Soundcheck

Sgt. Pepper may not be the best collection of songs but it did more than any other album to advance the technical artistry of rock music to a higher level.

Viscerally, subconsciously, this album and Led Zeppelin 4 stirred me the most listening to them the first time through.

Sgt Pepper's was far ahead of it's time; it was like a brilliant star way out in the galaxy, saying "here's something new to shoot for." Look what happened in British Rock immediately after Sgt. Pepper's: an explosion of wild creativity in homage to to S.P.'s.

Very good, not great. Rubber Soul and Revolver together bury it...

I was student in music conservatory when this album came out. I was performing early music, and was a big jazz fan, too. But until the Beatles arrived, and especially at this point in their evolution, I paid very little attention to popular music. This album really hooked me with its creativity, technology, musicianship, general production quality... Sgt. Pepper had it all sewn up. And the references to historical musical styles were icing on the cake! To rock afficionados, there may have been more important albums, but this one got my attention.

Sgt. Pepper's was born a full four years before I was, yet I listen to it today as I did when I discovered it in my parent's record collection 20 years ago: paying full attention.

Most music held up as monumental tends to be so because it typifies the period in which it was created. Sgt. Pepper's, on the other hand, is monumental without feeling "60s" any more than the Mona Lisa feels "1505s".

Sgt. Pepper's is great because it endures and it endures because it's great.

Its a great record but I don't think that it matches the musical complexity, emotion and theme of a record like Pet Sounds. Although Sgt Pepper's is a remarkable record and by no means over rated I still believe Pet Sounds is the greatest.

There is no such thing as "a greatest record of all time".

I agree with Bob. I am 55 yo and I was in UK with my dad when the album was issued - lot's of memories. Rubber Soul and Revolver are for me their seminal works, the transitional pieces which showcased their musical aptitude and experimentation. However, the arrangemnt and production quality of Sgt P is as good as it gets.Very few people appreciate this now due to MP3. G. Martin and his team should be lauded for excellent work.

One of if not the greatest album of all time. From the cover design to the lyrics printed on the back. The music in addition raised the bar for the entire genre. Here it is forty years later and its still in everyones conscienceness. You cant say that about many other albums.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made, along with every other Beatles album.

The impact of this album can be measured by the effect it had on other musicians, at that time. It revolutionized the music world!

Though hailed as a "concept album," it's not. And it is, depending on what you're using as qualifiers. Lennon called it what it is, a collection of unrelated tracks, save the reprise and the link between the first two tracks. However, it's all elements beyond the notes-paper-chords-and-lyrics that unify the album. First and foremost it's George Martin's production, choice of instrumentation and use of the studio as-an-element-of-composition that pull it all together after the fact. Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields were supposed to have been on the album too but were released earlier to keep EMI happy. How would that have changed the over all package? Not much. They're much like two etudes created as research into a larger work. The extramusical elements i.e. costumes, visuals, printed lyrics etc. only take any perceived unity further. It's ultimate worth can be determined by its influence on the works of others.

I've always enjoyed this album but never considered it overrated until reading the comments here. While the album strongly influenced the popular music of its time, I question whether it had any lasting influence on rock music - required to put it in the greatest album(s) of all times category.

Although brilliant, Sgt. Pepper is not necessarily the greatest album of all time, but it can pretty easily be seen as the MOST IMPORTANT rock record ever made. I like other Beatles albums more -- Revolver, Abbey Road, Rubber Soul -- and yet I treasure Sgt. Pepper the most due to its singular and long-lasting influence on popular culture.

Sgt. Pepper's certainly one of the most influential pop records ever produced. Ranking is silly, but I spose if pressed one must say it's way up there in the top 10. Young people cannot understand the depth of the Beatles' influence at the time of Pepper's release — on other musicians and composers as well as the general public.

The album caught the timbre and the tenor of the time — the vaunted Zeitgeist — as Bob Dylan did with his revolutionary HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED. Anyone who dismisses it or Sgt. Pepper is simply ignorant of the tremendous effect these recordings had across the world.

Contrasting the productions today which are sincere and very talented, Sgt. Pepper comes from a unique period that stimulated huge creativity, experimentation and innovation, and compositions that are unparalleled.

