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Why Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band By The Beatles Should Be A Discussion Topic In Class
Why Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles should be a discussion topic in class
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Why Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles should be a discussion topic in class
Introduction
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a series of songs released by an English rock band The Beatles in 1967. It is according to Daniel Kreps Britain's all-time favourite song. The Beatles band was formed in 1960 and it became a famous British band across the continent. Jennifer Van Evra notes that it was Paul McCartney’s idea to produce a song involving Edwardian military band, and it worked. This album enjoyed equal fame both in England and in America. Professor Kevin J Dettmar writes in Oxford Encyclopedia Of British Literature that it is “the most important and influential rock and roll album ever recorded”. Many critics like Richard Goldstein hated it initially, but when they noticed its position among masses, they started to listen to it and found them in its love. Moreover, this album was a comprehensive collection of mimicry on almost all the recent historical development. Every song was motivated by and based upon a story. It revolutionized the art in the sense that all the traditional soft and calm music was being considered outdated and the masses shifted from all the classical music to rock music. It was a type of catharses for the people who were attempting to start their lives after the two long great wars. It influenced the American music and Jazz music of America surpassed all the previous music traditions like did the Beatles. This means that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was more than the street music of teenagers. Such an important place among scholars and such a strong influence upon the millions of Europeans and Americans justify the claim that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band should be discussed in class.
Body
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band revolutionized the English music forever. Richard Havers believes rightly that it was a "game-changer" in British music. They devoted such a large amount of time to music that was not a tradition among the musicians. For example, Havers notes that they spent around six months in the making of the Beatles’ eighth studio album where “Strawberry Fields Forever” songs were produced. Spending 700 hours in the production of one album was also a quality of the Beatles and their supporting teams like the engineer Geoff Emerick, and George Martin. They renounced the tradition of producing serene music considering it dead and they attempted to produce music that could energize the public who were tired of the long World Wars. Moreover, the Beatles themselves were tired due to continuous live performances. They thought that they should introduce a new style of performance. They recorded the music for once and promoted it through catchy CD covers, TV ads, and short live performances. The public taste changed and people started watching music performances at their homes. The Beatles’ leading member Paul McCartney claimed in an interview that the Beatles know what and when the fans like a particular thing. They knew that people were fed up with the soldiers and generals who started two insane wars and slain millions of people with no rational reason. They created a band of Sergeant Pepper derived from a fictional idea and portrayed it spreading happiness in the streets of Europe with their colourful performance.
This album deserved to be discussed in class because it earned a position as a potential topic of discussion among its contemporary scholars and the research continued after that. Jennifer Van Evra quotes Richard Goldstein who wrote in the New York Times: "The sound is a pastiche of dissonance and lushness, the mood is mellow, even nostalgic. But, like the cover, the overall effect is busy, hip and cluttered”. The scholars acknowledged that this album brought the peoples of Europe closer and it helped to minimize the gaps between the masses. Langdon Winner, the writer of Rolling Stones noted that the album worked to unite the Western Civilization that was intertwined but gaps kept increasing after the Vienna conference of 1815. Winner wrote that this album altered the course of musical history and won a beyond the borders acknowledgment. Every radio station of America and Europe played this album, and Winner confessed that this was the most amazing thing he ever heard. One other New York Times writer and a known critic of that time is quoted by Mojo Staff who wrote that initially, he considered this album a terrible mess and mere banging of tasteless musicians, but when he roamed into the streets of America and observed the album's fame among the people of every age, he was obliged to confess that it was a great work by the Beatles which harmonized the music taste of the people of America and the whole Europe. Mojo Staff notes that McCartney said to him that they always got negative comments from the people who were observing the recording of the songs, but they never gave up. Staff notes that they were committed to their job and they did what seemed impossible in the start. They perhaps knew that they were going to change the trends, and they did that.
