Great start to this landmark album, both for the Beatles and in overall rock history. I like your new approach of listening to the entire album first straight through, while still providing us the individual more detail song breakdowns and analysis here in these YT excerpts. I loved watching your expression as you reacted to it for the first time on Patreon and your appreciation for the entire album experience. Glad you are now starting to hear their connection and influence on many of the bands to follow, getting closer to the production levels that you have heard in bands such as Pink Floyd and Queen. Great reaction and commentary on this opening track. Looking forward to hearing your analysis of the other album tracks.
Your comment about thinking of Pink Floyd is really interesting, because when the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper at Abbey Road Studio in one room - Pink Floyd were literally in the room next door recording their first album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". The members of Pink Floyd were invited over to watch the Beatles work (I think it was "Lovely Rita") and were reportedly awe-struck. The Beatles were quite nice about inviting other musicians to hang out with them.
I’m glad someone else mentioned this bit of information. The fact that Amy uses Pink Floyd, of all the possible bands, to make her point is such a crazy coincidence.
What a brilliant review of this song! This analysis is so accurate. I read a lot of analyses of this song but here all aspects of experiencing this music hit the target very well. Thanks very much, it makes me very happy.
The Beatles are my favorite band of all time. I have all their albums on cassette & also cd. I've listened to them all & am blown away evertime I play one. Sounds you don't hear anymore. One of the tragedies of life is hearing a song or album for the first time only once. You can't go back & get that same experience again. I admire your take on your first time listening to their songs. Very refreshing. Thank you for doing this with music. It's very much appreciated. 😊
As talented and intelligent as you are regarding music, I am more astounded that those young men came up with such complex music. Analyzing music is one thing(way beyond me)creating it is something else. Thank you for your analysis
I remember taking home and playing my freshly purchased copy of Sgt Pepper back in 1967... I was a 16 year old aspiring guitarist... it blew my mind 😁😁😁😁
❤ I'm so happy to get this reaction after you having listened to the whole album 😃👍 Fantastic 👌 It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill ... 🎼🎶🎵🎶
Pink Floyd was recording their debut album, "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn", while The Beatles were next door in Studio Two at Abbey Road recording this album.
Paul played the lead guitar on this song. He played on a number of songs I had always assumed were George. Three days after this album was released, Paul went to see Jimi Hendrix play - and Hendrix played this song.
And then when asked to recommend a new band by the producers of The Monterey Pop Festival, Paul recommended the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who performed at Monterey just weeks after performing Sgt. Pepper in front of Paul.
Here we go! I’m in deep love with this opening track. It does an outstanding job of introducing the audience to the band performing, and it’s a real headbanger (not just for Beatles’ standards). That chorus is absolutely soothing for the ears, and it segues right into the next song effortlessly. 💚🩷🩵❤️
I am old and grew up with The Beatles in real time. I experienced Sgt Pepper when I was 16. A bunch of us gathered around the record player and my jaw dropped to the other side of the Earth with the opening tune. I was also enthralled with the idea of printed lyrics, that was new.
I'm currently reading Geoff Emerick's remarkable book "Here, There, and Everywhere". He was the engineer on most of the Beatles albums, including Sgt. Pepper. There are many innovations on this album but one in particular is that Paul did all his bass lines separately, after the main drum/guitar tracks had already been laid down. He would come into the studio by himself and work with Geoff painstakingly for hours, getting his bass lines perfect, note by note. In my opinion, the bass guitar is the lead instrument on this album. This is one of the greatest bass performances in rock history, from start to finish.
I'm a guitarist, but Paul compelled me to pick up the bass. I'm not a bassist. I mainly play Paul's bass lines along with their songs just for the endorphins lol!
Right from the first few seconds you knew it was going to be something different. I’m so glad you went in for a deeper dive on this song, perhaps the greatest album opener of all time. Thanks Virgin rock
I enjoyed this reaction to the intro song a lot and I'm very happy that you listened to the whole album before. Now I'm looking forward to your reaction to each individual song with great enthusiasm 👌😃
Amy, you finally got it! I remember watching your first analysis of Beatles songs. You picked songs from their first albums and were clearly underwhelmed, like, "this is the band that everybody talks about, the greatest band ever? I don´t get it". Because in their early days they were just a boys band, full of energy and innovative for their time, but not that relatable today. Enter Rubber Soul and things started to change, very fast. They were making music no one had ever dreamt of before, taking pop music to unimaginable places. Revolver, MMT, Sgt Pepper... we kids were in paradise. BTW, your new method of listening throughout before commenting is the best approach. Thanks for your brilliant analysis, as a pro you see things we lay folks miss.
My journey with psychedelic experiences began two years ago when I started exploring magic mushrooms. During my third encounter, I found myself on the verge of a challenging trip. In an attempt to maintain a positive mindset, I decided to immerse myself in something uplifting. Despite never having been particularly drawn to The Beatles’ music, I chose to give their album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” a chance, listening to it for the first time. The result was nothing short of transformative. It became one of the most profound musical and spiritual experiences of my life. I discovered that the album is truly a masterpiece of unparalleled brilliance.
Thanks for sharing your experience! What did you feel during Within You Without You? I had a similar experience with friends, during my first acid trip we listened to Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper's and it was perfect on a early summer day outside.
@@otrotipo_otro I like to do it by myself , close my eyes , headphones on and just let go Within or without you was the peak of that trip to me, not only was a beautiful song but also a healing one
@@aquelpibe the Beatles were an antidote to the experience I was having with TOOL and heavier stuff. So yes, it can get weird , but never as weird and dark as TOOL or heavier stuff
@@alfredomanccini9786 I also like to do it by myself, it's the only way to achieve a spiritual/mystical experience. A Day in the Life music video was incredible.
Probably your best reaction till now (not surprising due to the reaction's object) Regarding Pink Floyd, Roger Waters said once that his first feeling after listening to the whole album was 'it is so clever'. "I remember when it came out, pulling the Zephyr Ford into a layby and listening to the whole thing, just sitting there with my mouth hanging open going ‘Wow, this is so complete and accomplished and whatever. But it also was more than that. It had a ton of ideas and a ton of narrative in it. I feel more than any other record, it was the record that gave me and my generation permission to branch out and do whatever we want to. If they can do it, we can do it. It changed everything. They instigated their own revolution because obviously when they started over, it was all ‘Please, Please Me’ and whatever"
As a young teenager when Sgt.Pepper was released, the youth generation was totally enveloped with great music. Motown, West Coast Psychedelia, great female singers and composers, American and British rock bands and great music from one hit wonders. Young people had so much great music to listen to. Then, the Beatles, come out with this amazing album that was like nothing we had heard before, from them or anyone else, it was amazing. From the very moment the Beatles burst on the music scene, they totally and completely changed the direction of the youth movement. Never before or since has there been a transitional change in a generation like it. The Beatles the band, the four men in the band, their music their style are a historical phinominon never to happen again. I feel blessed to have witnessed it all.
