a dream." Lennon returns with his dream-like Ahhhh-ah- ahhhhhs, and the orchestra them takes over flawlessly. The famous crescendo, an amazing wall of sound, and then the famous one minute long fade out of the final crashing cord. Here is where my vinyl version ends, but the newer digital version ends with a few seconds of taped clips all jumbled together.

Not only is each song great by itself, even the sillier simpler ones, the album flows as a whole from beginning to end, a monumental achievement considering how really diverse the music is. This works as well when you do not have to flip a record over as well, so it is not merely 19 minutes of smoothly flowing music but the entire 38 running time of the entire album. If I have any criticism to offer here, it is that it is too short, but then if it were longer, would it be as impactful? Probably not, and The Beatles also probably knew that.

The Beatles are still extremely popular, and justifiable so, in my estimation. Many proggers will deride them for simple song structures. Indeed, there is very little stretching out here, if any, but The Beatles, notably Lennon and McCartney, were masters of writing concise songs. If you don't need 10 minutes to say it, why take that much time? Now I like the long epics as much as any body else, but not all songs need to be of that quality. The Beatles did not need to, although there are two examples of two songs which segue into one another; when I was listening to the radio years ago, they always came in pairs. Your appreciation of mid-sixties rock will condition your appreciation of this album, and it is difficult to listen to it all these years later as if with new ears, but I contend that is what needs to be done to appreciate how innovative this all was.

The greatest rock and roll album ever? Perhaps, perhaps not, but it is certainly one of them.

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