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SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND ’ most famous album has only grown in stature over the last 50 years and marks the moment in musical history where pop was afforded equal rights with high art. Steve Harnell doffs his cap

30 gt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band occupies a singular place in the Beatles canon – it’s both their most important album Sand their most misunderstood. In terms of its significance, there can be no more game-changing long-player in the history of recorded music than the band’s 1967 opus. It marked the moment where pop music broke the cultural glass ceiling and could be considered high art. However, its reputation as rock’s finest ‘concept’ album has always been a misnomer. Under examination, the Sgt. Pepper ‘fake band’ conceit unravels after its second and only makes a cursory reappearance on the penultimate track. So much for joined-up thinking, then. Like Revolver, the diversity of musical styles and tonalities – from Lennon’s acerbic bitterness and psychedelic imagination to McCartney’s whimsy and Harrison’s American pop artist with two of her soft sculptures: the ‘Old Lady’ figure on the mysticism – is really what lies at the right features on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, heart of Sgt. Pepper’s long-term appeal. co-designed by her and her husband Peter Blake Tony Evans/Getty Images Evans/Getty Tony It’s also ’s finest achievement as a producer. The genesis of Sgt. Pepper marks a “I thought it would be nice to lose our You could argue that the band made key moment in Beatle history where identities, to submerge ourselves in the more consistent albums (step forward, McCartney asserted himself as the persona of a fake group. We could Revolver) and created more diverse main motivational force within the make up all the culture around it and collections (no doubt, the astonishingly band. Meanwhile, manager Brian collect all our heroes in one place.” generous pick’n’mix smorgasbord of Epstein, who was battling depression At first, the idea formed just the seed the ‘The White Album’) but there’s and an addiction to pills, was by this for the rocking opening song from the something about the whole package of point proving to be far from the album. It was only three months into Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band dynamic force of old. Distracted by his recording sessions that McCartney – its clutch of now-classic tunes, the troubles, his role was becoming more suggested that the ‘Sgt. Pepper’ psychedelic, era-defining front cover, reactive than proactive. concept could be used as an the much-vaunted audio trickery The bassist wrote the lion’s share of overarching framing device. within – that holds a special place in the material on the album and came up George Martin recalled: “Sgt. Pepper many Fab Four fans’ hearts. with an idea for a song which would itself didn’t appear until halfway All was not idyllic within the ranks of eventually become Sgt. Pepper’s through making the album. It was Beatledom, though. Itchy feet had set seemingly unifying concept while on a Paul’s song, just an ordinary rock in as they reacted against the return flight to from Kenya number. But when we finished it, Paul suffocating pressure of being part of with tour manager . With a said: ‘Why don’t we make a whole the world’s biggest band. Harrison view to freeing up The Beatles album as though the Pepper band even threatened to leave until his stylistically, McCartney posited the really existed, as though Sgt. Pepper anger was appeased by Brian Epstein’s concept of creating a fictional was making the record?’ I loved the promise that their touring days were Edwardian-era military band. idea and from that moment on it was as officially over. Lennon took time out Evans, for his part, riffing off the au though Pepper had a life of its own.” to hook up once again with A Hard courant West Coast psychedelic band ’ seminal Day’s Night and Help! director names of the times, reportedly came up was a regular touchstone throughout Richard Lester, playing the part of with the title Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely the recording process and a continual Musketeer Gripweed in How I Won Hearts Club Band. Paul later explained: reminder of how a studio could The War. McCartney explored his growing fascination with brass band “PAUL SAID, ‘WHY DON’T WE MAKE A music by providing the soundtrack to the TV drama The Family Way, WHOLE ALBUM AS THOUGH SGT. PEPPER but he had bigger plans in mind for WAS MAKING THE RECORD?’ I LOVED his future. THE IDEA” GEORGE MARTIN 31 SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND 1967 •

