Anniversary poll: How many good songs are there on Sgt. Pepper's?

xp I've always felt that Revolver and Sgt Peppers kind of mirror each other in terms of style/structure and of course there are superficial similarities between the two. These songs share instrumentation and lyrical content, but clearly they're the product of each members' obsession of the time: George's interest in Indian philosophy and metaphysics; McCartney doing the orchestral arrangements and kitchen-sink narratives. Of course they're all good in their own rights but I just prefer the Revolver analogues.

I think it was Southy who admonished me on a prior thread for saying this before and I get that. He pointed out that Sgt Peppers is a huge step up in terms of musical ambition compared to Revolver, which is true, but I prefer it as an album overall and think the step-up in terms of songwriting and concepts between Rubber Soul and Revolver are much more noticeable than between Revolver and Peppers.

I'm old enough to remember (in fact, getting) the albums from "Hard Days Night" to "Sgt Pepper" - We were living out in Germany as my dad was in the RAF, and some of them were on the "Odeon" label, would be worth a fortune of they were "NM" but then why would they be?

.. Except for "Rubber Soul", must have been moving home about then....

Anyway, I believe RS belongs with R and SP, it sounds like how those albums would have been before the "Massed Alberts" as John put it.

Rubber Soul is maybe the album I'm most likely to listen to most these days. It's just got its own special vibe ya know?

Last one I played was side 1 of Abbey Road - I got one of those DeAgostini cheap(er) ones.

If the newsagents are still doing them, I might get the "Love" one, but.

Revolver and Sgt Pepper have a similar sort of feel to me, very shiny and peppy and NOW - I mean I realise I might just be buying into some swinging '60s mythologising bullshit here but both records sound like the work of people full of energy and ideas and tuned in with what's going on around them. I love Rubber Soul too but to me it feels a lot cosier, more insular.

I can't really separate the songs on these albums from their packaging/cover art, hence RS sounds woozy to me, Revolver pointed & arty, SP kaleidoscopic. I might feel differently if I'd first heard these tunes on one long playlist or something.

Revolver > Rubber Soul > White Album > Sgt Pepper > MMT > Abbey Road > Beatles for Sale > Help! > Hard Day's Night > Please Please Me > Let it Be > With the Beatles

A Hard Day's Night is a top five album at least.

I used to agree, but I appreciate Beatles for Sale and Help more these days.

Abbey Road > Help > everything else

revolver -> rubber soul -> mmt -> white album -> abby road -> pepper

somewhere I remember seeing rubber soul describes as a 'smoke and wood' album and that's always stuck with me. maybe the US version more than the UK version. It's their folk record, heavily pot-laced, as evidenced by the distorted cover photo.

I read that too and that's how think of it.

Agreed. My first introduction to RS was a US vinyl copy my dad had. Kicking off that album w/I've Just Seen A Face always felt more appropriate than Drive My Car.

I voted 13 but

lol we had She's Leaving Home in English class too - makes no sense, the lyrics are so on the nose

Not only do I find them on the nose but the conclusion always seemed a bit odd to me, even as a kid. 'Fun' is the one thing that money can't buy?

haha yeah

Love costs a few bucks iirc

Abbey Road is by far the worst Beatles album

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I can't explain the inclusion of "She's Leaving Home" as an English-class text, unless you're otherwise starved for examples of point of view. Wow it's almost like one singer is speaking from the perspective of the girl and the other singer is speaking from the perspective of the parents? MIND. BLOWN.

Perhaps it's one of those weird cultural warmed-over things? I.e., where stuff for people born in the 70s/80s is just lazily recycled materials originally created/intended for people born in the 50s/60s, without much alteration?

Like someone once thought "Hey, I know what the young kids dig! Those Beatle chaps! Let's teach it as literatoor!" and no one revised the curriculum for decades because it was easier not to? Or, perhaps, Beatlemania-aged teachers thinking the music of THEIR yoot was a good way to reach yoots.

In circa 1976 remember having a big joke book where lots of jokes still somehow depended heavily on "parents of teenagers be like 'what is up with the fascination with the Beatles.'" Seemed quaint at the time but I figured joke book writers were probably old dudes who were mostly recycling Henny Youngman gags.

these stories just remind me of that scene in Wiseman's High School where the class is discussing S&G's "Dangling Conversation" (which is also on the nose and does not really require any in-depth analysis)

(I didn't actually have to read it in class myself, tbc, btw. Was just commenting on the lyrics. We did have some Joni Mitchell and Burton Cummings in my middle school English textbook iirc.)

God I h8 Dangling Conversation (despite overall S&G love).

Tangentially I loathed every single second I spent in school where the teacher generously allowed the students to bring in their favorite song and allowed the class discuss its significance. Or when they tried to show they were "hep" and "connect with the youngsters" by explicating a pop song. YEAH WE GET THE IDEA and btw IT DOESN'T WORK.

Let us review the track record of English classes solemnly discussing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or doing - get this - a rap version of Hamlet. How many school-haters have been converted into school-lovers by these ham-handed efforts? (calculates feverishly) Oh, right, zero. The Lin-Manuel Miranda SNL ep had a skit on this.

Will stand by my Grade 12 comparison of Sonic Youth's "Shadow of a Doubt" to Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci".

