The unpredictable sound of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Sound of Song: Episode 2 - BBC
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
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Watch the BBC first on iPlayer 👉 bbc.in/iPlayer... Programme website: www.bbc.co.uk/p... How The Beatles used varying tape speeds to create the unpredictable sound of the album.
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One of the best albums ever made in human history!
1st concept album
Greatest album
Best album ever made
best album even you hear it when you're high or when you're low
You got that right
I remember my mom sitting me in front of the stereo as a child and playing Sgt Peppers for me. I was fine with that. And now old enough to understand the words like it even more. Same with all the Beatles albums really but there is a special place for Sgt. Peppers.
Martin was a genius
Oh.. What an album... To me, the Best Song in the album is; "She is leaving home " .
Yes a very underrated song
So sad. But a masterpiece.
A day in the life. I found She's Leaving Home too maudlin , however emotionally effective .
Can't see how any Beatles song is underrated... or overrated for that matter. And can't really pick a favorite. Anytime I hear just about any of them I feel like it's a favorite. They really don't have much "filler" and even their unfinished songs are masterpieces like the "medley" side 2 of Abbey Road. EDIT: Of course it is subjective as with any art form. But I grew up with the Beatles and love them even more over time.
Such lovely days they were. And all this at 16 yrs of age .
I'd say that was a good education.
Sgt pepper is the best album ever made hands down
Hard to agree when you consider Revolver, Rubber Soul, White Album, Abbey Road. All masterpieces as well really.
Revolver.
very wrong. Close to the Edge by YES is
They had to be creative only working with a 4 track. But across the pond at that same time, Zappa was recording Money (a satire on Sgt. Peppers) on a 12 track machine. Martin was the brains behind the group.
True about Martin but it is not like he was polishing turds. He was just able to get the sounds they wanted even with limited tracks and not the kind of effects they have today. They had to experiment back then.
THE BEATLES FOREVER!
Granted they all have great songs on it, this Album was Pauls baby. But it might have been the beginning of the end as the other members were starting to feel useless with Paul taking over and doing so much himself. But he probably had the strongest work ethic of the bunch, He is just an animal and can play almost any instrument great. And add how great he writes and sings. As well being John and George also write, sing and play well they were destined to split up. But 3 greats along with the perfect drummer and best producer and no fear of experimentation explains the unprecedented success.
Ahhh! It must have been such a blast to have been there in the studio.
I like the slower version. Think I'll run my CD through Audacity and slow it down. Sounds nice - and you played it beautifully
did you ever try to play a CD backwards?
Rap music can thank the Beatles for inventing sampling and looping.
Yea but Giles should spend alot of effort time in releasing "Let It Be! The movie with behind and bonus stuff etc.
Martin did the same thing to his solo on in my life on rubber soul, and had done the backwards gtar solo on revolver,,
Damn I missed this :(
Not yet you haven't. BBC Four Friday 23rd @ 21:00 GMT.
Stuart Poore awesome thanks
Damn i missed this
@@pwbfirdaus2193 just 5 years late mot
Is this the same John Barrett as the famous Barrett tapes that were so important in helping Mark Lewisolm compile his Beatles Recording Sessions book?
good album
Good?perfect
@@mrbungle3310 Not really. Some of the songs are sub par filler.
I thought Pet Sounds was the first concept album that directly inspired Sgt. Pepper. No?
Greatest Pop/ Rock/ gimmick LP ever,and not much else. Martin was the filth Beatle,but ruined them musically and personally. 😎
‘Wow I’m good’.. haha
There's a lot more backwards stuff on "Revolver"
What was the innovation in the melodies in Pepper?? Perhaps the arrangements somtimes are a little special.
The reason why Pepper was so popular is that The Beatles finally 1967 had became well known, and accepted by the establishment. The establishment had at last understood The Beatles when they heard Yesterday with strings.
But Sgt is a poor thing -- with McCartney´s little ditties-- comparing with the powerful anbum A Hard Day´s Night.
In 10 of the 13 songs in A Hard Day´s Night, Lennon was the dominant composer. George Martin and McCartney seldom talk about this album, because Martin wasn´t so influential here, and because McCartney didn´t write so many songs here.
The melodies in A Hard Day´s Night are innovative.
--The title song has glissando like arabian folk music?,
-The middle part in I Should Have Known Better has an increasing tension - with two changes of key - instead of the tension only in the A-bits, and with a change from short notes in the verse to long notes in the middle part. That increasing tension was the new thing! - with The Beatles in the beginning.
--The intro to If I Fell has three changes of key! and the rest sounds like a madrigal from 15th century,
--I´m Happy Just To Dance With You is like a mix of Irwing Berlin and Lennon. The typical Lennon bit in the song is the hammering on the same note, and the joke with the repeating of singing “…just to dance with you…”in a minor key,
--and in When I Get Home, Lennon changes the melody only by changing the rythm in the same note! Lennon was a pure genius, one of the greatest ever.
