Nope, not the remaster we've been begging for; just lame MP3's (pun kind of intended) & a lame tribute cd

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) -
Mae West said: "No. I won't be in it. What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?"

So The Beatles personally wrote to the Hollywood vamp who then agreed to join Fred Astaire and Karl Marx on the cover for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which celebrates its 40th anniversary on Friday.

It took 129 days for the Beatles to record one of the most enduring albums of the 20th century. Their first, "Please Please Me," had taken just 585 minutes to record.

Now 21st century rock stars have paid their own tribute -- Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight celebrated the anniversary by recording their own versions of the album's famous songs.

Recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked on the original album, was back at the controls for the 'time machine' recording session. "This is the first time I've touched this equipment since The Beatles days," he said.

Computer technology has transformed 21st century music. Back in 1967, if
Paul McCartney sang off-key or John Lennon fluffed his guitar lines, they had to re-record.

Pop historian and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, reflecting on the album's legacy, told Reuters: "It is one of the great icons of the 20th century. It was the symbol of a very well defined moment in time -- the summer of love in 1967."

The download generation could now give the album another fillip.

"Sgt Pepper has never stopped selling and there will probably be another sales spike when it goes digital," Gambaccini said.

The Beatles have been one of the last big acts to hold out from putting their music on the Internet.

"The danger was that they were beginning to lose their place in rock history with a new generation," Martin Talbot, editor of Music Week, said of young music fans used to downloading their favorite albums.

Earlier this year, the company representing The Beatles settled a 30 million-pound ($60 million) royalty dispute with EMI Group in a deal that could finally pave the way for the Liverpool band's music to go online.

Apple Corps, the company owned by McCartney,
Ringo Starr and the families of Lennon and George Harrison, said in December 2005 it would sue the record company after negotiations broke down.

Now, with the last legal hurdles cleared, the Beatles could at last be ready to take to the information superhighway.

EMI Chief Executive Eric Nicoli said in April he was working on a deal to put the band's music online but could not give a time frame.

Gareth Grundy at Q Magazine forecast: "When the Beatles go online, it will be a huge deal and they will sell their catalogue all over again. It's just great music no matter how old you are."

Maybe this is threadcrapping, maybe it's not, but: Is it me, or does it seem as though the people who think that Sgt. Pepper is the greatest album ever overwhelmingly tend to be people who were alive when it first came out? I'm well aware of the record's place in music history, and the influence it had on other musicians and so on and so forth...and the whole story behind the album cover and so on and so forth...and whole SF/hippie/summer of love thing...and how the Beatles had started taking LSD and how they had stopped touring and so on and so forth...and how George Martin had helped them to expore the recording studio technology and whatnot...but IMO the entire middle section of SPLHCB (from "Fixing A Hole" through "Good Morning Good Morning") is nothing but LP filler. Greatest album ever? Sorry...it's not even the best Beatles album ever.

I was alive then, & I agree with you. Sgt Pepper's is a very good record, but not oh my gawd great. I do think A Day In The Life is one of their best songs, though.

I agree with AMW that "Sgt. Pepper" has filler, most glaringly the music hall-influenced "When I'm Sixty-Four" which is too twee, but even that song has sections which are more psychedelic than actual music-hall. A lot of people name "Revolver" as the summation, but it is simply not as adventurous, and only "Tomorrow Never Knows" is truly psychedelic on that one. I'm not that heavily into the psychedelic genre, but I do think "Sgt. Pepper" is one of the most tripping and adventurous albums ever, only bettered by "Pet Sounds" and "Brian Wilson Presents Smile". These three albums form the ultimate trinity of studio wizardry and influential, mind-blowing sounds.

The only song I can't stand on Sgt. Pepper's is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds because unlike the rest of the album which sounds like a typical rock record to me that one song is completely and utterly psychedelic in nature and is way too trippy for me. I do love the rest of the album though. It's just that one song that annoys the living heck out of me.

I think I'm going to celebrate the anniversary by playing my unremastered "Sgt. Pepper" CD!

Anyone who really is interested in what it took to record the music the Beatles did,
should pick up a copy of "My life and Times Recording the Beatles" by Geoff Emerick.
There is a whole chapter on the creation of Sgt. Pepper. Part of what made this album so
"great" is the way they discovered new ways to make the music have different dimensions.
I have more appreciation for the Beatles music since reading this book. Some incredible
stuff was done (that had never been done before) in the recording process to achieve
the final "album", and these literally are "pieces of art" as far as my regard goes for
this music.

What an anniversary bash! Two cans of lukewarm beer and the 1987 unremastered beast! I've reassessed it now, and I like all of it except "When I'm Sixty-Four". That's one weak track out of thirteen, making it a 92.3% perfect album. With a few more beers I might even like "When I'm Sixty-Four"!

I was nineteen when SP was released. I appreciated it at the time for things it did that rock albums hadn't done before, like the way it was formatted, running songs together and the unusual musical inventions that only the Beatles could put on an album and sell in massive numbers, thus instantly injectecting all these new ideas into the culture. It was just fun to listen to it. It made me smile at the time. It is only with the passage of time that I see its historical perspective as an album, the radical idea to include the song lyrics or to theme an entire album.

It definitely could be a "you have to had been there" thing... if you were around when it came out it was something new, something completely different, and that was because the Beatles were using new methods to create the music.

But in the 40 years since, there's been so much music created by other artists - some good, some bad - incorporating technologies and procedures pioneered by the Beatles, that when a kid finally gets around to listening to Sgt. Pepper for the first time, he won't find anything "new" or "radical" on it - because he's already heard it on other recordings!

