Is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a concept album?

If I am not mistaken, this was actually Dylan's reaction to Revolver, "Tomorrow Never Knows" in particular. Apparently, his reaction to hearing Pepper was something like "Turn that off." Or so legend has it.

Pepper has the thinnest veneer of a concept, but it's not fully realized in the same way as, say, S.F. Sorrow, Days of Future Passed or Tommy. The way that the thing is put together, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and it flows very nicely, of course, but I don't view it as a full fledged concept album.

 

It's not the connection between the songs as it is the idea that it's not the Beatles music, it's SPLHCB.

 

If the concept was to step out of their shoes to be a different band and present it as such, therefore it's a concept album.

 

It's about an Englishman who goes to a band performance and is slipped some LSD, leading to various dreamlike experiences and a complete freakout at the end.

 

That was pretty interesting dmiller, very subtly done, take Monday off!
Very cool.

 

No they didn't. John made sure that didn't happen and split.

 

I just made a joke-reference to the Cirque de soleil LOVE

 

I'm still not sure that I buy the whole fictional band thing as a thorough going concept. Paul came up with that idea later, reaching for a little more creative license, but it's not clear how much the others were really on board with it, beyond the costumes. I don't think that John wrote "Lucy" or "Good Morning" thinking, "OK, so I'm presenting this alter ego persona here. . ." I think he just wrote the songs like he normally would. The conceptual window dressing was mainly added after the fact and a healthy dose of Summer of Love lysergic euphoria helped to lend it greater profundity.

 

I voted "no" for reasons others have mentioned. I have to admit that I can't argue that "YOU" can make a case for Pepper being concept because, well.... you've got this on your side.......

Ringo ......."a bunch of songs and you stick two bits of 'Pepper' on it and it's a concept album. It worked because we said it worked."

I would've voted yes .... probably from June 1 1967 up until, oh, people started being able to compare knowledge and discussion, provide previously-missing quotes/interviews etc on the internet around 1992.

I am of the opinion that after this layer of "us" is gone, Pepper will return in future eons to being known as a concept album.

So I vote yes, I mean no, I mean it's all wrong, I mean I think I disagree.

 

Ah, gotcha.

 

Good idea.

 

That's it. It's also represents a production concept to my mind -- it's a trip and they used the studio to create the altered state vibe.

 

Kind of a guided tour in audio form.

 

I would say yes, but in a loophole sort of way. While the subject matter of all the songs is not related, they still are all part of the concept because they are all being played by the eponymous band within the concept. The same sort of loophole is what makes The Who Sell Out a concept album. It's not as prolific concept-wise as albums like Dark Side of the Moon, or even S.F. Sorrow, but I'd say it's a concept nonetheless.

 

I voted yes for the same reason as Surreal Cereal (I was writing this as his post came up so it's almost like we had a mind-meld lol). Not because it tells a concept from beginning to end (like The Wall), but rather the concept that Sir Paul explains in that the album was conceived as a way for them to inhabit the skin of another, fictional band, freeing them from the writing constraints that being "The Beatles" presented them. Between this, and a few songs that comprised MMT (two of which should have been on this album), the band never returns to this style of music writing. Sure they maintained their creativity and went off on even other musical tangents, but no other Beatles album before or after Peppers sounds like it. So for that, I consider a concept album. The concept being they are Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

 

What's the definition of a concept album?

 

I think the concept vision is there, albeit loosely. And the fact that there was experimentation on several stand alone tracks (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!, Within You Without You) seem to contribute to a larger "concept" among the members of the band that transcends the "Sgt. Pepper" theme. My thoughts at least...

 

I say yes, or at least a song cycle. I think of the album as a song cycle where Billy Shears is introduced and then we hear a concert by "his" band. I am probably thinking to simplistic though.

 

What about a travelogue like The Genius Hits the Road or Come Fly With Me?

 

You can hear the "audience" laughing at the end of "Within You Without You." It was meant to lighten the mood after those deep mystical and philosophical lyrics, but George Harrison also said (in the 50th Anniversary box set book) that you're supposed to hear the audience at the band's show, so that's another reason why the laughter is there. There is also a direct segue into "When I'm 64", segue from "Good Morning" into the "Reprise", and a cross fade into "A Day In the Life." Segues and crossfades don't necessarily make a concept album, but in this case, the concert is the concept, just like The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands with the Turtles putting on a show as not just one but 12 fictitious bands. The songs on the Turtles album are not related by subject matter, but no one ever said Battle of the Bands wasn't a concept album.

 

I voted Yes. To my knowledge, the term "concept album" not only did not exist before Sgt. Pepper, but it was coined to describe Sgt. Pepper. McCartney said he had never heard the term before when he first heard it applied to Pepper. However, Paul did come up with the "concept" of the Beatles playing the role of a fictitious band, and that the songs on the album would be a concert by that band. It wasn't the first concept album by a long shot, but it was the first one to actually be called by that name.

 

Ian Anderson also was very adamant that Jethro Tull's Aqualung wasn't a concept album although the 2 sides are collectively titled "Aqualung" and "My God", the character Aqualung is mentioned in 2 songs, and that piece of faux scripture on the back cover ties together the themes of poverty and organized religion's apathy toward it. Sometimes concepts, themes, and meanings develop in the consciousness of the listeners and go beyond the intent of the artists. There's a literary term for that but I forget what it is.

 

Interesting...but where does "She's Leaving Home" fit in?
I'm not knocking the song, just curious.

 

Yeah, you picked the one that might be the hardest to fit in with my little concept...maybe our Englishman had read a story of this actually happening and then he saw it play out in his LSD-altered state.

 

You know what? That sounds like what I have read about the song. Thanks for the refresher! IT FITS!