It was SO INTENTIONAL, too. There is a clear understanding that the opening track was NOT The Album's Main Song, but merely an intro - an open door to the rest of this concert-in-the-park. "Come on in... join us..." I understand the 'flow' of PET SOUNDS, REVOLVER, etc. leading into SGT PEPPERS', but this was an almost slap-in-fans'-face - NOT TO SHOVE US AWAY - but to give That Band the chance to refresh themselves AS WELL as the audience to say, "Oh wow - this IS completely different!!" By the way, I'm not certain when - at which ReListenings - I assigned a required-must-happen status to the flow into WITH A LITTLE HELP. For me, SGT P cannot exist without flowing in WITH A LITTLE HELP. That song cements the festival attitude - "everyone's joining in, even Ringo on the 2nd - or perhaps first main - impression."
Don't you wish you could share that feeling we had hearing the Beatles when they were new?!? That would add some much needed love back into the world!!
@@SH-th4wy I raged against AM/Top40 radio when I had it, and have always mourned it's loss: "I did not know what we had-!!" The greatest power it offered was an homogenous group of weekly music that might last 1-2-3 months, and everyone around heard that music - like it or not. But today's streaming and individual playlist cannot do that. I loved building Greatest Hits cassettes and SOMETIMES a friend would ask for a copy. But they did that because we all shared radio-knowledge OF those hits, or we were fans of the same albums. Now, word-of-mouth and UA-cam hype is all anyone has. I work with 10-18 year olds, and none of them know that collective groups' favorite artists or songs are. Not all of them. And if their friends don't want to share our "How to play..." sessions, they never 'cross pollinate' with the other's favorites. I didn't care for maybe 10 of Radio's Top 40 on any week, but I heard them all. I KNEW I liked or didn't like them... our students are ignorant of their friends - their generations' - music. We were so lucky to have Local Radio.
@@Cbcw76 That's a cool and interesting perspective. It's like _fewer_ choices put us all in the same boat! You are correct. Top 40 radio basically put us all on the same page. I really appreciate the choice and the crazy-huge access we have with music today! But those oldies live in my heart.
When the original albums were reissued on CD for the first time in the 80’s, they were released in chronological order except for Sgt. Pepper, which was delayed so it could be released 20 years (to the day) of its original UK release.
So happy that you finally got to this, Amy. While there is some contention as to which should be called the Beatles' greatest album, Sgt. Pepper took the idea of the album from a collection of songs to a complete work of art in itself, reimagining and exploding the possibilities for all who followed. It took the studio from a place that recorded art to a place that was literally a new collaborative, creative instrument. Utilizing the brand-new four-track tape recorders (for Abbey Road), George Martin pulled off a task that could hardly be imagined, an accomplishment analogous to Lindberg's flight or the moon landing - he outpaced the available technology. I highly recommend Sir George Martin's book, "With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt Pepper" (co-authored with William Pearson) to comprehend how daunting the task was, and how brilliantly he and the band met and conquered the challenges. Truly revolutionary art.
FYI, the members of Pink Floyd were present at the studio when the Beatles recorded "Lovely Rita." Pink Floyd, at that time, were in awe of the Beatles.
Funny that you mention Pink Floyd. They were recording their first album at Abbey Road Studios at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper. Obviously they couldn't help but hear on occasion the music and from time to time run into each other in the hallways.
Jimi Hendrix played Sgt. Pepper ( The song ) one or two days after the album came out , and The Beatles were in the audience. To this day, Paul says that it was an honor .
This album was released while I was in high school. I was walking through the halls on day and I heard this music coming from an art class. The teacher was playing it as background while the students worked. I was so intrigued that I walked in and asked what I was hearing - then I ran out and bought the record. As far as the brilliance of the construction, keep in mind The Beatles had George Martin to guide them. They created and he helped give things a shape.
The British new wave, psychedelic, and pop group XTC drew inspiration from the Beatles' concept of an alter-ego band, releasing two albums under the name The Dukes of Stratosphear in the mid-1980s. They created music videos for several songs under this name and even developed a "lost recordings" collection featuring early British Invasion demos related to the material found on those two albums. This project served as a delightful pastiche of the mid-to-late 1960s psychedelic scene.
The thing about The Beatles to me that still astounds me today, is that they could take any genre of music and it suddenly became Rock and Roll just because they were doing it...❤ They will always be my favorite band. Funny fact. They broke up the year that I was born. Just proves their music is timeless..🎉❤
It was my older brother's album, but after listening to it as a pre-teen, it kind of gave some insight to different types British life, sort tying to British movies (comedies) that would be shown on television. It was different, way different than their radio songs, it required a different kind of listening. Some people didn't like it, but many more did and would. The album cover, back art and it's double sleeve and inserts were firsts it seemed. Again, it was different ... and the music, the music was something else... :)
Interesting what you say about how innovative The Beatles were with the intros to their songs. All I'm going to say is... there's more of them to come!
I don't know if you read these comments Amy (or Vlad) but there is an important song that needs to be covered at some point - "Rain" was recorded around the same time as "Paperback Writer" and is a true masterpiece. A John Lennon song, the words and melody are memorable and the bass/drums are beyond innovative. Please, please get to it at some point - thanks
@@VirginRock I know you are only officially doing entire records but at least listen to the song when you get a chance ua-cam.com/video/cK5G8fPmWeA/v-deo.html . I also am a classical music fanatic but also was raised on the Beatles so I really appreciate your insights in these videos.
Really enjoy your delight in discovering this music. It is a reminder to us who have been listening to this stuff for ... well I was born in 1955. I remember they came out to Australia when I was nine and they caused a riot in the streets. At first they were like any other group at the time then they did the gimmick thing with the hair etc. They were so charismatic that they stole peoples' attention and really never lost it. I think they worked hard to bring in new things, to put freshness into their work but don't forget that they would have had music producers around them who would have had an influence on the way things were done. There is no doubt that they influenced music after them. But it was like a starting gun. Bang. The people who followed them took that seed of inspiration and ran with it in all directions. They really were a gift. I think Lennon at least, was a genius, and probably McCartney. That sort of thing makes a difference. But as I have said before, their music is very recognizable with that distinctive twang. I can't sit and listen to song after song at a time. It wears at me.
