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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by thestereofan, Sep 25, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    To quote Paul in the back seat of a cab in NYC in 1964: "But we ain't writ no poetry." :)
     
    kingofthejungle likes this.
  2. PhilCo

    PhilCo Forum Resident

    Location:
    san jose
    "The lyrics are fine...as song lyrics. They're certainly different from most pop music from a topical perspective. They don't really impress me as poetry" from KingoftheJungle

    Mr. King, I agree that the Beatles were lyricists, not poets, but they were damn good lyricists. John Lennon was extremely proud of the fact that he was able to use the word Please three times in his Please Please Me (oh yeah, till I please you). Is this poetry or more pun-ish? I think it is more pun-ish, but it is still clever use of the english language. John and Paul wrote songs that would get played, they wrote songs to young girls (as contrasted with the Beach Boys, who wrote songs about young girls) so that young girls would buy their records: PS, I love You, I need You, Do You want to know a secret (Actually a George song, but you get my point)
    After the famous Dylan meeting, John especially started taking even more care with his lyrics, You've got to hide your love away, being the first example, and Paul added "I've just seen a face" on side 2 of Help, which is an amazing song with excellent lyrics:
    "I've just seen a face,
    I can't forget
    the time or place
    Where we just met.
    She's just the girl for me
    And I want all the world to see
    We've met"
    which contains the elegance and inner rhyming that you refer to in Hank Williams wonderful song.

    On Rubber Soul, John adds In My Life (there are places I remember...), Norwegian Wood (I once had a girl, or should I say...), and Girl:
    "When I think of all the times I've tried to leave her
    She will turn to me and start to cry;
    And she promises the earth to me
    And I believe her.
    After all this times I don't know why."
    Is that poetry? I leave that up to you, but I think it is. Let's not forget Nowhere man: He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land , making all his nowhere plans for nobody" , shades of Please Please Me.
    And they continued with Revolver, most of the kudos going to John's "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "She Said, She Said" but Paul's Eleanor Rigby, already commented on, is accompanied
    by "For No One"
    "And in her eyes you see nothing
    No sign of love behind the tears
    Cried for no one
    A love that should have lasted years!"

    Great stuff, I could go on but this is all beauty in the eyes of the beholder stuff--does this equal the best of the Bard, no, does it equal most of what was written as Pop, absolutely, it is much better. Does it surpass Dylan at his best, no, but a lot of Dylan is less good than this.
    So, keep asking good questions, this was a lot of fun,

    Imagine there's no heaven
    It's easy if you try
    No hell below us
    Above us only sky
     
    bobc likes this.
  3. JonUrban

    JonUrban SHF Member #497

    Location:
    Connecticut
    If you weren't there in the late '60s it might be hard to understand, but the "local" AM radio station was a very powerful thing. In Hartford, CT, there were two such stations, WDRC and WPOP. They would battle with each other to get the latest records and songs from any high profile group, especially the Beatles. I remember hearing "Across the Universe", the WWF version, played on WPOP way before it ever appeared on the Let it Be LP, and over the song every 30 seconds or so they would say "WPOP - exclusively. The whole "Paul is Dead" thing was spread by the local AM radio stations. There were no global playlists, local station program directors picked what to play, and when it came to The Beatles, they played them.

    Both AM stations in Hartford played Sgt Pepper tracks throughout the day. When it was released, Lucy got heavy airplay on both stations, so much so that I figured it was the single.

    Local AM radio was a monster back then, but in a few years, FM would take over. But until then, AM pop/rock was king, and it was heard everywhere. Stores, cars, gas stations, everywhere.
     
    thestereofan likes this.
  4. mongo

    mongo Senior Member

    I will say that the other ground breaking release, The Jimi Hendrix Experience completely passed us over.
    Sad.
    Very true at least where I lived, about AM being the dominant radio format.
    The 5th Dimension, Dionne Warwicke, Glen Campbell etal, dominated.
    AM American POP music from 65 to 70 was so rich and good.

    I love that music to this day that went across all genres etc.
    Just great music.
    FM didn't come into my environment until the 70's.
     
  5. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing

    I was 16...a perfect time...for me anyway. :tiphat:
     
    Scott S. likes this.
  6. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing

    Sure, but Dylan was influenced by the Beatles (especially in reference to his going electric) and admired their musicality---I have a quote somewhere from Mojo...Dylan influences Beatles/Beatles influence Dylan. It was a great time...no one lived in a fishbowl. The free exchange of music and ideas is what made it such a precious time. The thought of plagiarism was not in their wheel-houses...it was more a time of absorbing and growing by listening to all that was new--jamming together, whether it was in the Canyon, the Village or Soho.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2017
  7. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes, I agree. Those magical years right after the Civil War were incredible. Peace throughout the land; brotherhood and harmony between the North and the South; slavery was abolished; and it seemed like there was hardly a care in the world. Too bad it couldn't last. Yes, bring me back to 1867 - 1869. ... ;)
     
  8. Tim Irvine

    Tim Irvine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, Texas
    It seemed to me as if it took music that was already blossoming in a distinct new way, albums you listen to as opposed to music to dance to (Motown), music to sing along to (Beach Boys), or music to learn to play the guitar to (Simon and Garfunkel). The world had already changed, but SP was the bronze plaque that memorialized the fact.
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  9. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Listening to Sgt Pepper.
    Preferred mode RTR mono version.

