Sgt. Pepper 40th Anniversary - June 1, 2007!

Here you can see Hitler before he was moved out of the shot. Ghandi is here also only to be airbrushed out later, IIRC.

 

The only problem with looking forward to the 50th anniversary is that when it arrives, you will be ten years older than you are now. When each summer ends, I find myself enthusiastically looking forward to the next summer, only to discover that I am now a year older, which for some reason didn't seem like a concern
when the previous summer ended. You're doing the same thing, but in decades instead of single years? Yikes.

 

Was'nt there some meaning with the way The Beatles have there hands?

 

I'm not sure what to make of this. I was twenty five when John Lennon died, and pretty much in the forefront of the parade of those who were deeply affected by that event. If you were older that John Lennon was when he died, that would make you at least 68 now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never had the feeling that anyone of that age had ever been much impacted by the Beatles at any step of the way.

 

Beatles fans should be proud of me as I got into the act on Saturday and purchased the following:

Beatles (The)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Capitol Records / EMI #2653

This one has a reddish orange label with CAPITOL in greenish gray font. A buch of other Beatles titles (obviously from the same seller) had original price tags on them wth a date of May, 1980. I would assume the Pepper I purchased is from that same vintage? Anyone know for sure? I have nothing to compare it to other than the 1987 CD, but it sounded pretty darn good!

Readings in the deadwax as follows:

SIDE 1
SMAS-1-2653 F37 369 W MASTERED BY CAPITOL

SIDE 2
SMAS-2-2653 G49 MASTERED BY CAPITOL

 

I suspect that there are a lot of folks who distinctly remember when that album was released, and seeing the initial displays in record "stores" (there were no record stores then, only department stores and drug stores with record departments.) I never saw so many copies of a single album in my life, before or since. I've always wondered if perhaps more initial copies of that album were printed and sent to retailers than any other album in history.

 

On listening to my utility EMI '87 stereo SP cd it really is a disgrace.

There is little bottom end compared to Revolver or Rubber Soul.

The mono would be lots better.

The stereo mix is full of holes.

 

I've seen it in a couple of local places a few years ago and it came in either a CD size box or slipcover, I can't remember which, with a Made in the UK sticker. Other's around here have reported that it contains the standard CD, nothing else.

 

This just goes to prove that, for the majority of the music buying public, mono just doesn't cut it. It gets no respect. Even if a book was written specifically about the making of the mono mix of Sgt. Pepper, detailing every known fact about how the mono mix was made, all the care and hard work that went into it etc., it wouldn't change anything. The irony was, Sgt. Pepper came out at a time when mono was nearing the end and stereo was soon to take over. Apparently, the Beatles didn't know or understand this (perhaps no one did), otherwise they would have put all that effort into the stereo mix instead. Pepper was a "modern" album, a very advanced and complex album compared with what had gone on before, it ushered in the modern era of rock albums, and of hearing entire albums played on the radio. All of this runs contrary to trying to appreciate the merits of monophonic sound, which just a few years later most folks had buried and laid to rest. The mono mix has some rather jarring differences from the stereo mix, and I think the general feeling is that most people today would just be confused by it. I prefer the mono mix, but like it or not, the stereo is what most folks are familiar with, and that's pretty much it.

 

I suppose the ultimate thing they cold do with Sgt. Pepper is do a complete stereo remix and try to incorporate all of the missing details and things that were changed from the original mono mix. I don't know if that's possible, my guess is that it probably is not.

 

Remix it and die!

 

Didn't wanna start a new thread.....

I'm playing a Canadian Capitol purple label pressing, and this bloody thing sounds amazing! Anyone else notice how great this pressing sounds?

 

Mono?

 

No, there were no purple label mono to my knowledge.

 

I guess that this thread is a good place to post my sad observation. My local Wal Mart has had SGT. PEPPER priced at $8.88 for about a month now but I noticed on my last trip that they had raised the price to $9.88. I guess all good things can't last, but I hope that a lot of kids took advantage of the sale.

 

I have to say though, for the comparatively little time that was spent on the stereo mix, it sounds really good to me. It could have been horrible and still be the format most people are familiar with.