Part of the soundtrack of my early childhood. I was 5 when this came out and loved the whole playful vibe with the brass. My older siblings always had the radio on and there was always something new and fresh going on.
The Beatles were the best of all time. Indisputable. Lots of contemporary bands that were as good but there has to be a number one. They’re it. Nothing today even comes close.
@@fathertedcrilley3988 To be honest, that's the first time I've heard someone say that about the Beatles. Some of their early material sounds dated, but even some of that still holds up well. Certainly not the bulk their material, especially post 1965. Your view puts you in the extreme minority.
Pink Floyd's first album was recorded at the same studio as the Beatles while the Beatles were recording Sgt Peppers. They were able to listen to the Beatles record some of the album during the couple of days they had to record Piper on the Edge of Dawn.
This is really where George Martin's influence is really being heard. As he had stated, he was encouraging them to think symphonically, and here we start to really see it. We have a theme for an album. Eventually, we get a reprise. It feels like a concert. George Martin and Amy have in common that they are both fantastic music teachers.
There's a strong tradition of brass bands in the UK, particularly in the North of England. A brass band song The Floral Dance got to no 2 in the UK charts for 9 weeks in 1977, only a McCartney song Mull of Kintyre held it off.
This was revolutionary at the time. It's so familiar now it's easy to forget how difficult this was to make on four track machines. It still ranks very highly on many modern lists. Very great IMHO. I've now seen Amy's review and she has much more musical insight than I ever will. Was a great review.
Sergeant Pepper's was inspired by Frank Zappa's debut album Freak Out which had come out a year before. "This is going to be our Freak Out" - Paul McCartney. Frank did a great parody of the Sergeant Pepper's cover in the gatefold of the We're Only In It For The Money album.
Frank Zappa was hugely influential. He is just not known by the general public as he wasn't making pop music. The Beatles are fasting because they are at the intersection of so many different styles, including avant-garde and pop. They are not nearly as avant-garde as many bands and yet they pushed into that direction and we're extremely popular band with beautiful pop songs so true people into the avant that otherwise would not have had any Idea or interest. at least that's how it seems to me at this moment lol
its important to remember many beatle singles didn't appear on "official" btitish albums. you need to listen to "the beatles' past masters vols 1 and 2" cd to hear the beatle many songs that never appeared on albums. and its always nice to hear those songs in conjunction with the album that was released to coincide with these singles. for instance the "from me to you" and "she loves you" "singles were released in between the beatles first 2 albums. "i want to hold your hand" was released in conjunction with their 2nd album. it can be rather confusing. "sgt pepper..." had no singles released when it was released. but the "penny lane/strawberry fields forever" single was released in between the albums "revolver" and "sgt pepper." thanks for the video.
Fun fact - While at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper album while in the next studio over Pink Floyd was recording their debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
By the way, though John contributed songs, the whole album and most of the songs were very much Paul. And John in interviews later said he was never fond of the album as it was all Paul and everyone dancing to Paul's beat. John also mentioned he preferred first person extraordinary songs and this album was all very much third person, and ordinary people doing ordinary things.
Pink Floyd was actually making their first album at Abby Road when the Beatles were making Pepper. In fact, they came down to listen to a recording session before the Beatles ran them off.
More than Pink Floyd, I see interactions with what The Moody Blues and The Zombies were doing. The Beatles were the best, but they weren't creating in an isolated bubble.
Composer and music historian Howard Goodall made one of the best documentaries on the making of Sgt Pepper and its influence on music. See: Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution with Howard Goodall. I saw it on YT a while back, but don't know if it is still available for free on YT. It is 100% worth watching!!!
Can't wait til we get Amy's reactions to "Wild Honey Pie" and "Look Up the Number". 😉 As others have mentioned, Pink Floyd was in the next studio recording their debut at the same time, but the connection goes even further: long-time Beatles engineer Norman Smith had recently been promoted and was the producer on that first Pink Floyd album. Also, if you're looking for visuals to go with some of these songs you should watch the 'Yellow Submarine' movie. With or without hallucinogens is up to you.
Funny you mention Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd were actually invited into a session during the recording of this album as they themselves were recording at EMI( Abbey Road Studios) during that time.
The Brass Band influence is a nod to the traditional Colliery Bands which were very popular with Working Class people in Britain in previous decades. SPLHCB is considered to be the first (popular/rock) concept album in modern musical history, but there were other artists who pioneered the concept prior to its release, namely: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention. Before that, Frank Sinatra's 1945 album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra is considered to be the first popular offering of a concept album (also In the Wee Small Hours, 1955). However, we can trace the concept album's origin all the way back to Woody Guthrie with his 1940 release of Dust Bowl Ballads. Woody was the old-world equivalent of a newspaper for a lot of his audience, and as a result a lot of his songs contained thematically similar stories of class discrimination, poverty and neglect. To say that concept albums and Progressive Rock bands are inextricably linked would be the understatement of the century. (Think Yes, Pink Floyd etc.) and it was this kind of self-aggrandisement and pontification that the Punk movement took issue with (alongside the blandness/sameness of Disco), returning us to the two- to three-minute song format with gusto.
When this album first came out it changed everything. Even the album cover with all those people on it . The lyrics to all the songs on the back of the album for example no one had ever done that before . Not only did music change but how to present an album cover changed too . By the way the first time I heard of the album before actually hearing it a friend said to make at the time “ did you know the Beatles changed their name? They’re now known as Sgt.Peppers lonely hearts club band “ ! 😅
1967 was a transformative year in music. Besides the Sgt. Pepper album, many groundbreaking groups released their first albums this year: the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground. Probably more psychedelic music was released this year than any other.
I think they achieved something like this programme of music with revolver, but that was missed by you through culling important milestones in the listened experience and not listening as a whole. It’s also also key to experience them as two sides of a vinyl album not just a straight through.
Indeed. In all of the versions of the documentary for the Let it Be recording sessions one can see the band messing around with early versions of some of the Abbey Road tracks. More importantly, the band members all knew on some level that AR was likely to be the band's swan song. Perhaps that focused them for one last go, or perhaps having George Martin back in the producer's seat did the trick--but AR is generally regarded as the better effort. Myself, I think not needing to worry about the "let's do a live show" aspect that complicated all of the sessions for Let it Be helped as well.
