Sgt P's LHCB

[Banquo]

"Without The Beatles, or someone else who had done what The Beatles did, it is fair to assume that there would have been no progressive rock." - Bill Bruford

From Wikipedia...

Sgt. Pepper's, with its lyrical unity, extended structure, complexity, eclecticism, experimentalism, and influences derived from classical music forms, is largely viewed as the beginning of the progressive rock genre and as the point at which rock, which previously had been considered dance music, became music that was made for listening to. Bill Bruford, a veteran of several progressive rock bands, said that Sgt. Pepper transformed both musicians' ideas of what was possible and audiences' ideas of what was acceptable in music. It also marked the point at which the LP record emerged as a creative format whose importance was equal to or greater than that of the single.

[Obscured]

I have a feeling "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" is what initially set me on the road to being receptive to full on progressive rock.

Was so happy Sir Paul presented this tune after all these decades.

I think seeing/hearing Yellow Submarine opened me up to "prog".

[PeterG]

And you have the audacity to argue the origins of Glam and Grunge.

Yes.
I was 6 in 1967
I was 26 in 1987.

[PeterG]

That explains a lot.

Let us know when your mom lets you back on the internet.

And you're old and ugly. I hope that makes as little sense to you as your comment does to me.

[JJ88]

Always loved it. For me 'She's Leaving Home' and 'A Day In The Life' are the highlights of the album, but I always play it right through.

I wasn't 'there' either but I too roll my eyes at the sort of hipster, pseudo iconoclasm that dismisses great, popular works for the hell of it. It's one thing to have questions about the material like mogrooves does, and quite another to come out with attention-demanding, childish stuff that those types do.

[Rand Kelly]

The Birth of Prog and nobody noticed. I love it. Also, I know I'm setting myself up for some interesting reactions,but wth, I have been here for 10 years and you all know me by now pretty much,I did a cover of She's Leaving Home on my Lowrey Organ. If anyone wants to see it I will gladly post it right here.I need to see no less than one request though as I don't want to impose.

[Firth]

The Birth of Prog and nobody noticed. I love it. Also, I know I'm setting myself up for some interesting reactions,but wth, I have been here for 10 years and you all know me by now pretty much,I did a cover of She's Leaving Home on my Lowrey Organ. If anyone wants to see it I will gladly post it right here.I need to see no less than one request though as I don't want to impose.

The late 60's were not the first period of experimentation in culture and music, but it was the first which was carried on through media to a billion people. The Beatles took this spirit (perhaps in part, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, as testified by Sir Paul) of innovation on by merging genres of music and cultures spanning history, if not creating what some call prog, creating the process which produced prog.

[PeterG]

[rcarlberg]

And you're old and ugly. I hope that makes as little sense to you as your comment does to me.

[Vic2012]

Well, I won't argue whether "prog" started with this album. Personally I think that The Beatles really started experimenting and pushing the envelope with Rubber Soul and Revolver (which I like just as much or more than Pepper). But it seems that bands like Procol Harem and Moody Blues don't get much mention when it comes to "who/when/what started symphonic prog/rock."

[Firth]

Well, I won't argue whether "prog" started with this album. Personally I think that The Beatles really started experimenting and pushing the envelope with Rubber Soul and Revolver (which I like just as much or more than Pepper). But it seems that bands like Procol Harem and Moody Blues don't get much mention when it comes to "who/when/what started symphonic prog/rock."

There are many bands that were experimental and I certainly enjoyed Proco Harum in 67, I don't get the inventiveness from "Whiter Shade of Pale" that I got from SPLHCB. The Beatles were always pushing the envelope, and the mass audience and media were pushing the artists. I'll just use this quote about the Moody Blues:

Days of Future Passed (released in November 1967) became one of the most successful pop/rock releases of the period, earning a gold record award and reaching No. 27 on the British LP chart. Five years later it was to reach No. 3 in the U.S./Billboard charts. The LP was a song cycle or concept album that takes place over the course of a single day. In production and arrangement the album drew inspiration from the pioneering use of the classical instrumentation by the Beatles to whom Pinder had introduced the Mellotron that year.

[Sunlight Caller]

it's a pretty hard album to have missed for one born in the early 60's, I'm quite surprised you are hearing some of these songs for the first time. I was only 6 when this one came out too, but there's not one song that has not been played myriad times in so many different cultural contexts, radio, tv, live etc. I grew up in the era of The Beatles like so many of us here, but our home never had these albums as my parents were more of the swing, Sinatra, Ella, Cole persuasion, all pretty wonderful too though. I first bought myself a copy of Pepper in the mid/late 70's, long after I had found my first prog loves, and it was really as a result of reading widely and hearing such as Yes mentioning how influential this album had been on their thinking and motivation to create.

It's not my favourite Beatles, I too go for Revolver for that accolade, but it's there with Abbey Road, The White Album, Rubber Soul and Magical Mystery Tour for me. I always play it all the way through, it's one that you just have to sit and listen to and enjoy, and there's nothing I do not love on it.

