Even today, 30 years later, this is still the most influential album of all time. From Lennon's dreamy audiovisual work "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" (do you think of Stephen Chow's "Kiss My Baby" MTV? In fact, the Beatles can be seen in many of Stephen Chow's works. (not just the cover of Yellow Submarin!), to the carnival-like "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", to Paul McCartney's elegant "When I'm 64", to Harrison's The Indian-style "Within You Without You" (very unique! Can you find the second one from the Beatles?), and the avant-garde pocket song "A Day in the Life" - in fact, almost every single The songs are all wonderful! The entire album is really a milestone in the music and pop culture of the 1960s.
Although the 1966 Beatles were tired of touring, they still had a mission to complete. Two days after the recording of the album Revolver ended, the Beatles hit the road. There were no surprises with the nostalgia show in Hamburg, but they ran into trouble in Japan and the Philippines. The local leader arranged for them to perform at the Nippon Budokan, which aroused the anger of Japanese traditionalists. The protests and the intervention of 35,000 security personnel put a lot of pressure on the Beatles and their Japanese fans, making the Beatles like prisoners during their four-day stay in Japan. The troubles in the Philippines are worse. Due to a communication misunderstanding, Beetle did not attend the banquet of the First Lady of the Philippines. The Philippine media was filled with outrage. After Epstein paid nearly ￡7,000, the Beetle left the country in a hurry.
* Back in England, the Beatles were still angry. A reporter at a London airport asked the Beetle about its plans. George replied sarcastically: "Let's rest for a few weeks to recover before we go to the United States and get beaten." Unfortunately, his words came true. On March 4, London's Evening Standard published an article by reporter Maureen Cleave interviewing John, which mentioned that John was reading a book on religion. The article quoted a few words John said casually: "Christianity will disappear...we are now more popular than Jesus." His words did not attract attention at the time, but on July 29, an American youth magazine "Datebook" reprinted This interview was published and John’s words were quoted on the front page, which immediately caused an uproar in the United States, which has a strong religious atmosphere. Twenty-two radio stations banned Beatles songs (some of which did not originally play Beatles songs), and some people organized rallies to burn Beatles records and memorabilia.
*On August 11, the Beatles arrived in the United States and held a press conference in Chicago. John reluctantly apologized for his offensive remarks. But they were still under threat during the performance, and at this time the Beatles could not guarantee an audience of more than 50,000. But the more important problem is that the crazy fans who came to see the show failed to keep up with the Beatles' development and still drowned out their singing with screams. During the US tour, the Beatles did not perform a single song from the Revolver album. Live performances were clearly coming to an end for the Beatles. On the evening of August 29, 1966, they played their last show in San Francisco. That fall, John joined the cast of the movie "How I Won the War" and began wearing his famous round glasses. On November 9, he met Yoko Ono for the first time at the Indica Gallery in London; Paul composed the soundtrack for the movie "The Family Way"; Ringo spent leisurely time with his family in the countryside; and George was exposed to Eastern music and culture in India and religion. The media suspected that the Beatles' disbandment was imminent, but they did not expect that another epoch-making album was about to be produced.
*At the end of November, the Beatles met in London and decided to continue recording songs. Their original plan was to be a record nostalgic for the Beatles' (especially John and Paul's) childhood and teenage years in Liverpool, and John, as always, set the tone for the new album with "Strawberry Fields Forever." However, due to EMI's requirement to release a single record first, the final album did not include "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Paul's "Penny Lane". The song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" written by Paul found another theme for them: the entire album as a virtual band performance. After about 5 months, the album was finally recorded. This was the Beatles' longest album to date.
*The new album*** has 13 songs, 7 of which are works by Paul, 3 by John, and only 1 by George. The verse part of the album's finale, "A Day in the Life," was written by John, while the transition section used an unfinished song fragment of Paul's. In terms of singing, except for Paul giving "With a Little Help from My Friends" to Ringo as the vocalist, the rest are basically the works of each singer, except for the penultimate song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (reproduced version ) is the chorus of the orchestra.