@@ifandwhen-kl2cr I wouldn't actually argue that. Abbey Road was started and finished in relatively short order while Let it Be... well, Let it Be wasn't finished so much as it was passed off to someone else while the band disintegrated. The coherent vision(s) the band mustered in varying degrees for their other albums never gelled for Let it Be.
I think they PF & Beatles were in neighbouring studios during Srgnt Pepper ,Its probably PFs first or second album ..Waters says he was blown away when firts hearing Peppers on the radio ,
37:56 McCartney had used the same chromatic chord sequence (I/II/IV/I) two years (and two albums) previously on “You Won’t See Me” off the Rubber Soul album.
I think for context that there are two albums that counterpoint Sgt Pepper's - Tomorrow by Tomorrow, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd. Although Tomorrow released their album in 1968 they were in Abbey Road in 1967 and some people say that there was some influence flowing from Tomorrow to The Beatles. Then maybe listen to Mr Fantasy by Traffic and maybe some of the stuff Eric Burdon & The Animals were releasing at the time. Of course you also have The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request - which probably fits too. Also The Pretty Things: SF Sorrow and Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake are pretty solid albums too.
I’m also interested on what you think about early Beatles, which didn’t always seem to excite you as much and now. Do you look at early stuff the same?
It will be interesting when you go back and listen to some early Pink Floyd as they were recording their first album in the same studio around the same time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper. Years later Paul McCartney and David Gilmour would forge a friendship and make some wonderful collaborations, most notably "No More Lonely Nights" from 1984.
"She's not a girl who misses much"... The connection between this intro to Pink Floyd's use of sound effects is astute. We (my friends and I in our youth) referred to albums like Sgt. Pepper and Darkside as "concept albums". Progressive Rock is almost always conceptual so...big influence from the Sgt. Pepper album to Progressive Rock.
Never noticed before how “Lennonesque” the harmonic structure of this (primarily or fully McCartney-written) song is. That harmonic planing thing - a sequence made up of entirely major chords with a highly chromatic relationship to each other (ie, don’t belong in the same key, which they definitionally can’t do if they are all major and they aren’t I, IV and V or their modal equivalents) - is something I associate with Lennon (see I am the Walrus which takes that approach to an extreme). McCartney’s chord sequences tend to be more “polished” and “sophisticated” in a classical functional harmony sense. They resolve themselves in a satisfyingly “clever” way that nonetheless seems natural and inevitable (see Penny Lane and Here, There and Everywhere). Lennon, on the other hand, often just unapologetically whacks chords together that, classically speaking, have no business being together, resulting in an off-kilter “weirdness” that tends to be missing from McCartney’s. Oh, and in case any butt-hurt fans of either interpret this as an attack on one or the other, this is not about which is “better”, but about very general stylistic tendencies - for which there are several exceptions on either side. This song is just one of them.
You can find it on UA-cam the bare bone 4 track backing tracks isolated and when you listen to it in it's taken apar state, it sounds so crude and unpolished, It's like the Beatles just threw it together and said we'll put an orchestra on it and be done with it. Then, at the end there's the 4 track blend and you realise it's all standing up on it's own!! The thing with the Beatles is that they're always greater than the sum of their parts!!
The Beatles "Rubber Soul" record inspired Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds", which in turn inspired "Sgt. Pepper". England banned radio play of "A Day in the Life", yet one could hear it anywhere in America (British censors!). "The Wrecking Crew" played the musical instruments on "Pet Sounds", which has voted the #1 record album of all time. Sgt. Pepper is very good, except the Beatles couldn't sing and harmonize as well as the Beach Boys. When "Good Vibrations" debuted in 1966, that amazing song turned rock music on it's head. You're welcome.
Amy, look carefully at the album cover- it presents the band in their alter ego, as Edwardian musicians, with the "original" band not only looking on, but dead and buried!
Forty years ago, this record was almost universally regarded as the Beatles’ masterpiece, the ultimate culmination of their creativity. It was THE Beatles record, the one owned by people who had no other Beatles record. That is no longer the case, and I can’t help thinking that the decline in its reputation, particularly relative to Revolver (which seems to have replaced it as the critic’s darling) simply parallels the rise of a deeply annoying “John is the dead genius who it’s cool to like, Paul is the live hack who it’s uncool to like” sentiment, along with a greater awareness amongst the general public of who wrote what on the records. At the very least, I doubt that the fact that it’s the most overtly McCartney-driven album, with the greatest proportion of songs primarily written by him, relative to Lennon’s contributions, and that far more people are aware of that fact, is entirely unrelated to the precipitous decline in its “cool” factor, relative to other more Lennon-heavy works.
Great start to this landmark album, both for the Beatles and in overall rock history. I like your new approach of listening to the entire album first straight through, while still providing us the individual more detail song breakdowns and analysis here in these YT excerpts. I loved watching your expression as you reacted to it for the first time on Patreon and your appreciation for the entire album experience. Glad you are now starting to hear their connection and influence on many of the bands to follow, getting closer to the production levels that you have heard in bands such as Pink Floyd and Queen. Great reaction and commentary on this opening track. Looking forward to hearing your analysis of the other album tracks.
I envy you Amy. I first listened to Sgt Pepper in 1967. I wish I could hear it for the first time again.
Your comment about thinking of Pink Floyd is really interesting, because when the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper at Abbey Road Studio in one room - Pink Floyd were literally in the room next door recording their first album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". The members of Pink Floyd were invited over to watch the Beatles work (I think it was "Lovely Rita") and were reportedly awe-struck. The Beatles were quite nice about inviting other musicians to hang out with them.
I’m glad someone else mentioned this bit of information. The fact that Amy uses Pink Floyd, of all the possible bands, to make her point is such a crazy coincidence.
What a brilliant review of this song! This analysis is so accurate. I read a lot of analyses of this song but here all aspects of experiencing this music hit the target very well. Thanks very much, it makes me very happy.
The Beatles are my favorite band of all time. I have all their albums on cassette & also cd. I've listened to them all & am blown away evertime I play one. Sounds you don't hear anymore. One of the tragedies of life is hearing a song or album for the first time only once. You can't go back & get that same experience again. I admire your take on your first time listening to their songs. Very refreshing. Thank you for doing this with music. It's very much appreciated. 😊
As talented and intelligent as you are regarding music, I am more astounded that those young men came up with such complex music. Analyzing music is one thing(way beyond me)creating it is something else. Thank you for your analysis
One of my first album purchases as a teenager was Meet the Beatles and I was hooked.
A legendary album and one I still listen to nearly 60 years later,a timeless classic.
I remember taking home and playing my freshly purchased copy of Sgt Pepper back in 1967...
