It's the subject of so much discussion and hyperbole, it's no wonder some people seem to hate Sgt. Pepper. Or at least hate that the album is so frequently cited as the "first" or "best" in various categories.
But does that really mean the album is overrated? Or does it just mean that some people are tired of hearing about it?
My own point of view: The LP is not overrated. It had a significant impact on our music and culture--a greater impact than any pop record before or since.
But I also think this: It's not the best Beatles album. Look at it song-by-song as a collection, and I don't feel it contains as many great songs as Rubber Soul or Revolver, or even A Hard Day's Night.
I also don't think it's the Beatles' most innovative album. I'd give that honor to Revolver, which--in terms of new recording techniques and experimentalism--was the band's real artistic breakthrough. "Tomorrow Never Knows" from that album is far more complex and experimental than anything on Pepper.
Geoff Emerick, who took over as the band's recording engineer on Revolver deserves a lot of the credit for helping the Beatles' attain innovative new sounds in the studio. And it's his and the band's technical breakthroughs on Revolver that paved the way for Sgt. Pepper. Not to mention the open mindedness and musical know-how of Beatles producer George Martin.
And, continuing on the topic of what Pepper's not, it's not a concept album. It gets the credit/blame for being the first of the sort, but consider the songs. There's no story or big idea connecting them. The only thing tying them together is the "Sgt. Pepper" theme at the start of the record and its reprise near the end--as if all the songs on the record are being performed by the mythical band in the album's title. But, really, it's a collection of separate songs, just like any other LP.
Real concept albums had been around for a long time before Pepper. Consider Frank Sinatra's series of albums built around thematic concepts (In the Wee Small Hours, Come Fly with Me, Songs for Swinging Lovers) or even the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds from 1966, a huge influence on Revolver. The songs on Pet Sounds share an overarching theme: It's a record about alienation, loneliness, growing up and loss of innocence. And, although not a full concept album, The Kinks included three thematically related songs ("A House in the Country," "Most Exclusive Residence for Sale," and "Sunny Afternoon") on their 1966 Face to Face album.
What Pepper succeeded in doing, however, was to create its own sound world. The Beatles' imaginative use of lyrics, orchestration, recording wizardry and sound effects brings the listener into a rich and eclectic audio scape that's at turns whimsical ("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite"), surreal ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), poignant ("She's Leaving Home"), philosophical ("Within You Without You") nostalgic ("When I'm 64") and abstract ("A Day in the Life"). Using an abundance of musical styles--from straight-out guitar-based rock to chamber music, Indian classical, 30s jazz and avant garde symphonic music--along with studio trickery such as multi-tracking, vari-speeding, "flanging," the band created something captivating and uniquely their own.
And the whole world seemed to notice.
It can be argued that earlier recordings should've been hailed as the first LP to transform pop into "art" (the fact that both critics and U.S. listeners pretty much ignored Pet Sounds when it was first released is criminal), but the fact is that Sgt. Pepper was special, and it was immediately hailed as such.
The album led mainstream publications to publish serious pieces about pop music and cemented the Beatles' position as cultural leaders.
Time magazine, for example, carried a piece praising "Strawberry Fields"/"Penny Lane"--the double A-side single the preceded Pepper--saying:
From the first mewings of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," the Beatles have developed into the single most creative force in pop music. And where they have gone in recent months, not even the ardent supporters would have dreamed of. They have bridged the heretofore impassable gap between rock and classical, mixing elements of Bach, Oriental and electronic music with vintage twang to achieve the most compellingly original sounds ever heard in pop music.
And, in its Sept. 22, 1967, issue Time used Pepper as a springboard for a five-page cover story about the Beatles--describing the group as "messengers from beyond rock'n'roll."
They are creating the most original, expressive and musically interesting sounds being heard in pop music. They are leading an evolution in which the best of current post-rock sounds are becoming something that pop music has never been before: an art form.
The magazine even called in experts to vouch for the music's importance:
Ned Rorem, composer of some of the best of today's art songs, says: "They are colleagues of mine, speaking the same language with different accents." In fact, he adds, the Beatles' haunting composition, "She's Leaving Home"--of 12 songs in the Sgt. Pepper album--is "equal to any song that Schubert ever wrote." Conductor Leonard Bernstein's appreciation is just as high; he cites Schumann. As musicologist Henry Pleasants says: "The Beatles are where music is right now."
Meanwhile, a review in Newsweek on June 26, 1967, said "A Day in the Life":
...is the Beatles' "Waste Land," a superb achievement of their brilliant and startlingly effective popular art."
And writing in The Saturday Review on Aug. 18, 1967, critic Peter Schrag said:
Sgt. Pepper, undoubtedly, is music; but surely it is also literature and criticism, a kind of selective filtering back from one generation to another. The comments that the record offers were grown in contemporary social thought and literature. Certainly the Beatles did not come upon them on their own. But in England and America they have now become the folklore of a generation.
And writing in The Village Voice on June 22, 1967, critic Tom Phillips said:
I must say that I think the Beatles have scored a genuine breakthrough with Sgt. Pepper. Specifically I think they've turned the record-album itself into an art form, and a form that works.
The album earned these accolades--they weren't the result of record company hype but were the genuine reactions of critics. And the record was a popular success, as well, topping the U.S. album charts for 15 weeks and the U.K. album charts for 27 weeks.
You (and I) may prefer other recordings, but it's hard to deny--or overstate--Pepper's impact.
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