{"id":41313,"date":"2015-06-01T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T07:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=41313"},"modified":"2015-06-01T00:15:13","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T07:15:13","slug":"day-history-june-1st-sgt-pepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/day-history-june-1st-sgt-pepper\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day in History: June 1st- Sgt. Pepper"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Day In History<\/a>: June 1, 1967<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sgtpepper\"<\/a>\u2018Sgt. Pepper is the one. It was a peak. Paul and I were definitely working together.\u201d – John Lennon<\/p>\n

After years of touring and relentless media attention, the Beatles felt frustrated creatively. They were tired of wearing matching suits in front of throngs of screaming girls. None of them came to hear the music. They could listen to their Beatles’ records at home. They went to a Beatles concert to worship their heroes and shriek at the highest decibel level possible, and sometimes throw Jelly Beans at them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the fall of 1966, the Beatles decided to focus their efforts on writing and recording. They entered Abbey Road studios with producer George Martin in November. Freed from the pressures of the road, the band\u2019s creativity hit even loftier heights, and they urged George Martin to challenge the accepted limits along with them. What they managed to achieve using four-track equipment should shame the Pro-Tools generation of today.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the music that was colorful, fresh and innovative. The way it was presented was also groundbreaking and inventive, which raised the bar for every other band\u2019s album artwork for decades to come. The cover by Michael Cooper featured the now-iconic gathering of cardboard cut-out characters posing class picture-style, with the group dressed in old-timey band uniforms standing in the forefront. The Beatles had morphed into Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Heart\u2019s Club Band<\/a>. Still the Beatles, only \u2013 trippier.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Pepper\u2019s was the first concept album. As the orchestra tunes up and the audience hushes, we\u2019re introduced to the band. They then take us through a musical journey spanning from English vaudeville to Indian mysticism until the band bids us farewell, and we\u2019re left with the closing masterpiece \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d. You\u2019re left mesmerized by \u201cthe chord that lasts forever\u201d and you\u2019re left wishing the whole album would do the same.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no exaggeration to say this record changed people\u2019s lives and changed the way their fellow artists approached the art of album making. After Sgt. Pepper<\/em>, everybody and their brother had a go at making a concept album. The Stones were one of the first to follow with \u201cTheir Satanic Majesties Request<\/a>\u201d. (They wisely returned to roots rock with their next album.)<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney plays down the Beatles as the “Pied Pipers of a generation” theory insisting that \u201cthe mood of the album was in the spirit of the age, because we ourselves were fitting into the mood of the time\u201d and \u201cthe Beatles weren’t the leaders of the generation, but the spokesmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even almost half a century later, fans still remember the effect Sgt. Pepper\u2019s had on them during that long ago summer of love.<\/p>\n

NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Songs Considered\u201d host Bob Boilen said, \u201cWhat I remember most about that first listen and that first look was how mysterious it all was. The artful montage on the front, the Sgt. Pepper cut outs that came inside, there was the cut-out mustache, the stripes and badges of the Sgt. Pepper uniform and of course there were the lyrics. To this day it’s my favorite album not just because I love the songs, but because it was, for me, the first album that held mystery, whose cuts flowed effortlessly from song to song \u2014 and those songs changed each time I heard them. They still do.\u201d<\/p>\n

His words echo the experience of million of Beatles fans, whether they first heard Sgt. Pepper in 1967, or six months ago.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n