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Lennon & McCartney) With A Little Help From My Friends (Lennon & McCartney) ’s Romany Sgt. Pepper caravan, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Lennon & painted by The Fool, July 1967. The vehicle spent McCartney) years on Lennon’s Irish island but was retrieved (Lennon & McCartney) and part-restored by Ringo after John’s death Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Archive/Getty Standard/Hulton Evening (Lennon & McCartney) become an instrument in itself. February 1967. Remarkably, what is She’s Leaving Home (Lennon & McCartney) McCartney has recognised the almost universally considered the Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! (Lennon & influence of Freak Out! by The Mothers greatest 7-inch record of all time only McCartney) of Invention, now often seen as rock’s made it to #2 in the UK singles chart. first fully-fledged concept album (in a Engelbert Humperdinck’s Please perfect example of pop eating itself, Release Me pipped it to the summit, (Harrison) ’s band went on to satirise breaking The Beatles’ four-year run of When I’m Sixty Four (Lennon & McCartney) Sgt. Pepper with their 1968 album chart-topping singles in the UK. (Lennon & McCartney) We’re Only In It For The Money, which The two sides of the single were Good Morning Good Morning (Lennon & parodied the famous cover art. Upon omitted from the eventual tracklisting McCartney) their record company’s insistence, of the album, a decision which George Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band however, Zappa’s artful reference was Martin has described as the biggest (Reprise) (Lennon & McCartney) removed from the front of the album mistake of his professional life. The (Lennon & McCartney) and placed inside the gatefold). whole affair left a sour taste in the afforded the luxury mouth, for not only did the single fail of limitless studio time, they originally to make it to #1 but the two ’ pressurised into writing songs to order began recording sessions for what absence also stymied the entire rather than being left to wait for the became Sgt. Pepper with the idea of ‘Liverpool childhood’ concept. muse to strike. Meanwhile, Harrison creating a themed work around their was sensing that the new working childhoods in Liverpool. Early fruit THE RACE TO WRITE methods of endless overdubs and yielded from those sessions were With Paul asserting his dominance assembling songs piecemeal was Strawberry Fields Forever, When I’m over the direction and workload of the ruining their traditional band dynamic. Sixty-Four and . With the band, resentment began to increase With so much dead time in-between band taking an unheard-of amount of among his colleagues. Always the first takes, Ringo was a passive bystander time between the delivery of albums to arrive at recording sessions with an for much of the recording. “The biggest – an unrelenting record-buying public armful of new compositions, memory I have of Sgt. Pepper is that I had ben led to expect most acts to McCartney’s proliferant talent forced learned to play chess,” he added drily. release two LPs a year – Epstein was Lennon’s hand. John’s inherent sense From the album’s opening moments eventually pressured into giving up of competition with Paul generally presenting an orchestra tuning up, The Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny allowed him to keep pace, but there Beatles tap into an interesting dualism: Lane for a double A-sided single in was a sense that he was being they are at once embracing the elder order and thumbing their nose at the THE TWO SIDES OF THE STRAWBERRY establishment. This is an album in the form of an event – unapologetic in its FIELDS FOREVER/PENNY LANE SINGLE scale, wilfully indulgent and very WERE OMITTED FROM THE TRACKLISTING knowing. George Martin’s adept OF THE ALBUM sprinkling of sound effects – refined 32 John Downing/Getty Images John Downing/Getty

