Confessions of a Fanboy

It was 40 years ago today…

You might hear this in a news story or two today: The Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album turns 40-years old today. I wonder how many baby boomers will be driven to drink by this news. I feel strangely ambivalent about this anniversary thing. I love this record but don’t feel much like discussing it because it’s being done in every corner of the globe, but it is an important musical occasion and I feel obligated to mention it.

Sgt. Pepper has been a part of my life for, literally, as long as I can remember. I’ve told the story before — and recently — but this was a record I started listening to as a small child, and those memories are among my earliest. My favorites back then were “With a Little Help From My Friends” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” I still like both of them.

These days, I’m most likely to listen to “Fixing a Hole.” It is a great collection of sounds that makes this pleasant, midtempo melody from Paul McCartney interesting. The harpsichord never found favor in rock music but it blends right in with the other sounds on Sgt. Pepper because this is an album with a scope wider than most rock albums. George Harrison’s prickly guitar fills and solos chime and snap at the harpsichord that surrounds it. McCartney’s grooving, acrobatic bass competes with Ringo’s slapped drumming to pace the song. It’s certainly not the most famous song on this most famous of albums, but it’s become a personal favorite.

So much has been written and said about Sgt. Pepper and it is damn near impossible to separate the fact from fiction, the legend from the truth. It was considered a classic the moment it was released and sat in a hallowed place in the pantheon of rock. The predictable backlash against anything with mass appeal set its sights on Sgt. Pepper. You’ll hear all sorts of revisionist history today. You’ll hear from a line of people who loved when they first heard it but slagged it off 20 years later come full circle to once again lavish the album with praise. You’ll hear people who named their kids Billy Shears or did other equally daft things to publicly proclaim their obsession with it.

Was it ever as good as it was made out to be? Does it now pale in comparison to other Beatles records? Do either of these questions matter?

Some cool Sgt. Pepper’s according to the BBC:

* It was the band’s eighth album.

* The album was recorded at the famous Abbey Road studios over a 129-day period, at a cost of £25,000.

* Pink Floyd were working on Piper at the Gates of Dawn in the next studio at the same time.

* The idea of making the whole album as if Sgt Pepper was a real band was believed to be Paul McCartney’s.

* It was a completely self-contained album which was meant to be played from start to finish.

* One critic described the album as “a decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation”.

* Within weeks of the album’s release, Jimi Hendrix started performing the title track in concert.

* It was the first rock album to win Grammy Awards for album of the year and best contemporary album.

* Rolling Stone magazine rated it number one in the list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

* Sir Peter Blake designed the front cover. It featured a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people, including Marlon Brando and Karl Marx.

* Mae West originally refused to appear on the front cover, but changed her mind after the band wrote to her.

* The initial design was altered, deleting Hitler and Jesus from the image, before the album was released.

* It was rumoured that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about the drug LSD. Lennon always denied this, insisting it was inspired by a drawing done by his young son, Julian.

* The song was still banned by the BBC.

* The lyrics to John Lennon’s Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite were adapted almost word for word from an old circus poster which he bought at an antique shop in Kent.

* McCartney’s vocals were sped up for the song When I’m 64 to give it a unique sound.

Filed under: Tags: Musical Musings and Random Ramblings, Paul McCartney, The Beatles