Time works for Lennon. The album A Hard Day´s Night has an increasing popularity opposed to Sgt Pepper.
@Johan Cavalli
I think you missed it here, and by a mile.
The turning point melodically for The Beatles was Ticket To Ride but notice all the singles were Lennon tunes until Yesterday and then after that they were all McCartney's. I would say that where A Hard Day's Night was the product of having to write soundtrack music for a movie, they were still thinking in terms of hit singles. By the time of Pepper they were starting to abandon their previous image and the motivation to write songs had changed into a more cinematic approach. Free from the pressures of touring they were able to shift the focus of their writing to things they observed in everyday life. But getting back to the innovations you have overlooked: Good Morning, Good Morning has numerous twists and compound time changes. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds also has several key changes happening within a few bars of each other. Within You Without You seamlessly blends Eastern and Western instruments in a way that no Pop band had achieved before. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite is a sonic landscape that very few people could conceive, let alone realize as a song. A Day In The Life was also a ground breaker on many musical and technical levels. They took some Avant Garde elements and created a wildly successful popular song. It's amazing that it even works at all but they made it work. The Beatles used the studio not merely to capture performances but as a musical instrument itself by pushing and stretching every parameter and aspect of every piece of equipment as far as they possibly could in the quest for new sounds. They broke every rule in the book and helped pave the way to how we record today.
horowizard. Thank you for taking your time.
At first, even outside UK and US, 1963-1965 Lennon had mor hitsingles. What do you mean with " the turning point" in Ticket To Ride? May be you are right. The bourdun note and the diss chord in "...going away..."?
But I think the turning point already came with Please Please Me, I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Should have Known Better and more with a n i n c r e a s i n g t e n s i o n.
Sorry, after Yesterday McCartney did not have all the hitsingles! Why do you say that? I had studied The Beatles for many years and it will always upset me how often McCartney get too much credit. And that was the reason why The Beatles ended. The Beatles is music history but it seldom correct written!!
It is interesting that you discuss four Lennon compositions in Pepper.
(but McCartney is in the middle of the cover picture, after his orders)
What do you mean with "sonic landscape"? you mean visual? I think i get it. But the A-melody -- is a typical Lennon descending melodi, for example in It´s Only Love, with the the B-bit a little of It´s Only Love.
Already In Wagner´s Entry of The Giants in Das Rheingold, we have an increasing crescendo ending with a clap of thunder.
The composers of the hit singles o u t s i d e UK and US, 1963-1965:
1964 I Should Have Known Better, Lennon, Canada +Norway.
1964 If I Fell, Lennon, Norway.
1964 This Boy, Lennon, Canada.
1964 I Call Your Name, Lennon, Australia.
1964 You Can´t Do That, Lennon, Australia.
1964 All My Loving, McCartney, Canada+ Australia.
1964 I Saw Her Standing There, McCartney, Canada.
1964 She´s A Woman, McCartney, Canada.
1964 I´m Down, McCartney, Canada.
1964 Things We Said Today, McCartney, Australia.
1965 No Reply, Lennon, Holland.
1965 Eight Days A Week, half Lennon.
1965 I Don´t Want To Spoil The Party, Lennon, Canada.
1965 Norwegian Wood, mainly Lennon, Australia.
1965 Yes It Is, Lennon, Canada,
= Lennon 9,5 McCartney 5,5
The composers of hit singles in UK and/or US, 1966-1970:
1966 Paperback Writer, McCartney, B-side Rain, Lennon,
1966 Eleonor Rigby, McCartney,
1967 Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon,
Penny Lane, McCartney.
1967 All You Need Is Love, Lennon, B-side Baby You´re A Rich Man, half Lennon.
1967 Hello Goodbye, McCartney, B-side I Am The Walrus, Lennon,
1968 Lady Madonna, McCartney.
1968 Hey Jude, McCartney, B-side Revolution, Lennon,
1969 Get Back, McCartney, B-side Don´t Let Me Down, Lennon,
1969 The Ballad of John and Yoko, Lennon.
(1969 Give Peace A Chance, Lennon).
1969 Come Together, Lennon.
1970 Let It Be, McCartney, B-side You Know My Name, half Lennon.
1970 The Long and Winding Road, McCartney.
=McCartney 9, Lennon 4
The composers of single hits 1966-1970 o u t s i d e UK and US:
1966 Nowhere Man, Lennon, Australia+Canada.
1966 Girl, Lennon, Spain.
1966 Rain, Lennon, Canada.
1966 Got to Get You Into My Life, McCartney, Canada.
1967 Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon, Canada+Holland.
