Not at all. I remember when Meet the Beatles came out. And watched there first appearance on Ed Sullivan. Good times.
You must have been one of those screaming teenage girls. :p
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
I wasn't around back then....by why is this album so talked about as being the best Beatles LP? Can anyone tell me without saying "just because..."? Thanks. I might buy it....
At the time it was a very original concept album - and that's why it is remembered - at least in my opinion - given the time it was recorded and released and what the status quo of albums was at the time - many think it broke new ground - in concept, recording, production - many areas. Does it hold up to that reputation 40 years later - dunno - but it was the first in many areas.
John, as Lisa said this album was very different than any other album, by any band, put out at that time. And it was a very different Beatle album. They took a lot of chances with the songs on this album. They were the biggest band in the world at the time and they remained that way even though this album was completely different. And this album influenced a lot of other bands and created a new course for them to follow. In my opinion Sgt. Peppers and the first Led Zeppelin album were the two most influential rock albums of that time.
__________________
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
John, as Lisa said this album was very different than any other album, by any band, put out at that time. And it was a very different Beatle album. They took a lot of chances with the songs on this album. They were the biggest band in the world at the time and they remained that way even though this album was completely different. And this album influenced a lot of other bands and created a new course for them to follow. In my opinion Sgt. Peppers and the first Led Zeppelin album were the two most influential rock albums of that time.
Is it "rock-ier"? Who is Sgt. Pepper? Stupid questions, I know... but you should hear the ones I get :p
John all you need to know is that a certain current President said he stopped liking the Beatles when Sgt. Pepper came out because it was too "psychadelical" for him.
So right there you KNOW that is one great motherfucking album!
They also pioneered some innovative multitrack recording methods and orchestration.
__________________
Working "hard," or the perception of working hard, doesn't really mean anything. Sweating, vomiting, and breathing hard could be a good workout or a tropical disease kicking in.-Dan John
No, but after seeing the screaming teenage girls I went out and bought a guitar.
You know that God invented rock n roll so us ugly guys could get some action.
Very insightful. And I was dumb enough to become a symphony musician instead...
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
John, Sgt Pepper's represents the emergence of the "concept album" -- a major departure in rock marketing since most teenagers tended to buy singles on 45s (remember those?) in the 1960s. It also serves as a landmark in art rock, a big shift in the direction of popular music.
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
The Beatles left an indelible mark with 'Sgt. Pepper' album
By Cory Franklin
June 1, 2007
June marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' classic album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band." It has been called the greatest album ever recorded, although disagreement might arise among devotees of the Beach Boys ("Pet Sounds"), Rolling Stones ("Exile on Main Street"), NWA ("Straight Outta Compton"), Nirvana ("Nevermind"), Miles Davis ("Kind of Blue"), Marvin Gaye ("What's Going On") or Frank Sinatra ("In the Wee Small Hours")—not to mention fans of opera, reggae, classical or country music who have their own favorites. In fact, some Beatles historians have claimed "Sgt. Pepper" is not even the group's greatest album, citing "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" or the "White Album." But musical tastes aside, the indisputable fact is that no piece of music or work of art since that time has proven the cultural touchstone that "Sgt. Pepper" was.
In cultural terms, the 1960s began with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and ended with President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. The early 1960s were essentially an extension of the Cold War Eisenhower era. The early 1970s more closely resembled the 1960s than the later Ford-Carter era.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" neatly divided the turbulent decade.
In 1964 John Lennon introduced himself to America on national television with a plaintive request, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Three years later, in "A Day in the Life," the opus magnum of the "Sgt. Pepper" soundtrack, Lennon asked for something more intimate—"I'd love to turn you on." For millions, not just kids but parents and grandparents too, this was the invitation to something—their first drink, their first illicit drug, or their first political cause—backed with the subliminal encouragement of Lennon's haunting refrain. The shock waves continue to this day.
To comprehend the album's immediate impact, one need only look at photos of college campuses or high school yearbooks from 1965 and 1966, a year before the album, and compare them with yearbooks from 1967 to 1968, a year after the album. In the short span of two years, it might as well be a different world—the men with mustaches and long hair, the women in tie-dyed fashions and the atmosphere itself, all transformed through the palpable influence of the Beatles.
Such a rapid transformation of American society has not occurred since. Moreover, the attitude carried far beyond colleges and high schools. Public sentiment about the Vietnam War began to change, a definite consequence of the new zeitgeist.
Race relations changed also. In 1966 there were people singing "The Ballad of the Green Berets" and "We Shall Overcome." By 1968 there was the Tet offensive and black power.
"Sgt. Pepper" made and broke careers. Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' leader, had been in an unspoken competition with Paul McCartney and the Beatles. His 1966 album, "Pet Sounds," was the response to the Beatles' earlier "Rubber Soul." When the Beatles released "Sgt. Pepper," the next salvo, Wilson effectively surrendered and withdrew from the Beach Boys, never to reach his full potential.
Here in Chicago, one of the city's best rock bands, the Buckinghams, was modeled after the pre-"Pepper" Beatles. Good-looking, clean-cut and musically adept, they signed with powerhouse Columbia Records and in early 1967 were poised to replace the Beach Boys as America's No. 1 rock group. Once "Sgt Pepper" came out, the Buckinghams were yesterday's headlines.
But there were winners too. Guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix, Indian musician Ravi Shankar and record producer George Martin all achieved worldwide prominence partly as a result of their association with the Beatles and "Sgt. Pepper."
The artistic community occasionally flatters itself by telling the rest of us how art transforms society. Only isolated examples exist of this transformation. Pablo Picasso's 1937 painting "Guernica" mobilized much of the world against fascism. Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery tract "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the best-selling novel of the 19th Century, was an integral part of American history. When President Abraham Lincoln was introduced to Ms. Stowe after the outbreak of the Civil War, he remarked, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."
But instances of art transmogrifying society might only occur once in a lifetime. Since the Beatles' release of "Sgt. Pepper," nothing the artistic community has produced has had a comparable effect on society. The album changed the lives, in some way or another, of virtually every American who was alive then, and it continues to reverberate for the generations born since. It was that "once-in-a-lifetime" work of art.
It Was 40 Years Ago Today
:p
Considering I wasn't born at the time, I probably shouldn't question it. 
Linear Mode
