It is not quite often that a band performs in such a way that the face of music is changed altogether as never before. The Beatles could achieve this with many of their creations rocking the music world and making them one of the greatest bands of all time. One of their famous works is the album “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band”.
Background Sgt Pepper’s was conceived as an album with a dramatic whole rather than a collection of individual songs. The album recited the story as the songs went on and the album displayed the excellence of electronic music of the day. The album was mainly a studio work and hence could not be reproduced on stage. This prestigious album for Beatles won the attention of all the music lovers of the world to their novel experiments in music, especially from the younger audience. Members of the Beatle team were tired of touring and had decided to become an entirely studio-based band. Recording for Sgt. “Pepper began in late 1966 and early 1967 with two songs recorded then which were ultimately dropped from the album. The album was recorded in the famous Abbey Road studios during a 129 day period. The recording cost £ 25000 (BBC News).” The band could record all the songs using mono, stereo, and four-track recorders. The recording was done using the technique known as “bouncing down” which gave Sgt. Pepper the effect of recording in a multi-track studio.
Creators The album was produced by the Beatles. There were four members of the group – Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – all of them hailing from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Each of the members of the rock band had previous experience in working on different rock groups before they joined to form the Beatles. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band was released in June 1967 as the eighth studio album performed by the Beatles. This album is considered as one which has influenced the people most of all times.
The success of the Album has been a roaring success retaining the top position in the UK Album chart continuously for 27 weeks. The album was also placed as the number one in American Billboard 200 for 15 weeks (Ingles). The album has the honor of winning four Grammy awards in the year 1968. The album topped the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in the year 2003 (Rolling Stone).
The concept behind the Album McCartney thought it would be a novel idea to create fictitious characters for all the four band members. It was considered that a recording of the album by the fictitious band which represented the ‘alter-ego group would give the band the freedom to experiment with new concepts and themes. Accordingly, the members of the Beatles changed their costumes and grew mustaches, beards and longer hairs as the theme costume for the Sgt Pepper album. However, the album has abandoned the concept after recording the first two songs as John Lennon felt that the lyrics he created had nothing to do with the concept. It is to be noted that all the other songs in the Album were unrelated and do not express an overreaching theme. However, the album was acclaimed as an early breakthrough in the realm of ‘concept album’ because of the structure that was cohesive and the sequencing that was careful with a perfect articulation of transitioning between songs on the album. One of the songs in the album “A Day in the Life” was banned from broadcasting by BBC, as the song is presumed to encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking (Associated Press)
Structure The Sgt Pepper album is different from “Abbey Road” another concept album recorded by the Beatles earlier. There is no side-lengthy medley or recurring musical themes in Sgt Pepper (Sunami). The album maintains the structure of a Long Playing (LP) record of that time. The imitation of a classic theatrical presentation that includes an introduction, a first act finale, a second act introduction, a curtain call, and a coda which are all the essential parts of theatrical art makes Sgt Pepper an unusual piece of music. The cover art also exhibits a rare artistic presentation in which the college of hundred famous faces is assembled together as members of the eponymous “Lonely Hearts Club”. In addition, many of the characters in the songs are created as iconic conception and realization which also enhances the uniqueness of the album (Icons).
Break up of Beatles The pressures of the public lives and the interference of the outside interests of the members of Beatles led to the break up of the group in 1971. McCartney produced solo albums and he formed his own band named ‘Wings’. George Harrison played many benefit concerts in different countries of the world to serve the poor and needy. Ringo Starr acted in some films and commercials and TV Shows. John Lennon continued as a musician and the albums produced by him with his wife did not evoke any appreciable response. John Lennon was assassinated in the year 1980 in New York. Despite the breakup of the band, a number of music lovers listen to the works of the Beatles even today which makes them the greatest band in the world of all time.
References
AssociatedPress. Beatles Song Nasty – BBC. 1967. Web.
BBCNews. The Wonderful World of Sgt Pepper. 2007. Web.
Icons. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 2009. Web.
Ingles, Paul. Sgt. Pepper an Album That Shaped an Era. 2007. Web.
RollingStone. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hears Club Band. 2003. Web.
Sunami, Chris. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band. 2008. Web.