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

Surely, back in 1967, in an era of pop music album being nothing more than the collection of singles, verty often put together by the record company ,Stg Pepper would 've qualified as a concept album.

Regards

 

Absolutely. The concept is take money out of your wallet and transfer it into the Beatles' wallet. And it worked -- magnificently. And I will buy a version of the reissue. So it's still working -- magnificently.

 

So pretty much every album is a concept album then?

 

So if they put some keyboards and other overdubs on it wouldn't sound like the Beatles ? hogwash

 

No. It didn't start off as a concept album, according to Geoff Emerick. He said that the "Sgt. Pepper" idea only came mid-way through the sessions.

So the "concept" was that they were another band that started in 1947 under the direction of one Sgt. Pepper? So what did that make them, a military marching band? If that's the case, an appropriate concept would've been Souza-like marches of pop hits of the day. And military men, I assume, do not start "lonely hearts clubs;" that was primarily a female thing.

I've never understood this angle of the album. It doesn't make sense. It's jarringly at odds with the avant-garde pop-rock soundscape. The point of the album was to sound like nothing that had come before, not some washed-up military band from 1947 trying to sound psychedelic.

 

Went with a "no" vote, for reasons others have already stated.

 

It begins as a concept album but the 'concept' is abandoned halfway through and only really 're-emerges' in the Reprise.

They could have included an audience reacting to the different songs (as at the end of WYWY) and that would have sustained the concept but that (I suppose) might have spoiled the continuity (and become tedious after a while).

Btw: I don't see concept albums as being built around a narrative, more as exploring a theme. To my mind, 'true' concept albums are those by Gentle Giant and Frank Sinatra.

 

The aim of making something good should be a given, really. I doubt many artists approach an undertaking with the desire to do something that sucks, even if that's often the outcome!

 

According to Paul, it did start out as a concept album, even as "Penny Lane" was being recorded". The story goes something like this: he said that he and Mal were eating on a plane, and Mal asked him to pass the pepper, and to Paul, it sounded like he said something like "Sargent Pepper". Paul ran with the idea.

 

I love the way he comes up with these really humble and humdrum begnnings for his songs and ideas. Would be great if all of them were inspired by conversation during meals. That would be like, an entire career concept.

 

And Paul Simon came up with "Mother And Child Reunion" from reading a restaurant menu of a chicken and egg dish. Truth.

 

Just curious: Is there already a thread on whether or not Pet Sounds is a concept album? If not, there should be.

 

Not sure if it helps this discussion but some might be interested in the track-by-track article series in Rolling Stone that they are profiling as part of the reisssue of Sgt. Pepper. Really interesting reading!

The Beatles

 

Neither SPLHCB nor Pet Sounds are concept albums. There was a concept for SPLHCB, I acknowledge that, but since the majority of the album didn't follow that, it can't be a concept album. Pet Sounds is a thematic, introspective album, but no more a concept album than Surfin' Safari.

 

I always understood the "concept" portion to be basically narrative.

I mean, would the proposed Get Back album be a concept album just because there was a concept behind how to do it?

 

I think Beach Boys Party may be more of a concept album, loosely record an album, add party noises and imply it was recorded at a party.

 

How is that concept present in the album beyond the title tune?

 

You might as well say that Axis: Bold as Love is a concept album where the concept is that an alien has taken over a radio station to play songs from his home planet.

 

Then what are the concept albums if not this one?

 

Read my whole post -- I laid that out for ya.

 

If they bury the Beatles tracks in multiple layers of bounce downs and smother them with overdubs it doesn't sound much like The Beatles to me. Hoping we can start to hear them through the sludge again on the new release. Mine has yet to be delivered.

 

So in your view that they were doing some different material is sufficient to make it the case that they were engaging in a concept of pretending to be a different band??

 

Of course it is my friend.

 

No, YOU listen to Dream Theater.

 

You've gotta look at the whole picture. They open and close by telling you in song "we're a different band", appear in costume on the cover, and perform material that is outside the norm in between. That's a concept.