It was June 1, 1967 (June 2nd in the U.S.) that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band first entered our collective psyches, and forever changed the world. Simply put, it was the most important album ever released, still as fresh and exciting today as it was then!
I can remember when I first heard it. It was just after my 2nd year of college and a friend and I went to the brand new Montreal Expo’67 around Memorial Day. Car radios were AM only and music stations were few and far between in that journey home through upstate New York. I was looking for music, when I heard the scratchy and intermittent sounds of a song I never heard before. Even though I could hardly hear it, there was no doubt, the long awaited new Beatles Album had come out. The song was Lovely Rita. For all of you Generation iPoders, Cell Phoners, Facebookers, and Twitterers, there were no advance announcements about record releases. They just came out. We fans ‘sensed’ it was about that time. I got home late, after all the record stores had closed, but the next morning (it was a Sunday) I went to the only store open on a Sunday – Two Guys From Harrison in Hackensack, NJ before breakfast to purchase my Mono copy. I came rushing home and couldn’t wait to open it up and get in on my record player. My brother (who is not the musical person in the family) listened with me. I was so blown away by it, looking at the cover and reading the lyrics (this was the first time lyrics were ever included on an album) and examining the cutouts all while the songs are leaping off the turntable. After listening to both sides, my brothers said, “Why did they put that last song on after the reprise. It’s just a filler”. That’s when I knew he didn’t ‘get it’. But I sure did. As the Johnny Rivers song says, I spend the entire summer listening to the album. I must admit, Indian music was foreign to me (and to U.S. pop culture) at the time and it took a while to understand and appreciate George’s singular contribution, Within You Without You. Oh, and that closing track, the greatest example of the Lennon and McCartney writing team, working at their highest levels of creativity. John’s gorgeous melody and poetic story simply told with just an acoustic guitar to Paul adding that middle 8 and the idea to leave 24 bars open for ‘something he had in mind’. Then to see and hear a 42 piece classical orchestra being told to just start at the bottom and finish at the top of the register of each instrument. WOW. A Day in The Life, still remains one of the greatest songs ever recorded.
One of the most magical things about The Beatles is that most artists can never top their masterpieces (ie: Sweet Baby James, Tapestry, Blue, Hotel California, Frampton Comes Alive, Rumours, Thriller to name just a few) but The Beatles kept on topping themselves, right up to their final album two years later! It was a wonderful time. Happy birthday Sgt. P.
