Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The psychedelic game-changer. (Vol. 2; Issue 50)

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The Stop

Released on 1 June 1967, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – the Beatles’ eighth album – became overnight the soundtrack to the Summer of Love. Having stopped performing in public a year earlier¹ and no longer concerned with replicating their music live, the band decided to take full advantage of the recording studio. A year of what became a ‘period of widely watched creative renewal’ followed, and the resultant album’s release was hailed by young people ‘worldwide … as indisputable evidence’ of both the band’s ‘genius’ and the ‘utopian promise’ of the time.²

With the release of Sgt Pepper, the Beatles became – at least in the ‘minds of millions of young listeners’ – the personification of the promised joys of the new counterculture, namely ‘hedonism and uninhibited experimentation’ with music and entirely new ways of life. Inspired by the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966)³ and Frank Zappa and the Mother of Invention’s debut Freak Out (1966),⁴ McCartney decided to create an imaginary band through which the Beatles could lose their identities and ‘grow beyond their mop-topped image.’⁵ The resulting freedom and dedicated studio time encouraged the band to push their producer, George Martin, to ‘achieve the impossible’⁶ - which he and the studio engineers did despite only having access to four-track equipment.⁷

The content of the album reflects the band’s English background. Stories about ‘runaway girls, circus attractions, Isle of Wight holiday cottages, domestic violence, home improvements, Daily Mail news stories, memories of school days, and favourite childhood literature’ form the thematic base of the 13 tracks which – unique for the time - weren’t divided by breaks on the album. Using orchestras and other hired musicians, and combining numerous musical styles including ‘rock, music hall, psychedelia, traditional Indian and Western classical,’ Sgt Pepper was designed to tell a story – and listeners were encouraged to listen to the album in its entirety, stopping only to flip the disc over at the end of side one.

The cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains ‘the most iconic … of all time.’ Originally conceived by McCartney and staged by British pop artist Peter Blake and his wife, Jann Haworth, the design – now considered an example of era-defining modern art - was ground breaking and appropriately expensive.⁸ In the centre are the four Beatles, in costume as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, surrounded by a collection of famous and influential people who might have just seen the imaginary concert captured on the album. In total, 58 individuals – chosen from a list drawn up by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Blake, Hanworth and the rather shady London art dealer Robert Fraser⁹ - are present in the form of cardboard cut-outs. Certain suggestions – Jesus and Hitler, for example – were ‘deemed unsuitable,’ while Gandhi was removed because the record company thought his presence might jeopardise sales in India. Adding in a bunch of plants and random objects including musical instruments, a trophy and a Shirley Temple doll wearing a ‘Welcome The Rolling Stones’ shirt … it become a ‘fascinating cross-section of cultures, importance, and each individual Beatle’s own interests.’ Just like the music.¹⁰

Of course, as with any piece of music the only way to experience it is to listen to it carefully – and this is an album that is meant to be listened through in a single sitting. So, when you find you have 40 minutes or so to sit and enjoy, I’d strongly encourage you to follow this link:

The Detour

Today’s Detour is to an animated version of Elizier Yudkowsky’s 2007 essay, ‘The Power of Intelligence.’ An artificial-intelligence theorist, Yudkowsky argues the most important property of intelligence is creativity. Interesting throughout.

The Power of Intelligence

The Recommendation

Today’s recommendation is Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, a three-episode, nearly eight-hour documentary of the Beatles’ recording of the album that eventually become their last - Let It Be. Created from previously unseen original footage shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg during the 22 days the band was in the studio - and culminating with their final rooftop performance - the film is a remarkable, candid document of a lost time.¹¹ It also puts to rest many of the myths surrounding the last days of the band, not least that the sessions were acrimonious - they most certainly weren’t. If you’re a Beatles fan, it’s worth a watch. A beautiful book accompanies the series, too.

The Beatles: Get Back currently streams on Disney+.

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is composed of five outstanding Beatles tracks from albums other than Sgt Pepper: ‘Doctor Robert’ (Revolver, 1966), ‘Your Mother Should Know’ (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967), ‘I’m So Tired’ (The Beatles, 1968), ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ (Abbey Road, 1969)¹² and ‘Dig a Pony’ (Let It Be, 1970). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from the October 1971 interview in Melody Maker with the newly ex-Beatle, John Lennon:

‘There’s no other time but the present. Anything else is a waste of time.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

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Until the next Stop …

1. The band’s 1966 North American tour (16 dates in the USA and 2 in Canada) would prove their final for a number of reasons. Following a disastrous Asian tour which included confinement to their hotel rooms due to death threats while in Tokyo and mistreatment in the Philippines for a perceived slight to Imelda Marcos, the North American tour started badly due to a largely manufactured furore from Christian fundamentalists over a remark Lennon had made in an interview with the London Evening Standard in which he mentioned the band was ‘more popular than Jesus.’ The resultant protests and aggravations, along with the inability to hear themselves on stage due to the volume of the crowd, convinced them to become a studio-only band, focussed entirely on recording.

2. Sources for today’s Stop include: Sgt Pepper (beatlesbible.com), Sgt Pepper (thebeatles.com), 10 Things, 10 Oddest Lennon Requests of George Martin, and The Beatles (Britannica).

3. A ‘bittersweet pastiche of songs recalling the pangs of unrequited love and other coming-of-age trials.’

4. Which, for the first time, combined ‘neoclassical orchestration with improvisational jazz and countercultural politics’ in order to turn the ‘LP format into a conceptual statement.’

5. The concept of fluid identity ‘strongly resonated’ with the counterculture youth of the day: no longer did a person’s background necessarily determine their future. It was now possible to reinvent oneself.

6. Martin wasn’t just a producer, he was the ‘architect’ of their sound. When recording ‘For the Benefit of Mr Kite,’ Lennon famously told Martin he wanted to ‘smell the sawdust on the floor’ and taste the atmosphere of a circus. To accomplish this, Martin took recordings of old Victorian steam organs, had his assistant cut the tapes into pieces, and tossed them into the air before randomly reassembling them to create the cacophony of a circus.

7. For comparison, a modern recording studio uses over 64.

8. In 1967, the cover cost nearly £3,000 to make – over £50K in today’s money.

9. Fraser is an interesting character. Check him out here: Robert Fraser (Guardian).

10. For a breakdown of who’s who on the album cover, see: Sgt Pepper Album Cover.

11. To see some of the clothing alone is worth a watch.

12. A Beatles fan for years - certainly since early high school - I’ve listened to their albums to what could possibly be considered an unhealthy degree, and my preference are those from Rubber Soul onwards - when they left behind their mop-top Beatlemania days and entered the world of psychedelia. All of the albums from this period are excellent, and Sgt Pepper is one of the best. But in my opinion, their finest moments are The Beatles (AKA The White Album) and Abbey Road. And - if forced to choose only one for my desert island selection - it would have to be the latter.