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It was 40 years ago today...


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im not old enough for it to have any direct impact.... i do remember as a little kid listening to the record though. it wasnt one of my favorites. i did like the cover though, but i was like 10 or less years old. probably about 6 or 7.

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im not old enough for it to have any direct impact.... i do remember as a little kid listening to the record though. it wasnt one of my favorites. i did like the cover though, but i was like 10 or less years old. probably about 6 or 7.

 

 

Just wanna say that I was born 2 years after it was released. I was 15 when I heard it the first time. I did not like most of the post Rubber Soul tracks at that age. Now I love their later albums more. Sheer brilliance.

 

V.

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You know what, I can't think of a better record. Still holds up and even now, when I go see McCartney and he does Getting Better....I get chicken skin. I think I'll shut down for the day and go sit out at the pool and put Pepper on. Thanks Phil!!

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I was 14 when it came out. I ordered it in advance from my local record store, and when the day came, cycled down to pick it up. Put it on the stereo. Played it all day. And the next. And all the next week. It's difficult to explain what the effect on me was - it was like the culmination of everything that had happened in music up to that point, all on one record. I always find it hard to explain to my students what impact the Beatles had on my world. They often say, well, it's good, but not that good. The thing is, they don't know what it was like before the Beatles. The world, particularly the UK, was in monochrome. After the Beatles, particularly Sgt Pepper, it was in full blown technicolour.

It's also the reason I became a bass player.

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I've got an original (mono) copy on vinyl, and a stereo CD and cassette. :)

 

In honor of it turning 40, tonight I plan on putting it up on my ADAM S3-A's, cranking it up to about 95 dB SPL and listening to it non-stop from the orchestra warming up all the way through to the last dying decay of those gloriously compressed pianos. :phil:

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I have a mono vinyl pressing (japanese red) and the editing is not quite as tight as the stereo version, particularly where the chicken plucks segue into the guitar lick that starts the reprise. All good though. [moron]Revolver was a better album.[/moron] Seriously, I don't think they made a bad album. Just all insanely different. I don't quite get the BBC re-record idea, however.

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So June 1, 1967. Where was I???

 

That was the summer after my 8th grade in a small Indiana town. I was into washing cars in the neighborhood for cash, pinball machines, slotcars, Marvel comics, Stingray bikes, the Evansville Aces (college team and Jerry Sloan was one of the top players), girls (sort-of, I was a late bloomer:) ), and music of course.

 

The grade school had a little rock band that played covers of stuff like You Can't Do That, Louie Louie, Wipe Out, Little Bit O' Soul, I Fought The Law, Hey Joe, Kicks, and 96 Tears. I was into the Beatles, The Byrds, Wilson Pickett, The Buffalo Springfield, the Beach Boys, and anything with a B3 and Leslie.

 

Too young to worry about Vietnam and the draft, but old enough to tell that the world was changing, and it seemed like somehow the Beatles were leading the way like magic Pied Pipers.

 

Sgt. Pepper seemed to justify the rabid enthusiasm that our generation felt for the early Beatles - now they were contenders in the larger cultural world, and the grownups were taking notice (even if they didn't understand it). Even Leonard Bernstein was gushing about Sgt. Pepper - saying something to the effect that "She's Leaving Home" was as beautiful as anything as Schumann wrote if I remember correctly.

 

We just left the arm up and over on the record player so Sgt Pepper would replay endlessly.

 

What I dug in the album personally were these kinda idiosyncratic items:

1. the way Ringo's toms resonated and bloomed after each hit especially on A Day in the Life

2. Paul's bassline on Little Help From My Friends

3. the 3 big snare hits on Lucy in the Sky before each chorus

4. the philosophy I thought I understood in Within You Without You

5. Paul's little "hooo!" he calls out near the end of When I'm Sixty-Four

6. the way the piano and acoustic guitar worked together at the intro to Lovely Rita

7. same thing - piano and acoustic guitar intro to A Day In The Life

8. The BIG CHORD of course. I'd drop the needle down right in front of it over and over again and listen to it die out. I think I owe my love of ambient music to what I experienced listening to that one chord fade out.

 

I never responded to Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite or Good Morning Good Morning. Sorry, John:p

 

nat whilk ii

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yeah, i listened to the original pressing mono version growing up. all of those bands at the time my dad had [still has] in mono. i prefer abbey road more than SPLHCB, and white album more as well. i dont know what it is about abbey road, but that is by far my favorite beatles album.