It's important to understand this explosion won't occur again because the music industry and the complete conquest of 95% of broadcast media by bottom line concentrated corporate media companies — the real sharks — will not permit the sort of creativity and expression that produced Sgt. Pepper.

This is why radio stations that proclaim a "classic 60s/Rock 'n' Roll" format are dishonest and disingenuous and distort the period's context. So we get 50 plays of "Stairway to Heaven" (not even from the 60s) every day, heaven help us, but you won't hear Dylan's "Tombstone Blues," for example.

Thanks to the immense sales of the Beatles records, Sgt. Pepper and all the Beatle productions remain in the popular currency. Sgt. Pepper was a signal event.

It's unfortunate and tragic that most younger people can't get the real picture and the real sound of what came out of what's probably the most creative and exciting period in the history of popular music.

Who can dispute that Sgt. Pepper is a great, thoroughly original, timeless, and magical album? I don't think you can even discuss it in terms of "greatest rock album". It transcends the genre. The Beatles will always be in a class by themselves, and Sgt. Pepper is their masterpiece. Nuff said.

I do love SGT PEPPER, but I agree with the person who said PET SOUNDS. That record predates SP by a year and was so groundbreakingly well-produced. Don't forget that Paul McCartney himself calls "God Only Knows" the greatest pop song ever!

My older brother bought the album when it first came out in 1967. (I was 11 at the time.) When he was not around, I listened to it and was entranced then and still am today. What floors me is the multilayered creativity of each and every song on Sgt. Pepper’s. At the center of each track is the song-writing genius of Lennon-McCartney at their height as well as their fortunate collaboration with George Martin.

But what pop/rock album ever captured such a wide range of musical styles so compellingly? Go track by track. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is a band hall rocker simulating a live performance. “With A Little Help From My Friends” is a pop classic – a gem. “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is a mini psychedelic tone poem. “Getting Better” is pure, pleasing pop-rock brimming over with McCartney’s optimism and Lennon’s skepticism. “Fixing A Hole” is an introspective anthem with classical overtones. “She’s Leaving Home” is pop counterpoint about breaking away. “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite” is a psychedelic circus music montage. “Within You Without You” is a mystical dirge merging Eastern and Western music. “When I’m Sixty-Four” is a send-up of vaudeville nostalgia. “Lovely Rita” is a drug-infused urban ballad of love lost, complete with a honky-tonk piano solo. “Good Morning Good Morning” is a driving rock about a modern culture that drives us – complete with the sounds of barnyard animals (a nod to Pet Sounds?). The reprise of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” gives some basis to Sgt. Pepper’s claim to being the first concept album. Finally, what can one say about “A Day In The Life”? A folk-rock meditation that merges into full-blown avant-garde? It is not only a great track, but nothing like that was ever heard before on a pop album. A masterpiece. Even the world sounds as if it has ended after the song is finished.

Of course Pet Sounds, Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home, and so many others are great albums as well. Nevertheless, if pressed, I would choose Sgt. Pepper’s as the greatest pop-rock album for so many reasons. Its novelty and impact on other artists. Moreover, Sgt’ Pepper’s does something that few albums do, capture its time and transcend it by the quality of its art.

By the way, wonderful insights by this board on Sgt. Pepper’s.

Absolutely laughable! To imply that someone being young would prevent them from understanding the depth of The Beatles' influence is ridiculous. It also epitomizes this topic. It's a topic left to people who only scratch the surface.

If influence is the great question here, couldn't it be argued that Madonna is the most influential artist of the current era? Unfortunately, I wouldn't want to weigh in on that debate either.

What I do want to tell you is that people are still making music. Amazingly, some of it is almost as these albums you seem scarred by. Try listening to it, even if those MP3 things are so scary. Boo.

Sgt. Pepper was essential in establishing the idea of a recording as an art form in itself, rather that merely being a "record" of a live performance. It did this by having a full-album concept instead of a bunch of tracks, and by including things that could only be done in a recording and not in a live show.

I think it's possible to call it the most important rock record ever without saying it's the best ever.

I received my first CD player in 1990 as a gift; along with the player came the Led Zeppelin box set. The next day I went out and purchased my first CD -- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. While I have grown to enjoy the music of Revolver (and Rubber Soul) more, I do think the overall scope and level of production on this album has to be acknowledged.

I'm quite a Beatles fan, but NEVER listen to this album. It's just too too.