I was a 16 year old aspiring guitarist... it blew my mind 😁😁😁😁
❤ I'm so happy to get this reaction after you having listened to the whole album 😃👍 Fantastic 👌
It's wonderful to be here, it's certainly a thrill ... 🎼🎶🎵🎶
@VirginRock You’re such a lovely audience.
We’d like to take you home with us.
We’d love to take you home. 🎶
@Inverse_to_Chaos 😅👍🏻
Pink Floyd was recording their debut album, "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn", while The Beatles were next door in Studio Two at Abbey Road recording this album.
Paul played the lead guitar on this song. He played on a number of songs I had always assumed were George. Three days after this album was released, Paul went to see Jimi Hendrix play - and Hendrix played this song.
And then when asked to recommend a new band by the producers of The Monterey Pop Festival, Paul recommended the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who performed at Monterey just weeks after performing Sgt. Pepper in front of Paul.
Here we go!
I’m in deep love with this opening track. It does an outstanding job of introducing the audience to the band performing, and it’s a real headbanger (not just for Beatles’ standards). That chorus is absolutely soothing for the ears, and it segues right into the next song effortlessly. 💚🩷🩵❤️
Those first two numbers... then I have to consider Track 3 because it still lets me soar...
at 7 my then 17 yo brother left home and left me with this album because I would play it over and over.
Still do.
I remember that Intro from the first time I heard it. The electric guitar came in and blew my mind. I was 13.
I am old and grew up with The Beatles in real time. I experienced Sgt Pepper when I was 16. A bunch of us gathered around the record player and my jaw dropped to the other side of the Earth with the opening tune. I was also enthralled with the idea of printed lyrics, that was new.
I'm currently reading Geoff Emerick's remarkable book "Here, There, and Everywhere". He was the engineer on most of the Beatles albums, including Sgt. Pepper. There are many innovations on this album but one in particular is that Paul did all his bass lines separately, after the main drum/guitar tracks had already been laid down. He would come into the studio by himself and work with Geoff painstakingly for hours, getting his bass lines perfect, note by note. In my opinion, the bass guitar is the lead instrument on this album. This is one of the greatest bass performances in rock history, from start to finish.
I'm a guitarist, but Paul compelled me to pick up the bass. I'm not a bassist. I mainly play Paul's bass lines along with their songs just for the endorphins lol!
Your enthusiasm for music is infectious. I went back and listened to the whole album for the first time in years!❤
Right from the first few seconds you knew it was going to be something different. I’m so glad you went in for a deeper dive on this song, perhaps the greatest album opener of all time. Thanks Virgin rock
I enjoyed this reaction to the intro song a lot and I'm very happy that you listened to the whole album before. Now I'm looking forward to your reaction to each individual song with great enthusiasm 👌😃
Yeah! Thrilled you are doing this!
Thank you Amy, for this beautiful work you are doing, I send you a big greeting from Chile South America
It is such a fantastic album. It is the kind of album that you can listen to many times and get something new out of it each time.
Amy, you finally got it! I remember watching your first analysis of Beatles songs. You picked songs from their first albums and were clearly underwhelmed, like, "this is the band that everybody talks about, the greatest band ever? I don´t get it". Because in their early days they were just a boys band, full of energy and innovative for their time, but not that relatable today. Enter Rubber Soul and things started to change, very fast. They were making music no one had ever dreamt of before, taking pop music to unimaginable places. Revolver, MMT, Sgt Pepper... we kids were in paradise. BTW, your new method of listening throughout before commenting is the best approach. Thanks for your brilliant analysis, as a pro you see things we lay folks miss.
My journey with psychedelic experiences began two years ago when I started exploring magic mushrooms. During my third encounter, I found myself on the verge of a challenging trip. In an attempt to maintain a positive mindset, I decided to immerse myself in something uplifting. Despite never having been particularly drawn to The Beatles’ music, I chose to give their album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” a chance, listening to it for the first time.
The result was nothing short of transformative. It became one of the most profound musical and spiritual experiences of my life. I discovered that the album is truly a masterpiece of unparalleled brilliance.
Thanks for sharing your experience! What did you feel during Within You Without You?
I had a similar experience with friends, during my first acid trip we listened to Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper's and it was perfect on a early summer day outside.
Fine, but I imagine songs like A day in the Life can turn into a distressing experience. What did you experience, do you remember?
@@otrotipo_otro I like to do it by myself , close my eyes , headphones on and just let go
Within or without you was the peak of that trip to me, not only was a beautiful song but also a healing one
@@aquelpibe the Beatles were an antidote to the experience I was having with TOOL and heavier stuff. So yes, it can get weird , but never as weird and dark as TOOL or heavier stuff
@@alfredomanccini9786 I also like to do it by myself, it's the only way to achieve a spiritual/mystical experience. A Day in the Life music video was incredible.
Probably your best reaction till now (not surprising due to the reaction's object)
Regarding Pink Floyd, Roger Waters said once that his first feeling after listening to the whole album was 'it is so clever'.
"I remember when it came out, pulling the Zephyr Ford into a layby and listening to the whole thing, just sitting there with my mouth hanging open going ‘Wow, this is so complete and accomplished and whatever. But it also was more than that. It had a ton of ideas and a ton of narrative in it. I feel more than any other record, it was the record that gave me and my generation permission to branch out and do whatever we want to. If they can do it, we can do it. It changed everything. They instigated their own revolution because obviously when they started over, it was all ‘Please, Please Me’ and whatever"
Released on my actual birthday June 1 1967 , I am the summer of love😍
As a young teenager when Sgt.Pepper was released, the youth generation was totally enveloped with great music. Motown, West Coast Psychedelia, great female singers and composers, American and British rock bands and great music from one hit wonders.
Young people had so much great music to listen to. Then, the Beatles, come out with this amazing album that was like nothing we had heard before, from them or anyone else, it was amazing.
From the very moment the Beatles burst on the music scene, they totally and completely changed the direction of the youth movement. Never before or since has there been a transitional change in a generation like it.
The Beatles the band, the four men in the band, their music their style are a historical phinominon never to happen again. I feel blessed to have witnessed it all.
It was SO INTENTIONAL, too. There is a clear understanding that the opening track was NOT The Album's Main Song, but merely an intro - an open door to the rest of this concert-in-the-park. "Come on in... join us..." I understand the 'flow' of PET SOUNDS, REVOLVER, etc. leading into SGT PEPPERS', but this was an almost slap-in-fans'-face - NOT TO SHOVE US AWAY - but to give That Band the chance to refresh themselves AS WELL as the audience to say, "Oh wow - this IS completely different!!" By the way, I'm not certain when - at which ReListenings - I assigned a required-must-happen status to the flow into WITH A LITTLE HELP. For me, SGT P cannot exist without flowing in WITH A LITTLE HELP. That song cements the festival attitude - "everyone's joining in, even Ringo on the 2nd - or perhaps first main - impression."
