Every era has a beginning and an end.
My Tallassee Tribune colleague and mentor Willie G. Moseley often opines that the greatest period of creativity in popular music occurred between 1967 and 1973, and he uses the bookend releases of SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND by the Beatles on one end and DARK SIDE OF THE MOON by Pink Floyd on the other (with special mention for TUBULAR BELLS by Mike Oldfield).
In between, nearly every precedent in popular music today can be heard on the releases of that period.
But, for the sake of the moment, let us pause and reflect on what happened this week in 1967: the shot heard ‘round the world in the form of a long-playing record: SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND was released on the first week of June.
The charts were already packed with classics. The Muscle Shoals sound was pumping out one soul hit after another – think Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Booker T. & the MG’s, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and so on. The Motown factory wasn’t slowing down, either, as Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Temptations were still at it. Blowing minds from across the ocean were groups like The Rolling Stones, The Hollies and the Dave Clark Five. Here at home, the first big music festival was only weeks away at Monterey Pop, and we had truly great pop music being created by homegrown ensembles such as the Rascals, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Buffalo Springfield, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas & the Papas, the Box Tops, and 1967’s #1 band in the world – The Monkees.
The Beatles had quit the road in late 1966, disgusted with touring and with the unhinged Beatlemania aspect of their careers. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr went to Abbey Road studios in late ’66 and just started creating. They wanted to make an album as a statement – not just a collection of singles with a bunch of filler (which, to be honest, even Beatle filler was better than most other bands’ singles). The idea was floated that they create alter egos in a complete departure from “Beatle John,” “Beatle Paul,” et al.
With their truly visionary producer, George Martin, and a like-minded engineer in Geoff Emerick, the Beatles began to record a song cycle that would change the world. They began by recording two songs about their childhoods. John contributed the psychedelic dream “Strawberry Fields Forever,” while Paul gave us the nostalgic cheer of “Penny Lane.” Lennon and McCartney were geniuses, by the way.
And that was just the beginning. As the sessions rolled on, the rock world turned its back on the Beatles and thought of them as has-beens. This fired up their imaginations even more, and along with the use of substances legal and illegal, they had a perfect storm of creativity to burn.
As the spring of 1967 came and went, so did recording sessions for the tracks that would become part of the legend. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” was inspired by a circus poster and is perhaps the most complex of the avant-garde sound pastiches on the album; “Within You Without You” brought the Indian raga, and use of the sitar, into the mainstream; “When I’m 64” was an English music-hall shuffle; “Good Morning, Good Morning” took a cereal commercial and made it into a gritty rock statement; “She’s Leaving Home” was comparable to the work of Franz Schubert with its classical string arrangement and melody; the title track and its reprise was good, old fashioned, piledriving rock and roll; and in no way could any of these songs prepare the listener for the stirring drama that was to come with the album closer, “A Day in the Life,” the most perfect distillation of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership.
These days, it has become fashionable to put down the accomplishments of PEPPER or wonder what the fuss was about. This album would never have happened without the ‘can-you-top-this’ climate of the popular music of that era. PET SOUNDS by the Beach Boys begat the experimentation of SGT. PEPPER, as the Beatles have said. There were better Beatles records, sure. But this was the first album to feature lyrics on the cover; the first to segue the songs into a suite-like format as opposed to individual tracks; the first album to feature a hidden track in the run-out groove; and although it has been loosely defined as a concept album, imagine recordings such as QUADROPHENIA by the Who, AMERICAN IDIOT by Green Day, or THE WALL by Pink Floyd even existing without this one having come first. It’s quite impossible to consider.
And so, put on SGT. PEPPER and allow yourself to be immersed into the hazy, crazy days of that Summer of Love so long ago. Appreciate what the Beatles and their production team accomplished with recording technology that is primitive by today’s standards. Be grateful that “20 years ago today / SGT. PEPPER taught the band to play / they’ve been going in and out of style / but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.”
Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.
