Compared to the recession in musical quality believed to exist in the nineties, the sixties were a time of great opportunities and therefore, competition. The main pop/rock artists at the time were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys, and since originality was the main selling point, every artist was in competition with his rival by looking for new ways to market his records (e.g.. Bob Dylan changed his style from album to album, always keeping an element of surprise).
Said to be “the single, most decisive event in pop’s brief history”, The Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, their fourth major album, in April 1967. It was a collection of thirteen tracks (but more than just that), with The Beatles taking on the role of the band named in the title, inventing names and characters for themselves (George Harrison was Billy Shears in “With a Little Help From My Friends”). The purpose of this was to give the impression of the album as a set list played by this band, rather than a collection of songs, as albums had previously been. This made “Sgt. Pepper” very much a concept album, a first of its kind.
It had always been known that while The Rolling Stones were excellent performers, The Beatles excelled on vinyl. Each song in itself was a three-minute symphony of perfect pop, a shining example of what The Beatles could achieve with the technology available. Any band could learn to use technology, but what The Beatles did was to take this one step further, assembling each album with the utmost care. Tim Riley said that The Beatles “had a keen sense of how the order of songs gives shape to the experience of an album”, though he also believes that “Sgt. Pepper” is their most overrated work, placing their pinnacle at the “Rubber Soul” or “Help’” albums.
Terence O’Grady believes that “Sgt. Pepper” is not successful because of its effect as a whole, but because of the merits of each individual song. This is a statement I disagree with, because The Beatles treat certain themes or ideas running throughout the album that cannot be ignored.
Arguments for the maturity of songwriting on “Sgt. Pepper” include the diversity of styles brought out in different songs. One of those used throughout the album is that of Victorian music hall, evident in such songs as “Getting Better”, “Fixing a Hole”, and “She’s Leaving Home”, with traces in other songs. Each of these songs displays another, compositional strength that makes it different to the others despite being classed similarly.
“Getting Better” is a chance for Paul McCartney to show off his mastery of textural variation. Most songs on the album seem to constantly build up their texture, so increasing in tension, but “Getting Better” builds up the tension in each verse then releases it in each chorus immediately following. This is achieved in a number of ways, most notably by the use of a high-pitched pedal part played on lead guitar. During the verses, this pedal drops an octave, to create a closer harmony and therefore a fuller texture. In the chorus, the pedal returns to the higher octave, and some percussion instruments drop out as others play less, making the texture light again. In the final verse, a tamboura drone is heard with off-beat bongos instead of bass and lead guitars, and this completely changes the timbre, holding the music in a mysterious suspension for four bars, until the guitars re-enter. The last chorus is played twice, with a gradual reduction in texture, meant as a fadeout effect, while the last few bars are reminiscent of the first few bars, completing the cycle of the song.
The song that follows on the album is “Fixing a Hole”, and is related musically to the previous song because of their slightly music hall connotations, and also their general bounciness, melodic harmonic subtleties, and triplet-divided rhythm. Again the vocal melody in the verse is dependant on repeated notes and ascending-descending phrasing, such as in the previous “Getting Better” and also “With a Little Help From My Friends”. The harmonic progression of the verse is a straightforward (though not ineffective)
I – V+ – i(flat7) – i(+6) – i(flat7) – IV(flat7) – i(flat7) – i(+6)
and is based on a chromatically descending line. The Bridge section is more traditionally rock in style, creating a contrast between itself and the verse similar to that from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
dependance on repeated notes in the vocal melody of ‘Fixin’ a Hole’
descending phrasing in the -vocal line for ‘With a Little Help From My Friends‘ (important notes are C in Bar 1, F in Bar 2 and D in Bar 3)
“She’s Leaving Home” is a McCartney-composed Victorian ballad in 3;4 meter, made “period” by the instrumentation used. Romantic harp arpeggios and a lyrical cello countermelody (imitating the vocal style) are used to great effect, as is a full string ensemble to pad out the harmonies. It is generally more distinctive than the waltz section of Lennon’s “Lucy in the Sky. ..”. “She’s Leaving Home” tackles social issues, namely that of a young woman felt isolated and unloved by family, leaving to search out a new life. Some critics believe that by so obviously tackling social issues, The Beatles were laying themselves wide open for the “self-righteous” tag, and Wilfrid Mellers calls this track “a corny waltz”. Others believed that only musical snobbiness could get in the way of appreciating the simple beauty of the song. Music writer Nick Rodem believed this song to be “a mazurka equal in melancholy and melodic distinction to those of Chopin”. (Quite a tag for a pop-rock band.)
