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Hero For Christ

Sgt Pepper



Review: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Just a few years prior to their artistic peak, the Beatles were nothing more than another boy band (the "N Sync" of their times, if you will) doing sub-average covers of R&B tunes like every other British group of the time. But several factors transformed them, and in a very short time.

The first of these factors was the variety of influences found in their music:
  1. The vitality of contemporary black American music (anchored in the "backbeat")
  2. the music-hall tunes of Paul's childhood
  3. the Indian classical music of George's gurus
  4. John's dream-drenched memories of offshore radio stations that would broadcast in the wee hours of the morning.
The second factor was the interplay between the members. Paul was a born musician and storyteller, John was a passionate visionary, George had style, and Ringo, in many ways, was the glue holding the others together.

Finally, there was the context. The social and cultural upheaval of the times made for one of the richest eras ever in popular music.

THE ANTECEDANT:

As strange as it may seem, the Beach Boys were once the chief rivals to the Beatles. When the Beatles released "Rubber Soul," it drove fragile genius Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) off tour and into his room, where he composed "Pet Sounds", a magnum opus that both completed and transcended the Beach Boys' sunny surfer sound.

The Beatles heard the album and were impressed. So they stole the delicate harmonies, lush instrumentations, vocal counterpoints and even the animal noises off "Pet Sounds." In doing so, however, they catapulted themselves right out of the Beach Boys league.

THE ALBUM:

"Sgt Pepper": An orchestra tunes up, there's a brief instrumental intro, and then the boys break out into the hard rocking introductary tune. Like a prologue, this provides a frame for us to understand the experience we are about to have. We are (apparently) listening to cult favorite "Sgt Pepper" play a show for their 20th anniversary. At then end, they introduce their lead singer, "Billy Shears", and the track fades right into

"With A Little Help From My Friends": The joke of course, is that the Lonely Hearts' Club Band's lead singer is really Ringo the (mostly nonsinging) drummer of the Beatles. The lyrics poke gentle fun at Ringo's less than stellar voice, but his singing works well for the simple, heartfelt song.

"Lucy in the Sky": Next up we enter the full-on psychedelica of Lucy. Putative drug references aside, this song introduces one of the main themes of the album --dreams.

"Getting Better": The interesting thing about this song is the interplay between the writers. It's primarily Paul's song, and you can already foretell his later descent into schmaltzy sentimentality: "I've got to admit it's getting better, a little better all the time." But there, hidden in the background, is John's caustic rejoinder "Can't get no worse". And then, right in the middle of the song, in marches an ominous sitar (courtesy George) and the rather remarkable lyrics of the bridge: "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved." Wow, John. And then right back into Paul's sunny optimism, with nary a skipped beat.

"Fixing a Hole": This is another dream song, like L.S.D., but Paul's dream this time, not John's. Like the other, it works well because it matches the dream-drenched nature of the times.

"She's leaving home": This song represents the other key theme of the album -- slices of daily life. In this case, the unnamed protagonist is a stand in for all the teenaged listeners dreaming of leaving home.

"Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite": The album takes another jump, from a defiantly low-key life story to an over-the-top exotic one, which was then filled with odd sound effects to conjure up the real circus experience. The lyrics were famously copied directly from an actual vintage circus poster.

END SIDE ONE

BEGIN SIDE TWO

"Within You Without You" This is the third dream song, and George is the dreamer this time. The music is purely Indian, but the lyrics turn out to be largely about the album itself: "we were talking..."

"When I'm Sixty Four" One of Paul's tributes to his father's love of the English music halls, and another first-person life story. Again, a lot of the charm is found in the tension between the psychedelically tinged bridges and the resolutely solid verses.

"Lovely Rita" - Another faintly askew slice of life, with a winningly unlikely romantic heroine.

"Good Morning, Good Morning" - By this point in the album, even the most pedestrian slice-of-life details are taking on the psychedelic glow of dreams, as the narrator passes through the town and finds everyone half asleep. He admonishes us to wake up, and the song ends with the "Pet Sounds" tribute of animal noises.

"Sgt Pepper Reprise" - The show is apparently over, and the boys even tell us goodbye, and yet the album's most remarkable song is still yet to come.

"A Day in the Life": This is the song that finally brings the two themes of the album together. It begins with John dreaming again, but this time his dreams themselves are bizarre slice-of-life images (which in this case, were all taken from actual real-life events).

The long bridge reverses the pattern of "Getting Better" by inserting Paul in the middle of a John song. The dreamer wakes up as Paul, he's cheerful and ready to face the day, he goes out on the town but before he can get anywhere he suddenly plunges back into John's dream. And when he does so, we realize that the entire album has somehow been a dream, with Paul's bridge being a brief moment of awakening before a return to a deeper sleep.

ANALYSIS:

CRAFT: The album is structured like a perfect theatrical event, with the introduction taking the place of a overture or prologue, a strong opening number, a show stopper at the end of the first side, and an intermission (as long as you want before turning the record over). The second side begins with a reprise of the first side's themes, the second act proceeds, the introduction is reprised, and the show is concluded, leaving the coda to function as the way you feel after the show is over.

(Interestingly enough, the only other album with the same structure is the Fugee's platinum hit "The Score").

Each song is strong alone, but the album is remarkably cohesive as a whole, based not on musical style, but on theme and content (and without the forced "medley" effect of "Abbey Road").

SPARK: The originality is unmistakeble, but this album also has a unique vitality because it was so much in tune with the tenor of the times. That's why the millions of Beatles imitators have rarely had the same luck --they follow, but the Beatles led.

DEPTH: The political awareness so present in later Beatles works is entirely absent here, but there is a real dimension of depth in terms of emotion and spirituality, as well as a general air of introspection.

Post-album:

The Beatles were increasingly independent in the years following SPLHCB and soon went their own ways. Never again would they reach the same heights. Without John, Paul's music lost its depth, and became trite and sentimental. Without Paul, John abandoned his musical craft and became too strident and experimental. Without the incentive of competing against John and Paul, George lost his spark. Even though he had always composed alone, his later work never matched the best of what he produced in rivalry with his friends.

As for Ringo, his greatest gift, perhaps, was the ability to bring people together. In subsequent years, he has toured endlessly with a string of high profile "friends" but never again has found such fruitful collaborators.

Personal Notes

This album was the only duplicated entry between my mother's record collection, which was R&B dominated, and my father's collection, which was almost all classical music. Somehow I stumbled across it at an ideal stage in life --the beginnings of adolescence. The first time I listened to it, it horrified me. Soon, however, my sister & I were playing it over and over, to the bemusement of our parents (who saw it as nothing more than a relic of youth). It profoundly shaped my musical tastes.

A big thank you to Petersen Harris for explaining the album to me.

Comments below:

See Also:

  1. Reconstructivst+Art
  2. Across+the+Universe

Comments from Readers:

Wow. I grew up with this album but never really understood it in the full context until now. Especially in retrospect seeing what happened after the album. Thank you for this essay.
  • Gary, California, USA
    3/12/08
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