It’s May 1967, and the four Beatles PERSONNEL show off the sleeve of their new album JOHN LENNON – lead, harmony and at the press launch at Brian Epstein’s house at 24 Chapel Street, London background vocals; rhythm, acoustic and lead guitars; Hammond organ and final piano E during his years working with The become a psychedelic treasure, but chord; harmonica, tape loops, sound Goons and many more comedy acts of among the plaudits for its effects and comb and tissue paper; the day – is a continual feature of Sgt. groundbreaking use of surrealism the handclaps, tambourine and maracas Pepper. The audience noise at the pleasing counterpoint of laid-back album’s beginning was a combination verses and stomping chorus is often PAUL McCARTNEY – lead, harmony and of a recording of the Beyond The Fringe missed. Inspired by a pastel drawing by background vocals; bass and lead guitars; stage show plus takes from the his four-year-old son Julian, Lennon electric and acoustic pianos, Lowrey and orchestral session that gave birth to A also drew from Lewis Carroll’s Hammond organs; handclaps; vocalisations, Day In The Life. Through The Looking-Glass for the tape loops, sound effects, comb and paper The Sgt. Pepper theme itself is a deft dreamlike quality of the song. For once, mix of overture, music hall the drug connotations – it was banned – harmony and atmospherics and heavy rock. Paul by the BBC as being pro-LSD – were background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic McCartney had witnessed iconic guitar entirely unintentional. guitars; ; tamboura; harmonica and hero Jimi Hendrix in full flight just two From the psychedelic transportation ; handclaps and maracas; lead vocals on nights before recording the track at of Lucy, we’re snapped back into focus Within You Without You Brian Epstein’s Saville Theatre. Paul’s by the upbeat jangle of Getting Better, a rocking solo, as with his stunning perfect blend of McCartney and contribution to Taxman the previous Lennon’s yin and yang songwriting – drums, congas, tambourine, year, showcased his under-rated chops (Lennon’s contribution of “It can’t get maracas, congas, handclaps and tubular bells; as a lead guitar player. much worse” in the countermelody lead vocals on With A Little Help From My Ringo’s appearance as ‘Billy Shears’ still raises a wry smile). Also provided Friends; harmonica; final piano E chord on With A Little Help From My Friends by Lennon was the song’s darkest finds him at the edge of his limited lyrical refrain: “I used to be cruel to my PRODUCTION vocal range for an anthem of collective woman/ I beat her and kept her apart GEORGE MARTIN – producer and mixer; tape unity that’s a neat summation of the from the things that she loved”, which loops and sound effects; harpsichord on hopes of the emerging counter-culture still feels odd coming from the lips of Fixing A Hole, harmonium, Lowrey organ and community and a striking example of the cherubic McCartney. glockenspiel on Being For The Benefit Of Mr. McCartney’s supremely agile bass Accusations of drug references seem Kite!, Hammond organ on With A Little Help playing. It was originally titled Bad to have affixed themselves to Beatles From My Friends, and piano on Getting Better Finger Boogie; The Beatles later played tracks at every turn during their and the piano solo in Lovely Rita; final a key part in the eventual rise of Apple psychedelic pomp. Even McCartney’s harmonium chord Records signees Badfinger, choosing apparently innocent Fixing A Hole was their name, with Paul writing the Top 5 deemed to promote heroin. With – audio engineering; tape hit Come And Get It for them. critics reaching for ever-more loops and sound effects Lennon’s first major contribution, ridiculous links, they may have Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, has overlooked the fact this was more

33 SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

To and The Inner Light it marks his fascination with Indian classical music and underlines the forward-thinking nature of this LP at its best. Recorded with uncredited musicians from the Asian Music Centre, Harrison is the only Beatle on the song and, like Taxman, it shows his tendency for sanctimonious finger-wagging. For When I’m Sixty-Four, McCartney is seemingly occupying the same headspace as when he soundtracked TV drama The Family Way the previous winter. McCartney detractors seize upon moments like this – Lennon, of course, termed it “granny music” – but George Martin alongside Geoff Emerick, the lightness of touch works well when being handed his Grammy award for the engineering of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely set against John’s cynicism and Hearts Club Band by Ringo, March 1968 George’s didacticism. The comedy of Larry Ellis/Daily Express/Getty Images Larry Ellis/Daily Express/Getty George Formby casts a shadow here, as likely Paul’s take on recent repairs to Benefit of Mr Kite! and the do the saucy seaside postcards of his Scottish farmhouse mixed with hallucinatory nature of George Donald McGill. reflections on the state of his Martin’s and Geoff Emerick’s McCartney had kept the melody in songwriting muse. fairground interludes. With Lennon his songwriting locker since the very One of the album’s weaker tracks, frantically