Don't you wish you could share that feeling we had hearing the Beatles when they were new?!? That would add some much needed love back into the world!!
@@SH-th4wy I raged against AM/Top40 radio when I had it, and have always mourned it's loss: "I did not know what we had-!!" The greatest power it offered was an homogenous group of weekly music that might last 1-2-3 months, and everyone around heard that music - like it or not. But today's streaming and individual playlist cannot do that. I loved building Greatest Hits cassettes and SOMETIMES a friend would ask for a copy. But they did that because we all shared radio-knowledge OF those hits, or we were fans of the same albums. Now, word-of-mouth and UA-cam hype is all anyone has. I work with 10-18 year olds, and none of them know that collective groups' favorite artists or songs are. Not all of them. And if their friends don't want to share our "How to play..." sessions, they never 'cross pollinate' with the other's favorites. I didn't care for maybe 10 of Radio's Top 40 on any week, but I heard them all. I KNEW I liked or didn't like them... our students are ignorant of their friends - their generations' - music. We were so lucky to have Local Radio.
@@Cbcw76 That's a cool and interesting perspective. It's like _fewer_ choices put us all in the same boat! You are correct. Top 40 radio basically put us all on the same page. I really appreciate the choice and the crazy-huge access we have with music today! But those oldies live in my heart.
Great pick and analysis. Looking forward to more from this album
When the original albums were reissued on CD for the first time in the 80’s, they were released in chronological order except for Sgt. Pepper, which was delayed so it could be released 20 years (to the day) of its original UK release.
And that 20 anniversary CD was my first CD purchase.
So happy that you finally got to this, Amy. While there is some contention as to which should be called the Beatles' greatest album, Sgt. Pepper took the idea of the album from a collection of songs to a complete work of art in itself, reimagining and exploding the possibilities for all who followed. It took the studio from a place that recorded art to a place that was literally a new collaborative, creative instrument. Utilizing the brand-new four-track tape recorders (for Abbey Road), George Martin pulled off a task that could hardly be imagined, an accomplishment analogous to Lindberg's flight or the moon landing - he outpaced the available technology. I highly recommend Sir George Martin's book, "With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt Pepper" (co-authored with William Pearson) to comprehend how daunting the task was, and how brilliantly he and the band met and conquered the challenges. Truly revolutionary art.
FYI, the members of Pink Floyd were present at the studio when the Beatles recorded "Lovely Rita." Pink Floyd, at that time, were in awe of the Beatles.
Thank you for sharing this with your youtube fans.
Funny that you mention Pink Floyd. They were recording their first album at Abbey Road Studios at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper. Obviously they couldn't help but hear on occasion the music and from time to time run into each other in the hallways.
Jimi Hendrix played Sgt. Pepper ( The song ) one or two days after the album came out , and The Beatles were in the audience. To this day, Paul says that it was an honor .
This album was released while I was in high school. I was walking through the halls on day and I heard this music coming from an art class. The teacher was playing it as background while the students worked. I was so intrigued that I walked in and asked what I was hearing - then I ran out and bought the record.
As far as the brilliance of the construction, keep in mind The Beatles had George Martin to guide them. They created and he helped give things a shape.
It's here ... for us ordinary YT's !
"Let me introduce to you ..."
The British new wave, psychedelic, and pop group XTC drew inspiration from the Beatles' concept of an alter-ego band, releasing two albums under the name The Dukes of Stratosphear in the mid-1980s. They created music videos for several songs under this name and even developed a "lost recordings" collection featuring early British Invasion demos related to the material found on those two albums. This project served as a delightful pastiche of the mid-to-late 1960s psychedelic scene.
The thing about The Beatles to me that still astounds me today, is that they could take any genre of music and it suddenly became Rock and Roll just because they were doing it...❤ They will always be my favorite band. Funny fact. They broke up the year that I was born. Just proves their music is timeless..🎉❤
It was my older brother's album, but after listening to it as a pre-teen, it kind of gave some insight to different types British life, sort tying to British movies (comedies) that would be shown on television. It was different, way different than their radio songs, it required a different kind of listening. Some people didn't like it, but many more did and would. The album cover, back art and it's double sleeve and inserts were firsts it seemed. Again, it was different ... and the music, the music was something else... :)
Interesting what you say about how innovative The Beatles were with the intros to their songs. All I'm going to say is... there's more of them to come!
I don't know if you read these comments Amy (or Vlad) but there is an important song that needs to be covered at some point - "Rain" was recorded around the same time as "Paperback Writer" and is a true masterpiece. A John Lennon song, the words and melody are memorable and the bass/drums are beyond innovative. Please, please get to it at some point - thanks
ua-cam.com/video/WmKKcE0KmsI/v-deo.html
@@VirginRock I know you are only officially doing entire records but at least listen to the song when you get a chance ua-cam.com/video/cK5G8fPmWeA/v-deo.html . I also am a classical music fanatic but also was raised on the Beatles so I really appreciate your insights in these videos.
Really enjoy your delight in discovering this music. It is a reminder to us who have been listening to this stuff for ... well I was born in 1955. I remember they came out to Australia when I was nine and they caused a riot in the streets. At first they were like any other group at the time then they did the gimmick thing with the hair etc. They were so charismatic that they stole peoples' attention and really never lost it. I think they worked hard to bring in new things, to put freshness into their work but don't forget that they would have had music producers around them who would have had an influence on the way things were done. There is no doubt that they influenced music after them. But it was like a starting gun. Bang. The people who followed them took that seed of inspiration and ran with it in all directions. They really were a gift. I think Lennon at least, was a genius, and probably McCartney. That sort of thing makes a difference. But as I have said before, their music is very recognizable with that distinctive twang. I can't sit and listen to song after song at a time. It wears at me.
Part of the soundtrack of my early childhood. I was 5 when this came out and loved the whole playful vibe with the brass. My older siblings always had the radio on and there was always something new and fresh going on.
The Beatles were the best of all time. Indisputable. Lots of contemporary bands that were as good but there has to be a number one. They’re it. Nothing today even comes close.
It's totally disputable. This music has not aged well at all
[Pink Floyd has entered the chat, accompanied by Queen]. Although Beatles are in the discussion.