Could anyone please recommend a great and honest book or a biography about the Beatles?

It's not even the best Beatles record. Revolver and the White Album compete for that crown.

Jim is right, you had to be there and be trippin' acid to get the full effect of this record.

Allan is using "they" too much. The concept for Pepper came from McCartney.

Lennon's work on this record stands out and is phenomenal. Of course there is "A Day in The Life" but "Lucy in the Sky" is such a visual song and the metric play of "Good Morning" is phenomenal.

What's sad about this record is that the grandiose perception of the record led to the brash backlash against the White Album.

Hated Sgt Pepper when it came out and that was fairly courageous for a 21 year old Brit. still think it is bland and boring.

But the level of analysis of the lyrics overlooks the Scouse ( Liverpudlian) sense of humour - always dark and derogatory.

To say something is great implies a point of reference. Pepper may not be "the" great Beatles album, but compared to other pieces of work in this genre, it is great. Personally, I like it, but prefer Revolver, and most anything by CREAM, a great and revolutionary live act.

"Kill Your Idols"? Please...kill rock critics, listening to this segment, the word "parasitic" comes to mind.

The Best Album? That's too subjective. However, Sgt. Pepper is unquestionably one of the most influential albums ever made. Poll musicians today and it is still often cited as an influence. Therefore I am comfortable that it is the most important Rock album...not to mention that it rocks. You can't beat the Good Morning, Good Morning / Lovely Rita / Sgt. Pepper Reprise triumvirate.

As for revolutionary...I heard mentioned on the program today that no album gets anyone to directly go out and create change...but for raw, pure energy- try the Clash's first Album: The Clash

I hated it then and I don't like it now. Overblown, overly symphonic, self-conscious; I think Rubber Soul is much much better. Sgt. Pepper turned me OFF to my generation's "white-boy" music and sent me running to hear the roots of the Beatles early stuff, which was influenced by a lot of blues songs. While my contemporaries were listening to Led Zeppelin and The Moody Blues, I was into Funkadelic, James Brown, 100 Proof, Aretha... I dont think Sgt. Pepper is the best Beatles album, much less the best album in the world. That honor, I think goes to the jazz album, Kind of Blue.

I discovered this album when I was 14 years old (I'm 35 now) and the critic from Chicago is way off-base when he says that it's conservative and backwards-looking. It is hopeful and fun and cute and trippy. As a reflection on the Beatles' fame and a self-conscious fantasy re-invention of the band, it's shockingly original. How can you look at the album art and call it conservative? Why did it resonate with so many people IN the counterculture if there's nothing countercultural about it? Puh-leese!

I'm relatively young- I wasn't around when this album came out, so I lack nostalgia for this record(I'm sure a lot of people will discount my opinion because of that).

I was resistant to the Beatles because I had heard Sgt. Pepper in my youth, and lacking context, I thought it just sucked. It wasn't until a few years ago that a girlfriend made me listen to more Beatles and I was able to appreciate them.

Even after reading up on the album and the history of the group, Sgt. Pepper will always be pretty lame in my eyes, and I personally resent it because it kept me away from The Beatles for so long. :)

When Stg Pepper came out I thought it was the greatest album in the world. Today, listening to it on my iPod, I recognize the technical achievements of it, but find it too sappy to listen to much. But to Allan's criticism of it's backward look, I don't know where he was in '69, but I was likely at an Antiwar protest wearing "Granny Glasses", overalls, and my father's old army jacket (or else something I bought in the "Antique" clothing store. Looking back was the new looking forward (as we might say today).

To say Sgt. Pepper's is anything less than brilliant is intellectually dishonest. Has it been over-hyped? Of course, but it's like virtually everything else the tirelessly self-aggrandizing, righteously narcissistic, ever nostalgic "Baby Boomers" have claimed about their sacred '60s. (I'm 45, and I doggedly resist statistics that place me in the "(We're) the Greatest Generation.")

Strip away the chatter and focus on the songs. Simply, the craft of the songwriting, production AND performance are utterly fantastic, even if a Chuck Berry riff or 1-4-5 progression is absent. Having journeyed through the maelstrom of Beatlemania for a few years to the point where live performance (which they had to love doing) was ruined by the deafening din of the crowd, these four young men were self-aware of what they were and what they meant at that point in the era. They did "retreat" into the studio, but they threw all their astounding talent into the process, and consequently raised the bar for all time.