trying to keep pace with early days of the band’s life; he played Fixing A Hole is blown out of the water Paul’s output, expediency was the it as an instrumental on occasions at by the heartbreaking She’s Leaving order of the day, with the lyrics barely club gigs when the PA gave up the Home that follows. Every bit as good as changed from the text of an 1843 poster ghost and finally wrote the lyrics when the finely-observed narrative behind for ’s in his father turned 64 in July 1966. Revolver’s similarly orchestrated bought in a Kent antique shop while on This section of the album is Sgt. Eleanor Rigby, the song was an incisive location filming the promo film for Pepper’s least convincing. It’s difficult kitchen sink drama that found The Strawberry Fields Forever. With to conclude that Lovely Rita figures Beatles expertly straddling the Lennon setting Martin and Emerick among the band’s best work. generation gap between disaffected the task of creating a fairground McCartney’s winning way with a youth and disappointed parenthood. atmosphere where the listener could melody once again gets him over the Sheila Bromberg’s harp intro is “smell the sawdust”, the pair line and he pulls something out of the wonderfully nuanced, and orchestral assembled a sound collage splicing fire with the surprisingly psychedelic arranger Mike Leander’s occasional together loops of harmoniums, steam coda, but could this be Sgt. Pepper’s use of Indian motifs within a organs, harmonicas and calliopes. weak link? Lennon certainly thought traditional Western string arrangement so, pointing out: “These stories about is absolutely inspired. FROM INSIDE TO OUTSIDE boring people doing boring things – Those attracted by Sgt. Pepper’s Side 2 opens with George’s only being postmen and secretaries and studio innovations will no doubt songwriting contribution to Sgt. writing home. I’m not interested in gravitate towards the swirling cut-and- Pepper, the mid-tempo raga Within third-party songs. I like to write about paste psychedelia of Being For The You, Without You. Along with Love You me, ’cos I know me.” CRITICS… WHO NEEDS ’EM? No other album in rock history has poll of pop stars published in a KLF provocateur Bill Drummond The facts and figures speak for elicited such an extraordinary 1998 issue of Melody Maker. went as far as to say that the themselves, though. Despite no range of critical response as Sgt. The record’s status as a cultural album was “the worst thing that singles being issued to coincide Pepper. After all, the nigh-on 40 sacred cow has long been assured ever happened to music”, while with its release, Sgt. Pepper minutes of music contained herein – Newsweek’s Jack Kroll Keith Richards topped the charts in the UK for an has variously been described by compared its lyrics to literary lumped it in with his own band’s astonishing 27 consecutive weeks Kenneth Tynan of The Times as “a figures including Edith Sitwell, psychedelic folly Their Satanic and 15 weeks in the US. On home decisive moment in the history of Harold Pinter and even TS Eliot – Majesties Request, labelling soil, it sold 250,000 copies in its Western civilisation” and voted but over the years the odd Pepper nothing more than “a first week. Pipe down Keef, the the worst record ever made in a dissenting voice has appeared. mishmash of rubbish”. people have spoken.

34 GROOVE IS IN THE ART The Beatles’ attention to sonic Lennon added a 15kHz high- the next morning, they spent nine that says “never could be any detail on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely frequency tone to annoy dogs, hours huddled around two other way”. One notorious Hearts Club Band even went as far and the band spent hours microphones recording what interpretation is that when played as an audio snippet that isn’t recording speech which was cut amounted to only a handful of backwards, a band member can be strictly on the record itself. The up, re-spliced and reversed to seconds’ worth of material. heard saying “We will f*** you infinite run-out groove which create a montage of gibberish. Depending on the pressing of the like Superman”. It’s fair to say kicks in after the epochal final After completing final mixes of vinyl you have, there are at least that the jury is still out on this chord of A Day In The Life has (it the album on 21 April 1967, the four different versions of the one and even those involved are was ever thus) been the subject of band reconvened for their final bit groove. Can we make out anything unlikely to furnish us with endless conjecture by fans. of audio trickery. Ending at 4am from the confusion? Perhaps a line definitive answers.