@@fathertedcrilley3988 To be honest, that's the first time I've heard someone say that about the Beatles. Some of their early material sounds dated, but even some of that still holds up well. Certainly not the bulk their material, especially post 1965. Your view puts you in the extreme minority.
The Beatles are not of this world.
Second to none..
@@fathertedcrilley3988 Such bliss.
Pink Floyd's first album was recorded at the same studio as the Beatles while the Beatles were recording Sgt Peppers. They were able to listen to the Beatles record some of the album during the couple of days they had to record Piper on the Edge of Dawn.
This is really where George Martin's influence is really being heard. As he had stated, he was encouraging them to think symphonically, and here we start to really see it. We have a theme for an album. Eventually, we get a reprise. It feels like a concert.
George Martin and Amy have in common that they are both fantastic music teachers.
Amen to that!
There's a strong tradition of brass bands in the UK, particularly in the North of England.
A brass band song The Floral Dance got to no 2 in the UK charts for 9 weeks in 1977, only a McCartney song Mull of Kintyre held it off.
I love the food analogy! ❤
Joe Cocker's version of With a little help from my friends should be introduced to Amy, imho
This was revolutionary at the time. It's so familiar now it's easy to forget how difficult this was to make on four track machines. It still ranks very highly on many modern lists. Very great IMHO.
I've now seen Amy's review and she has much more musical insight than I ever will. Was a great review.
I hope that she understands that the drug culture in the 60’s was all about psychedelic rock
I'm excited to hear what you think about A Day in the Life, my favorite Beatles song.
I still have the monophonic vinyl LP of SPLHCB which my mom bought for me when it came out. I used to have it framed and on the wall of my office.
Finally, an album released in the past 7 decades that she's actually heard before!
Sergeant Pepper's was inspired by Frank Zappa's debut album Freak Out which had come out a year before.
"This is going to be our Freak Out" - Paul McCartney.
Frank did a great parody of the Sergeant Pepper's cover in the gatefold of the We're Only In It For The Money album.
Pet Sounds, the 11th studio album by The Beach Boys, was originally released on May 16, 1966. Thank You.
Frank Zappa was hugely influential. He is just not known by the general public as he wasn't making pop music. The Beatles are fasting because they are at the intersection of so many different styles, including avant-garde and pop. They are not nearly as avant-garde as many bands and yet they pushed into that direction and we're extremely popular band with beautiful pop songs so true people into the avant that otherwise would not have had any Idea or interest. at least that's how it seems to me at this moment lol
its important to remember many beatle singles didn't appear on "official" btitish albums. you need to listen to "the beatles' past masters vols 1 and 2" cd to hear the beatle many songs that never appeared on albums. and its always nice to hear those songs in conjunction with the album that was released to coincide with these singles. for instance the "from me to you" and "she loves you" "singles were released in between the beatles first 2 albums. "i want to hold your hand" was released in conjunction with their 2nd album. it can be rather confusing. "sgt pepper..." had no singles released when it was released. but the "penny lane/strawberry fields forever" single was released in between the albums "revolver" and "sgt pepper." thanks for the video.
YAY, finally you're getting to the good stuff!
Fun fact - While at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper album while in the next studio over Pink Floyd was recording their debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
By the way, though John contributed songs, the whole album and most of the songs were very much Paul. And John in interviews later said he was never fond of the album as it was all Paul and everyone dancing to Paul's beat.
John also mentioned he preferred first person extraordinary songs and this album was all very much third person, and ordinary people doing ordinary things.
PLEASE listen to the Reprise continued with A day in the life, as a Block ! : )
Pink Floyd was actually making their first album at Abby Road when the Beatles were making Pepper. In fact, they came down to listen to a recording session before the Beatles ran them off.
🎸🎼💥 Thanks for your reaction! 🙂
More than Pink Floyd, I see interactions with what The Moody Blues and The Zombies were doing. The Beatles were the best, but they weren't creating in an isolated bubble.
If there could be a "most important pop album ever released" then this would be the top contender.
When will you finish uploading the Wall reactions?
Composer and music historian Howard Goodall made one of the best documentaries on the making of Sgt Pepper and its influence on music. See: Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution with Howard Goodall. I saw it on YT a while back, but don't know if it is still available for free on YT. It is 100% worth watching!!!
“Tommy” by The Who released in 69, a few years later. Quadrophenia was released in 73.
Paul always had a soft spot for brass bands, even writing the song "Thingumybob" for the Black Dyke Band
Good morning song. My dogs ( Two Poms) start to howl as soon as I play that song.
Can't wait til we get Amy's reactions to "Wild Honey Pie" and "Look Up the Number". 😉 As others have mentioned, Pink Floyd was in the next studio recording their debut at the same time, but the connection goes even further: long-time Beatles engineer Norman Smith had recently been promoted and was the producer on that first Pink Floyd album. Also, if you're looking for visuals to go with some of these songs you should watch the 'Yellow Submarine' movie. With or without hallucinogens is up to you.
Funny you mention Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd were actually invited into a session during the recording of this album as they themselves were recording at EMI( Abbey Road Studios) during that time.
There's a video called the secret concept of Sgt. Peppers album. It's quite interesting how it's all tied together. I highly recommend it.
The Brass Band influence is a nod to the traditional Colliery Bands which were very popular with Working Class people in Britain in previous decades.
SPLHCB is considered to be the first (popular/rock) concept album in modern musical history, but there were other artists who pioneered the concept prior to its release, namely: Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention.
Before that, Frank Sinatra's 1945 album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra is considered to be the first popular offering of a concept album (also In the Wee Small Hours, 1955).
However, we can trace the concept album's origin all the way back to Woody Guthrie with his 1940 release of Dust Bowl Ballads. Woody was the old-world equivalent of a newspaper for a lot of his audience, and as a result a lot of his songs contained thematically similar stories of class discrimination, poverty and neglect.
To say that concept albums and Progressive Rock bands are inextricably linked would be the understatement of the century. (Think Yes, Pink Floyd etc.) and it was this kind of self-aggrandisement and pontification that the Punk movement took issue with (alongside the blandness/sameness of Disco), returning us to the two- to three-minute song format with gusto.
When this album first came out it changed everything. Even the album cover with all those people on it . The lyrics to all the songs on the back of the album for example no one had ever done that before . Not only did music change but how to present an album cover changed too . By the way the first time I heard of the album before actually hearing it a friend said to make at the time “ did you know the Beatles changed their name? They’re now known as Sgt.Peppers lonely hearts club band “ ! 😅
1967 was a transformative year in music. Besides the Sgt. Pepper album, many groundbreaking groups released their first albums this year: the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground. Probably more psychedelic music was released this year than any other.
