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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Beatles
Message-ID: <164@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Aug-83 13:59:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.164
Posted: Wed Aug 24 13:59:04 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Aug-83 04:07:27 EDT
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Re: innovativeness of Sgt. Pepper

Paul McCartney admitted that the motivation behind doing an extravagant
album like Pepper was the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds".  When Paul heard this
album he couldn't believe his ears, and felt that the Beatles had to match
or beat this record.  Thus you hear many of the same sounds (animal noises,
orchestrations, etc.) on the two albums.  Frankly, my opinion is that the
Beatles wrote flimsier songs during the Pepper/Mysterytour period, depending
more on studio gimmickry.  I should note that "I Am the Walrus" is probably
my favorite Beatles cut.  They have written better SONGs than "Walrus", but
(with the possible exception of Revolution 9) they never reached that same
pinnacle of sound wizardry.  So much for the innovation of Sgt. Pepper's.
This period gave us John Lennon at his most creative, Paul McCartney at his
pinnacle in terms of melody writing (*), and George Harrison at his most
annoying (though I still like the drone songs---Blue Jay Way, All Too Much).
(* - McC. was so prolific at this point that gems like "Here There Everywhere",
"Fool on the Hill", "I Will" flourished, though they were overshadowed by
Paul's kitschyness in "Rigby", "She's Leaving Home", "Your Mother Should
Know", etc.)

I once read that the "psychedelic era" was heavily dependent on this album,
but not quite in the way you might think.  Psychedelic sounds of groups like
the Jefferson Airplane and the Strawberry Alarm Clock were influenced by the
Beatles middle period (from "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To" on), in
the sense that they tried to emulate those sounds, but the quality of their
1) musicianship, 2) studios, and 3) hallucinogens was not up to the Beatles'
level.  The result:  a terrible imitation, AND a whole new different sound.
Sounds like an interesting hypothesis.