Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

Sgt Pepper 50 (almost)

Just saw this on the BBC website and it hit home just how old I am!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39350444

For many, the seminal album of the 60s and perhaps of the past 50 years. I remember buying it in the week after it was released and like many it blew me away. I was only 10 at the time and as the following years unfolded it made even more of a lasting mark on my musical memory.
«13

Comments

  • Overrated dirge
  • 'it was 20 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play' .. not their best by any means but like a lot of overhyped 'product' is almost certainly the one album that everyone has heard of, if not actually listened to, if ye ken wor I meen
  • Helluva trip
  • Chizz said:

    It was released for sale on a Thursday.

    The following Sunday Paul McCartney went to see a Jimi Hendrix gig. Instead of his normal set, Hendrix played Sgt Pepper. He'd learned it in three days. All of it.

    Not as difficult as most would imagine.
  • Not their best album (for my money I'd go for Abbey Rd) but an iconic one. Some great songs (Getting better, She's leaving home, Good morning, A day in the life.......and the twee When I'm 64). I've just turned 50 so not old enough to have experienced it first time around, but happy to know I was born on the day they were recording Lucy in the Sky with diamonds.
  • Love The Beatles but not one of my favourites. Too much filler i.e. 'Lovely Rita' 'Good Morning, Good Morning' etc.

    An important album yes, but not a patch on Abbey Road, Revolver or the white album imo.
  • Sponsored links:


  • I'd put it sixth behind Revolver, Rubber Soul, White Album, Abbey Road and A Hard Day's Night. Nevertheless still a tremendous album with A Day in The Life up there with the very best Lennon ever wrote (notwithstanding the 'Woke Up, Fell Out of Bed' bit which was McCartney) Yet its reputation surely rests with when it was released ie the start of the much-touted summer of love (in some ways, along with Procul Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, it must have helped shape the summer of love).
  • In lostening to them now, my favourite is revolver, followed by rubber soul.

    The rest I find a bit frustrating.

    My dad had the lot and we had a record player in the attic where I got to listen to this and Captain Beefheart, carpenters, Simon and garfunkel etc.

    My dad was a Beatles fan and bought the albums. I now know my mum was a stones fan and didn't have the cash to buy her favorites.
  • cafcfan said:

    Just ploughing through my files looking for an instruction manual for a piece of kit and found a receipt indicating that my toaster is twelve years old today.

    Only another six years and it can legally buy you a beer.
  • Never got to grips with sargeant peppers or the white album. Haven't listened to either for about 20 years though so should give them both another go.
  • boggzy said:

    The white album I can see why some don't rate it, it's very sprawling and varied. But I think the sequencing is great and there are some real gems on it. Lennon's 'Julia' and 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' and McCartney's 'Helter-Skelter' and 'Blackbird' for starters.

    Still so many good songs, with lots of experimentation of styles and arrangements in a good way.

    I'd plump for Piggies and Rocky Racoon............Good Night is great for getting little kiddies to sleep
  • boggzy said:

    The white album I can see why some don't rate it, it's very sprawling and varied. But I think the sequencing is great and there are some real gems on it. Lennon's 'Julia' and 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' and McCartney's 'Helter-Skelter' and 'Blackbird' for starters.

    Still so many good songs, with lots of experimentation of styles and arrangements in a good way.

    I'd plump for Piggies and Rocky Racoon............Good Night is great for getting little kiddies to sleep
    To be honest the only songs I'm not keen on are 'Honey Pie', 'Savoy Truffle' and 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' (the latter is a brilliant song on acoustic but don't like the lumpy production or Clapton's guitar).

    'Good Night' such a great way to end the album, especially after 'Revolution #9'.
  • cafcfan said:

    Just ploughing through my files looking for an instruction manual for a piece of kit and found a receipt indicating that my toaster is twelve years old today.

    It was 12 years ago today, Morphy Richards taught my toaster to play
  • edited March 2017
    Sergeant Pepper is a great album, that 67 feel, the cover etc

    In terms of the actual songs, other Beatle Albums are surely better, not helped by the 2 of the best songs (Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane) being removed for a single
  • Sergeant Pepper is a great album, that 67 feel, the cover etc

    In terms of the actual songs, other Beatle Albums are surely better, not helped by the 2 of the best songs (Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane) being removed for a single

    Agreed. Song for song, Revolver beats Sgt Pepper - but Pepper wins on impact, lasting influence, and 'of its time'. It also built on Revolver and Rubber Soul so was only really possible because of those earlier albums.

    But for me, as an album, a collective, a memory and impact on me personally, and the fact that it was the last time the four actually worked as one, it is their magnum opus.
  • Sponsored links:


  • Greenie said:

    Chizz said:

    It was released for sale on a Thursday.

    The following Sunday Paul McCartney went to see a Jimi Hendrix gig. Instead of his normal set, Hendrix played Sgt Pepper. He'd learned it in three days. All of it.

    Not as difficult as most would imagine.
    Apparently he played it at the Shaftesbury theatre , and the Saville Theatre on the Sunday. He also played it at the Fender sound event later on, and at the isle of wight in 1970, after the National Anthem.
    Mc Cartney was impressed anyway as he recalls....

    “It’s still obviously a shining memory for me,” McCartney recalled many years later, “because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished.”

    To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release. He must have been so into it, because normally it might take a day for rehearsal and then you might wonder whether you’d put it in, but he just opened with it. It’s a pretty major compliment in anyone’s book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career.

    Due to 'copyright issues', the Saville theatre and his performances keep getting removed although I am sure McCartney and Hendrix themselves were pretty cool about those issues. According to Noel Redding he 'never received a penny from the record company anyway', albeit that his management company ripped him off as well as Jimi.

    Just love the music myself.

  • Not their best but a defining album. Seen McCartney live a few times and to see a Beatle performing Beatles songs is fantastic, especially when he does tracks from SP. Saw Jeff Beck a couple of years ago and he did a blistering, instrumental version of a Day in The Life.
  • Being born in 68 I never thought of the Beatles when I started buying music which I still buy regularly, however I'm drawn to SP these days, good place to start? or go for that big box set HMV do, in terms of era I prefer their later stuff.
  • it's a classic album. helped by one of the finest and iconic cover art ever. personally not my favourite album by them. then again I might not be best qualified as one of my favourite songs by the Beatels is "I saw her standing there" which to me seems as close to a perfect pop song you can get.
  • Remember it coming out as I loved the cover....anyway I downloaded it today and I still enjoyed it.
  • i was born the same day it was released
  • The Beatles and Beach Boys were huge rivals and both pushed the other to excel even further.

    Brian Wilson eulogises about "Revolver" and Paul McCartney has often stated that "Pet Sounds" is his favourite album and "God Only Knows" his favourite track.
  • TEL said:

    Remember it coming out as I loved the cover....anyway I downloaded it today and I still enjoyed it.

    I was having a drink before a Who concert at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago and we shared a table with another couple. We didn't have a conversation, other than "is anyone sitting there" and "thanks". I was sure I recognised the guy but just couldn't place him. During the concert he was introduced to the audience, it was Peter Blake, the artist who designed the cover.
  • PeterGage said:

    The Beatles and Beach Boys were huge rivals and both pushed the other to excel even further.

    Brian Wilson eulogises about "Revolver" and Paul McCartney has often stated that "Pet Sounds" is his favourite album and "God Only Knows" his favourite track.

    Sadly the pressure to then surpass Pepper (plus drug issues) broke Brian Wilson :-(
Sign In or Register to comment.

Roland Out Forever!