It's not the greatest "Rock" album, but probably the greatest "Art Rock" (or "Rock Art"?) album. It's certainly the greatest George Martin album. Nonetheless, it DOES have edge. Jeeze, "Day in the Life" -- what the hell else can you ask for?! (Well, one thing: I wish they would have included "Strawberry Fields, per the original plan.) Masterpiece? You better believe it.

The Pepper era was magnificent. Such relics as Strawberry Field sand I am the Walrus imply the greatness of the Pepper era, however, the album itself has many weak moments:

With a Little Help

Getting Better

She's leaving Home

God Morning

I’ve always thought this debate silly… it’s a great record, period… It’s not Pet Sounds, Like a Rolling Stone or Sgt Pepper’s, but and… the 60s were anti hierarchy (and I was there). Where SP is on this or that list is just selling newspapers.

The crime here is that Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were left off the record (Geoff Emerick, the engineer, wrote a book a while ago and during an interview he mentioned that Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were recorded during the Pepper sessions, but not included because they’d been released as a single). Imagine including these tracks to the set…try it yourself… And how would you sequence the tracks? This crime against rock & roll history could be rectified… release SP with all the songs… this is often done with films that have been butchered by the marketing guys for commercial reasons. Let’s have a Sgt Pepper’s –– the Director’s Cut.

As for testimonials –– Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn (of Booker T. & the MGs) has said that McCartney’s bass playing on SP absolutely blew him away. In the recent documentary, Brian Wilson (who was in an unofficial ‘race’ with the Beatles) relates that he had to pull his car off the highway (the 405) when he heard Strawberry Fields for the first time, thinking to himself: “they did it”. Good enough for me.

Great album!

SP release date June 1, 1967, affords a handy, off the shelf "BC/AD" historical watershed date for the counter-culture that changed everything. Any arbitrary date would miss significant prior events that changed the world, but the release of this album marks a fair culmination of those prior events. Similarly, SP may not have originated all the apparent innovations heard and read, (Album Kit with cutouts, Dynamic Cover art, Lyrics printed, overlapping and/or seamless song segues, orchestration, drug references, production, instrumentation, etc.), but provides a convenient point in time to say to your children, "And then this happened." I liked DeRogatis when he was the NY Giants broadcaster; he is way too old and curmudgeonly to comment about this album. (pun) The primary emotion one gets, gots, and will gets/gots from this masterpiece is JOY. Old Al sounds plain out joyless and so to him the Pepper essence is an annoyance. Yes, there are serious lyrics, "He blew his mind out in a car", "I used to be cruel to my woman etc etc..." , but the immediate response at the time to this work was as if... a New World had begun.

Two last comments: First, Pet Sounds aficionados - you can't possibly make the case that PS has the immediate revolutionary effect of SP - for all intents and purposes it sounds like another Beach Boys album. But SP was like nothing ever heard, starkly contrasting with any prior work - even by The Beats. This is of course not to say that Pet Sounds is not phenomenal, gorgeous, and breathtaking - I am looking at this as a positive sum game. Second, if they hadn't released it as a single with the "first" thematic music video, and had added Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields to this album - there would clearly be absolutely no contest in the greatest album awards. Why? Arguably the greatest single of all time would be... Penny Lane b/w Strawberry Fields, added to the greatest album of all time - well its a no-brainer - I almost wrote a no-Brian-er, which leads me to a thought. There may be one mythical album that Brian made that could rival SP - "Smile". Watch that joy button Al... If you consider that the suites: "Heroes and Villains" "Good Vibrations" and "Surf's Up" would all have been available on one disc - THAT is SP's fantasy competition.

I am struck by how the argument against Sgt.Pepper leaned so hard to the extreme...

but okay.

Just try not to throw out

the baby with the bathwater.

Having been seven at the time of its release,

as well as when it was brought home by my Dad

and I began listening to it,

it is difficult for me not to believe

there is value of a time-sensitive nature

connected with appreciating

as opposed to simply enjoying

a work of art;

that its function is very much

specific to its own time and place,

even as it lasts through time.

My sense of this record's relevance

is not necessarily to be measured only by

the way personal taste describes "greatness"

but, at least in part,

by the undeniable imprint it has had

on those who heard it for the first time

when it was being heard for the first time.