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A few Pepper "Firsts" (See if you can add to this list):

 

1. It is generally regarded as the first "concept album".

 

2. It was the first Beatles album that had identical UK and USA versions released - all previous USA Beatles albums differ from the UK versions in terms of the songs included.

 

3. It was the first record that cost over $100,000 to produce. Pocket change for some major releases today, but in 1967, that was a LOT of money.

 

4. It was the first major label release that included a full "lyric sheet".

 

5. It was the start of the "Paul is dead" clues / timeline / mythology...

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That's the list of bubble gum tunes we where really listening to in 1967/68 at the parties in the ski resort. I remember that my favorit tunes where "Massachusetts" by the The Bee Gees, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones, and "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harum, this tunes where the super hot numbers back in '67

 

Death Of A Clown - Dave Davies

Bend It - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Save Me - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Dear Mrs. Applebee - David Garrick

No Milk Today - Herman's Hermits

Ha Ha Said The Clown - Manfred Mann

Monsieur Dupont - Manuela

La Montanara - Nini Rosso

Schiwago-Melodie (Lara's Theme) - Original Film-Musik

Memories of Heidelberg - Peggy March

Romeo und Julia - Peggy March

A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum

Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw

San Francisco - Scott McKenzie

Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

Spanish Eyes - Al Martino

Penny Lane - The Beatles

Painter Man - The Creation

Baby Come Back - The Equals

Carrie Anne - The Hollies

On A Carousel - The Hollies

Dandy - The Kinks

Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks

Glory Land - The Lords

I'm A Believer - The Monkees

Winchester Cathedral - The New Vaudeville Band

Let's Spend The Night Together - The Rolling Stones

Silence Is Golden - The Tremeloes

My Friend Jack - The Smoke

Happy Jack - The Who

Green, Green Grass Of Home - Tom Jones

I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman - Whistling Jack Smith

Simon Says - 1910 Fruitgum Company

Congratulations - Cliff Richard

The Legend Of Xanadu - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Zabadak - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

A Man Without Love - Engelbert

Cinderella Rockefella - Esther & Abi Ofarim

Young Girl - Garry Puckett & The Union Gap

Judy In Disguise - John Fred & His Playboy Band

Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann

Those Were The Days - Mary Hopkin

Yummy Yummy Yummy - Ohio Express

Romeo und Julia - Peggy March

Monja - Roland W.

Bleib bei mir - Roy Black

Lazy Sunday - Small Faces

Tin Soldier - Small Faces

Do It Again - The Beach Boys

Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles

Hey Jude - The Beatles

Lady Madonna - The Beatles

Jumbo - The Bee Gees

Massachusetts - The Bee Gees

Words - The Bee Gees

World - The Bee Gees

Fire - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown

Glory Land - The Lords

Daydream Believer - The Monkees

2000 Light Years From Home - The Rolling Stones

Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones

Delilah - Tom Jones

Help Yourself - Tom Jones

Mony Mony - Tommy James & The Shondells

 

.

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Well as a completely different viewpoint I listened to it first a few years ago when I was probably 18.

 

It's a good album but didn't blow me away or anything. What I can imagine is listening to it for the first time when it came out and how good that would be. Out of all the Beatles I've heard it's probably my favourite.

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So June 1, 1967. Where was I???


That was the summer after my 8th grade in a small Indiana town. I was into washing cars in the neighborhood for cash, pinball machines, slotcars, Marvel comics, Stingray bikes, the Evansville Aces (college team and Jerry Sloan was one of the top players), girls (sort-of, I was a late bloomer:) ), and music of course.

 

 

Evansville? Wow.

 

I was 4 in '67, and 5 when I first heard it on my aunt Jan's record player in Terre Haute (nat, born Greencastle, childhood in Lebanon). I had this habit of playing the piss out of Beatles records on Grandma's console stereo (much to her Johnny Cash-loving chagrin, which I wouldn't "get" until a few years ago); Pepper came along and totally tossed me into a world of imagination. "Magical Mystery Tour" came close to holding that solid for me, but never quite the same as "Pepper".

 

Several years later, when I got a room to myself for music and electronics--and had commandeered my parents' Sony reel-to-reel--AND had managed to procure a hollowbody bass for $15 from a flea market--I ended up tackling a spirited recreation of the title cut, with friends of mine from school band on horns. Thankfully, those tapes have long since disappeared.

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Everything they did (as a band) from Revolver onward was a masterpiece of musical art. IMHO.

 

Sgt. Pepper falls firmly into that category - - I consider it art on a level equivalent to that of Vincent Van Gogh or Salvador Dali.

 

But, after all, it's only rock & roll.... ;)

 

and I like it.

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