What was the impact of SGT PEPPER at the time it was released?

In Grade 11 (I think; maybe 12), a very progressive English teacher brought his album in, to be played and analyzed as poetry.
Very unorthodox.
Very cool.

 

Lou Reed thought it was garbage.

 

It's not, there was a jazz LP in 1962 with printed lyrics and of course Disney before that. But maybe the first 'pop' or 'rock' album.

 

He married Jane Asher in 1981, who in 1967 was the girlfriend of...

 

I was a high-school senior in 1967, and took a Music Appreciation class. We studied Sgt. Pepper extensively, it was the only class I didn't regularly skip.

 

The Beatles were popular and Pepper was a big release with a cool cover. But more listening impact I think from this release around the same time.

 

Plus the debut album of «the Doors» which was the real thrill for me.

 

If you think of Metal Machine Music as a cover album this statement makes more sense to me now.

 

Lou Reed was jealous because his album did not sell squat.

 

We all started doing drugs as soon as we heard it.

 

I was 12 and purchased it on the 29th day of June. I remember that date because the death of Jayne Mansfield occurred the same day...both things are entwined in my memory now, for better or worse.
I remember the longer than usual wait for a new LP from them. Having been a fan since 1963 when their first LP was released here in Canada, I waited anxiously for something new. Never heard anything from it before my purchase but I loved it immediately. It was a real change up from the past LPs and it did make a serious impact. Everyone was buying it, listening to it, and talking about it.
The new musical direction they were taking had already been heard with that years release of the SFF/PL 45, but it still surprised...and we all loved it!

 

We were living in an complex of apartment buildings in Queens, NY at the time. My older brother was a month shy of his 12th birthday when Pepper came out, and he recalled being down on the lawn with one of his friends, when another friend called down from his bedroom window a few stories up, “Hey, didja hear the new Beatles album yet???”

He then placed one of his hifi speakers in the window and blasted out “Sgt. Pepper” so that they could hear it. My brother said that he and the other kid stood there on the grass, listening to the entire album, transfixed by what they were hearing coming out of that window.

 

Of course classical albums had texts, and the Sing Along With Mitch albums. Can't think of an earlier rock album with printed lyrics though.

 

I remembered it to be fascinating. We never heard anything like it especially "A Day in the Life". The album cover was something else. What a summer that was...

 

OK. I never knew that since I wasn't in the UK and my only access to reaction to the film was through reports in newspapers and magazines (on microfiche at the library of the University of Hawaii, where my father taught). Interesting to learn after all these years (from people who were actually there) that a large portion of the public liked it. It's always been as the Beatles' first misstep, but it seems that might be media perpetuated. And, when Inthink about it, I don't actually recall seeing a video of Paul "apologizing" for the film on David Frost. That might be my memory playing tricks. Thanks.

 

I don't remember it all that well. It didn't have nearly as big an impact on me personally as seeing the films for Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane on American Bandstand.

My sister and I pooled our resources and bought the album. She cut-out all the inserts and pasted them around her dresser mirror, that kind of ticked me off.

I didn't like the album all that much; Within You Without You and A Day in the Life were my favorite tracks. Side Two also had the two most rocking songs in Good Morning Good Morning and Sgt. Pepper (reprise). I didn't play Side One nearly as much.

When I think back, I wonder if I was a hermit that summer because I really don't remember much of the media hubbub and none of my friends liked the album. But I had just turned 13 so maybe I had other things on my mind.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...ll-film-pink-floyd-tour-with-hendrix-20150921

Roger Waters and Pink Floyd were touring with Hendrix at the time:

 

It changed how I listened to and thought about music. I started listening to and buying albums more than singles, became much less interested in Top 40 radio. I started reading about music that wasn't following the mainstream conventions. I more or less became what many people called a 'music snob'. My parents would gripe about my new 'addiction to spending money on music', and 'Sgt. Peppers' was my gateway drug.

 

For what it's worth, my grandmother, who didn't really follow the popular music scene, once remarked, "Oh, yes, we always liked the Beatles... except for that film they showed on the telly at Christmas that one year." The fact that she, who knew little of the Beatles, singled that one out, always struck me as a believable gauge of the reaction.

 

It really was one of the first concept albums, meant to be listened to as a whole.

 

But so much better if you drop the preachy gen-gap sermon She's Leaving Home and knit-in Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever.

 

Fixed.

 

First true event album. Much hype. Mainstream acceptance in America as it was highlighted in Time magazine (much hyperbole).

Tied into the Summer of Love another event that eventually descended into nasty drug use including bad acid, herion and other nasty narcotics at least in San Francisco.

It was a big deal.

In retrospect, it was much ado for a good album that is so tied into cultural significance it's hard to divorce the time from the album.

I still enjoy it and The Beatles brought their A game when it came to creative sounds.

 

True, but to be fair Lou also released some pretty bad albums and anyone that released Metal Machine Music needs to chill (up yes, I kmow there are those who love it).

 

This is what bums me out. I heard the Beatles on K-Rock in the 90s, thats when, if they played Beatles, it was mostly from this album. But by then, you can hear Beatles from all different years on a bunch of different stations.
Not nearly the same as the experience of the buildup and smash of hearing the WHOLE album on the radio at its release. Its as if the whole album was a single that everyone played. No portable tape players to record it and keep it for yourself, and the quantum leap of the music compared to everything released at the time. I really feel like I missed out. Ive had this album for years, I rarely listen to it all the way through. I will have to listen to it again and compare it to music at the time to understand how mind blowing it must have been. Right now, I cant imagine any artist making this big of a difference right now.