Beatles - “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967)

Is there an album that has been more thoroughly analyzed, studied, interpreted, described and hailed as the Beatles' eighth album? Probably not. Is there anything yours truly can add that has not already been said? Probably not. Should I stop writing today's post right here? Probably.

But I won’t.

In the spring of 1987 I was 14 years old. That was the time when, at least in Sweden, you either listened to synth music or heavy metal. Depeche Mode or Iron Maiden. A teenager did absolutely NOT listen to the Beatles, if you did you were bängaloo (as you said in Sweden at that time). Old people, like your parents, maybe listened to the Beatles. Maybe. So I was feeling very nervous and looking anxiously around me when I stepped into “Expert”, the record store which was situated at the main square in the city of Uppsala, to buy this album. What if someone saw me?

For a while I had been curious about this album since I had understood that it was "psychedelic". This attracted me because it was clear to me that this meant a lot of drug references and a general hazy music. Which of course seemed exciting. I had also heard a radio program about this album (an entire radio show dedicated to an album! In Sweden. 1986.) which analyzed and described it as if it were a work of art.

Once inside “Expert”, I first aimlessly wondered around to act moderately interested in the album shelves. I walked past the 'B' –section a few times without stopping. Again, to buy a Beatles record was not what a normal 14-year-old did, and I wanted nothing more than to be normal. When I felt that I could not continue wander around aimlessly without the staff starting to suspect me of being a shoplifter, I took a deep breath and began to look through the Beatles albums. Just when I picked up the Sgt Pepper album I suddenly saw one of the school's tough guys and his buddies stand at a different record shelf and check out the albums. Heavy Metal, of course. "Oh no!", I thought half panicing and cursed my bad luck. I saw the rumor spread across the school that Markus had bought a Beatles album. I would be the clown this week. I walked rapidly to the checkout and hurried to pay. I hopedI wasn’t discovered.

When I walked homeward through the city center, I hoped intensely that I would not meet someone I knew. A big record bag under the arm was not possible to hide and the question what you had bought was quite natural and difficult to avoid answering. Luckily, I encountered noone I knew.

Back home, I listened with reverence to my first Beatles album and went on the journey so many have done before and after me. A new world opened up to me, a world not only inhabited by the Beatles but also of all other bands in the 60’s and 70's who played the sacred "psychedelic" music. However, if I’m honest, I’m still not sure what something is when it is psychedelic.

I think Sgt Pepper is a good album (but not the Beatles’ best) but all the songs are not good. Songs like "She's leaving home" or "Fixing a Hole" I think are a bit boring, the same goes for "When I'm Sixty-Four". On the other hand, there are also many great songs. As said initially, this album is so well described by others so I don’t write anything more about the music here. All I will say is that although I had heard a lot of music at age 14, Sgt Pepper was in some way different than anything else I've heard. Maybe it was quality I heard? However, I would like to share some facts that I read online, which I find interesting.

The songs "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were the first songs recorded for this album. However, their manager Brian Epstein thought they needed to release a single so these songs ended up being this single. And as their habit was, the Beatles didn’t put the songs from a single on a LP. The album is also considered to be one of the first concept albums, with the fictional band Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the wheel. The record opens up with an introduction of the band and then continues with band leader Billy Shears (Ringo) who sings "With a little help from my friends". A kind of replay of the opening song ends the B-side, together with the subsequent "A Day In The Life". But all the songs in between really don’t have anything to do with this concept, and especially John has been insistent that all the songs he wrote for this album could have been on any other of their records. So if this is a concept album or not, I let others decide, but as I said, it do get credits for being one of the first.

When the vinyl album is finished it ends with a sound loop that goes round and round instead of the usual silence (with the regular click). This loop has been subject to many interpretations and a lot of people have of course heard a secret message when you play it backwards. Paul has said that a group of kids came up to him in the summer of 1967 and complained about this secret message. Paul denied that such a message existed, took the kids to his home and played the loop backwards for them. He then heard to his horror that it sounded very much like "We'll fuck you like Superman."

On the album’s cover (as studied and interpreted as the music itself) there are yellow hyacinths planted in the shape of a guitar. With a little imagination the flowers can be read as "Paul?". Yes, I have checked this out and it is true. This of course put fire to the rumor that Paul was dead, a classic urban myth that has come and gone. The above mentioned "secret message" in the sound loop has also been interpreted to "Will Paul come back as Superman?" which of course also was proof of his death.

Summary: A good album, maybe a little over analyzed, and a source of some initial neuroses whithin the 14-year-old Markus. But it also gave me a lot of joy and was a step into a new musical world. By the way, no one saw me buying the record and when I a few years later started the swedish gymnasium (something like the last years of an American high school), I could suddenly talk about owning this and other Beatles albums. And there were others who did too! Oh, how wonderful it was to get to know other connoisseurs. For now I understood, that was what you were when you owned Beatles albums, not bängaloo.

 

Favourite tracks

Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Being for the benefit och Mr Kite!

A day in the life

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 
2. "With a Little Help from My Friends" 
3."Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" 
4. "Getting Better" 
5. "Fixing a Hole"
6. "She's Leaving Home" 
7. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" 

Side B

1. "Within You Without You"
2. "When I'm Sixty-Four" 
3. "Lovely Rita" 
4. "Good Morning Good Morning" 
5. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" 
6. "A Day in the Life"