1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends*
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She's Leaving Home*
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I'm Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day in the Life*
A+
So we come to Sgt. Pepper's, the most albumy album that ever albumed. This is generally regarded as the moment when rock and pop came to be considered high art - with all the good and bad that would entail. I mean, this is a great album, but it would lead directly to such sonic nightmares as Tarkus and Tales from Topographic Oceans. Suddenly, rock music could be considered as relevant and sophisticated as jazz and classical music. I like some of the music that came in the wake of this, but if I'm being honest I prefer stuff that's rawer, harder and more immediate. But anyway, this is the Beatles, and you're in pretty good hands. I'd never stoop to writing a hagiography of them, but I won't pretend they weren't an amazing and influential band.
This is a concept album, but it's a concept of more benefit to the band than the listeners. The idea is that this is a concert put on by Sergeant Peppers et al. The Beatles found this freeing, as it let them explore musical directions without feeling limited by their history. For the listener, it just means you have to suffer through the largely pointless title track, its reprise, and the ridiculous (although technically impressive) "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!". And then the band's performance ends and they just sort of shove "A Day in the Life" in there. Which, admittedly, might be the Beatles' "best" song, whatever that means, but it does kind of undercut the whole concept.
Still, let's focus on the positive. "With a Little Help from My Friends" is a glorious song, catchy and poignant. I never much cared for "Lucy in the Sky" - it has a wonderfully trippy verse, but the chorus is generic and godawful; I suppose it works as a release of tension, but honestly it damages the song in my opinion. "Getting Better", on the other hand, is magnificent, with its classic refrain of "you've got to admit it's getting better (it can't get no worse!)", and candid admissions about how terrible Lennon had been in the past, and how he was trying to do better (although that wouldn't stop him from being a controlling dick to Yoko). Then of course you have "Fixing a Hole", which is nice enough if you like strained metaphors and unremarkable melodies. But then things are back on form with the astonishing "She's Leaving Home", a beautiful and touching song about the lack of understanding between the generations, in which a couple can't understand why their daughter would want to leave despite their having given her the best of their lives - it really is the ultimate "parents just don't understand" song, about how even with the best of intentions a couple can suffocate their children.
Side two opens with "Within You, Without You", one of George Harrison's Indian songs and one of his finest moments as a Beatle. The combination of Indian instruments with lush Western strings, and Harrison's lovely lyrics about self-knowledge and the nature of reality (all drawn from his fascination with Indian philosophy, which I share to a lesser degree), are a complete departure from the rock style of the rest of the album, and help to reinforce his position as the thinking man's Beatle. Of course, it's followed by one of the best and one of the worst McCartney compositions. "When I'm Sixty-Four" is one of McCartney's finest moments as a songwriter - a gentle ballad about the inevitability of growing older and doing it for the long haul. (They taught us to sing it in music class in school! Although they also taught us "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - the 90s were a different time). "Lovely Rita", unfortunately, is a proggy blowout that buries a decent little pop song under layers of instrumental wankery. And then there's "Good Morning Good Morning", easily the least memorable song on the album.
The real show stopper, of course, is "A Day in the Life". It suffers a little from the Beatles' insistence on writing like they were far-seeing visionaries when they were really just bright guys with a gift for sounds, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a dark, strange, poetic song that shifts from gentle pianos to the sound of an orchestra melting, even as it attempts to capture the experiences of an ordinary man trying to live a day in this bizarre world we inhabit. It's pretty impressive - a sort of "I Am the Walrus" for people who expect their songs to actually mean something.
So possibly I am not doing this album justice. I was not high when I listened to it. But then the great thing about the Beatles is that, while informed by drugs, they consistently made music that sober people might want to listen to (I have only had two glasses of wine - and leave me alone, it's my day off). Andf this album is probably most important for its role in opening up the shear possibilities of music - a world where rock, pop, jazz, and art music could coexist and feed off each other. ButI'm not even going to bother trying to examine the cultural impact of this album. What matters, these days, is how it stands up as music. And really, aside from an unfortunate trio of songs in the back half, it's pretty perfect.
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