It Was Forty Years Ago Today...

This weekend, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band turns forty years old. The most incendiary album of it's era. While I'm more a Revolver girl (I consider that and not Pepper THE Beatles album), I still adore Pepper for what it was. And there are some damn fine tunes on there. Can't deny that it's a cultural landmark, an icon in and of itself. Exciting and innovative. Everyone listened. It's influence is still felt. Purely and simply put, it's a work of art.

It was Paul McCartney who dreamed up the idea of an album in which the Beatles would immerse themselves in alternate personas, and become another band entirely, with a concept that the songs would reflect their lives and childhoods in Liverpool.

The inspiration behind each of the songs on the album can be read in this interview with McCartney. And by the way? I agree with John... "Within You Without You" is one of George's best songs. I happen to love it.

And  I can extremely clearly remember 1987, when it really *was* "twenty years ago today." There was equal celebration and hype on that anniversary. That speaks a lot for "Sgt. Pepper" though, it's spanned generations, and still sounds just as amazing as it did in 1967 when we first laid ears upon it.

In other Pepper news:

To commemorate this milestone birthday, several current rock acts re created the album yesterday, June 1, which was the date of the original UK release, and aired on BBC radio. Along with engineer Geoff Emerick, using the exact same one-inch, four track equipment (two four track machines run together, making Pepper the first album to use eight track recording) that the original recording by The Beatles was done with. The acts included James Morrison, Oasis, Razorlight, The Fratellis, Travis and the Kaiser Chiefs.

I'm painting my room in a colorful way,
and when my mind is wandering
there I will go.

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
they worry me and never ask me
why they don't get past my door