I would contend history, if it persists,

will sort out the distinctions between

cultural relevence and art --

as proposed in Comment 20 above --

regarding the lasting musical value

of The Beatles' and Madonna's

respective cultural impact.

(Not to dis the material girl --

she's carved out quite a niche of her own.)

Sorry -- it sounds like I'm saying

you had to be there to appreciate it...

My bad.

well if GW Bush doesn't like it then there must be something wrong with it!

Overall Jim D is write that true Beatle fans believe as do I that Revolver and Rubber Soul are better. I also think that the White Album and Abbey Road and even Meet the Beatles and Beatles for Sale have a better collection of song.

But I enjoy what Jim D seems to classify as the Old Man McCartney songs like She's Leaving Home - Lennon's delivery of the parent's "what did we do that was wrong" made me think the Beatles were criticizing the parents for being out of touch. I also like getting better and Lovely Rita. And how about Good Morning and Lucy in the Sky (great Lennon) and Within you Without You (not as good as Harrison's revolver song but good)

And how can you pick on A Little Help from my friends - the Beatles were a pop band and a rock band - this is one great pop song -- and when sung by Joe Cocker - a great blus song.

s/b Jim DeRogatis is right - oops

I was 15 when Sargent Pepper's came out. I think Are You Experienced came out that year also. What an amazing year... I kissed my first girl(Evie)that summer while we SP played in the background! I wasn't thinking "hey, how did they layer that" "what kind of recording tape did they use" "what do they mean the girl just wanted to have fun (She's Leaving Home)" GOD IT WAS JUST SUCH WONDERFUL MUSIC! I didn't understand any of the words of Are You Experienced - did I have to? It just did something to me. The guitar solo on May This Be Love still gives me goosepimples! For me SP opened me up to experiencing great music. It was that particular album that did it to me -even though I loved all their earlier albums. Everything came together in those years to create an amazing diversity of great music. Money and copyright issues you didn't hear much about. To think that radio stations played the whole album when a new record came out! Why isn't that done anymore? I paid $7.50 for a third row seat at the Filmore East to see Jimi Hendrix (Band of Gypsies 1969)! $7.50!!!! Was it all just wonderful because I was 15? I don't think so.

The Beatles did two very important things in the 60s. The first is generally unacknowledged. That is, they made rock acceptable listening among college students. Before the Beatles, rock was the death of your social life in college, where folk, classical, and jazz were the norms.

The second Beatles gift to the 60s was "Sgt Pepper's," which made rock acceptable listening among those over 30. Before that, rock was something you grew out of. After June 1967, it was understood that rock could be art and something that you enjoy for as many years as you liked and discuss in intelligent company. Yes, Dylan did much the same thing a few years earlier, but not for a mass audience. After "Sgt Pepper's" came out, people could go back and say "hey, what about this 'they're selling postcards of the hanging' thing?"

I was a rock critic those days and can certify the social significance. Ned Rorem didn't write about the Beach Boys, did he? Musically, "Sgt Pepper's" still tops my best list. (But "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" is even more cringe-inducing now than it was then.)

Mike Jahn

I think that Sgt. Pepper was a segue rather than a chapter that was out of place. It occupies a place in my musical landscape that is windy and cold, and then suddenly maudlin, therefore hard to listen to. It is certainly important but only fifth best of the Beatles albums in my book, and maybe only in the top 25 of albums OAT.

I remember when Sgt. Pepper's came out - it was the first time the guys paid special attention to the Beatles, before that it was just the girls that were fans.....

Kathy,

I've heard Yoko Ono say in an interview that the Beatles represented the feminine side of society.

I've always been very curious how women interpret mainstream art since it is so heavily male dominated.

Hey John Schaefer, how about bringing in psychoanalysts/philosophers to discuss the Beatles and music in general.

Was it all a ploy to get a national anthem for Canada? It still hadn't one then, Jimi used to go-over to there, Vancouver maybe, with his Mom while she was still alive. Me too I played a "O Canada" there where I found out Willa Cather once lived in Whale Cove. She wrote "O, Pioneer" and lived with an American female classical composer from Boston.

As a 14 year old I was seduced by the inuendo...However I always knew that it was and still appreciate it as a fantastically colorful vaudeville act.

The Beatles efforts were epitomized in my opinion in The White Album and Revolver.