1968 Revolution, Lennon, Canada+New Zealand.
1968 Obladi Oblada, McCartney.
1968 I Am The Walrus, Lennon, Australia.
1969 Don´t Let Me Down, Lennon, Canada.
1970 A Day In The Life, mainly Lennon, France.
= Lennon 10,5 McCartney 2,5
horowizard.
Lennon´s music will age better than McCartney´s, because Lennon´s compositions have more pain and heaviness, and besides that, are more innovative. McCartney has often conventional and “vertical” melodies, and Lennon has both vertical and “horizontal” melodies”.
The greatness of John Lennon´s music as i see it:
-His increasing tension. For example I Should Have Known Better. Before Lennon, all pop music structure was AABA, where the tension decreased in the middle part B. But with Lennon the tension from the verse continued in the middle part. Besides that, in this song it is not only a key change in the transition to the middle part, it is even a little key change in it. The increasing tension was what first characterized The Beatles. The first single where the verse lacked this increasing tension was the vers melody in Can´t Buy Me Love.
- Other ways of increase the tension by Lennon is to pack together several little songs. Happiness Is A Warm Gun consists of three or four songs, and Bring On The Lucie consists of three songs.
-All You Need Is Love has another way: First talking, then repeating half singing, then singing, and finally the climax in chorus.
-The melody does not changes, but the chords in the background. For example in Strawberry Fields Forever and in Julia the singing melody uses the same notes, but instead the accompaniment changes! Listen to Puccini. He got tired of his sang melodies in Boheme and in Tosca he composed a lot where the sang melodies are often on the same notes, but the background changes instead. The effect can be stronger.
-Octave Leap. For example, in the middle part of Please Please Me, Lennon makes an octave run in “…it´s so hard to reason with YOU…”, the climax of the song. George Martin didn´t understand the quality in that. In his orchestration of it in Off The Beatle Track, Martin excludes the octave, the most important bit of the song!
-Verse and resolve. Typical for Lennon is a melody followed by a resolve, for example in No Reply “…I saw the light!”…and in Girl “giiirl! giiirl!…”. Lennon said that “a good song must have climax and resolve”.
-Only one chord. In Tomorrow Never Knows there is only one chord, or bass note, an innovation in pop music. In the Middle Ages it was common with that bordun note, an unchanged bass note. When Lennon played the song the first time for George Martin, Martin didn´t like it.
-Whole-tone scale. Most scales have both whole step and half steps between the notes in an octave. In the verse in Norwegian Wood, there is most whole steps, and that´s like the impressionists, for example Debussy. It sounds very “clean”.
-Church Modes. A Hard Day´s Night is written in the “mixolydian mode”, an ancient vocal scale, preserved in British, Irish and American folk song. -If you play the beginning of Please Please Me very fast, you can hear the similarities with the Westminster bells ringing. When Lennon was a little boy, he loved visiting the divine services. Afterwards he used to improvise anthem music. Westminster bells could unconsciously have inspired him to the beginning of Please Please Me. There is also anthem music in the beginning of All You Need Is Love: “love love love…”.
-The lamentation second. A little half step up in the scale. And that´s to indicate a pain. In All You Need Is Love Lennon sings the refrain twice unchanged and then suddenly the third time, rises a little, a very expressive and important step up. That step up started in the baroque epoch, and was called The lamentation second. When Lennon played it the first time to George Martin, Martin didn´t understand it. He leaned towards McCartney and muttered: “It´s certainly repetitive”.
-From darkness to light. Happiness Is a Warm Gun starts with a little melancholy, and ends with enthusiasm.-In the middle part of I Am The Walrus the darkness switches over to light: “sitting in an English garden…”. And the transition from the chaos and darkness in Revolution 9 to the light in Good Night. That is very typical in Wagner´s music. I think that temperamentally the two were similar. And I think Wagner would have loved the arrangement in Glass Onion.
-Suggestive and hypnotic music. With small intervals between the notes in combination with some dissonance chord, Lennon can create a suggestive and hypnotic feeling in for example Across The Universe. It is more like Wagner than pop music.
-Few notes. With few, but effective notes, Lennon can create more feeling than McCartney with all his notes, for example in If I Fell and Love. -A melody sang three times, in succession, with just a little change every time. When you hear it you can get frustrated or desperate not getting out from the melody. That we have in the middle part in I Call Your Name and in the middle part in And Your Bird Can Sing. And at the same time the melodies are stick together with a countermelody at the guitar. Rather hypnotic
-Melodies without joint. An innovation. When repeating the verse melody in Any Time At All, the first note is the same note as the last note in the first verse: “…there is nothing I won´t DO if need a shoulder to cry on…”
-The accompaniment doesn´t follow the vocal line. In the middle part of Hey Bulldog, the piano doesn´t follow the singer. An innovation in pop music. (The first one was Schumann in his songs). It´s a marvelous bit of beautiful piano music, but the recording isn´t good here, the piano is difficult to hear. That bit is much better heard in a demo!