Lennon is not above criticism and another story about a many would expect, but Paul, the himself, though. Once again looking for potholes survey – the perfect contrast admirer of avant garde composers John a quick hit of inspiration, Good of the significant and mundane. Cage and Luciano Berio. Morning Good Morning came from the Browne was a London scenester who When the original framework of the kind of mundane starting point he drove his Lotus Elan at high speed song included a 24-bar gap, the would have hammered McCartney for through red lights in South ever-ambitious McCartney suggested using – the jingle of a Kellogg’s Corn Kensington, hitting a parked van and they commission a 90-piece orchestra Flakes advert. Perhaps he knew it, too, killing himself. It’s not known if he was to fill the hole. In the event, George and ultimately dismissed it as under the influence of LSD at the time Martin corralled 40 members of the “throwaway, a piece of garbage”. of the crash, but it’s thought John Royal Philharmonic and London In its favour, it does inject the back wrote the lyrics with that in mind. Symphony Orchestra. When recording end of the album with a much-needed Lennon’s narrator is oddly changeable took place, famous friends including shot of adrenaline, with McCartney in tone throughout the piece, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, and Harrison both competing against particularly in the Browne section: Keith Richards, Donovan and Michael each other on lead guitar. And if any “And though the news was rather sad/ Nesmith from The Monkees looked on proof was needed that The Beatles’ eye Well I just had to laugh”. in the studio. Adding to the fun (and (or ear) for detail was fully focussed at So what is the message of one of the irritation of the assembled the sessions then consider the fact that most analysed five minutes in music sessioneers), the orchestra was asked even the sound effects colouring the history? Perhaps it’s an investigation to wear evening dress and put on fake end of the song were ordered so that into existential crisis, the futility of noses, comedy hats, false eyes and bald each successive animal heard was large existence where life gives equal wigs, much to the amusement of the enough to eat the previous one. prominence to tragedy, war and assembled celebrity throng, with After the blink-and-you-miss-it Sgt. mundanity. Does the “I’d love to turn McCartney playing the role of Pepper band reprise to provide some you on” section allude to the conductor, baton in hand. form and shape to the preceding 11 transportational power of drugs and Lennon’s request to Martin was for songs comes what is possibly the the imagination to lift us out of our an orchestral section that was “a greatest pop song ever committed to everyday worries? tremendous build-up, from nothing to tape – if you could call the epochal A Although McCartney’s breezy something absolutely like the end of Day In The Life ‘pop’… mid-section contribution to the track, the world.” Martin instructed the It took an unprecedented 34 hours of like Getting Better, appears in orchestra to create a blitzkrieg of studio time to perfect the track, and microcosm to show the bitter and organised chaos: “It’s every man for not a moment was wasted. Recording sweet contrast of the two major himself. Don’t listen to the fellow next began on the song just two days after ’ contrasting styles, that’s to you. If he’s a third away from you, let the band finished Penny Lane. It too superficial an understanding of the him go. Just do your own slide up, your became so important to the impact of band dynamic. A Day In The Life is own way.” Sgt. Pepper that it sits outside the most acclaimed for its two All that was left was the final E chord framing structure of the fictional band, extraordinary experimental ‘end of the played by all four Beatles. An but when work first began on it, few world’ orchestral interludes, yet the apocalyptic end of the world, but the realised just what they had on their man behind the idea wasn’t Lennon, as start of a new one for rock music. ✶ hands. As with …Mr Kite, there’s a reportage element to Lennon’s lyric LENNON’S REQUEST TO GEORGE MARTIN with allusions to newspaper articles about the suicide of a young millionaire WAS “A TREMENDOUS BUILD-UP, FROM friend of theirs, Tara Browne, that NOTHING TO ABSOLUTELY THE appeared in the pages of the Daily Mail END OF THE WORLD” 35