Tuesday, December 8, 2015

CD Odyssey Disc 808: The Beatles

Walking home tonight I was really craving pizza, but when I got to the pizza joint there were only two slices left, and I didn’t fancy either of them. For some reason I’m finding this little disappointment really annoying. Don’t worry though, gentle reader! When I am finished this blog I will soldier on and heat up some soup.

Disc 808 is….Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Artist: Beatles

Year of Release: 1967

What’s up with the Cover? Let’s see – art forms I don’t enjoy depicted on this cover. Collage? Check. A bunch of flowers planted to spell a word? Check. Ridiculously bright over the top costumes? Ch…wait a minute. I actually like ridiculously bright over the top costumes. I would wear Paul’s powder blue drum major outfit any day.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila (aka Lovely Sheila, Meter Maid) is the Beatles fan in the house. This is her album – I’m just along for the ride.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Beatles albums. Of those “Sgt. Pepper” is one I like more than most. I’ll put it third, just behind “The White Album.”

Ratings: 4 stars

While not as masterful as the equally psychedelic Rolling Stones’ album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” (also released in 1967) “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is still OK, I suppose.

Just kidding, raging Beatlemaniacs! I’m taking the piss, as the English like to say. Actually, “Sgt. Pepper” is an innovative and interesting record that only occasionally annoys me.

With “Sgt. Pepper” the Beatles took a hard turn toward weird from the comparatively straightforward “Revolver.” Fortunately, they hadn’t tipped the weird bus over yet, as they would go on to do with the overwrought and smug “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Instead, “Sgt. Pepper” is an experimental album that takes a lot of risks and consistently makes those risks pay off.

It helps when you have the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to write pop melodies. These songs may sound timeless now, but lend an ear to what they’re doing and you quickly realize how even clever they are. Even a simple sounding song like “Getting Better” is intricately composed, with its melody rising and falling like a wave, while a second chorus holding a complimentary tune in the background. I don’t even like “Getting Better” that much, but I admire its song construction.

That’s often the case for me with the Beatles. They are kind of a pop Led Zeppelin for me (Pop Zeppelin?); I appreciate their brilliance but don’t often feel inspired or emotionally affected by their music the way I want to be.

The most emotional song on “Sgt. Pepper” album is probably “With A Little Help From My Friends” and that one is almost wrecked by Ringo Starr’s vocals (almost – I still love this song despite Ringo). The other one that hits me is “A Day in the Life” which has the advantage of better vocals and a feeling of disconnect and loss amid modern society that sticks despite the sampled cries of “Never-could-be-any-other-way!” that echo through your headphones for the final 15 seconds of the track.

Production decisions on “Sgt. Pepper” are both brave and crazy, including canned applause, circus sounds and what I think are kazoos. The whole record feels like it is the soundtrack for the town fair, with the mythical “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” being the wacky act keeping the passing crowds entertained between rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl. I’d like it all to annoy me (and at first blush, it did) but in the end the Beatles do it so well I just had to admire them.

There are times when this album loses me in its own cutesy self-awareness, like on the filler that is “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” or the schmaltzy “When I’m Sixty-Four” which seems to want to simultaneously make fun of old couples and celebrate them and accomplishes neither. However, these moments are few and far between and for the most part the songs work.

In fact, “Lovely Rita” is a silly little love song about a meter maid that has lines like “When it gets dark I tow your heart away” that should be insufferably cute. Instead, when the sweet melody is sung by Paul it feels strangely heartfelt, kazoo flourishes and all.

Good Morning, Good Morning” is packed with sounds of cocks crowing, birds chirping, and near the end cats, horses and assorted other animals. The song is suffused with a fun-loving energy despite being about little more than moving through your day. I’m a morning person, and this song made me think about the energy I wake up with and greet the day (on most days, anyway). Apologies to the non-morning people who run into me.

The album starts with the title track which doesn’t really do it for me, but the reprise version near the end is brilliant. The drum-beat and production had me thinking of early rap tracks, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it has been sampled often through the years. If not, it should be.

“Sgt. Pepper” has a lot of the elements of the Beatles that can annoy me on a bad day, but there is no denying it’s got magic in it – enough to pull it up into a solid four stars, musical tomfoolery and all.

Best tracks:  With a Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise), A Day in the Life

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