Yes, surely every schoolkid everywhere cringes when a teacher does this. I did. In retrospect though, this guy was a good teacher and I was a snotty little twerp.

that scene in Wiseman's High School where the class is discussing S&G's "Dangling Conversation"

haha i just saw this again and imagined the ilx reactions. (I think the teacher does all the discussing?)

btw i voted 12 bcz two tracks are the same song. I prob did the bulk of my repeated plays of the LP circa '75-78.

in 6th grade I wrote a paper on Alexander the Great and put a quote from the Iron Maiden song as an intro quote

hell yeah

one of my history teachers was a big Smashing Pumpkins & Tool fan. i remember writing "I KNOW THE PIECES FIT" huge on an empty page at the end of one of those blue books. when he graded it he wrote "because you watched them fall away?"

I don't remember any of my teachers being into current music.

there was one guy who had some Marillion posters but...

All of my teachers were music-averse, apart from my 8th-grade science teacher who had been in a band in the '60s called The Sound Carnival. He helped me on a project where I put a humbucker into a cheapo Silvertone acoustic.

But none of my English teachers ever brought up music or lyrics.

"White Album" and "Sgt Peppers" are probably tied for my favorite Beatles album, though it's been a while since I've listened to either of them. If I was going to put on some Beatles these days, far and away the one I'd be most likely to spin would be the 1970 vinyl compilation album called "Hey Jude", since it's compact, and is all killer no filler.

This one: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/the_beatles/hey_jude__the_beatles_again_/

'67 Beatles > early Beatles > '65-'66 Beatles = '68-'69 Beatles

i am boring and i like basically every beatles album, even the worst one (let it be, by a very long ways imo, and i still enjoy at least half of that one)

the obvious choice for worst beatles album is yellow sub since it only has four songs but otoh all of those songs are absolutely fantastic

calling "All Together Now" absolutely fantastic feels like a stretch

it is the weakest song on there but i do find it kind of offhand and charming and fun, moreso than paul's other attempts to write a kids' song

Perhaps it's one of those weird cultural warmed-over things? I.e., where stuff for people born in the 70s/80s is just lazily recycled materials originally created/intended for people born in the 50s/60s, without much alteration?

Like someone once thought "Hey, I know what the young kids dig! Those Beatle chaps! Let's teach it as literatoor!" and no one revised the curriculum for decades because it was easier not to? Or, perhaps, Beatlemania-aged teachers thinking the music of THEIR yoot was a good way to reach yoots.

I was born in 1985 and we never studied She's Leaving Home or any other Beatles lyrics in English, so perhaps they had updated things by my day, though we did get given an anti-smoking pamphlet featuring Pepsi & Shirlie in 1998.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbMSUQE36us

Love the Beatles and think contrived, look-at-me Beatles ridicule is silly. (Not Noodle Vague's--his is funny.) But I'm a little surprised that people who love the album (totally understand) would consider all 13 songs good. I would think "When I'm Sixty-Four," at the very least, would sound really cloying. Unless it's the most dispassionate definition of "good" imaginable.

When I was at school, we never had pop music cited as something to study, except for maybe "Blowin in the wind"

My grade 6 music teacher in 1972 brought in Cat Stevens' Teaser and the Firecat, Alice Cooper's School's Out, and a couple of other albums I've forgotten. He had a big red beard and was very intense.

Our Alice took "Schools Out" to school once..

Story: Coincidences, Whoo.....

Nice. I've got a grade 5 kid this year who knows a fair amount about Elvis, taught art to a grade 6 girl a few years ago who knew a bit about Bananarama, but it doesn't happen very often (unless it's a student who actually plays an instrument).

"When I'm Sixty-Four" is a highlight for me! I think it says something a lot more meaningful than a million vague ballads about staying together forever. I love clarinets and pre-rock music, though.

The words are smart, but I just don't like musically-whimsical Paul.

I like "When I'm Sixty Four" too. I wish they'd done more of that music hall style with tubas.

I still fondly recall our 60ish spinster librarian bringing in Styx to have us discuss "Boat On the River" in 1980.

64 is great for "Vera, Chuck and Dave"

Chuck is annoying, no-one in the UK has ever been called Chuck.

I just thought that pepper is the only Beatles album without a love song (unless you count 64 and Rita which are not really).

Chuck is annoying, no-one in the UK has ever been called Chuck

this is untrue, the manager of the first ever safeway -- which opened in shrewsbury in 1965, right across the road from my gran's house -- was called chuck, there was a black and white photo up of him on the wall requesting that customers come up and say hi to him. his signature was written like handwriting, except printed. all this was utterly amazing to me as a tiny, as were the big colourful cardboard cartoons meat and cheese and vegetables also up on the wall in the relevant places. my sister and I ran up and down the vast aisles and gazed at the strange food in the deli, which looked like nothing anyone human had ever eaten (olives) and was too fancy and pricy for us ever to buy anything. my entire family loved safeway, a vast consumia utopia. my gran used it as the local corner shop, sometimes sending my grandad across the road half a dozen times a day for single items.

a few weeks later i was there with my mum, excited as ever -- and something horrible occurred. a large clown came up behind me -- i wasn't yet aware this would be a cliche in years to come and was extremely frightened. i remember him vividly, especially his big shows, which were made clownishly big via the medium of badly painted papier mâche. he was giving away balloons. later i wanted a balloon but was too proud and frightened to go over and ask him. i still want that balloon, fuck him and fuck chuck.