Track Listing
1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" – 2:04
2. "With a Little Help from My Friends" – 2:46
3. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" – 3:30
4. "Getting Better" – 2:49
5. "Fixing a Hole" – 2:38
6. "She's Leaving Home" – 3:37
7. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" – 2:37
8. "Within You Without You" (George Harrison) – 5:07
9. "When I'm Sixty-Four" – 2:37
10. "Lovely Rita" – 2:44
11. "Good Morning Good Morning" – 2:43
12. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)" – 1:20
13. "A Day in the Life" – 5:33
On June 1st, 1967, the mop tops had forever shed their squeaky clean image and now journeyed into the realm of psychedelia. The media dubs the summer of 1967 “The Summer Of Love.” The whole thing was probably exaggerated, but regardless, The Beatles officially ushered it in, with the release of this record.
One of my favorite features of this album is a thing I call the “Sgt. Pepper Beat.” It’s not really a “beat”, at times it is, but you’ll notice this whole album has the same upbeat mood, even if the song has an orchestra, or if it has only a few instruments like Fixing A Hole, it still has this mood or beat that’s hard to put a finger on, it’s not like the previous upbeat Beatles, of I Saw Her Standing There, it’s more free, more like it’s floating. Places where I found this
1. “With A Little Help From My Friends”:
YouTube - The Beatles - With a little help from my friends
2. “Fixing A Hole”:
YouTube - The Beatles - Fixing a Hole
3. “Getting Better”:
YouTube - The Beatles - Getting Better
Those three songs are the best example of the beat and mood I’m talking about. In the other songs it’s more subtle, but nevertheless there. It’s one of the things that makes this album simply lovely.
The album opens with a crowd, probably the quietest crowd any of The Beatles have had in the last five years. It’s a fake crowd, Paul came up with the concept of an album that went on tour by itself, so they wouldn’t have to. He got the idea from Elvis, who at the time had his golden Cadillac on tour, and people paid money to see it. He came up with the idea that The Beatles weren’t actually The Beatles and were this fictitious band. This theme was abandoned by the third song, but was reintroduced with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise). During this album, pay attention to Ringo’s drumming:
Quote:
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"Sgt. Pepper was the album that changed drumming more than anything else. Before that album, drum fills in rock and roll were pretty rudimentary, all much the same, and this record had what I call space fills where they would leave a tremendous amount of air. It was most appealing to me musically and the sound of the drums got much better. What I had to figure out now was what am I going to do to get drums to sound like that."
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-Al Kooper
To me, there aren’t really any weak spots on this album. The song I like the least is When I’m 64, but other people really like that song, and I like it too, but you have to be in a certain mood for it. This album has one of my favorite songs of all time: A Day In The Life.
Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane and Hello Goodbye were recorded during the same sessions Sgt. Pepper’s was. It’s a shame they aren’t on the album. Their additions would have usurped Revolver as my favorite Beatles album. This is an essential album in rock history, and a must-listen.