*Strictly speaking, "Sgt. Pepper" may not be considered a concept record. John said disdainfully in 1980 that his songs on the album had nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper's band. Indeed, the songs on the album do not have a clear and coherent theme in terms of lyrical content, and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has not developed a distinctive personality that can support the entire album. However, this does not mean that the album is just a loosely structured collection of songs. The Beatles had made plenty of artistic and technical innovations since the "Rubber Soul" album, but the public still seemed to insist on viewing them as shallow pop icons. The Beatles announced to the world with their new album that they were determined to break with the past. Not only did the Beatles end their tour, but they ditched their hairstyle and completely transformed their image, signaling the band's desire to pursue art beyond the mold of a pop band. The exaggerated and slightly vulgar "Sgt. Pepper" band image seems superficial. The lyrics are printed on the album sleeve, which also emphasizes to the audience that the songs are not just pleasant music, but works of art with ideas and themes. In the finale song "A Day in the Life", John's lyrics "I'd love to turn you on" seem to represent the theme of the entire album: to excite the listener and show people a whole new world.
*In order to make the cover reach the same "art" level as the music, the Beatles approached Peter Blake to design the cover. After discussion, Blake proposed using a giant collage to create a weird crowd, with members of the Beatles wearing Sgt. Pepper uniforms standing in the middle, and wax figures of the Beatles next to them. All three Beetles except Ringo made their own lists. The final figures include writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Aldous Huxley, Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde, and Lewis Carroll; actors such as Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple; Marx, Ron Thinkers such as Martial Arts and other thinkers; and other artists such as Bob Dylan (please refer to this page for full details of the cover: /f?kz=277579340 13F) John's proposal of Jesus, Gandhi and Hitler was rejected. Epstein was worried about being sued and was not enthusiastic about the cover design. His staff were extremely busy contacting all relevant parties to obtain the rights to use the photos.
*The album topped the charts in the first week after its release in the UK. After its release in the United States on June 2, the album topped the charts for 15 weeks. The UK and US versions of the album finally came together. The album caused a sensation upon its release, was well received by critics, and became the soundtrack to the American hippie movement in the mid-1960s. Because there was no break between songs, many radio stations played the album from beginning to end in their programs, which was very rare at the time and established the album's status as a "concept record."
*When recording the album songs, the Beatles, George Martin and technicians produced two versions of mono and stereo mixes. The record released at that time was a mono mix version, but the CD released later The version uses a stereo mix. Many fans felt that the original mono version worked better, while the stereo version had some bugs.
*The record won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Best Cover, Best Recording Production (Non-Classical) and Best Contemporary Album. It was adapted into a musical in the mid-1970s and then into a movie, but it was very unsuccessful.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is the most important album in the history of rock and roll and is the work of the greatest band in the history of rock and roll in terms of concept, sound, composition, cover art and studio technology. A remarkable adventure. From the majestic brass and fuzzy guitars of the album's title track to the spasmodic orchestral blasts and deafening piano harmonies of "A Day in the Life"'s closing moments, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The 13 songs are the culmination of the Beatles' eight-year recording career. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have never been more fearless and unified in their pursuit of magic and excellence.
Released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 1967, and in the United States the next day, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is also the most fundamental declaration of change in rock music. For the Beatles, it was a decisive farewell to the suits, world tours and rough record production of the past.
"We were tired of being the Beatles," McCartney would say decades later. "We were no longer children. We had grown into men...artists, not performers."