I have an album that I have never yet heard all through but which tops many a chart and that is Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. He's always seemed such curmudgeonly old bugger that I have never been motivated, and my Van knowledge extends as far as Brown Eyed Girl and no further. I guess we all need a blind spot or two

[philsunset]

Maybe one could argue that prog started on April 6, 1966, the first day of recording "Tomorrow Never Knows"...?

[Lopez]

You may find it even harder to believe that there were FIVE songs on there that I'd never EVER heard before.

I believe it alright. I never listened to Pet Sounds all the way through until about 15 years ago.

[Vic2012]

In production and arrangement the album drew inspiration from the pioneering use of the classical instrumentation by the Beatles to whom Pinder had introduced the Mellotron that year.

Okay so it was all about Mellotron . All kidding aside, I can't argue with that. I think a couple of very experimental tracks from Revolver are Eleonore Rigby and Love You To. If you throw Tomorrow Never Knows in there I think those 3 songs alone are just as "proggy" as anything from Pepper. Again, I think it's a shame that Strawberry Fields was not on the Pepper album proper.

[philsunset]

Okay so it was all about Mellotron . All kidding aside, I can't argue with that. I think a couple of very experimental tracks from Revolver are Eleonore Rigby and Love You To. If you throw Tomorrow Never Knows in there I think those 3 songs alone are just as "proggy" as anything from Pepper. Again, I think it's a shame that Strawberry Fields was not on the Pepper album proper.

Strawberry Fields and Tomorrow Never Knows. John Lennon-The Godfather of Prog?

[ronmac]

Again, I think it's a shame that Strawberry Fields was not on the Pepper album proper.

Well, as you likely know, those were the days when 45-RPM releases were typically not extracted from the LPs, but in addition to them. So, they needed a single, and it was SFF (the birth of prog as we know it, IMO) and Penny Lane, which could easily have both been on "Pepper."

"It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song" could have been on it, as well, since they were recorded in '67.

[mogrooves]

I think it's a shame that Strawberry Fields was not on the Pepper album proper.

.... and "Penny Lane." George Martin is right to lament the decision not to include these two killers.

[Vic2012]

Well, as you likely know, those were the days when 45-RPM releases were typically not extracted from the LPs, but in addition to them.

You know, I seem to remember back then that a lot of groups (mainly American groups, I think) usually had a hit 45rpm that would also appear on the albums. I seem to remember that was pretty normal. Release a 45 hit, radio single, then a few months later the album would come out and the hit(s), plus the b-side would be on the album. The British bands didn't do that. That's what I remember anyway.

[philsunset]

You know, I seem to remember back then that a lot of groups (mainly American groups, I think) usually had a hit 45rpm that would also appear on the albums. I seem to remember that was pretty normal. Release a 45 hit, radio single, then a few months later the album would come out and the hit(s), plus the b-side would be on the album. The British bands didn't do that. That's what I remember anyway.

That's right. The Brits thought a long player was just that, usually more than 12 songs. The single and EP was a different entity.

[Vic2012]

Yes, and I remember that we'd buy the 45 (because we were kids and it was normal to buy the 45 for 50 cents, or however much it cost), then we'd get the album and the big hit was on there (and usually the rest was filler). Well, that's why you had the "American release" of the Beatles and Stones albums with the hit singles on them.

[philsunset]

And that's why the American releases sucked, IMHO

[ronmac]

Well, that's why you had the "American release" of the Beatles and Stones albums with the hit singles on them.

The reason we had those US releases was pure greed. There were NINE LPs put out by Capitol in '64 and '65 alone. That doesn't include the UA releases of the two soundtracks and another five VeeJay releases.

Meet the Beatles! (1964), Capitol
The Beatles' Second Album (1964), Capitol
Something New (1964), Capitol
The Beatles' Story (1964), Capitol
Beatles '65 (1964), Capitol
The Early Beatles (1965), Capitol
Beatles VI (1965), Capitol
Help! (1965), Capitol
Rubber Soul (1965), Capitol

[Gruno]

Classic PE arguments seem to come from discussing The Beatles. Some get overly defensive of this boy band

Sgt Pepper was the first Beatles album that I bought. I loved it when I first got it. Over time, it's just sorta 'there'. It's probably the album I visit least in their career. "A Day In The Life" is my favorite Beatles track of all time. Abbey Road and Revolver tracks are more of what I turn to in those rare instances when I care to listen. I own both the mono and stereo box sets and prefer the stereo version of Sgt.

If you needed to be there and live it when it was initially realeased to fully "get it", I suppose it doesn't fare too well for new listeners, eh?

[Vic2012]

And that's why the American releases sucked, IMHO

Well, for us that was our only choice back then. Kids and young teens in the US weren't gonna buy imports from the UK, so I disagree that the albums sucked. That's all we had. I doubt we even knew that there were "American" and "UK" versions of all those albums.