FEATURE:
The Act You've Known for All These Years…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1967/PHOTO CREDIT: David Magnus
Fifty-Five Years Since the Recording of The Beatles’ Track, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
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MAYBE it is a strange anniversary to mark…
yet, on 1st February, 1967, The Beatles started recording the title track to their iconic album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the most important and influential albums ever, the foundations of a track which kicked off the album should be celebrated. It is almost fifty-five years since The Beatles began work on what would ignite an album that, to this day, is seen as one of their very best. Maybe the ‘concept’ of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is quite loose. It is, in effect, The Beatles being another band. We get the title track at the top and the reprise comes before the finale, A Day in the Life. Apart from that, there is not too much linked to the themes of a fictional band. I am not sure what the concept could have been. As the theme is a band rather than a subject or event, it is hard to write songs that would form a cohesive and clear concept. Rather, The Beatles introduced themselves (Billy Shears, who was played by Ringo, then sang lead on the second track, With a Little Help from My Friends) and then we got songs from a fictional band, rather than the Liverpool foursome we knew and loved. That’s how I see it. Even though the title track is only 2:02, it is an important song in their cannon. It opens up an album that contains some of The Beatles’ very best work. I have always loved Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as it was released during the Summer of Love (May 1967), and there is this trippy, psychedelic sound and feel. The album cover is iconic, whilst this might be the last album before Abbey Road (1969) where the band sound harmonious for the most part.
I will give further thoughts in a second. Recorded over four separate days, Beatles Bible gives us some more information and insight into a song that starts one of the greatest albums that was ever released into the world:
“Recorded: 1, 2 February; 3, 6 March 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
On The Beatles’ final US tour in 1966, Paul McCartney was struck by the inventiveness of the West Coast hippy groups, with names such as Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. In November that year, on a post-holiday flight from Nairobi to England, he came up with the idea of an alter-ego for the band, which would perform an entire album before an audience.
Sgt Pepper is Paul, after a trip to America and the whole West Coast, long-named group thing was coming in. You know, when people were no longer The Beatles or The Crickets – they were suddenly Fred and His Incredible Shrinking Grateful Airplanes, right? So I think he got influenced by that and came up with this idea for The Beatles. As I read the other day, he said in one of his ‘fanzine’ interviews that he was trying to put some distance between The Beatles and the public – and so there was this identity of Sgt Pepper. Intellectually, that’s the same thing he did by writing ‘He loves you’ instead of ‘I love you.’ That’s just his way of working. Sgt Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn’t go anywhere. All my contributions to the album have absolutely nothing to do with the idea of Sgt Pepper and his band; but it works ’cause we said it worked, and that’s how the album appeared. But it was not as put together as it sounds, except for Sgt Pepper introducing Billy Shears and the so-called reprise. Every other song could have been on any other album.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
In the studio
The song ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was recorded over four days. On 1 February 1967 The Beatles taped nine takes of the rhythm track, though only the first and last of these were complete. They recorded drums, bass and two guitars – the latter played by Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
The next day McCartney recorded his lead vocals, and he, Harrison and John Lennon taped their harmonies. The song was then left for over a month, until the French horns were overdubbed on 3 March. McCartney also recorded a lead guitar solo, leaving the song almost complete.
On 6 March they added the sounds of the imaginary audience and the noise of an orchestra tuning up, a combination of crowd noise from a 1961 recording of the comedy show Beyond The Fringe and out-takes from the 10 February 1967 orchestral overdub session for ‘A Day In The Life’”.
Nearer to May, I will put out a feature or two regarding Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearst Club Band. I may put out a track ranking piece, as there are some definite highlights. I think that the title track is among the best five on the album. I like how Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band does not have a traditional chorus or familiar structure. It is an introduction and overview of what to expect going forward. One of the best tracks from The Beatles, I aim imagining them going into the studio on 1st February, 1967 and the seeds being planted. As the concept was McCartney’s – and he contributed most of the songs -, I can imagine that he was especially pleased and excited realising that The Beatles’ eighth studio album would be something very special indeed. Whilst many Beatles fans will argue albums such as Revolver and Abbey Road are more consistent and better, I do not think they are more era-defining and important as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The title track is the beginning of this imagine voyage through various scenes, moods, characters and sounds. It is hard to say how an album will sound and shape up when an artist starts work in the first days. I wonder whether The Beatles and George Martin, when they started recording the title track of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, quite knew…
WHAT was to come!