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12 03 2008

An Album Still Wrapped in Hype: Sgt. Peppers by the Beatles

Posted by: Jose in Music, The Soapbox

Hype is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as: to promote or publicize extravagantly. While there may not be a public relations blitz to keep Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles on top of the current music hot 100 type bullshit stuff, it still makes it to the top of influential music lists compiled by dorks everywhere. I would love for somebody to tell me why. To the best of my reckoning, there are two good songs on the entire album, which according to the calculations performed by the accounting offices here at Jose el Retardo would place the album at the bottom of the Beatles pile; although it did have way cool cover art, and logistically this could have affected many listeners. I have provided to my genial readers a track listing for Sgt. Peppers below, with my Own Personal Thoughts on each song (forever to be known as Jose’s OPT scale):

Side one

1. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – Sucks.

2. “With a Little Help from My Friends” – Blows.

3. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” – Pretty good.

4. “Getting Better” – Barely not crap.

5. “Fixing a Hole” – Eh.

6. “She’s Leaving Home” – Please.

7. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” – Pure nonsense.

Side two

1. “Within You Without You” – Oh come on. What is it even doing on this record?

2. “When I’m Sixty-Four” – Schmaltz. Kinda catchy, but pure crap.

3. “Lovely Rita” – What? I don’t get it.

4. “Good Morning Good Morning” – At least it’s short.

5. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)” – What, again? Ugh. Kill me.

6. “A Day in the Life” – Fucking awesome. Truly.

And now, here are some Beatles albums that are at least 50 times better than the above mentioned waste of wax, in no particular order, except that the White Album is obviously the best, and anyone who disagrees has poop on their shoe:

1. The White Album

2. Abby Road

3. Magical Mystery Tour

4. Let It Be

5. Revolver

6. Rubber Soul

7. Help

8. The Early Beatles

And who knows. The rest are probably all better too, but I’ve never been a huge fan of the way early stuff. The true nail in the coffin, for me, is the awful movie Robert Stigwood made back in 1978, the premise of which is still a matter of hot debate in the circles of people that debate retarded things. The Beatles, having been long apart, never appeared in the movie, but history’s most bizarre cast of characters ever sure did: The Bee Gees, Steve Martin, Peter Frampton, George Burns, Arrowsmith, Leif Garrett, Wolfman Jack, and many other mismatched celebrities. It was universally panned. I don’t need to tell you about it, just watch this awful clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhYBDCXkTyE

BTW, can anybody tell me why this old man is being allowed to walk off to destinations unknown with two young girls? Does this bother anyone besides me? Thank god that everything that lives must die, or else we’d be stuck with George Burns forever.

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11 Responses to “An Album Still Wrapped in Hype: Sgt. Peppers by the Beatles”
  1. Katie D says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    I couldn’t make it past George Burns. Maybe tomorrow, on an empty stomach.

  2. Anonymous says:
    March 12th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I’ll tell you why I chose it for my list you linked to. It’s a personal list of albums that influenced me for various reasons. I didn’t cherry pick the best records of each artist. I picked it because it was the first Beatles record I bought. From a dork to a retard . . .

  3. Jose says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    Ha ha ha. Nicely put, anonymous.

  4. zenpvnk says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am

    I think Sgt. Pepper’s is more than justified in being on many ‘most influential’ lists. It’s hard to deny it a top 10 spot, so much for top 100. It changed the musical landscape, both for the Beatles, and many, many other artists. It was unlike anything heard before, at least in the main stream. I think that that is what these lists are pointing to.. not that Pepper’s is itself the ‘best’ album every made or that it withstands the test of time.

    Personally, I think everything before Sgt. Peppers was cutsey pop (Help!, Please Please Me, Hard Day’s Night) that I never much got in to, and everything after (White Album, Let It Be, Abbey Road) is amazing, and I still listen to them to this day. Yes, I rarely, if ever, listen to Pepper’s (or Mystery Tour, for that matter), but it’s hard to deny that those albums were a turning point for the Beatles, if not all popular music.

    Yes, it should be in many top 100 lists, and in the foyer of the Rock Hall of Fame. But should it currently be in my CD player.. probably not. Tho I think I have Cocker’s take of “Little Help From My Friends” on my iPod.

  5. Jose says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 11:23 am

    Zenpvnk, I understand your point, and at the moment in time that Sgt Peppers was released, it made a splash, and you are far from the only person to think it deserves special recognition for this. But in my opinion, in the long haul, both the White Album and Abbey Road have had a deeper impact on modern music, and still stand as some of the best music you can listen to today.

    For me, standing the test of time gives an album more influence than the immediate effects of an album’s release. I guess I think of it as, when a record is dropped, being more impressed by the size of the ripple effect then by the depth of the hole.

  6. Medium Happiness says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    I couldn’t agree with, or put better, what Zenpvnk says. And the anonymous guy has every right to like it because it’s important to him. Retardo, how else can you explain you zeal for Halen? They are important to you, my man.

    And no one is going to fight you on the movie Sgt. Peppers movie being one of the greatest cinematic travesties of all time.

  7. Jose says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    I will stand by my point that the test of time is the best indicator of an album’s influence. I won’t budge on it.

  8. miriam says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    While I’ll agree that the White Album is the best ever…
    I must say that you must have skipped taking that extra hit of LSD if you don’t like Sgt. Peppers…tsk tsk…too bad! :)

  9. Jose says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    And so I have been scolded by Miriam. Let me only blame hindsight, my dear.

  10. Pops says:
    March 19th, 2008 at 5:45 am

    I have to agree with zenpvnk….. This album was the blue print for ‘White Album’, ‘Let It Be, and probably the best of all, ‘Abbey Road’. Even though it was the product of a new drug era, it also ushered in a paradigm shift in the music industry. For this action alone it should hold a ’stand out’ spot on any list as a remarkable approach and change from shallow, cutsie music to the highly technical production technics that are still applied today. Let’s face the facts….. most of the ‘Kings’ early music was not a literary work of art, but it goes without dispute that it paved the way to what we call ‘rock and roll’.

  11. Jose says:
    March 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Well Pops, what can I tell you. Lots of buildings were probably part of the blue print for the Empire State building, but what building gets the tourists? Yes, there were technical achievements, but I stand by my statement of the test of time for the songs themselves being the true testament to greatness. Hell, look at Boston. HUGE technical milestones because of what they did in the studio, but I don’t see them on the influential lists. Look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_(band)#Innovations_and_style

    Songs, songs, songs. Sgt. Peppers doesn’t have them. The White Album and Abbey Road do. In my opinion.

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