Of all of the albums released in the sixties and seventies that were infused with hippy culture, my personal favorite is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There are numerous reasons why this album is considered one of the most pivotal albums of its time, but I want to celebrate it because of just how hippy the album is! It was even awarded the Golden Hippy for best album in Hippyland's Hall of Fame!
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| Sgt. Pepper Album Cover |
With the end of their tour in 1966, The Beatles had time to begin work on their next album. It was McCartney who originally had the idea to create an alter ego band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and record a concept album as their other selves. The album's cover shows the band members dressed as their colorful alter egos in the middle, with their Beatles selves off to the left in their usual matching suits. By creating an alter-ego band, the boys were able to have vast artistic freedom and experiment as much as they desired.
The album took a total of 129 days to record because the boys were inventing new ways of recording and generating music throughout the process. Techniques such as pitch shifting and multitrack recording took time to perfect. This is no ordinary Beatles album. It is composed of a plethora of genres, such as rock 'n roll, circus, music hall, avant-garde, blues, big band, western, and even Indian classical. Every song on the album has a different sound, and delivers a different message.
Along with all of the craziness on the album, there are a few songs that are similar to the band’s usual stuff. But on an album with so much novel material, it is hard for these few songs to stand out. For example, "Getting Better" is an upbeat, happy pop rock song with a quarter-note beat that encourages foot tapping. It’s a fun song, but not particularly exceptional or unique. Similarly, "Fixing a Hole", is another rock song with a contagious rhythm, but it has less of an up-beat, joyful sound. It is enjoyable, but also does not stand out on this exciting album. “Good Morning Good Morning", a track inspired by a corn-flake commercial, really just sounds like a song from a corn- flake commercial, with its cheery sound, although its lyrics flawlessly express the complacency with everyday life that many people of this time period were feeling. It is this feeling of indifference in part that led to the increasing popularity of hippie culture of this time.
The creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band allowed the band to take musical risks on the album. The opening song album begins with the sound of a band warming up and an audience anticipating the start of the performance. An electric guitar begins to play, and the title song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" starts. The track features a wide variety of instruments including the electric guitar, a brass ensemble, and a horn quartet. It ends with the cheering of an audience recorded at one of the Beatles' live shows. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" is a continuation of the first song of the album, and is placed as the second to last song on the album. The placement and faster tempo of this song feels like a sort of wrap-up of the whole album, with the addition of the line "it's getting very near the end", which serves as a warning that the album is almost over. These two songs add to the concept album by conveying the feeling of a live performance by an entirely different band: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
There are a few songs on the album that are complete departure from most prior Beatles’ music. One of these is "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", which is the only song on the album of the circus music genre. The piece features instruments such as organs, harmonicas, and guitars, all spliced together to create a carnival-sounding song. One of their most unique songs, it is also strange and oddly disturbing, which is why it fits on this album. Another unique song on the album is “When I’m Sixty-four”. Its feel-good, old-timey tune is played mainly by clarinets, a piano, a drum set, and tubular bells, while over top of it McCartney sings to his lover about growing old together. There is no other song on the album that sounds similar to this lovey-dovey tune. "Lovely Rita", another engaging, up-beat love song, is also quite distinctive. In this comedic pop rock song, McCartney sings to a meter-maid whom he falls in love with as she writes him a ticket. An additional absurd feature of this song is that it employs two unlikely instruments: combs and paper . The boys also utilized one of their new recording techniques, pitch shifting, in this song to speed up McCartney's voice, giving him a new sound.
My favorite song on the album, "A Day in the Life", is another track where the band experimented with new techniques. This psychedelic rock song begins with Lennon sorrowfully recounting tragic events he read about in the newspaper, but in a disconnected way. A 41 piece orchestra then plays a creepy -sounding crescendo leading to a completely different middle part. In this middle section, McCartney “[has] as smoke” and then "[goes] into a dream", which, of course, is a reference to marijuana. The song then returns to its original tune to resolve the song. It is the creation of this alter-ego band that allowed the Beatles to take a break from writing their usual stuff and create a completely new sound for the album.
The album took a total of 129 days to record because the boys were inventing new ways of recording and generating music throughout the process. Techniques such as pitch shifting and multitrack recording took time to perfect. This is no ordinary Beatles album. It is composed of a plethora of genres, such as rock 'n roll, circus, music hall, avant-garde, blues, big band, western, and even Indian classical. Every song on the album has a different sound, and delivers a different message.
