Amazon.com essential recording: Before Sgt. Pepper, no one seriously thought of rock music as actual art. That all changed in 1967, though, when John, Paul, George and Ringo (with "A Little Help" from their friend, producer George Martin) created an undeniable work of art which remains, after 30-plus years, one of the most influential albums of all time. From Lennon's evocative word/sound pictures (the trippy "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," the carnival-like "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite") and McCartney's music hall-styled "When I'm 64," to Harrison's Eastern-leaning "Within You Without You," and the avant-garde mini-suite, "A Day in the Life," Sgt. Pepper was a milestone for both '60s music and popular culture. --Billy Altman
Great Album - But Not Their Best This album is super sweet. I can listen to "Lovely Rita" over and over again. The only song that is kind of a bummer is "When I'm Sixty-Four". The only reason that I put what I did as my title is that many people think that this is the greatest record ever made, well I have news for them. The "White Album", "Rubber Soul", "Revolver", just to name a few. If you don't already own this, what are you waiting for, get it today.
Had to have it! The best from the BEST! When my Sgt. Pepper CD dissappeared I had to replace it! Although I still think listening to the original vinyl is the best way to savor this extraordinay album ... I NEED to be able to take my music with me. Amazon's price was fair and the shipping was fast. Everyone should have a copy of this Beatles' classic.
what if ?????????? What if, Paul Mcartney would make one last "BEATLES" record ?? All he has to do is REMASTER this album.......BUT.....add the 2 missing songs to this same album , with a different line -up. The famous "PENNY LANE" and "STRAWBERRY FIELDS" would be added. It was the biggest screw-up in rock and roll to leave them off.........SO FIX IT !!! Make this new album a SPECIAL RELEASE, seriously. Eveybody knows this album should have had those songs any-way. There's plenty of room on CD's. Heck, you can even leave off the "WITHIN YOU,WITHOUT YOU song ( Everyone hates it anyway ). This new ST. PEPPER album would be a great way for PAUL to end his career.....AND........He would actually FIX HISTORY.
This sacred cow is actually good I'm not much for worshipping sacred cows. I wouldn't call PET SOUNDS or DARK SIDE OF THE MOON masterpieces, even if "the experts" say that they are. And I don't really care if SGT PEPPER is the birth of modern pop music or important regarding the evolution of artrock. I just think that the songs on SGT PEPPER are really good. Good enough to get 5 stars.
It was sixty-one years ago today... It's funny how history works. When it came out in 1967, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a seismic event. It was an instant cultural touchstone, a musical icon, a psychotropic chunk of pop art product that glistened with possibility and newness. It was, famously, the album that signaled the rise of rock `n' roll as an artform rather than a teenage flavor-of-the-decade. It was bold, energetic, and state-of-the-art. It was conceptual- even the packaging and cover art were part of the journey. It was innovative. In a visionary synthesis of Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson and Karlheinz Stockhausen, the Fab Four sought to combine experimentation and melody, innovation and whimsy, futurism and present...ism. It was the album that made it officially OK for popular artists to use tape loops and weird (read: non-European) instruments and genre hopping. Sure, other bands had been experimental before them, but the Beatles were the first megastars to do it over the length of a full album. Impressive.
So, I'm not going to deny the historical significance of this album. I'm not quite insane enough to do that. I won't try to refute its influence, either. But what I am going to complain about is its listenability. Its raw musical value, if you will. Evaluating music on an intellectual level is interesting and useful, but it's all academic if the stuff doesn't make for a good listening experience. And by that measure, the Beatles have done much, much better than Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It hasn't aged all that well, you see. I can do without a lot of this stuff: "When I'm Sixty-Four" is a cutesy music hall exercise that, all these years later, sounds cheeky and not all that entertaining. "Lovely Rita" and "Good Morning Good Morning" sound absolutely generic, and "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" is (how do I put this delicately?) annoying and stupid.
Even some of the album's better songs aren't exactly top-drawer material: "She's Leaving Home" is sad and pretty, "Getting Better" is pleasantly bouncy (good lyrics, too), and "Within You Without You" shows off George's sitar fascination to trippy effect, but none of those three are particularly special. Same goes for the rocking title track.
But having said all that, I still do think that this is a pretty good album. If the review so far has seemed harsh, it's because I've learned to hold the Beatles to a pretty high standard. A five-star Beatles album (Rubber Soul, Revolver, etc.) needs to be saturated with pure gold. On this disc, I only count a few true gems. "A Day In The Life" is the shiniest. It's an absolutely gorgeous song, a symphonic tale of quiet desolation and muted melancholia. I also like the quintessentially psychedelic "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," and the inexplicably delightful "Fixing A Hole."
Rock historians, Beatle maniacs, and those who are trying to collect all of the obvious touchstones of musical history should certainly pick this up. Otherwise, think twice.
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