The Beatles produced the album which was unprecedented in having every song based upon a story instead of being a mere imagination of the writer. It was because the Beatles never relied upon writers to provide them content rather they produced the lyrics themselves. There was great coordination, cooperation, and the spirit of teamwork among the Beatles. Most of the songs were written by Paul McCartney, but they have a tradition of switching the leadership roles in the songs. Every member was supposed to lead a song. Leadership means he would write the lyrics, compose the symphony and sing the song being the main singer. Jordan Runtagh notes that when Ringo Starr got his turn to take the leadership role, he was unable to compose a song. Paul McCartney tried to write a song for him and he went to a remote area of England for this purpose. Unfortunately, he got injured there and could not write the lyrics. The recording deadline approached and they tried to write it in the studio with cooperation, but they failed again. One day was left in the recording and they did not know what to write and sing. Starr intended to retire to his bedroom when his partners started to convince him for writing the lyrics. A short quarrel happened and they started writing lines. Starr wrote what was being said during the quarrel and composed it. For example, Starr said what if I write nonsense lines, “Would you stand up and walk out on me?”. This line turned out to be a famous line of the song. Paul kept encouraging Starr until the song was completed. The lyrics of this song indicate the struggle of that era's human being who was fell in an uncertain and complex situation. The theme of the song is that everyone can be a victor if he/she has good and supportive friends around.
The students of the twenty-first century must discuss Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and struggle behind it. The musicians should learn ways to produce a remarkable piece of music. The Beatles thought purely in the terms of art when they were producing this album. They tried to stretch the social and psychological issues of people into music. For example, they softened the image of soldiers through portraying handsome soldiers singing about love and compassion. They showed how to work as a team without having any kind of prejudice towards anyone. They proved that they were ahead of time and the trendsetters of society by transforming music performance from live performance to a recorded form. The students must discuss it and do a case study on the album to explore the layers of talent that the Beatles had in that era and to determine how we can purify the art from peripheral prejudices.
Conclusion
The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band enjoyed remarkable fame in the history of music that it changed the taste of people. The people of Europe, America and other developed nations like admired the album and enjoyed it. The youth that was fed up with both war and idleness did not know how to release their energy in a pleasurable. The contemporary music of Europe was serene and lazy thus unattractive for the youth. It seemed that the world was feeling colourless after losing millions of humans in the two Great Wars. The Beatles released this album in 1967 with colourful videos and told the masses that there was still much to be happy about in this world. They showed that the soldiers can become the favourites of the masses if they lift music instruments instead of weapons. The youth started doing their catharsis by dancing on the Beatles' music and enjoying their realistic but beautiful poetry, unlike modern poetry that was haunted by pessimism and the fear of death. Many scholars acknowledged that the Beatles did remarkable work for society by releasing this album. People who had to go for concerts to listen to music and forget their worries for a while started buying the CDs of this album, and thus music of whole Europe and America entered a new era. The Beatles' contributions to art and society are worthy of being discussed in class and researched by scholars.
Bibliography
Havers, Richard. ‘How The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
Changed The Face Of Music’. uDiscoverMusic, Last modified 1 June 2019.
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/rediscover-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club
-band/
Evra, Jennifer V. “Sgt. Pepper at 50: 20 fascinating facts about the Beatles’
landmark album”.
CBC. Updated on June 1, 2017.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/sgt-pepper-at-50-20-fascinating-facts-about-thebeatles-
landmark-album-1.4140829
Goldstein, Richard. “From the Archives: The Original Review of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club
Band’”. The New York Times. Updated on June 1, 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/arts/music/archives-beatles-sgt-peppers-lon
Ely-hearts-club-band-review.html
MOJO Staff. “Paul McCartney Sgt. Pepper Exclusive: “It Was A Risk!””.
Updated on April 20,
2017.
https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/25379/paul-mccartney-sgt-pepper-exclusive
Runtagh, Jordan. “The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’: The Story Behind Every Song”.
The Rolling Stone.
Updated on June 1, 2017.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-beatles-sgt-pepper-the-storybehind-
every-song-195483/
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