Epic Gold Medal Battle of the 60's Classic Albums: Part II

Part 2: #25 The Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Where the Olympics really gets their gold medals.

Part one of this posting ended with a gripping cliffhanger. Do the Beach Boys own the title of greatest album ever? Or, do the Beatles get the credit, even though the Beach Boys influenced them? Will Sam and Diane patch up their rocky relationship? Was Newhart really just a dream? And most importantly, who shot J.R.? Okay, a couple of those might not have been mentioned in part 1, but that's not important right now. What IS important is: lists. Thanks to the VH1 network, I'm painfully aware of the fact that most Americans, including myself, LOVE television shows that count things down. For some reason its very satisfying to hear that a panel of arbitrary 'experts' agree with your claim that ZEPPELIN RULES! And who among us hasn't pondered where Supertramp's 1970 self titled debut would land on a list of best album's ever. For those actually wondering the answer is 154,748. My list may not be as long as one that Rolling Stone or VH1 might put together, but who cares. My own person title of 'greatest album ever' varies constantly. Its impossible for me to crown the Beatles and ignore Nirvana or any of the countless bands I like so much. However, this is the Olympic season, and someone has to win. I would also like to this that I'm giving a little more thought to the question when debating which album is better, instead of just presenting the list and saying 'that's the way it is.' Hopefully I'll be able to hand out the Gold in a unanimous decision, but its looking like it will be a close one.  PLAY!


Side one starts off, in a way, where 'Pet Sounds' left off. The wall of sound shows up immediately on the title track, with big orchestration, drums, and this time...overdriven guitar.  Its a bit of a welcome change from 'Pet Sounds.' Being a blues/rock guitarist, I live and die by the bite of my overdrive. The vocals are much higher and not quite as angelic, however they're here to announce that this is, in fact, a rock first album. The album seamlessly moves into the Next track "With a Little Help From my Friends." In part one of the blog you'll remember my frequent mention of bass lines grounding a song. Well, here it is again. Paul uses a bass line that follows the melody that is so prominent in this song.  Ringo takes the vocals and songwriting credit on this tune, and its certainly one of his top five Beatle moments. Next up we get the first visit of 60's psycadelic sound. "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds," is no real secret, though people will still try to amaze you with their trivia knowledge. 'Hey, did you know this song is about LSD?' Hey thanks, did you know the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore? Well, instead of responding with that little zinger, you can respond with this instead: 'No, its not about LSD.' That's right folks, Lennon himself said its not, the whole LSD thing is just a coincidence. Musically the bass line is back again but the instrumentation is primarily about a sitarish sounding thing, probably a sitar. It also uses guitars that seem to rock power chords along the bassline during the choruses. Its a good rootsy almost bluesy feel to it, and this certainly is a strange place to find that kind of sound. "Getting Better," is a McCartney song that really demonstrates his efforts to step up his game. Using droning piano, heavy guitars and of course, that bass. The vocals are mainly Paul, but also features some fantastic chorus punctuation with harmonies. The sitarish sound comes out again in the bridge, but after a short visit it quickly gives way to the guitars. The album moves into "Fixing a Hole," and now the Brian Wilson influence is quite apparent. Using a Harsichord the song is quite reminiscent of the instrumentation of several "Pet Sounds" tracks. The guitar also gets a strong nod, it helps again to keep the rock label firmly applied to the overall sound. Next up, "She's Leaving Home," leaves the guitars behind and uses full on orchestration for its sound. The wall of sound gets a thrilling update with a harp added to the mix. Its an interesting choice for such a rock album, but it works fantastically. The lyrics are pretty straight forward, its a story about a girl running away from home as told by the parents. Its a very sad song, and the strings and harp just add to the desperate pleas of the parents to see their daughter again. Turns out, the song was inspired by a true story, just a brief newspaper article on a girl who left home never to be seen again. "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," is a Lennon song, that shows us, McCartney wasn't the only one taking cues from Brian Wilson. Musically and Lyrically the song has a very circus feel. A stuttered drum beat which effectively uses the hi-hat, creates the novelty sound. Instrumentally, you literally get all the bells and whistles. The song also includes...wait for it...a glockenspiel! I'm proud to say I didn't even have to spell check it this time. Amazing, in two days I have typed the word glockenspiel two times...wait, three! Thanks wall of sound! It is starting to feel like McCartney and Wilson have been shopping at the same yard sale.


Side two begins with an obvious George Harrison contribution. This song is about as far from good ole' rock music as you can get. The song is primarily Indian instruments that I don't really know how to spell. I'm gonna guess; there's a sitar, tabla...umm...swarmala, isn't that a something? I don't know, if you're so concerned with the instruments used just go down to your neighborhood Indian musical supply store and I'm sure someone can help you. The song really doesn't do much for me. Its definitely wall of sound, just not a sound I'm particularly interested in hearing right now. Its not that its a bad song, its just a bad rock song. For all I know this could be the greatest piece of Indian music ever known. Oh well...less talk, more rock. "When I'm Sixty-Four," is a great track, that once again, isn't pure rock...but its still got a very infectious sound. The clarients in the song really anchor the overall sound. The clarinet is pretty under appreciated in rock music, but its a fantastic sound and in this case it works like a charm for developing the almost juvenile sound. Now, about that juvenile sound...notice Paul's voice. Sounds kinda high, doesn't it? No, he didn't breathe in helium prior to recording his vocals. The song was recorded in C Major, then sped up to produce the final version in Db major. The power of the studio. "Lovely Rita" gets back to the strong wall of sound using piano, lots of guitars, drums and another perfectly phrased bass line. You also get some vocal percussion sounds near the end, with a really big echo effect added on for...umm...effect.