Along with all of the craziness on the album, there are a few songs that are similar to the band’s usual stuff. But on an album with so much novel material, it is hard for these few songs to stand out. For example, "Getting Better" is an upbeat, happy pop rock song with a quarter-note beat that encourages foot tapping. It’s a fun song, but not particularly exceptional or unique. Similarly, "Fixing a Hole", is another rock song with a contagious rhythm, but it has less of an up-beat, joyful sound. It is enjoyable, but also does not stand out on this exciting album. “Good Morning Good Morning", a track inspired by a corn-flake commercial, really just sounds like a song from a corn- flake commercial, with its cheery sound, although its lyrics flawlessly express the complacency with everyday life that many people of this time period were feeling. It is this feeling of indifference in part that led to the increasing popularity of hippie culture of this time.
The creation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band allowed the band to take musical risks on the album. The opening song album begins with the sound of a band warming up and an audience anticipating the start of the performance. An electric guitar begins to play, and the title song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" starts. The track features a wide variety of instruments including the electric guitar, a brass ensemble, and a horn quartet. It ends with the cheering of an audience recorded at one of the Beatles' live shows. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" is a continuation of the first song of the album, and is placed as the second to last song on the album. The placement and faster tempo of this song feels like a sort of wrap-up of the whole album, with the addition of the line "it's getting very near the end", which serves as a warning that the album is almost over. These two songs add to the concept album by conveying the feeling of a live performance by an entirely different band: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
There are a few songs on the album that are complete departure from most prior Beatles’ music. One of these is "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", which is the only song on the album of the circus music genre. The piece features instruments such as organs, harmonicas, and guitars, all spliced together to create a carnival-sounding song. One of their most unique songs, it is also strange and oddly disturbing, which is why it fits on this album. Another unique song on the album is “When I’m Sixty-four”. Its feel-good, old-timey tune is played mainly by clarinets, a piano, a drum set, and tubular bells, while over top of it McCartney sings to his lover about growing old together. There is no other song on the album that sounds similar to this lovey-dovey tune. "Lovely Rita", another engaging, up-beat love song, is also quite distinctive. In this comedic pop rock song, McCartney sings to a meter-maid whom he falls in love with as she writes him a ticket. An additional absurd feature of this song is that it employs two unlikely instruments: combs and paper . The boys also utilized one of their new recording techniques, pitch shifting, in this song to speed up McCartney's voice, giving him a new sound.
At the time of the album’s release, hippie culture was growing rapidly. Many young people were leaving home to live with other hippies or just to be independent. The track, "She's Leaving Home”, is about exactly that. "She's Leaving Home” is sung by Lennon and McCartney, with the only background music played by a small string ensemble. The song tells the sorrowful story of a young girl who leaves home due to "living alone for so many years", although her parents believe they have given her everything. This rebellion was not uncommon during the hippy movement, especially around the time of the Summer of Love (the summer of 1967, following the release of Sgt. Pepper), in which hundreds of thousands of people flocked to San Francisco to celebrate their hippie culture). The lyrics are desolate and are sung in a sorrowful way while the background music ironically sounds almost like a lullaby. Another song on the album that reflects hippie culture of this time is "Within You Without You”. "Within You Without You" is an Indian classical song with lyrics reflecting Hindu philosophy. It contains messages of love- “with our love we could save the world”- and anti-materialism. This is definitely one of the most hippy songs on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The music is played solely by George Harrison and musicians from the Asian Music Circle. Although I appreciate the messages within the song and the individuality of it, in my opinion, the song drags on longer than it should. On such a fast-paced, exciting album, “Within You Without You” is the song I skip over when I get about half-way through.
Finally, one of the hippiest aspects of the album, and one of the features that makes the band most famous, is the inclusion of songs about recreational drugs. Drugs were a defining element of hippie culture in 1967, promoted as a mechanism to expand ones’ mind. "With a Little Help From My Friends" is one of these drug-promoting songs. I’d say the hidden meaning behind "friends" is pretty obvious. "With a Little Help From My Friends" is one of the rock songs on the album with a sound that is reminiscent of typical Beetles music, although the lyrics are special. Referring to drugs as friends alludes to the sense of dependence the band felt for them. Perhaps the all time example of a mind altering drug-inspired song is "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"; another song about the band’s favorite topic, LSD. This is one of the psychedelic rock songs on the album,psychedelic rock being a very popular genre during the hippy movement in the 60's. This song has a daydreamy feel created with an organ, electric guitars, and a tanpura, while McCartney sings about “a girl with kaleidoscope eyes” in a place “where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.”
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has so many different sounds that there is really something for everyone on the album. It contains a variety of genres and instruments, it encompasses some of the greatest hippy lyrics every written, it kick started the Summer of Love, and changed the world of music forever. There is no doubt that this revolutionary album deserves all of the awards and credit it has been given throughout the years.
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