Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Beatles (The) > Reviews > I wrote an op today, oh boy...

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money

Advantages:	An album with many firsts
Disadvantages:	The concept isn't lived up to throughout the album

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Originally released in 1967, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has been a milestone in many ways. But of course, you already knew that. Chances are you have a copy of this album somewhere in your house.

The album could very easily be considered the first ever concept album as it was not the Beatles who were performing on this album, but instead it was "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" who were performing. This in fact lead to a bit of conclusion on the original release, but hey, The Beatles loved that.

The album opens to the sound of an orchestra tuning up (with the mumbling of people in the background), before launching into the album with the words "It was Twenty years ago today...". And so "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" begins. This initial track is a delightful blend of electric guitars and brass, giving a fantastic conglomeration of the new and the old. (Hmm, that sounded a mite pretentious, didn't it?)

The first track segues sublimely into "With A Little Help From My Friends" (well, it does if you're listening to it on vinyl), maintaining the feeling that we're listening to a live recording. It's sung by Richard, sorry, Ringo - and he does a rather good job of it.

Next up is the song that's not about drugs at all, no sirree Bob. In fact it's about a picture that John's son drew. No, really, it is! In case you hadn't worked it out yet, the song in question is "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". Very trippy - fantastic lyrics.

Following straight on is "Getting Better". A lovely staccato intro leads into Paul's song about growing up, both physically and emotionally. A nice, personal song. I'm sure that most of us can relate to this song in one way or another.

"Fixing A Hole" would have to be one of my favourite songs on the album. It's just a nice uplifting song, after all - "It doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right". Another personal growth song.

"She's Leaving Home" is a song that I can never remember the tune to if I read the words, but as songs as the song itself starts the memories start flooding back. This is by far the saddest song on the album. However, as with the previous two songs, it does not convey the illusion that it is a song performed by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

After the melancholy of the previous song, we need something to cheer us up, and boy, do we get it. "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" moves straight back into the mould of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band". This is my favourite song on the album, but I wonder if it would be if it didn't give the biggest "happy" because of its position. Who knows? What I do know is that this song perfectly captures the feeling of the trapeze show, which was what John wanted when he wrote it.

I don't like "Within You, Without You", there's no two ways about it. There's just something about Sitar music which just annoys me. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of things about Indian culture that I love, it's just that Sitar's aren't one of them. It is however, a well written and produced song, it just doesn't fit in at all with the concept of this album.

Ah, back on track now. "When I'm Sixty-Four" was written by Paul as a celebration of his father's 64th birthday. This song is conceptual paradise. Entirely played and sung as if by a band from the late 40's. Fantastic.

Now for a song that does not fulfil it's conceptual obligations, but is a favourite on the album anyway. It concern's a chance meeting of Paul with a Meter Maid when his car was about to be towed away. Nice and upbeat.

Inspired by a Kellog's Cornflakes advert, this is a marvellously up tempo song. It's about a boring bloke and his boring suburban life. Great song though. Oh, and there are some great animal songs in there at the end too, starting with a cat and dog, and then getting more and more bizarre.

And now for something completely different. Erm, no actually, just a reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band". Done well though, As you'd expect.

And it merges seamlessly into "A Day In The Life". The song is essentially of two parts, the first being written by John and the second by Paul. Both halves feel totally different, and yet join together to form one fantastic song.

On the end of "A Day In The Life" we inherit a cacophony of noise which builds to a crescendo, before releasing to a "da-dum" on the piano. And that would seem to be that. But no, wait, we have what could only be described as the world's first secret track. It starts with a chord at 15 kilocycles which was put there, at the request of John, to "annoy your dog". After that you get "several seconds of nonsense Beatle chatter, taped, cut into several pieces and stuck back together at random". This then repeats itself ad infinitum (well, it does on vinyl anyway, CD people only get a few seconds worth) thanks to a concentric groove at the end of the album.

So there you have it, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", the music. But what about the album cover and all the rest of that gubbins I hear you ask? What do you mean you don't really care? You're going to find out and that's all there is to it!

The album cover itself was not, in fact, the one that The Beatles were originally going to use. Nope, they'd already got one done designed by a Dutch group called "The Fool" ready and waiting for them. The person to thank for the change of heart was Robert Fraser, Peter Blake's art dealer, who suggested that the foursome go for a "fine-art" approach. So they did. What we ended up with were about 80 cardboard cut-outs crowding around "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". This may even be the audience that we hear cheering on the first track. Who knows? There were other people who were wanted to appear on the cover, but for various reasons they didn't make the final cut. For instance, Leo Gorcey got painted out because he wanted to be paid for his appearance. You can find out about all the other trials and tribulations of the album cover by reading the, rather comprehensive, notes in the booklet that you get with the album.

If fact the booklet is of such quality and quantity that it won't fit into an ordinary CD case. Instead it sits outside the case, both being surrounded by a cardboard cover. You have to be a bit careful with this because the glue that hold it together can come apart if you're not careful. So be careful.

You may, or may not, be interested to know that the album was the first ever to contain the lyrics for all the songs. I was surprised when I first found this out as well, but there you go. The booklet also contains lots of pictures of the Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper's outfits, and some cut-outs that you can, erm, cut out and use to become the Sarge yourself if you want.

So there you have it. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in a, rather large, nutshell. Thanks for sticking around to the end of this op. Oh, and if you don't have a copy of this album, don't you think it's about time you did?