.....And dude, it's rude to promote yourself on someone else's blog.

.....Sgt. Pepper WAS out of tune.

AcidReign

I am Mark Seibold in Portland Oregon; a world famous astronomy and space artist currently popularized on NASA web sites for my award winning pastel sketch art. I was nearly 13 years age when Pepper released. It was a great influence on my visual arts and other musical interests including helping to recently produce a young ladies pop folk music video locally here in Portland Oregon among influencing other great musicians in the region.

On that day in 1967 the world was waiting and Beatles delivered something technically championing like nothing ever before in recording history. Regardless of what is said here about each track today. No complete technically new accomplishment in recording had ever been released until then. That is the fact that many are missing here. Read more into the actual recording history of this genius work before you further attack it in any way else.

I see allot of people here wanting to offer their personal opinion of the Sgt Peppers album or each track as if comparing with their personal favorites by other groups. I see no point in this. The Beatles had their own style. No one will deny it that they are now understood to be art icons that changed our overall culture forever. Not that other great groups and single artists like the Kinks, the Stones, The Turtles, The Who, The Moody Blues, CSNY, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carol King, Stevie Wonder, etc are not all great in their own right, but the Beatles were known to set the standards and they did. You cannot rewrite that part of history nor ever duplicate it again. They will go down with the likes of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven like no other group of musicians will.

I also see allot of tearing Pepper apart as if the history books are being rewritten by the new youth. They cannot read history well? What I cannot understand is that the youth today seem to be insulted that there is not a single band that can match the Beatles in all ways possible today and they take offense to this as if it is the 1960's generational fault. Why would they want to find anything wrong with the greatest singular popular album ever produced that still stands the test of time today as the greatest single example of popular music, without debate? Anyone attacking it is merely being selfish and childish against all odds of history already written in stone about this great album. That is really undisputed.

I would invite many here to read the real history behind the album. What I see being terribly missed in this weak comments site from mere children, is that they do not give credence to the fact that this album was an historically pioneering first effort for technical first ever achievements in recording history. It set the stage for all future recording techniques in music. No one had ever created and used a 24 track recording studio until then. No other single band had created such a comprehensive single thematic and complete genre of album that all jelled so well until then. Many highly accomplished musicians still today agree that Pepper was the greatest influence on other professional musicians' works thereafter.

Any questions?

Now shut the ipops ipods up and put on the high quality vinyl pressing version from German labels on a good turntable for ultimate sound quality.

I'd love to turn you on!

Mark
www.myspace.com/marksolarprophet

MarkSeibold

Amphiuma

Spiny Norman

gregcoff

janine

janine

....."Squee! Squak squick squawk squawk-GIRL."

AcidReign

AcidReign

But this is so TEDIOUS. This isn't ambition, this is being crushed by some sort of sense of overarching self-awareness that nothing is the result. There have been tons of characters who have played by these rules over time in any number of artistic fields and found their monuments to history ignored or out of place when the random out of nowhere experiment finds itself lionized. I will stick with that approach rather than some sort of overtly conscious dream of 'oh if ONLY we could create something to sledgehammer the future with!'

Ned Raggett

I had a music professor in college who basically preached that the best band of the 60s wasn't the Beatles or the Stones, but the Kinks.

dollywould

Tiger_Tanaka

mike a

mike a

I'd rather listen only to albums by folks who've only had tiny, stable nearly 20-year careers (Radiohead, Bjork, Blur, Pulp) than listen to anything from the '60s ever again.

Then again, The Turtles were better than the Beatles. So were CCR and the Mamas & the Papas when sober enough. And the Mothers' We're Only In It.

And the Stones have been around forever and only put out around 3 good songs. (And Satisfaction isn't one of them.)

nonce

I'm talking about anyone with the means to create something original, timeless, and crucial to its moment in history. A record that has seismic effects on the culture at large. It has nothing to do with hijacked definitions or throwback ideals. The idea of "greatness" might allow for some wiggle room, but it's not nearly as subjective as you'd like it to be, Janine.

Ambition might be easy to smirk at, but it's that smirk that leaves us a thousand Art Bruts, tons of fun and completely, utterly forgettable.

Bob Loblaw

Bob, I agree with your first point but I think your arguement jumped the tracks at Reason #2. There are plenty of posts on idolator that point to the fact that there are a lot of contenders for albums every bit as influential as the SPLHCB in the grand scheme of things. (Erm).

Yes, we all agree that it was a incalculably influential album. Isn't it time to start over-dissecting some other records?

mug's game, I like that.

Feh Am Legend

parrotrunner

parrotrunner

@Bob Loblaw: First, I said the opposite. That definitions of the word important are dang-near reversed engineered to describe the Beatles.

Of course you'd be hard pressed to find a definition that says otherwise, it's not paranoid to say that Boomers rigged the definition of the word "important."

