…that the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album that would forever alter the face of pop music.

The thirteen tracks on Sgt Pepper utilized state-of-the-art technology, with the songs themselves incorporating a variety of non-rock styles and instrumentation, including raga and traditional British music hall. Rock fans have been eternally grateful for the band’s decision to use a full orchestra on the album, leading the way for bands like Metallica, Kiss and ELP to do the same throughout the years.

 

The band’s use of marijuana and LSD during the recording sessions clearly influenced the album’s lyrics. The most infamous example is “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” the title of which clearly appears to be an acronym for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, a hallucinogenic drug. John Lennon wholeheartedly denied the song was drug related, claiming it was written about a drawing by his four-year-old son, Julian. (Lennon later backed off his original denial when he recalled he had been doing LSD with his son the night before.)

 

Other drug references hidden in the lyrics include:

 

–“I get high with a little help from my friends” in “With a Little Help from My Friends” (“getting high” is slang for doing drugs)

 

— “I’d love to turn you on” in “A Day in the Life” (“turn you on” is drug terminology for doing drugs)

 

— “The Hendersons will dance and sing as Mr. Kite flies through the ring don’t be late” (“Mr. Kite flies through the ring” is a Liverpool dockworkers’ reference to injecting heroin into one’s anus)

Sgt. Pepper was a gigantic commercial and critical success upon its release. Kenneth Tynan of The New York Times described the album as “a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization,” and countless others followed suit with effusive praise. But perhaps the most effusive review came from Rolling Stone‘s Dennis Hillenbrand. 

“BEATLES CHANGE THE FACE OF TIME AND HISTORY WITH ‘PEPPER’”

by Dennis Hillenbrand

 

Ten long months ago, the Beatles made a massive creative step with their Long Player, Revolver, which both created and expanded upon the artistry of the preceding release, the Folk influenced Rubber Soul. Through the utilization of Oriental drones, transcendental lyricisms, and tape recording loops, Revolver introduced a new and exciting dialogue to Rock.

 

In regards to their newest work, I will not mince words. Sgt. Pepper is the perfect record album. There is not a single moment within its thirteen tracks that could be considered less than flawless. The medium of Rock has been changed forever in its wake, and music – and the world – will most assuredly never be the same again.

 

A confession: the first time I heard the album, I became enraged. Not because anything within the music had provoked such sort of emotion. Quite the opposite – I was worked into a lather of untempered fury because Sgt. Pepper made me realize that I was worthless; I would never achieve anything of even a fraction of its genius. Suddenly, reflected in its glorious reflection, I was no more than an insect in the hand of God.

 

Thankfully, the anger passed after a few more listens, supplanted by a sense of calm. I was still in the presence of godhead. But it didn’t resist me; now it informed me with its wonder and sense of uncurbed magnificence. As Ringo Starr took a turn behind the microphone under the guise of “Billy Shears,” I could literally feel my biological makeup being altered. (And for the record, I was stone straight.) Nevertheless, I can attest to the fact that the music was literally forcing my body to evolve, not unlike a single cell creature climbing its way out of the primordial genetic stew.

 

Considering the power that Sgt. Pepper has imbued in its grooves, we must proceed with caution. I would say that we need to get copies of this Long Player to LBJ – upon becoming exposed to its all-knowing beauty, he will have no choice but to end the conflict in Vietnam and dedicate himself to transforming these United States into a modern day Eden, where all are happy and fruit and wine are plentiful.Conversely, it would be tragic if its awesome strength were utilized for negative purposes. We must be cautious of who gains access to its perfection.

 

 

RARE FACTS ABOUT SGT PEPPER:

*The record was released on June 2^nd in America, but British fans had a one-day jump on the world as it came out in the UK on the 1^st.  But to impress his spoiled son Geoff, Shell Oil heir Cyrus Bartholomew Vaughan had a copy of the album flown from London to Texas.  

An actual first class seat on a Pan Am flight was purchased for the LP! The album arrived in time for young Geoff to listen to it fourteen hours before it was available in the US, but unfortunately the record skipped during “Lovely Rita.”

*The story of how John Lennon convinced Mae West to allow her likeness to appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper is well-told. But a much less famous person almost made his way into the background – drummer Ringo Starr lobbied to put a man named Nigel Hornthwaite amongst the legends.  

 

It was later discovered that Hornthwaite was a bookie to whom Starr had lost twenty-three thousand pounds through betting on the underground English sport of “slap fighting.”

*The Beatles let baseball great Joe Garagiola play second chair oboe during the finale to “A Day in the Life.” To repay the favor, Garagiola had Lennon and McCartney as his guests when he filled in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show a year later.

 

 

*On the rear cover of Sgt Pepper, Paul McCartney’s back is to the camera while his bandmates face forward.  Conspiracy theorists had a field day with this and it became a key piece in the “Paul is Dead” puzzle. McCartney was tight-lipped on the issue until finally giving up the truth in a 2002 interview with the German magazine Der Rave On. 

Turns out Paul was facing away from the camera because he felt his mustache was inferior to those of his bandmates. “The other three had the kind of ’staches you’d give your right arm for,” said Macca.  “I could never get mine to come in as thick as theirs and it really bothered me. They used to call me ‘Paulina McFartley’ behind my back. I got the ‘Paulina’ part, but the ‘McFartley’ thing was unfair –Ringo ripped ’em way better than I did. We used to have contests and he’d always win –it drove John batty. That airplane sound at the beginning of ‘Back in the USSR’? That’s actually Ringo, he’d just eaten six tins of baked beans. It was sick.”

 Photos courtesy of the Christopher Moses Rock ‘n’ Roll Archive