Certain songs conjure up the atmosphere of a show or circus, especially “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, a song inspired by an actual advertising poster for a circus. This song is the most obvious giveaway of the album’s “show” concept introduced in the first track. This scene is set, again by instrumentation, in the introduction of the song. A synthesized wind band plays chords beneath an organ melody to a march-like percussion track, until a snare roll on the final chord of the introduction leads into the main body of the song. The circus atmosphere is continued to develop in the main section (heard three times throughout the song) with a descending harmonium countermelody, played on a second organ and bass harmonica. The presence of two organs is felt throughout the song, especially in the solo sections. The first solo section features an organ waltz melody, with the other in an ascending-descending background noise-type effect rather than an actual countermelody.
The second time the solo section is heard, the organs benefit from a different kind of treatment- technology. The assistant to the producer of the album describes the methods used to create this effect as “various organ recordings speeded up, slowed down, electronically distorted, played backwards…”etc. “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is therefore one example of what The Beatles could achieve with modern technology at their disposal. George Martin had no official training as a producer, but rather than a slick production, he preferred to use occasional surprise elements such as the tape effects, and other sound effects used throughout the album such as the crowd noise and tuning orchestra on the opening title track, the giggling at the end of (George Harrison’s “Within You, Without You”, and numerous others in the final “A Day in the Life”.
This use of tape effects was one of the lasting effects of “Sgt. Pepper” on the music industry, and spawned similar ideas on many an album afterwards, from the Rolling Stones’ “At Their Satanic Majesties’ Request” though to the Jimi Hendrix Experience track “Third Stone From the Sun”.
Another style that The Beatles enjoyed experimenting with was Indian music, especially George Harrison, whose “Within You, Without You” outshines his previous attempt, “Love You To”. At this time The Beatles were experimenting with spirituality with a Tibetan holy man, and this brought a new, international sense into their music. To the cynical, it all seemed like a publicity stunt to help keep The Beatles in the public eye and guarantee record sales, but (Judging by John Lennon’s misguided bed–in attempt with Yoko Ono to bring about world peace) it seems they were only doing what they wholeheartedly believed in.
Motives aside, “Within You, Without You” is, on its own, a stunning piece of work, fuelled by excellent instrumentation and socially questioning lyrics. It opens Side Two of the album (remembering that the album was originally meant to be heard in two halves before the advent of the Compact Disc), and is different to all the songs on Side One in that it holds no musical ties with any others. In fact it is the lyrics that share themes of hypocrisy and isolation, that seem to tie it in with “She’s Leaving Home” and “A Day in the Life”. The song opens with great musical freedom, perhaps reflecting its themes, with a sitar and tamboura drone, probably emulating the style of an “alapa” of Hindustani classical music. Following this intro, the tabla (indian percussion instrument played like bongos) enters, then the vocals, which are doubled by the dilruba (fretted and long-necked Indian bowed lute).
The most imaginative use of instrumentation is the way in which the classical style of the dilruba/tabla/sitar combination, is contrasted with the traditionally Western origin of the three cellos and eight violins also used. These strings are used to both reinforce, and alternate with, the indian instruments, both contributing and contrasting with them. They play a countermelody beneath the vocal line in the verse, and are also used to fill in the phrase ends with highly decorated melodic lines, another characteristic of classical indian music. In the instrumental solo sections, the previously vocal melody is tackled by the dilruba and imitated by the sitar, yet again in Hindustani style. It also returns to the metric irregularity of the introduction- a 5/8 rhythm with pizzicato strings marking the meter. It finally breaks into the rhythmically free alapa section, with melodic interplay between cello and sitar.
I believe that there is a balance between Hindustani and Western influences in this song because of its commercial opportunities. Had the song been entirely traditionally Hindustani, The Beatles may have risked audience apathy and therefore commercial success of the album, so I see this combination as a compromise, a commercialisation, or making indian music accessible to the public. This is another of the album’s lasting effects – the principle of postmodernism, or the breaking down of musical barriers by mixing and merging different styles of music. This concept is evident throughout the album (e.g. the almost folk-like vocals of “Fixing a Hole” against the more traditionally rock background) and even if it wasn’t the first album to display these characteristics, it was certainly the most famous.