The next track brings in the crazy sound effects like those heard at the end of "Caroline, No." "Good Morning" uses big horns, and some rapid fire lyrics to achieve its somewhat quick paced sound. Based on the lyrics and musical structure, the song has a feeling of waking up in the morning. You're late for work, you can't get your crap together and you really just want to get back in bed. Near the end of the song its just pure madness. The animals get more and more random until finally you've got elephants and monkeys running through your living room. If I were you, I'd just give up and go back to bed today. The next track is a reprise of the opening song. This time we're going double time on a fabulous drum beat by Ringo. The guitars still rock, but instead of the slow grind of the first listening, this time they are flying through their riffs. Its a quick revisit and a nice way of closing out the show of Mysterious Sgt Pepper and his Lonley Hearts Club Band. Well, because every good show ends with an encore, we now get one more song. "A Day in the Life," is a Lennon song that is quite possibly the best song on the album. The song starts off quietly enough with acoustic guitar and eventually piano. Eventually the song moves through several different phases. I'd like to think that this song would be a little touch of foreshadowing for what was to come on Abbey Road. Its several snippets of songs that are spliced together perfectly to form one coherent thought. Of particular musical note in the song is Ringo's drumming. It really shows off exactly what he's capable of as a player. The relaxed and jazzy style is an excellent performance for the song and is some of the best drumming in his Beatles career. Eat your heart out Pete Best. After the first couple verses we suddenly get to a huge building crescendo. After the strings build us up, they abruptly stop leaving just the solitary pulsing piano that was there the whole time. Now Paul takes the lyrics and details another early morning routine before descending into a beautiful dream sequence. The instrumentation of the song slowly trails off while the orchestra gets louder and louder. But wait! The verses aren't done. The standard instrumentation returns, and now the lyrics are counting holes in the Albert Hall. This probably means something, but I have no clue what its referring too. The building orchestra crescendo returns and this time it is building up to a HUGE...EPIC...TRIUMPHANT FINISH and the biggest sounding E major chord ever.

Here ends my version of the album. Now, some of you might have a version with a little backwards tracked piece of noise that seems to be counting up a scale. My record doesn't have that because it is the American pressing. From what I can gather, if you have the CD, early British LP or some other compilation versions, there is a few seconds of backwards studio chatter at the end of this song, placed in the 'run-out groove' of the LPs.

At the conclusion of the competition, its quite obvious to me who the winner is.  The winner is us...the listener, for we get to listen and cherish both of these wonderful albums. Yeah right, do you really think I'd end this double post like that? When have the fans ever gotten a gold medal at the Olympics? 'For amazing acheivement in potato chip consumption while watching a human being run 26.2 miles, that guy!'  FALSE.

Hey, who let Rush on the medals podium?!

The gold medal in the competition of Wilson (USA) vs McCartney (GBR) is... McCartney! Sorry U.S.A., but Sgt. Peppers is taking the win here. "Pet Sounds" is a great album and I have a lot of appreciation for what the album represents. However, appreciation doesn't really equal 'best ever.' I 'appreciate' the beauty of Jackson Pollock's art but that doesn't mean I want a print hanging in my living room, it just doesn't fit. Sgt. Peppers always fits, whatever the scenario, whatever your mood. In the brief time between the albums, McCartney seems to have decided that the only thing lacking on Wilson's album was that rock edge provided by loud guitars. He also had John Lennon on his side, not a bad combo of songwriters. Wilson didn't even use the Beach Boys to play the music on "Pet Sounds," the instruments are almost all studio pro's filling in. The final case for Sgt. Peppers is the fact that he who laughs last, wins the competition for best album ever. That quote might be miss stated, but it seems to fit here so I'm not gonna argue against my own writing. After Sgt. Peppers was released Wilson essentially 'gave up' with music for a long time. He abandon his next big project, he removed himself from the public eye and basically became even more loony than he already was. That's how good Sgt. Peppers was, Wilson took the musical equivalent of Bobby Fischer resigning in a chess match after the 6th move. I would be really curious to see if this competition had gone on for a couple more albums what else could've been accomplished. Wilson didn't have much output after "Pet Sounds" and even the Beatles wouldn't last much longer after Sgt. Peppers, but can you imagine even two more records in response to these two? Like getting to the center of a Tootsie pop, the world, may never know.

Strongest Song: A Day in the Life, even if it does feel like an encore.
Weakest Song: Within You, Without You
Song You Know: Most of the album
Why You Might Hate It: You're too punk rock for this mainstream crap.
Buy It? YES, worth every penny, also, I would highly advise listening to "Pet Sounds" and "Sgt. Peppers" consecutively. Its almost like hearing two LPs from a double album.