As touched on previously, "Its Greatest Album" ever rep is more about what it meant in the grand scheme of things for so many aspects of cultural and musical significance....coupled with a helluva lot of great songs (and face it, their filler - which I feel there is much on Sgt P. - beats the heck out of a lot of other bands' prime material.)*

It is not my personal fav - of all time or the Beatles - but I will not argue against its engulfing significance or impact on culture/fantasy/possibilites/pop music. For these reasons it is art of the highest order.

* Not that in matters, but heh...For me they reach heights with
Sgt Pepper > WALHFMF
Lucy
Getting Better
Mr Kite
Within You Without You
Sgt Pepper > A Day In The Life

The balance, filler, but some tasty filler (Baked beans may never be the main course (God continues his blessings on me and mine of course), but I always reach for more).

Revolver is my pick for the their greatest...

It's true that the bulk of Sgt. Pepper's importance revolves around how it broke ground. Still, there are some excellent songs on it: A Day In The Life, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, and I even love Good Morning, Good Morning. And I know that most people can't stand Within and Without You--but if you think about the context, that this is essentially an Eastern view of the meaning of life, presented by the biggest act in the world, it's sort of cool. You might think it's crap (like most people do), but there's something impressive about the Beatles stretching out and taking chances like that. I don't think any of today's mega-acts would be able to put something like that out--and perhaps no one but the Beatles could have in the '60s.

While Pepper may not hold up today as well as the White Album or Abbey Road, it's amazing how contemporary the Beatles' music sounds today. In fact, I think they sound more contemporary than many bands that were big in the 70s and 80s.

Now for my gripe: Like many here, I'm aggravated to no end that nothing meaningful is being done to commemorate the anniversary. The Beatles are supposed to be this huge business that is constantly marketing something. Yet, here is a milestone date for one of the most important records of all time, and all they do is put up a throw-away website to sell tee shirts and mugs.

Where's My Mono Pepper? Where's My Let It Be DVD? Where's My 30 Minute Helter Skelter? (In case you can't tell I'm pouting and stomping my feet)

Doubt if we have the old ICE items here, but I once wrote a near essay on why Within and Without You is my favorite track on the album, for many of the reasons spscpr mentioned and beyond. Could never do it justice to try and rehash, but if one is looking for groundbreaking, nothing other than A Day In The Life touches WYWY on that album.

There is something to the "you had to be there" premise. When this album came out, it was groundbreaking. More than any other title previously released, it was the first album recognized as a complete, cohesive work rather than a collection of songs. It was only AFTER SPLHCB was released that Pet Sounds, Revolver, Rubber Soul, et al, were viewed in the same light. Plus, it was the first Beatles album released after their announced retirement from touring. Much of its prestige is based on the impact that it had on the genre, and it is a great album.

Personally, I can't say that it's my favorite Beatles album (Revolver or Abbey Road, depending on my mood), but it's on the short list.

I have to respectfully disagree about the middle songs - I think that Getting Better and Fixing a Hole are great, especially the guitar parts.

Has anyone seen the full line-up of artists for the BBC 40th Anniversary show (and subsequent CD)? Part one airs in the UK on June 2; part two, June 16.

Thus far, it appears to be:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – Bryan Adams
With A Little Help From My Friends – Razorlight
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – ?
Getting Better – Kaiser Chiefs
Fixing A Hole – The Fray
She's Leaving Home – The Magic Numbers
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! – ?
Within You Without You – Oasis
When I'm Sixty-Four – ?
Lovely Rita – ?
Good Morning Good Morning – ?
Sgt. Pepper's LHC Band (Reprise) – Stereophonics
A Day In The Life – U2 [strongly rumored]

James Morrison, Travis, The Fratellis and The Killers are apparently slated for four of the five remaining songs. Does anyone have more specific info?

Sorry this info is so late... WFUV 90.7FM (an NPR statio out of NY) is airing a 2-hour long special about SPLHCB at 2:00pm EST TODAY!!!

The station does stream via the web.

http://www.wfuv.org/

It looks like the show I mentioned in my previous post (titled "The Two Sides of Sgt Pepper: An Honest Appraisal") is being broadcast on various NPR stations. It is also available at the link below, so it can be checked out any time...

http://www.musicsojourn.com/Playlists/S ... 2Sides.htm

Try Jefferson Airplane After Bathing At Baxter's!

Bryan Adams & U2 both mattered....... 25 years ago.

As a Beatles fan i certainly love SPLHCB, and agree as many have already stated that while it is a great album (and personally i enjoy every song on it to one extent or another, feel they all have their place since i've been hearing it that way since it was released), it is certainly not the greatest "of all time". It might make a deep list of such, but would never top it.

Let us not forget, though, that were it not for Pepper's, we would never have gotten Frank Zappa and the Mother's Of Invention's "We're Only In It For the Money". Perhaps a case where the parody LP artwork surpasses the original (love that insert cut-out sheet). And you might say the same for the musical and lyrical content (are all of my fellow Beatles fans hurling things at their screens yet?....)

I'll be listening to Pepper's (both the mono and stereos), but will follow those with the real highlight, WOIIFTM. As albums go, as far as creative brilliance and studio innovations (characteristics so much, and rightly so, associated with Pepper's), this Zappa LP is right up there, if not better.

But anyways, Happy Peppersversary to all.

I'm betting that proper Beatle remaster activity will spring forth when things get settled between Paul and Heather.