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

By: Jose

Jose — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:07:36 +0000

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.

By: Pops

Pops — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:45:37 +0000

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’.

By: Jose

Jose — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:59:18 +0000

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

By: miriam

miriam — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:24:01 +0000

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!

By: Jose

Jose — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:31:22 +0000

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.

By: Medium Happiness

Medium Happiness — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:26:19 +0000

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.

By: Jose

Jose — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:23:43 +0000

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.

By: zenpvnk

zenpvnk — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:31:12 +0000

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.

By: Jose

Jose — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:50:02 +0000

Ha ha ha. Nicely put, anonymous.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:33:01 +0000

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 . . .