Masterpiece #4: The BIG production no one dared to mess with
Released May 1967Record executives often don't understand music, but what they do understand is big production. And "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was the biggest, most expansive, most expensive and most widely heralded album production ever, from Edison's first wax cylinder to probably all the way up to the present.
So for the first time ever, the way the Beatles and producer George Martin ultimately put it onto tape was destined to be the way it would be released, on both sides of the pond. End of discussion. (But I'll keep writing anyway. After all, this is Sgt. Pepper!!!!)
The most obvious part of this was how the songs were cross-faded to flow into each other to create one single big album-length work. Who would dare mess with that?
Then there is the fact that the introductory theme song is repeated in a different version as the next-to-last song. That creates unity. That creates the sense that the album is an event.
Then there is just how adult it all is. The first words Paul sings are "It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play..." That would have made it 1947. So this is not supposed to be baby boomer kiddie music. Paul then continues by writing a song about parents and their daughter when "She's Leaving Home", and about what it's going to be like "When I'm 64". The songs that John and George wrote may not be that self-consciously adult, but are nevertheless suitably big.
Finally, to wrap it all up, there is that gigantic orchestral chord in "A Day in the Life", played once in the middle of the song between John's and Paul's vocals and once at the end of the song and the album.
The album was actually featured on the cover of Time Magazine when it first came out. This is when Time Magazine was written and edited by a bunch of old fuddy-duddies who heretofore had thought that rock music was just a noisy adolescent fad that would die like poodle skirts. Essentially, they made the announcement that rock music had arrived and attained maturity.
So even the US Capitol Records desk-jockeys finally had to realize the Beatles were bigger than they were, and their music had to be released as presented by the artistes - an album as art form. So the UK and USA versions are essentially the same except for the smallest details.
Many arguments have been made as to which Beatles album is the best, but everyone must know that "Sgt. Pepper" is the biggest. (Production, that is.)
1 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2 - 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 (George Harrison)
9 - When I'm 64
10 - Lovely Rita
11 - Good Morning, Good Morning
12 - Sgt. Pepper (Reprise)
13 - A Day in the Life
(all songs Lennon / McCartney except as indicated)
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