SERGEANT PEPPER TURNS 50!
Doug’s recollections . . .
That iconic album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
– the Beatles' magnum opus – is turning 50 today (June 2.) I’ve got a
few recollections regarding that pivotal album I’d like to share with
you – but first a little “Beatles 101.”
I grew up with the Beatles. Their impact on music, culture and me
personally was undeniable. And their influence remains as strong today
as ever.
Whenever the Beatles would release a new record, it was always a big
deal. As young Beatles’ fans, we could hardly wait to see (and hear)
what they’d come up with next – each successive record release was
better than its predecessor!
SETTING THE STAGE
For all you non-Beatles folks, let me lay down a bit of Beatles’ chronology to put the release of Sgt. Pepper in context: The Fab Four had three, major music style periods – early, middle and late periods.
- The early stuff (1962-1964) consisted of many of those iconic and establishing tunes that everyone’s familiar with such as: “Love Me Do,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” etc.
- The psychedelic years
(1965-1967) were the songs written and produced after the Beatles’
transition from live performance to strictly studio work, e.g. the Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
albums typified the middle years. This period was ushered in by the
release of the double A-sided single, “Strawberry Fields Forever” /
“Penny Lane.”
- The final period
(1967-1970) would have been characterized by some of the later singles
and albums leading up to their solo efforts after the group’s breakup in
1970. Examples from this final period would be the Abbey Road and Let It Be albums and even possibly McCartney, Paul’s first solo album.
So Sgt. Pepper arrived
in the U.S. on June 2, 1967 and was arguably the crowning achievement of
not only the Beatles' second-style period but of all of pop music,
period!
* * * * *
MY FIRST LISTENING
It was the summer right before my senior year in high
school, and I was working as kitchen help at Hull House Art & Music
camp about 30 miles south of Milwaukee. For some odd reason, a couple of
my high school classmates and I decided it would be a fun adventure to
spend that summer washing dishes!
The camp – affiliated with Chicago’s Jane Adams Center – brought in
youths between the ages of 10 and 18 from Chicago who had artistic
aptitude, promising academic ability and showed a desire to participate
in the program.
At the camp these city kids resided in seven villages – each with 5
cabins and a village center. The staff had its own housing. Those of us
working in the kitchen had our own barracks in which there were probably
25 of us guys ranging in age from 16 to 25.
Needless to say there was a lot of amazing talent at this camp. Those
prodigious, city kids were referred to as Y.A.I.T’s (Young Artists In
Training.) And being the mid-1960s a lot of exciting things were
happening in music, art and culture. This indeed was an exciting
environment for me – especially as a young musician myself – even though
I was there just as a dishwasher!.
I remember the buzz circulating around the camp with the Y.A.I.T’s that
the Beatles would soon be releasing this mysterious record – the
highly-anticipated follow-up album to Revolver. I'd
overheard Ricky telling Ann (two of the Y.A.I.T's): "This new album has
something to do with a Sergeant Pepper, and it's gonna to be mind blowing!"
In the ‘60s the Beatles had established a precedent of topping
themselves with each successive record release – each single and each
album was better and more innovative than the last. So just how would it
be possible for them to surpass their previous two masterpieces, Rubber Soul and Revolver?!
The announcement came over the radio – Sgt. Pepper was
now in stores! So my Iowa buddies and I made the 20-mile drive into
Whitewater, Wisconsin and located the new album at a local drugstore.
We chaperoned that vinyl disc in its colorful sleeve back to camp like it was the Holy Grail!
That evening all the guys in the barracks gathered around a Sears
Silvertone portable record player that Chuck from Chicago had brought to
camp to play his Dave Brubeck albums. I had the honor of dropping the
needle on side one of Sgt. Pepper.
You could have heard a pin drop, and it seemed no one even took a breath
as we all carefully listened to the opening strains . . .
“It was twenty years ago today,
Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play,
They’ve been going in and out of style,
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.”
Some forty minutes later as the bombastic, final chord slowly faded, we
all stood transfixed. The turntable's tonearm skated into the end groove
and automatically returned to its holder. The click of the auto-shutoff
snapped us all out of our collective trance. Chuck finally broke the
silence – whispering one word, “Wow!”
THE 50th ANNIVERSARY RE-MIX EDITION
Today (June 2) marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. release of Sgt. Pepper.
The awe that swept over us kitchen workers in 1967 after our initial
listening would be experienced again and again by millions of people the
world over that summer. The magic continues today in 2017 -
a half-century later!
To celebrate this 50th anniversary, the Beatles’ record company, Apple Corps, is releasing several editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
in various configurations. The top-of-the-line edition being a Special
Collector’s Anniversary Edition – a six-disc boxed set featuring the
album’s new stereo mix on its first CD; two CDs with 33 additional
recordings from the studio sessions; a fourth CD with the re-mastered
original mono mixes of the album; DVD and Blu-ray discs with the new 5.1
surround audio mixes of the album along with “The Making of Sgt.
Pepper,” a newly restored 1992 documentary film featuring interviews
with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr plus in-studio
footage introduced by George Martin (the Beatles’ producer.)
* * * * *
Amazon Prime is allowing members to listen to the new re-mix online. So
last night I put the headphones on, dimmed the lights and listened.
“It was twenty years ago today,
Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play . . .”
For 40 minutes I was 16 years old again!
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