< p> At the same time, "Sgt. Pepper" ushered in an unforgettable era full of hope, upheaval and achievement: the late 1960s, especially the "Summer of Love" of 1967. Through brilliant music, dreamy lyrics and dazzling packaging, "Sgt. Pepper" defines the fertile and revolutionary optimism rendered by psychedelics, and quickly transforms the story of love, psychedelic The gospel of medicine, Eastern philosophy and the electric guitar spread around the world. No album of that era, or before that, had such an immediate and massive impact. It takes the influence and ambition of the world's greatest rock band to new heights. "It was sublime," Lennon confirmed in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, describing the album and his collaboration with McCartney. “Paul and I definitely wrote together,” Lennon said, and their collaboration can be seen throughout Sgt. Autobiographical texts recalling his school days simultaneously construct fantasies about death and infinity; and in "Getting Better (Because It Can't Be Worse)", Lennon's naughty retorts and McCartney's harmonies complement each other."'Sgt. Pepper' was our biggest effort," Starr recalled in the 2000 Beatles autobiographical documentary "Collected Poems," "and the best thing was "Whoever has the best idea - no matter who it is - we're going to take it from a selfish standpoint and say, 'That's mine' and take it for ourselves." Sergeant's long-time assistant Neil Espino suggested that they play the album's title track before the finale "A Day in the Life" to complete the dramatic conception of "Sgt. Pepper": a fictional concert by a virtual band. The Beatles performed.
The first piece recorded was a McCartney work: the concert-hall style lyrical ditty "When I'm 64", recorded on December 6, 1966. (Lennon's psychedelic work "Strawberry Fields Forever", which recalled his childhood in Liverpool, was recorded two weeks ago but was released as a single in February 1967.) However, the real birthday of "Sgt. Pepper" was in 1966 On August 29, when the Beatles played their last live show in San Francisco, they had recorded albums - "Please Make Me Happy" (1963), "Rubber Heart" (1965) - in between tiring tours. ), "Revolver" (1966). After leaving the road, the Beatles were able to stay away from the hysteria of Beatle fans and be free to be a band. McCartney went a step further. On the plane to London in November 1966, when he had just finished his vacation in Kenya, McCartney suddenly had the idea to make an album to disguise the Beatles. He could make up a band that had the Beatles. Another side of Sergeant's personality, which later became Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. “We can pretend to be someone else,” McCartney explains in “Selected Poems.” “That frees you up—when you’re in front of a microphone or with your guitar, you can do anything because it’s not you. "
There are only two songs on the final album, both by McCartney, related to the character of Sergeant Pepper: the album's title track, and Starr's breezy "A Little Bit." "Friends Help", sung in the story by Sgt. Pepper's bass star Billy Shires. "The other songs might as well be on other albums," Lennon later insisted. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect arrangement: Lennon’s rollicking, Victorian-style “For the Benefit of Mr. Kate” (inspired by an 1843 circus poster); or McCartney’s “ "Fill a Hole" is a song that not only has a gorgeous melancholy, but also seems to mix the shadows of the past (harpsichord played by Beatles producer George Martin) and the sunshine of modern times (two tracks led by Harrison). Guitar). The predictions about Pablo are now dead.
The Beatles spent 700 hours recording "Sgt. Pepper" (engineer Geoff Imric recorded them), from the end of 1966 to April 1967. The band had just three days to complete Lennon's gorgeous daydream "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." "A Day in the Life," the most complex song on the album, was written in just five days. (The boundless piano harmony was created by four people, Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Martin and Beatles road manager Merle Evans, using ten hands to hit three pianos at the same time). None of the other three Beatles appeared on Harrison's "With or Without You," his sermon on materialism and loyalty played on the sitar. . But the band still wisely placed it in the middle of the record, which also serves as the beginning of side two: this crucial meditation breaks the indulgent joy.
The Beatles' exploration of multi-channel in "Sgt. Pepper" greatly changed the recording effect ("A Day in the Life" with orchestral accompaniment created the first eight-track recording in British history: two Four-track recorder recording simultaneously). The visual feast of the cover of "Sgt. Pepper" has officially raised the cover design of rock albums to an artistic level.
Michael Cooper's photograph of the Beatles in marching band attire - standing in front of cardboard cutouts of celebrity figures created by artist Pete Blake - is one of the most enduring images of the psychedelic era. "Sgt. Pepper" was also the first rock album to have lyrics printed on the inside of the album cover.
Of course, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was named Rolling Stone's No. 1 album not just because of those firsts - The Beatles as musicians, pioneering artists and pop stars , the best thing that Trinity ever did, became this album. In 1967, a promotional advertisement for the album declared: "Remember Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as The Beatles." As McCartney noted, the album was "one of our great shows."
The performance will go down in history forever.