    Did George Martin spend more time on Paul McCartney's songs on Pepper?
     
  10. solstice69

    solstice69 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Although I wasn´t born yet when the album was released I can tell you about my first exposure to Pepper.
    Being a big Beatles fan since I can think back and already having some albums (and the red and blue, so some songs were already familiar), it took an ad at a local newspaper to finally get Pepper. One book and record shop sold the Dutch yellow vinyl pressing for only 9.99 Deutsche Mark (about half the usual price for records back then) and after school I got my copy there.
    I was totally blown by the album back then and was torn apart between my desire to hear it and my fear of ghosts.
    Back then the old record player was placed in the TV room upstairs and I sometimes felt uncomfortable there (my uncle, who lived with us, had a big time scaring me off with ghost stories in our house). I was maybe eleven years old then, scared to **** and loving the music at the same time. Will never forget that. :D
    At the time, Pepper was my favorite album but today I regard ABBEY ROAD and REVOLVER higher.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 31, 2017
  11. HfxBob

    HfxBob Forum Resident

    What makes you ask that?
     
  12. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing

    Love my MONO first pressing vinyl.... every song is artfully crafted and arranged and produced, so I don't see any McCartney favoritism by Martin...
     
  13. GoodKitty

    GoodKitty FloydM

    Location:
    Pacific
    Well that's Gerald Scarfe for you ...
    He's best known to some for his Pink Floyd collaborations -- the "Welcome To The Machine" film, THE WALL album and film, and Roger Waters' Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking ...
    and since 1981 he's been married to Jane Asher, who was engaged to Paul McCartney for years in the mid-60's until she caught him cheating in 1968 ....

    (edit- I see now that others have already said that)
     
    DrBeatle, ronm and hi_watt like this.
  14. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Apart from A Day In The Life, Lennon' s only got 3 other songs on the album.
     
  15. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    This was the first Beatles I bought, and I grew up in the Cavern, now I litsten to the early stuff more, nostalgia. but then this did something to my head, and I loved it
     
    Joti Cover likes this.
  16. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    ..but two of those three...and then with ADITL added, it's the Lennon tracks which best represent the time period the album was borne of.
     
  17. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes, in The US...that's what it intended to do...make them megastars and it worked out well for all...Thanks ED.
     
  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    for me it was just another Beatles album that I was going to love no matter what...it did not change my life. ...Meet The Beatles did that forevermore...
     
  19. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    A Day in the Life is also McCartney's but I'll give Lennon that. Paul McCartney has got way more songs on the album.
     
  20. nikh33

    nikh33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    American Beatles fans would not have been surprised at all, as Rubber Soul had no single on it, nineteen months before. And Something New three years before may have had And I Love Her on it but it wasn't a big hit and the LP didn't include any 'real' singles, so maybe that counts too.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2018
    humpf likes this.
  21. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    Where exactly was it publicly reviled? I looked at wiki and it says this:

    'The British public's reaction to the film was scathing. '

    but it cites no references to back that up, only quotes from George Martin and Macca that fail to support the idea of a public vilification of the film in the first statement.
     
  22. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    Lennon v McCartneyism discussions again. Can't this one ever be put to rest?
     
    Zeki likes this.
  23. nikh33

    nikh33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    Wiki is wrong. The critics were scathing, but, y'know, they like to criticize.
    'The public' were varied in their reactions; the most common reaction was bemusement, but that's not vilification.
     
    zobalob likes this.
  24. mr.datsun

    mr.datsun Incompletist

    Location:
    London
    Thanks – I can imagine that. Of course a critic's comments are made in public so probably count as public. However wiki fails to cite examples.

    In my opinion I thought Macca and Martin were wrong to apologise for the film. And it stands up very well today.
     
    Crimson Witch and nikh33 like this.
  25. nikh33

    nikh33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Liverpool, England
    I think they were a little surprised that the film wasn't unconditionally loved and adored as everything else The Beatles had done had been! As it was the first project without Brian Epstein in charge, it certainly shook Paul's usually unflappable confidence a bit.
    But it was shown in black and white when it was made for colour. That in itself was a large part of why it wasn't a huge success.
     
    zobalob, DrBeatle and Crimson Witch like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine