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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
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Manufacturer: Capitol
Brand: Beatles
List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $10.48
You Save: $ 8.50 ( 45% )
(prices subject to change)
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Average Customer Ratings:
One of the most famous and influential albums ever recorded, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had a huge impact on the music world, signaling the beginning of a new era of sophistication and maturity in rock. The musical experimentation was dynamic and fresh, several tracks were edited to create seamless transitions, and even the visual design was more elaborate than anything previously attempted. Producer George Martin and The Beatles searched for new sounds and studio effects. They added crowd sounds and animal cries from sound-effects recordings, sped up Paul McCartney's vocals in "When I'm Sixty-Four" (to make him sound younger), and sustained a single piano chord for 40 seconds to end "A Day In The Life." The orchestrations, scored by Martin, were hailed by critics as bridging the gap between pop and classical music, and many people who had never bought a rock record bought Sgt. Pepper's. EMI. 2005.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:
Binding: Audio CD
Brand: Beatles
EAN: 0077774644228
Label: Capitol
Manufacturer: Capitol
Number Of Discs: 1
Publication Date: 1987
Publisher: Capitol
Release Date: 2002-07-15
Studio: Capitol
SIMILAR ITEMS:
• Abbey Road
• The Beatles (The White Album)
• Rubber Soul
• Magical Mystery Tour
• Revolver [UK]
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
My Purchase Experience -
I went on line and purchased this item and was expecting to receive confirmation from the seller that my order had been received (which is common practice). However, I had to send two emails before I heard from the seller. She finally confirmed about a week later that the order had shipped; I got it the next day. The product was great! I just wish I would have heard from the seller a little sooner. In this day and age with scams and all, it made me a little nervous when I had to send two emails to confirm my purchase. Other than that - awesome!
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Possibly the most pretentious, condescending, and long-winded review on Amazon - 
Let me start by stating the obvious.
Amazon reviews (such as the one you're reading right now) are not written by professional critics. They're not in-depth essays, they're not artistic appreciations, they're not swiftly-worded polemics, and they're certainly not works of music criticism (or literary criticism, or film criticism, or wicker furniture criticism, or whatever it is that you happen to be shopping for). They are tools intended to help potential customers make buying decisions. A good Amazon review suggests an answer to the question "should I spend my hard-earned dough on this product?" Four and five star reviews say "yes," three star reviews say "maybe" and one and two star reviews say "no."
When you consider purchasing a product, you are essentially asking yourself the following question: "Does the amount of happiness I stand to receive from this item equal or exceed, when translated into dollar terms, the amount of money I'd spend on it?" Happiness being a subjective quality, this isn't an easy question to answer. Reviews allow consumers to estimate their potential gains.
Now, music is art, but there's no reason why we shouldn't think of art as a simple commodity. Everything that we buy, we buy because we hope that it'll improve (or maintain) the quality of our lives. In that sense, art fulfills the same function as a toaster. Which is to say that when you buy an album, you're in the market for music that will make you happy (here I'm using "happy" in a very loose sense, and I'm referring more to, uh, "spiritual fulfillment" 'n' junk than the capacity to induce a smile. The works of Leonard Cohen don't exactly put a spring in my step, but at some very profound level, they make me happy, even as they break my heart). In other words, you're in the market for music that you'll enjoy listening to (here I'm using "enjoy" in a very loose sense, blah blah blah). In still other words, you're in the market for a compact disc that, when inserted into a a CD player and set into motion, will produce sounds that are pleasing to the ear.
You are NOT, despite what you may think, shopping for "historical significance." An album is historically significant whether you buy it or not. Paying for it and receiving a physical copy of it will not make you appreciate its historical value any more than you already do. I don't need a scale model of the Battle of Waterloo to appreciate the collapse of Napoleon Bonaparte's grandiose ambition. Nor, I suspect, do you. By that same token, purchasing a historically significant album doesn't cause you to "own a piece of history." A signed first-pressing (read: old vinyl) edition might, but it's hard to find that sort of thing on Amazon.
Nor should you consider buying an album because of its influence. Influence is a quality that is only directly of use to those artists that were influenced. Liking Scott Walker doesn't mean that you'll enjoy Jacques Brel simply because the latter influenced the former. Now, there's nothing wrong with thinking that you may enjoy the music on an album because a favorite artist tends to praise said album, as long as you recognize that this praise serves the same function as a good Amazon review. Influence is an occasionally useful indicator, not an intrinsically good quality that elevates a work of art independently of other factors.
Which brings us to this album.
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a cultural milestone, a quintessential snapshot of the Summer of Love, an epic juncture in the history of rock 'n' roll, a shot across the bow at those who don't believe in the artistic potential of pop music, the first album to include printed lyrics, a cathartic moment in the Beatles' increasingly hectic collective career, a reply to Pet Sounds, the number one entry on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time, and a critical sacred cow from the day of its release.
My review concerns itself with none of this.
See, all of the aforementioned qualities are completely extrinsic to whether or not you actually have a copy of this album. You shouldn't care what Rolling Stone thinks, and you shouldn't be reading about this album's historical impact from an Amazon review, because you're looking for an enjoyable listening experience, not a history lesson. Yes, the history is important and interesting, but there are whole books about that stuff.
