“The Beatles” Essay
Kippen – Beatles MUS321
8. 1967: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane did not reach #1 on UK charts
Why?
“Penny Lane”
· The lyric is a walk down memory lane
· Caricatures
· Function of the refrain
Analysis
Sgt. Pepper sessions
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
A:
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Fixing A Hole
She’s Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!
B:
Within You Without You (Harrison)
When I'm Sixty-Four
Lovely Rita
Good Morning Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
A Day In The Life
June 1, 1967: most famous album?
Full of secret messages and hidden meaning?
George Martin’s comment (quoted in Hertsgaard p.214):
“[SP] turned the Beatles from being just an ordinary rock ’n’ roll group into being significant contributors to the history of artistic performance…. [It] changed the recording art from something that merely made amusing sounds into something which will stand the test of time as a valid art form: sculpture in music, if you like.”
The concept
“With A Little Help From My Friends”
Use of the ♭VII – IV – I sequence (Oh, I get by / get high / I’m gonna try … with a little help from my friends)
The “concept” ends here?
McCartney’s songs
“She’s Leaving Home”
· Narrative song
· Sensitive musical setting using harp & strings
· Orchestration (Mike Leander)
Wednesday morning at five o’clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more.
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
Chorus:
She … (We gave her most of our lives)
… is leaving … (Sacrificed most of our lives)
… home. (We gave her everything money could buy)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (Bye bye.)
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that’s lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby’s gone!
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly?
How could she do this to me?
Chorus:
She … (We never thought of ourselves)
… is leaving … (Never a thought for ourselves)
… home. (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (Bye bye.)
Friday morning at nine o’clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She … (What did we do that was wrong?)
… is having … (We didn’t know it was wrong)
… fun. (Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. (Bye bye.)
She's leaving home. (Bye bye.)
Other songs
“When I’m Sixty-Four”; Vaudeville
“Lovely Rita”
“Getting Better”
“Fixing A Hole”
Lennon’s songs
“Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!”
· Inspiration: old circus poster in an antique shop
· Calliope (steam organ)
“Good Morning Good Morning”
· Complex song: irregular measures, changes of metre
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
Said to be inspired by Julian’s drawing:
Remarkable images:
… tangerine trees and marmalade skies
… cellophane flowers of yellow and green
… rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
… newspaper taxis appear on the shore
… plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes
“A Day In The Life”
The encore?
· Constructed of two fragments
· Lennon: main song; McCartney: middle eight
· Drug references
· Orchestral crescendo
· Final chord of 53 seconds
· The final audio trick
Harrison
“Within You Without You”
· Second Indian exploration
· Spiritual awareness
· Anti-materialistic
· Indian instruments & components
· Imaginative string scoring with countermelodies by George Martin
Paul is dead
· Urban legend / conspiracy theory / hoax
“All You Need Is Love”
· BBC commission
· Our World, the first live global television link – 26 countries, 400 million people