Roger: I bought this on the Saturday morning - the week it was released. It came after Rubber Soul - which on first hearing was very sparse and very different from The Beatles earlier albums. The two things that hit me right away were - 1 - how clean the sound was. Very bright! And -2- what a happy and uplifting album it was. I still absolutely love Good Day Sunshine. And then, of course, the depth of the Lennon numbers - And Your Bird Can Sing, the backwards guitar - learnt by George in reverse. Wonderful. Many regard this as their best album. And I have to say - they have a good case.
Later that day we went on holiday to Folkestone. I was in my early teens I guess. I couldn't wait to get home to play it again.
Later that day we went on holiday to Folkestone. I was in my early teens I guess. I couldn't wait to get home to play it again.
CJ: I was just twelve but it struck me as almost other worldly in that it sounded as if they had just kicked down some dusty old door to reveal the way that the future of pop should sound. It was quite remarkable. Very uplifting as Roger says and so very innovative too. It felt and still does like a perfect band effort. A great shame that they didn't allow George to ever have more than one or two songs per album again as on this he has three and all of them are equally as good as anything that either Lennon or Macca produced.
Simply wonderful. Still the best album ever and far better for me than Pet Sounds.
Roger: Pet Sounds? Poo!
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And what a brilliant cover? Drawn by Klaus Voorman from their Hamburg days - who later played bass on some of John's records.
Here he talks about George. Post it into your browser.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RYR5u56jsnA
I was going to add something about the great cover by Klaus Voorman but decided I didnt know enough about him. He still makes art apparently and rather milks this image for all its worth and I dont blame him. On his website he has limited edition prints of it and he'll even paint it on your car for you for a few thousand dollars!
Revolver is a classic and I must admit I prefer it to the overblown and over produced Sgt. Pepper anyday.
Klaus Voorman did play bass on that one post-Beatke piece of brilliance from John Lennon on the 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album and on several singles. I also think he may have turned up on a George album and possibly Ringo's superb RINGO album circa 1973.
Average bass player but a better than average artist. I think he may have had something to do with The Beatles 'Anthology' series covers too?
Peppers, for me, is at best good. It is not in the same class as Rubber Soul or Revolver, in fact, I don't think it is as good as the White/Double album or Abbey Road. Far too whimisical and, as Michael says, overproduced. Just imagine though (in the fantasy world I live in) IF Magical Mystery Tour and Peppers had not been released but, and in their place an album with I am the Walrus, Penny Lane, Fool on the Hill, Strawberry Fields Forever, It's All too Much, Day in the Life, She's Leaving Home, Being for the benefit of Mister Kite, Within you Without You, Fixing a hole, Lucy in the sky with Diamonds, Its Getting Better on it?
Yes, what a great album that would be. Penny Lane and |Strawberry fields were all done around the same time and really would have been the icing on the cake if added to Sgt. Pepper but mysteriously didnt fit. Had CD's been around then it would have been a different story msybe? Listening to the demo versions of Pepper songs on the wonderful Anthology series was more fun for me.A Day In The Life stripped down to John's voice and piano is far preferabale to all the pomp and circumstance that got added later.
I think it was less a case of not fitting but more a case of not the cool thing to do. Back then it was very ubcool, as I remember it, to release singles and then put them onto an album. I always thought it a travesty that the Fabs released Hello Goodbye as the A side while relegating I am the walrus to a B side. Hello Goodbye is hardly Paul's greatest hour when compared to Lennon's masterpiece. Mind you a doule A side of Fool on the Hill C/W I am the walrus would have been fantastic!
Yes, well I was never a big buyer of singles. I dont think i bought any infact but waited for the album to come out and was always dissapointed that some of my favourite songs were not included. It happened time and time again but I still waited patiently for the singles to emerge eventually on some greatest hits compilation some years later by which time I was sick of hearing the songs on the radio all the time so never bought them. Also I had a reel to reel tape recorder and taped the songs from the top twenty every week thatI liked. Nobody seemed bothered about home taping back then.
Wasn't a Grundig was it?
Possibly. It was so long ago- it was a massive great hulking thing which made ominous humming noises when you switched it on and it took about 5 minutes to warm up and the little "magic eye" glowed green.
I bought one recently from a junk shop in the hope of re-living those memories and to play some old reel to reel tapes i still had but it sounded lousy! We are obviously more used to a cleaner richer digital sound now.
word verification says "basher"!
Well my favourite all-time Beatles recod would have to be Sgt Pepper. I don't think it's over-produced or overblown. Considering it was done on a four track... Actually I remember playing it for the first time and thinking it was very empty and pared down. Which is amazing considering that several hundred plays later I could still notice things for the first time.
I think I just heard it at SO MANY parties the year it came out that I began to dread the first track being played as i knew I'd have to listen to it all again in its entiredness. I was probaly being violently sick in the bathroom after drinking copious ammounts of wine, beer and haloumi oil.
I think Peppers suffers from all the hype it gets. It is by no means a bad album. Oasis would love to have created it and of course for many, including Rolling Stone magazine it is the epitome of Rock album's but as far as I am concerned not as groundbreaking as Revolver. Still one of the greatest albums ever but not their greatest.
I can never understand why I never hear "For No One" on the radio. This album has a lot of great songs, but am I the only one that thinks "For No One" is underrated? I'm not much a music person, but I really enjoy this song both both lyrically and musically. Perhaps it's the simplicity which I like, since I'm not much of a music person. The Beatles were the first band I really thoroughly enjoyed, the only band where I actually like the majority of songs on every one of their albums. So when I say I'm not into music, it's difficult for people to understand. I like music, but all my life I've seen people respond to music with more feeling or enjoyment than I've experienced.
Pepper is one my least favorites. I understand that it was critically acclaimed, and that there may have been nothing like it before, but musically it doesn't catch my ear, nor lyrically. I grew up with my friends listening to hard rock of the 80's and on into the metal age, and didn't really start enjoying music until my tech support manager at work suggested I try an "oldies" station on the radio.
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