All of which is my long, long, long prelude to one very simple statement: I don't like listening to this album. Most of the songs are worthless, stupid, dull, ponderous, grating, dated, and endlessly self-involved. "When I'm Sixty-Four," "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!," "Lovely Rita," and "Good Morning Good Morning" are stuffed with transparent gimmickry and lazily disguised pretension. The title trick is a shambling, plodding rocker with phoned-in vocals. "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "Getting Better" are big 'n' famous, but to my ears they fall quite squarely into "it's alright, I guess..." territory. "She's Leaving Home" goes for emotional resonance but plays like dull melodrama. "Fixing A Hole" is catchy, but minor.
It's all so incredibly mundane. The Beatles were capable of so, so much more. Revolver is a masterpiece, and so is Rubber Soul. Heck, Magical Mystery Tour quite soundly defeats Sgt. Pepper's in the "Beatles' psychedelic masterpiece" sweeps. If MMT had "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "A Day In The Life" on it instead of this record, then Sgt. Pepper's would have no business being in your music collection at all. As it stands, the two aforementioned songs are really the only reason that I'd want to recommend this thing on purely musical grounds.
In other words, I really don't like listening to this album, and I don't think that you will either, and I hope that you don't spend, like, twenty bucks on it.
It's not a `concept album,' but it is a plucky concept -
Though groundbreaking and influential in many respects, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is far from the conceptual, free-flowing image it may project. In fact, it could be argued that the Beatles' eighth studio album is a bit choppy in spots, with little rhyme or reason in terms of subject and sound. Nonetheless, the band should be commended for its studio experimentation and range of diverse noises within each unique song. What started as a potentially gimmicky idea by Paul McCartney, in the eyes of his three band mates, ended up being a critically acclaimed and monumental release by an already larger-than-life band from the 1960s.
Paul's idea was to record music as the Beatles but release the new album under the band name Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Accompanying the slaved-over music -- which would take five months to perfect in the studio -- was a splashy album cover and bonus Beatles paraphernalia that was included with the record to satiate salivating Beatles fans, many of whom felt the band had become way too isolated for its own good by the time the Summer of Love rolled around in 1967.
The first three songs on "Sgt. Pepper's" are alone worth the price of admission, and at the start, it does indeed feel like a concept album. True to the album's intent, the enthusiastic title-track opener, sung with gusto by McCartney, feels like the beginning of something fresh, spunky and experimental. In some ways, it IS like listening to a band other than the Beatles. Far from being farcical, as some of the other Beatles may have feared, McCartney's infectiousness is contagious at the start. Interestingly, the following song, "With a Little Help from My Friends," sung mournfully by Ringo Starr, is an entirely different entity; it stands as a perfect come-down, a warning that not all is bliss on the record.
The hazy atmosphere of drugs abounds on this album, starting with the eerie, isolated and high-pitched keyboard on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." Though the song eventually emerges into a tuneful sing-along, Lennon's equally filtered and unnatural voice and lyrics are in lock step with the trippy images he dreamily sings about. Though his contributions to "Sgt. Pepper's" were invaluable, Lennon was said to be drugged to the max during its creation, at times nearly catatonic in nature. By contrast, his cohort McCartney, though also partaking heavily in his share of "downers," warmed up for numerous "Sgt. Pepper's" sessions with cocaine, paving the way for a remarkable contrast in moods, singing styles and attitudes throughout the record's journey.
Some of this stuff is pure Beatles pop, conventional and safe. "Getting Better," for instance, was at one time featured in TV commercials (for a TV brand, I think). Though the lyrics on "Getting Better" are surprisingly introspective and frank ("I used to be cruel to my woman/I'd beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved"), the sound is upbeat, familiar and friendly. Elsewhere, McCartney is positively stately sounding on such gems as the beautiful "She's Leaving Home," the upbeat "Lovely Rita" and the innocent-sounding "When I'm Sixty-Four."
A few laborious swerves on the record include Lennon's somewhat contrived-sounding "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" and George Harrison's droning, sitar-laced "Within You Without You," which, to its credit, does include a pertinent message about the ultimate unimportance and mortality of humans. Though Harrison's tune strives for a never-ending deepness, a far more interesting and trippy time occurs on the epic Lennon/McCartney closer, "A Day in the Life," which smoothly veers from Lennon's faraway annunciations ("I read the news today, oh boy") to McCartney's snappy dialogue ("Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head).
Undoubtedly, from top to bottom, "Sgt. Pepper's" boasts innovative sounds from the Beatles that helped change the musical landscape. Trumpets and piano usurp Harrison's feisty guitar licks; Lennon shows up in a fog; Ringo obediently lends his hand; and much of the project has a movielike feel, thanks to McCartney's bountiful energy and producer George Martin's studio mastery.
Classic -
This is an absolute classic. If you're a Beatles fan, or even if you're not -- this is album is essential to any music lover's collection. (NOT available on iTune$, so if you want it... Amazon.com is the way to go!)
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A Day In The Life -
Before this album was released, nobody took rock music very seriously. Before this album was released, rock music was just something that you could dance to (although it still made a point but nevertheless, just dance music). When this was released however, the face of rock & roll would change. Yes my friends, this album can never be overstated. Sgt. Pepper's is definitely one the best albums the Beatles ever made (just the White Album or Abbey Road can be defined at their magnum opus). If your a classic rock fan, add this on top of your shopping list.
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