"It was fifty years ago today!"

[Kieran]

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrate their 50th birthday on the 1st June, so I've been hearing it a lot as I mosey about town, in record stores, bookshops, and cafes. I put it on today while I was busy, listened to it playing in the background, and now, while dinner is burning in the oven.

It strikes me that it holds up remarkably well - even the songs which sound dated. What I mean by that is, there are songs which are beautiful, but sound maybe like they predate rocknroll, or they might sound like "dad-rock" to today's younger audiences. Perhaps. Songs like "With a Little Help From My Friends" and "When I'm 64" have an olde worlde lightweight charm, and hold up beautifully as melodies and music standards, and actually highlight the range of the Beatles (largely English) songwriting influences.

Some songs, like "She's Leaving Home" have Vera Lynn strings, very deliberate and clean orchestral arrangements by George Martin, and they contrast with the whirligig songs like "Mr Kite", and "Good Morning, Good Morning", where studio craft was taken to another level.

Sgt. Pepper was a hugely influential record, much imitated, driving artists to spend longer in the studio on perfecting their sounds, while also trying to create their own gimmicks and magic to match it. It was maybe in some ways a cultural battle cry, an attempt to up the stakes, following Dylan's excellent and extraordinary Blonde on Blonde from 1966. Dylan, in response the Sgt. Pepper and the direction music suddenly took, with psychedelic indulgences becoming par for the course, slotted John Wesley Harding in at the tail end of 1967, releasing these sparse lo-fi tunes on December 26th, and having arguably the more enduring influence. Within a couple of years, everybody was similarly stripping down their studio sound and aiming for a more direct, live and spontaneous approach.

But Sgt. Pepper holds up well, it has an immediate opener, some great wit and warmth, versatility and broadness, closes with a big, oft-quoted track. It weighs in (as records then usually did) at less than 40 minutes, which sounds mercifully abrupt, and a lot of the experiments don't hold up as well today, but it's a certifiable and iconic classic, maybe the Beatles best (?) and shows them at the height of their melodic powers, willing to change and daring to move into completely uncharted water.

Do you like this music, or do you find it to be old fogey stuff, with 60’s pretentiousness dialled up to 11? I wouldn’t wear the grooves out listening to it, but I think it’s definitely a great album…

 

[shawnbm]

I have not been on the site in a while. I like the post, brother Kieran. As a landmark record from a the landmark time, Pepper still makes an impact. It clearly was a response to that other landmark album, Pet Sounds, by the beach boys. I particularly like how you reference Dylan and his coming out of the foothills in the country of Woodstock, New York, after jamming with those fellas that would later become known as The Band. It would appear that Dylan and The Band had a greater impact in terms of the creation of americana music as it is now called. I think that was an astute observation on your part.

 

[Horsa]

I like the Beatles. Dad always used to play their records. I had to learn their songs in High School but my favourite song of theirs has to be "Let it be". It's helped me to carry on during a lot of hard times as has Bette Midler's "the rose". If you listen carefully you'll find out why. "When I find myself in times of trouble ... 'let it be" & for the rose it's "When the night has been too lonely & the road has been too long & you think that life is only for the lucky & the strong just remember in the Winter far below the fallen snow is a seed that in the Spring with the sun's love becomes the rose". Something similar anyway. I've made myself feel better by listening & singing along to those songs many times.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrate their 50th birthday on the 1st June, so I've been hearing it a lot as I mosey about town, in record stores, bookshops, and cafes. I put it on today while I was busy, listened to it playing in the background, and now, while dinner is burning in the oven.

It strikes me that it holds up remarkably well - even the songs which sound dated. What I mean by that is, there are songs which are beautiful, but sound maybe like they predate rocknroll, or they might sound like "dad-rock" to today's younger audiences. Perhaps. Songs like "With a Little Help From My Friends" and "When I'm 64" have an olde worlde lightweight charm, and hold up beautifully as melodies and music standards, and actually highlight the range of the Beatles (largely English) songwriting influences.

Some songs, like "She's Leaving Home" have Vera Lynn strings, very deliberate and clean orchestral arrangements by George Martin, and they contrast with the whirligig songs like "Mr Kite", and "Good Morning, Good Morning", where studio craft was taken to another level.

Sgt. Pepper was a hugely influential record, much imitated, driving artists to spend longer in the studio on perfecting their sounds, while also trying to create their own gimmicks and magic to match it. It was maybe in some ways a cultural battle cry, an attempt to up the stakes, following Dylan's excellent and extraordinary Blonde on Blonde from 1966. Dylan, in response the Sgt. Pepper and the direction music suddenly took, with psychedelic indulgences becoming par for the course, slotted John Wesley Harding in at the tail end of 1967, releasing these sparse lo-fi tunes on December 26th, and having arguably the more enduring influence. Within a couple of years, everybody was similarly stripping down their studio sound and aiming for a more direct, live and spontaneous approach.

But Sgt. Pepper holds up well, it has an immediate opener, some great wit and warmth, versatility and broadness, closes with a big, oft-quoted track. It weighs in (as records then usually did) at less than 40 minutes, which sounds mercifully abrupt, and a lot of the experiments don't hold up as well today, but it's a certifiable and iconic classic, maybe the Beatles best (?) and shows them at the height of their melodic powers, willing to change and daring to move into completely uncharted water.

Do you like this music, or do you find it to be old fogey stuff, with 60’s pretentiousness dialled up to 11? I wouldn’t wear the grooves out listening to it, but I think it’s definitely a great album…