-The first rap song. The talking in the end of Hey Bulldog.
-The most excellent and lovely melodies: The middle part of Bad to Me, the middle part of This Boy, the middle part of Yes it Is and the middle part of Nobody Loves You
@Johan Cavalli
Well, that's a lot to address now, but I will say three things:
I believe both Lennon and McCartney will age equally well.
You are way over intellectualizing all of this to make a solid point.
Take that Off The Beatle Track book and throw it in the garbage because it is 100% B.S.
Lennon was a genius. Paul admits John wrote most of AHDN. And "Youve got to hide..." was John channeling Dylan. Since you are correct in your opines let me add this. Without Pauls challenging John at every turn and supporting him at every stop sign the Beatles don't happen. Not like they did. If your'e interested there's a book and a film coming out about the Quarrymen. I don't have to explain who they were you all are incredibly knowledgeable here. But to a MAN every former member said the same thing "WE NEVER SAW WHAT WAS COMING OUT OF THE QUARRYMEN." To me that says it all. John scaled down his band. Found the best players. Ran the Shop. Hired a manager. Got to work. It was magical. Unchartered. Divine.
This doesn't sound anywhere near what George Martin really played but you get the idea.
Sgt Pepper is NOT a concept album.
Yes, it is. Its concept is based that the ones who are playing the songs through the album are not The Beatles anymore, but Sgt. Pepper's Band; which does too means that Beatles were passing though another phase in their lives, influecing in their compositions in a different way than they used to be before, from a rock and roll music to one more psychadelic and intelligent.
Jesus Christ YOU ARE SMALLER THAN THE BEATLES
Yeah, not to take away from the brilliance of the music, but as far as the concept that's supposedly there goes, it's very weak compared to other concept albums that would follow like Tommy or The Wall. I mean, it wasn't even conceived of until halfway through the recording process and it was pretty much an excuse to experiment more freely with their songwriting and with recording techniques, both of which they had been aching to do after being inspired by records like Pet Sounds and Freak Out!.
The way in which Sgt Pepper's was formulated highly influenced and started the idea of the concept album, it's incomparable with 'The Wal'l or 'Tommy' because they are developed and explored ideas of what Sgt Pepper's started. The art on the album and all its packaging is very much concept album like in every way to start but the sound is too, though not in the more developed way we hear from The Who or Pink Floyd etc. although a few songs were clear in the concept, the ones that appear not connected really are, but strive to create another sort of soundscape universe rather than a story as such, different to say on quadrophenia for example, it is like an opera or musical in a way, very concentrated on a plot . the music may not have flowed in a story way like this, but it all fitted with the universe, idea and sound they created around the Sgt pepper's concept, this idea of album making developed into what concept albums would become, i.e. more story centric as well as creating another universe.
The way in which Sgt Pepper's was formulated highly influenced and started the idea of the concept album, it's incomparable with 'The Wal'l or 'Tommy' because they are developed and explored ideas of what Sgt Pepper's started. The art on the album and all its packaging is very much concept album like in every way to start but the sound is too, though not in the more developed way we hear from The Who or Pink Floyd etc. although a few songs were clear in the concept, the ones that appear not connected really are, but strive to create another sort of soundscape universe rather than a story as such, different to say on quadrophenia for example, it is like an opera or musical in a way, very concentrated on a plot . the music may not have flowed in a story way like this, but it all fitted with the universe, idea and sound they created around the Sgt pepper's concept, this idea of album making developed into what concept albums would become, i.e. more story centric as well as creating another universe.
Wow you couldn’t even get the guitars right
The Citizen Kane of albums. You know it's a big deal, everyone tells you it is the greatest ever, but you listen to it and notice some of the mediocre songs on it and think to yourself: "nope, great but not the greatest ever". Pet Sounds comfortably eclipses it as does Dark Side.....
Hmmm... Pet Sounds has 1 incredible track, 2-3 good songs, then the rest is pretty mediocre to bad.
Revolver.
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse So a bit like Pepper then?
@legionnairegonk4425 Ummm, no. Every song on Pepper is brilliant and original and memorable. Unlike the throwaway nonsense on Pet Sounds, the tracks You Still Believe In Me, I'm Waiting For The Day, Let's Go Away For Awhile, I Know There's An Answer. Extremely uneven album.
Those cheaters.
Too much talking . I can't listen till the end .what i just wanted is listen to the beatles not to improbable analysts .
It wasnt a concept album!!!
Terrible album
What the frog do you know !
Ha ha ha !
Go back to bed !
Listens to Nirvana
@@marvymarier8988 I'm fixing a hole to bury this trash album so no one has to ever hear it again