Don't get me wrong, I love the Beatles, but many of these Boomer assumptions about "authenticity" and "importance" (that's a big part of what was sooo great about that time, right?) have only gotten in the way of close listening to music outside of that era. For example, those assumptions are there when you hear people describe things as guilty pleasures.

I like a lot of music from that era, what I don't appreciate is a rigid value system that gets in the way of listening.

janine

I freely admit I couldn't begin to care if 'we' did this, and I think this is a mug's game to start with.

NedRaggett

I like most of this post, and I agree that there's nothing else to be said about Sgt Pepper's, but I think the argument jumped the tracks at Reason #2. Vague anger at the Boomers won't change the fact that we don't have our own contender. And until we produce albums that can reasonably stand beside Revolver or Abbey Road, we're doomed to reading the same infuriating retreads of albums from 40 years ago.

That's our fault, not the Boomers.

Bob Loblaw

.....I WAS alive when Sgt. Pepper came out, but we were NOT allowed to bring a Beatles record into the house. Too laoud, mon! They had a fit when our elementary school had us sing "Eleanor Rigby" in the school play! My little brother and I had a hidden stash of forbidden records, though, along salvaged porn magazines from neighbors' trash heaps. When I got my first amp, I used to drive the 'rents crazy playing "Daytripper" on the most hardcore tone I could dial up.

.....Our stash included:
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver, Live at Hollywood Bowl
Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Kiss: Destroyer
Led Zep's 4th
Aerosmith: Toys in the Attic
Foghat (the one with "Slow Ride," can't remember the name...)
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?
Yes: Fragile
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

AcidReign

The Playlist

;)

DW

gregcoff

janine

parrotrunner

How about I define "pretty" as being in your late 20s, 5'7", being Black and wearing glasses? I'm sorry other ladies who read Idolator, you don't measure up to being as pretty as I am.

janine

Anyway, that Mastodon article has 30 comments. Which would, by these standards, mean people only care about Sgt. Pepper 20% more than they care about Mastodon. I suppose that might be right, actually. Hmmm.

Anyway, did you know it's only been 10 years since Spiceworld came out? Now that's a milestone worth celebrating.

KurticusMaximus

(its in four years, Gen Xers)

Cos

NickEddy

Idolator post on Sgt Pepper's: 35 replies.
Idolator post on Okkervil River: 2 replies.

The net of it: people still care about that album, myself included. And not just because Jann Wenner told me to.

And yes, I will be buying Mojo's upcoming special issue on Paul McCartney's '67 mustache.

gregcoff

AND: Sign O' The Times/Louder Than Bombs-Strangeways, Here We Come/Descendents ALL/Dukes of Stratosphear...many more.

A vintage year...

NickEddy

Jupiter8

You know what's really important? It's been twenty years since Hysteria, The Joshua Tree, and Appetite for Destruction were all released. A year in which "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" were both released is a year that kicks Radiohead's ass all over the place.

KurticusMaximus

Thierry

BRATMix

MConnor

natepatrin

parrotrunner

And I predict in 30 years there will be a rant almost verbatim to this one about how someone is sick of hearing about OK Computer. Of course it won't be on a blog since they will be obsolute.

DigitalLogic

.....I much prefer the White Album. "I am the Walrus" might be the greatest psychedelic song ever written! And of course, this metalhead likes "Helter Skelter," too. Best Beatles song ever, though, was from "Abbey Road:" "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." That was the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together, plus Billy Preston on keys. What a way to go out!

AcidReign

Dickdogfood

Dickdogfood

"Abbey Road" is way overrated too, IMHO..."Magical Mystery Tour" is way underrated...and I know it's a popular position to take but none are as good as "Revolver"...

Jupiter8

Isn't the onus on us to stake a legitimate claim to it first?

Bob Loblaw

@CaptainPeacockSuit: Ditto.

Lucas Jensen

CaptainPeacockSuit

I'd like to see that on MOJO,actually.

NickEddy

Heck, I learned to read by stealing my older sister's copy of Sgt Pepper and following along with the lyrics on the back cover. But it's a waaaay overrated album.

magic1

kiteless

Hyman Decent

twenty-four hour priapism

JudgeFudge

tigerpop

I admit that the media will bludgeon us to death with the "Pepper is EVERYTHING" overkill in the next month or so. When you look at who owns the mass media, though, it's understandable: these folks grew up with John, Paul, George and Ringo, so they mark the 40th anniversary of Pepper as a benchmark of age. C'est la vie.

But point number two is just hipster sour grapes. Show me a group from today that will have the staying power of The Beatles. C'mon - I'll wait....

Nothing? 'Nuff said.

randomduck

Nicolars

Me neither. This is the first time I've read this, period and I stay reading music blogs and news....

ens3000

Also, having owned a copy of "Sgt Peppers" since I was ten, I can say I've never made it all the way through "Within You Without You," that I've noticed. There, now I've told you.

NickEddy

Lucas Jensen

mike a

mike a

Ned Raggett

Rusty

chrisb

Lucas Jensen

To quote Homer Simpson, by the way, I'm being sarcastic.

Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue