Happy Anniversary!
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It is still today a milepost in recorded music. Released on June 2nd, 1967 here in the US — it was like nothing that had come before. I don’t think any single album since, has so dramatically changed the landscape of recorded music upon its release.
40 years… say it isn’t so!
I have a Sgt Peppers Lonely ARTS club band t-shirt; all the figures were changed to those of famous art – at first glance it looks like the original but on closer evaluation you can see figures like “scream” and “blue boy” and “venus” standing in the band; by Fred Babb.
Ascender –
I am afraid it is absolutely so… 😉
That t-shirt sounds awesome… very cool indeed! Where did you get it?
Here’s to 40 years of the Sgt. and his wonderful band… AMEN.
Rob, I awarded you with a thoughtful blogger award on my page… please drop by when you get a chance, and pick it up.
Best,
Scarlett & Viaggiatore
Scarlett –
Thank you very much! 😉
In my right side bar you will see my original site, should you care to visit. We recently purchased this on CD and there was so much to hear. It was so clear. They did a fine job on the re-mix.
I was almost fourteen and when my sister brought this album home, we were playing it constantly. Of course the radio stations were playing different cuts over the summer and into the autumn air waves. So the music was everywhere.
This was music so different from any we had heard before. The Beatles are my favorite group. Their pure, yet dramatic music spans generations and is eternal. My how we loved those young men. True artists.
I noticed you on why … paisley. Are you on blogcatalog.com too ?
Theresa –
Thank you for visiting! 😉
I love the Beatles. When I first heard them in 1963, my band was doing R&B music — they turned my head to the English rock scene, and that was the direction my band went.
We grew our hair, and a whole new world opened!
Oh, we share loving this music!!!!! Great post. I hadn’t realized it was their 40th anniversary. Hope your summer is going well, Rob.
Gel –
I still can get caught up in their music. I always thought “Rubber Soul” was a special little gem. It is full of wonderful songs, as is each of their albums (CD’s).
Thank you for your well wishes! 😉
Was it really their 40th? I feel old now. I do miss the music of this generation. Modern music seems to lack the beautiful messages hidden within the lyrics of the that time.
Gosh 40 years Rob — when you’re a kid, you can’t grow up fast enough. I remember The Beatles being the only group to listen to — the ongoing arguments with my sister and friends about which member is the cutest (always Paul)which songs were the absolute best ones to dance to, what this song or that song was really saying, how to play the albums backward to hear the “ahem” evil lyrics. Remember all of those “Paul is dead” articles, listing the reasons why on the Abbey Road cover? (barefeet, cigarette in right hand when he is left-handed, out of step with the other members, etc.) I hate to say it, but kids today have missed out on so much. It was wonderful to be a kid during that time.
Autrice –
Then there was a type of innocence, of belief — that we could make a difference… that we could change the world, and to some degree — we did. All we needed then was… love! Naive, perhaps… but sincere.
We had war, the draft, the uprising of the civil rights and women’s movements, rioting in the streets — but, for the most part, we tried to counter that with our music. To paint a picture of new and different possibility.
Then there was less of the mayhem and violence that has such a high profile today in music — perhaps a striking out against the ‘soma-esque’ docility, the ‘what’s-the-use’ surrender of much of today’s society.
However, I still find beautiful warmth, and hope, among the hopelessness in much of today’s music… that gives me hope… 😉
Marcy –
I remember all of that, and it was wonderful! It kept our spirits alive, our grasp on a kind of innocence, our sense of wonder, our belief in heroes — it kept society sane, at least as sane and innocent as it could be, considering…
It was part of how we coped with the assassinations, the loss of our post-WWII “innocence”, the social injustice, the righteous social upheaval, the violence, the war, the death — the great sadness that also gripped the western world.
But that is often what is required for a magical time — a great struggle, amidst great hope… creating the great contrasts in the reality of the situation — the profound need for goodness, for deliverance, for genuine heroes… the need for meaningful change, for ‘magic’ of the spirit.
If the world ever needed some ‘magic’ of genuine deliverance, and the true heroes to bring it about — it’s now!
I see that rising again — I hope… 😉