You could say the Beatles Sgt Pepper Album was the first concept Album. The entire thing was connected from beginning to end.
I think they achieved something like this programme of music with revolver, but that was missed by you through culling important milestones in the listened experience and not listening as a whole. It’s also also key to experience them as two sides of a vinyl album not just a straight through.
Going forward, it is best to listen to the Let it be album before the Abbey Road album as that is the order in which they were written and recorded.
Indeed. In all of the versions of the documentary for the Let it Be recording sessions one can see the band messing around with early versions of some of the Abbey Road tracks.
More importantly, the band members all knew on some level that AR was likely to be the band's swan song. Perhaps that focused them for one last go, or perhaps having George Martin back in the producer's seat did the trick--but AR is generally regarded as the better effort.
Myself, I think not needing to worry about the "let's do a live show" aspect that complicated all of the sessions for Let it Be helped as well.
Why is beginning more important than finishing?
@@ifandwhen-kl2cr I wouldn't actually argue that. Abbey Road was started and finished in relatively short order while Let it Be... well, Let it Be wasn't finished so much as it was passed off to someone else while the band disintegrated. The coherent vision(s) the band mustered in varying degrees for their other albums never gelled for Let it Be.
I think they PF & Beatles were in neighbouring studios during Srgnt Pepper ,Its probably PFs first or second album ..Waters says he was blown away when firts hearing Peppers on the radio ,
37:56 McCartney had used the same chromatic chord sequence (I/II/IV/I) two years (and two albums) previously on “You Won’t See Me” off the Rubber Soul album.
I think for context that there are two albums that counterpoint Sgt Pepper's - Tomorrow by Tomorrow, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd. Although Tomorrow released their album in 1968 they were in Abbey Road in 1967 and some people say that there was some influence flowing from Tomorrow to The Beatles.
Then maybe listen to Mr Fantasy by Traffic and maybe some of the stuff Eric Burdon & The Animals were releasing at the time. Of course you also have The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request - which probably fits too. Also The Pretty Things: SF Sorrow and Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake are pretty solid albums too.
Magical Mystery Tour is next!
It gets even better and weirder.
The Beatles.
No other group ever.
This ws the first concept album so like Amy did to is best to hear the albim as a whole
*first by the Beatles
I’m also interested on what you think about early Beatles, which didn’t always seem to excite you as much and now. Do you look at early stuff the same?
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Bravo!
It will be interesting when you go back and listen to some early Pink Floyd as they were recording their first album in the same studio around the same time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper. Years later Paul McCartney and David Gilmour would forge a friendship and make some wonderful collaborations, most notably "No More Lonely Nights" from 1984.
The Beatles.
The First in Many ways.
Sergeant Pepper is considered a landmark in studio production.
Got some very technical thrash metal for ya: Nasty Savage: 'Welcome Wagon'
"She's not a girl who misses much"... The connection between this intro to Pink Floyd's use of sound effects is astute. We (my friends and I in our youth) referred to albums like Sgt. Pepper and Darkside as "concept albums". Progressive Rock is almost always conceptual so...big influence from the Sgt. Pepper album to Progressive Rock.
You should experience 'Revolution 9' from their self titled 1968 release aka "The White Album" .
It's something else.
Don't.
Never noticed before how “Lennonesque” the harmonic structure of this (primarily or fully McCartney-written) song is.
That harmonic planing thing - a sequence made up of entirely major chords with a highly chromatic relationship to each other (ie, don’t belong in the same key, which they definitionally can’t do if they are all major and they aren’t I, IV and V or their modal equivalents) - is something I associate with Lennon (see I am the Walrus which takes that approach to an extreme).
McCartney’s chord sequences tend to be more “polished” and “sophisticated” in a classical functional harmony sense. They resolve themselves in a satisfyingly “clever” way that nonetheless seems natural and inevitable (see Penny Lane and Here, There and Everywhere). Lennon, on the other hand, often just unapologetically whacks chords together that, classically speaking, have no business being together, resulting in an off-kilter “weirdness” that tends to be missing from McCartney’s.
Oh, and in case any butt-hurt fans of either interpret this as an attack on one or the other, this is not about which is “better”, but about very general stylistic tendencies - for which there are several exceptions on either side. This song is just one of them.
You can find it on UA-cam the bare bone 4 track backing tracks isolated and when you listen to it in it's taken apar state, it sounds so crude and unpolished, It's like the Beatles just threw it together and said we'll put an orchestra on it and be done with it. Then, at the end there's the 4 track blend and you realise it's all standing up on it's own!! The thing with the Beatles is that they're always greater than the sum of their parts!!
The Beatles "Rubber Soul" record inspired Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds", which in turn inspired "Sgt. Pepper". England banned radio play of "A Day in the Life", yet one could hear it anywhere in America (British censors!). "The Wrecking Crew" played the musical instruments on "Pet Sounds", which has voted the #1 record album of all time. Sgt. Pepper is very good, except the Beatles couldn't sing and harmonize as well as the Beach Boys. When "Good Vibrations" debuted in 1966, that amazing song turned rock music on it's head. You're welcome.
Um...shouldn't it be "Sgt" rather than "Stg" Pepper?
Not trying to be petty, lol. Another great installment, Amy and Vlad!
You got It! Be bored is the mother of creativity. It's something the young generation can't relate
How many rock songs begin with four measures of what turns out to be the major II chord?
Amy, look carefully at the album cover- it presents the band in their alter ego, as Edwardian musicians, with the "original" band not only looking on, but dead and buried!
This was the album that Roger Waters said gave him license to write the type of song that Pink Floyd became famous for
Forty years ago, this record was almost universally regarded as the Beatles’ masterpiece, the ultimate culmination of their creativity. It was THE Beatles record, the one owned by people who had no other Beatles record.
That is no longer the case, and I can’t help thinking that the decline in its reputation, particularly relative to Revolver (which seems to have replaced it as the critic’s darling) simply parallels the rise of a deeply annoying “John is the dead genius who it’s cool to like, Paul is the live hack who it’s uncool to like” sentiment, along with a greater awareness amongst the general public of who wrote what on the records.
At the very least, I doubt that the fact that it’s the most overtly McCartney-driven album, with the greatest proportion of songs primarily written by him, relative to Lennon’s contributions, and that far more people are aware of that fact, is entirely unrelated to the precipitous decline in its “cool” factor, relative to other more Lennon-heavy works.