Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago TodayOlivier Julien Routledge, 2018 M03 29 - 208 pages The first concept album in the history of popular music, the soundtrack of the Summer of Love or 'Hippy Symphony No. 1': Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is first and foremost the album that gave rise to 'hopes of progress in pop music' (The Times, 29 May 1967). Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles commemorates the fortieth anniversary of this masterpiece of British psychedelia by addressing issues that will help put the record in perspective. These issues include: reception by rock critics and musicians, the cover, lyrics, songwriting, formal unity, the influence of non-European music and art music, connections with psychedelia and, more generally, the sociocultural context of the 1960s, production, sound engineering and musicological significance. The contributors are world renowned for their work on the Beatles: they examine Sgt. Pepper from the angle of disciplines such as musicology, ethnomusicology, history, sociology, literature, social psychology and cultural theory. |
Contents
an introduction to Sgt Pepper
| 1 |
cultural agendas or optimistic escapism?
| 11 |
2 Sgt Pepper and the diverging aesthetics of Lennon and McCartney | 23 |
3 Sgt Peppers quest for extended form | 33 |
4 The sound design of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
| 45 |
5 The Beatles and Indian music | 63 |
psychedelic classicism and classical psychedelia in Sgt Pepper | 75 |
magic myth and music | 91 |
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and psychedelic insight | 103 |
Sgt Pepper and fables of interference | 121 |
a reencounter with Sgt Pepper | 139 |
Sgt Pepper and the rise of a phonographic tradition in twentiethcentury popular music | 147 |
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187 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Abbey Road aesthetic album cover artists audience authenticity bass guitar Beatles chord classical music coda composition concept creative culture drums echo effects electronic Emerick and Massey Everett film final Fixing a Hole Geoff Emerick george harrison George Martin hallucinogenic Hearts Club Band Ibid Indian music instruments interpretation John Lennon leaving home lennon and McCartney Lewisohn 1988b listening live performance Lonely Hearts Club Lovely Rita Lucy MacDonald 1994 Maharishi Martin with Pearson McCartney’s melody Moore music hall musicians orchestral overdubs Paul McCartney Penny lane Pepper Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Pet Sounds phonographic piano played popular music production psychedelia psychedelic experience psychedelic music quoted recording studio released Revolver rhythm Ringo rock roll Rubber Soul sitar Sky with Diamonds song song’s sonic sound design Starr stereo Strawberry Fields Forever style tambura tape texture things timbre Tomorrow Never Knows tonal tour track tradition verse vocal