Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band at 50

It was 50 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play (well not quite) and this album still has such a significant impact on the music of today. In 1967 the Beatles made the decision to no longer play live due to it being too dangerous and losing interest in performing as John Lennon put it 'Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music anymore'. This left them more room to experiment with their songs knowing that they wouldn't have to replicate the sounds to play them live. They were previously limited to what songs they could play as they only had a two guitar, bass and drum stage set up but with this limitation now no longer there they were free to do whatever they wanted and so Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was born…

This album contains so many iconic songs and opens with the title track which is an introduction to the military style band that the Beatles turned themselves into for this LP. Personally, I feel this is the perfect introduction to what could be considered an early concept album. Towards the end of this song Paul McCartney introduces Ringo Starr’s character, Billy Shears who sings the lead vocal on the next track ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. Possibly one of my favourite Beatles stories is that Paul, John and George all gathered around the microphone to provide Ringo with moral support when singing the high note towards the end and this song quite literally was recorded with a little help from his friends.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds is the next track which paints a psychedelic picture of an alternate world with ‘tangerine trees’ and ‘marmalade skies’. When taken away from the context of the album this song almost makes no sense at all but on an album amongst other strangely genius songs it definitely isn’t out of place. Getting better is one of my favourite songs from this album. Although not the most popular its simple and easy to listen to. The dual vocal singing ‘its getting better all the time’ and ‘it couldn’t get no worse’ adds a comedic effect to the song and perfectly shows the contrast in personalities between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Its not particularly a stand out moment on this album but however it’s a song I still find myself returning to and adding to different playlists.

Fixing a hole is one of the moments on this album that kind of gets washed over by how good its surrounding songs are. Whilst this is still an excellent song in my opinion its again not a stand out moment on the album with the guitar solo being one of the best things to happen on this track. She’s leaving home is a song that I find is painfully underappreciated. Inspired by a true story about daily runaways read by Paul McCartney, the lyrics tell a story of a young girl who’s parents bought her everything she asked for but she was never happy at home and so she runs away. The use of the harp accompanies McCartney’s narrative and Lennon’s vocal of the story from the perspective of the parents well.

The bizarre ‘being for the benefit of Mr kite!’ was a song inspired by a poster in john Lennon’s living room. This song is strangely amazing with the backing track creating a fairground atmosphere whilst Lennon’s vocal sings of a circus like event. This song blends perfectly into the album and doesn’t sound out of place at all.

The second side of the album opens with ‘Within You Without You’, the only song written by George Harrison on this album. I find this song fascinating as it is heavily inspired by Indian music. The lyrics are quite heavy and talk about how life will always go on whether you are alive or not and as you are living life goes on within you and when you die it goes on without you. The full 5 minutes of this song are absolutely captivating. The audience laughing at the end provides a sense of relief to the listener after 5 minutes of quite a sad song. ‘When I’m Sixty Four’ has become a classic Beatles song. Its one of the few songs that can be taken away from this album and still make perfect sense stood alone. McCartney innocently sings of growing old with someone with his vocal edited to a higher pitch making him sound younger in front of a cheerful melody which is instantly recognisable on its own.

‘Lovely Rita’ is a classic example of how Paul McCartney was able to make up a fictional character and story and create a song about them. The psychedelic sound of this song mixed with McCartney’s lyrics about a meter maid are far from out of place on this LP. ‘Good Morning Good Morning’ is another bizarre song written by John Lennon that was this time inspired by a Kellogg’s advertisement on tv and possibly also his reaction to his life now that they had stopped touring and he was at home a lot. The up-tempo song is captivating from the opening lyrics that include ‘nothing to do to save his life call his wife in’. The fade out of this song is also particularly interesting in the way that it includes various animal noises. ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise’ is a more up-tempo version of the opening track with a dominant electric guitar riff throughout but this time thanking the audience for attending the show instead of welcoming them to the show, the song sounds similar enough to the opening track for the listen to know it is a reprise but still remains exciting as it doesn’t sound repetitive and exactly the same.

The thirteenth and final track on this album is ‘A Day In The Life’ which is quite possibly the best song of all time. It is captivating from the start with a heavy piano and acoustic guitar opening it before Lennon’s vocal appears singing the opening line ‘I read the news today, oh boy’. The lyrics continue talking about the news stories john Lennon read about a man who ‘blew his mind out in a car’. The lyrics even reference the film ‘How I Won the War’ that John Lennon starred in himself. The echo like vocal singing ‘I’d love to turn you on’ provide a harrowing sense to the song before an orchestra builds up and becomes intense before eventually silencing just before a McCartney vocal comes to describe a typical day for him. He then sings ‘somebody spoke and I went into a dream’ which leads into the dream sequence with John Lennon’s vocal again still singing about the news but this time about the ‘4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire’ to follow. The final note of this song was done on three separate pianos in order for it to last longer and provides the perfect end to this album.

Sgt peppers is perhaps the most iconic album ever and has stood the test of time as 50 years later it still sounds amazing and innovative. It goes without saying that I wasn’t alive when it was released but upon discovering this album and listening to it for myself I was amazed at how it sounds absolutely timeless and like it could have been released any time in the last 50 years. It Is fascinating to me that something this innovative and refreshing could have been released so many years ago and still sound so good to this day. Brian Epstein was right when he said that children in the 21^st century would still be listening to the Beatles.

Sam x