Another element that must have affected the end product that was “Sergeant Pepper” was the popular drug culture. After Bob Dylan introduced The Beatles to LSD, more and more of their songs seem to have magical or hallucinatory undertones. There has been much debating as to this element of The Beatles’ work. “Yellow Submarines” were rumoured to be amphetamines, so was the song of the same name Just the innocent children’s song it claimed to be? “Strawberry Fields” were rumoured to be a strain of LSD, but was also an orphanage near where John Lennon grew up. Another of Lennon’s ambiguous songs (though perhaps less so considering the abbreviated title) was “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. Have music critics taken The Beatles too seriously over the years, or is it possible that “Lucy in the Sky…” was some kind of musical Joke, to contrast with the heavier, more serious tracks on “Sgt. Pepper”? We know that they had a sense of humour, and they were intelligent in musical matters, so does it do harm to the music to delve too deeply into motives?
In some ways, “Lucy in the Sky” seems disjointed in comparison to other tracks on the album, in its lack of harmonic complexity (standard tonic/dominant is evident in parts) and the chorus section is elementary and even almost stereotypical, in 4/4 as opposed to the 3/4 waltz of the verse, with a
I – IV – V7
progression which is unusual for The Beatles. Perhaps this is meant as some sort of “rock gesture” to bring some sense of earthy reality to the dreamy, surreal atmosphere of the verse.
the short 4/4 section serving as the chorus to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” with standard I – IV – V Progression. The 4/4 section is only five or six. bars long each time,
In fact, the true genius of this song lies in the way the hallucinatory effect is controlled by both music and words. The opening celesta melody sets the mood, while other effects such as synthesized chords, filtered vocals in the verse, and nonharmonic sixths and ninths in the smooth, flowing vocal melody create a floating effect. Even the words add to the hallucinatory effect of the song
“Cellophane flowers of yellow and green / Towering over your head” “tangerine trees” “marmalade skies“ “newspaper taxis“, “marshmallow pies” etc. It is only the text of the song that ties “Lucy in the Sky…” with other tracks on “Sgt. Pepper”, being slightly narrative in style, as in “With a Little Help. ..”(though slightly less simple and more magical). The overall effect of “Lucy in the Sky…” therefore, is a description of an LSD trip, and the chorus being a slight return to reality.
There are other elements to the album that could keep critics arguing about its relevance or effect – such as the progressive rock style of guitars at certain points, such as on “Lucy in the Sky…” ; the surreal and psychedelic album sleeve that became the most famous in history, combining the show concept and period effect of the Edwardian military band uniforms with a cardboard cut-out audience (including The Beatles themselves as well as, amongst others, surrealist writer William Burroughs – an influence perhaps?)
Tim Riley believes that The Beatles were beginning to dissolve by the time “Sgt. Pepper” was released, and that it was evident in certain conflicting elements on the album, such as the encore track “A Day in the Life”, where Lennon’s style (including lyrics) differs greatly from the McCartney-composed sections (that were originally meant to be another song). Riley must have believed that the differences that once made The Beatles great were now perhaps too apparent.
notice the difference between the verse and the chorus sections of ‘A Day in the Life’ – different chord structure, dotted rhythms in the chorus, and even different tempi.
The fact still remains though, that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is, as always was, a work of art, not just because of each song included on it, but because of the way the entirety was structured, their effect when taken in context as well as on their own. Links and themes do exist, and form part of the whole that made The Beatles more than just songwriters, it made them artists, the album their canvas, and their songwriting their brush.
THE BEATLES – “SERGEANT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND”
Side one
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
- “With a Little Help From My Friends”
- “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
- “Getting Better”
- “Fixing a Hole”
- “She’s Leaving Home”
- “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”
Side two
- “Within You, Without You”
- “When I’m Sixty Four”
- “Lovely Rita”
- “Good Morning, Good Morning”
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)”
- “A Day in the Life”
BIBLIOGRAPHY / RESEARCH
“THE BEATLES” (Chapter 7) Terence J. O’Grady (Twayne)
“FOR THE BEATLES – NOTES ON THEIR ACHIEVEMENT” Tim Riley (Pop Music Journal 1987)
Musical quotations taken from the manuscript “THE COMPLETE BEATLES