Worst Beatles song on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

(although I doubt very much that's the real video)

Nick, since Stylus closed down, do you write anywhere on the regular?

ah, it samples "the end" as well - i never noticed that!

It's a lot harder to pick out truly bad songs on "Sgt. Peppers" than on "Revolver". I'm sure there are people out there with valid reasons for preferring "Revolver" but I'm not one of them. This thing is pretty consistently great. If I had to pick a worst track, I'd be tempted to go for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - it kind of grates and the lyrics are borderline inane.

You guys...

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.

I def think this is actually one of their weaker albums, and while it hadn't really registered with me before Nick's pointing out McCartney's predominance and the distinct lack of guitars/rock tropes is probably part of that. They have way better psych material than what's here, and better non-rock material on the later albums - a lot of this is pretty blah.

shasta: that lyric is the joint

ok I've always known Sounds of Science samples The End, but I never noticed When I'm 64 till just now!

And Nick I feel the opposite re: LSD's verse-chorus. Lennon's "oooh we've taken drugs" delivery and childish psychedelic lyrics in the verses really bug me, but the chorus is just so big and glorious!

xpost I can't tell you but I know it's mine?

How can that not be great? A world where that's not a great line is bizarroworld to me.

Re the "Revolver" discussion upthread, one must bear in mind that the definitions of "rock" have indeed changed. Today, I would define the guitar tracks on "Revolver" as powerpop rather than rock: Strong melodic/diatonic songs, lots of vocal harmonies, jangly/fuzzy guitars etc. There are no Marshalls (well, maybe because it was 1966) and few of the songs are particularly bluesy. As such, part of The White Album (and a few tracks from "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road") are probably much closer to what would be defined as rock rather than pop today. But for 1966, those guitars were pretty fuzzy and amplified, and "Revolver" "rocks" more than most albums that were around by 1966.

Bizarroworld is Wet Wet Wet's version, where Marti Pellow sings it with a cheeky wink and a chuckle, as if the previous line was 'What do you see when you turn on the light?'

er, I feel the opposite to ISMAEL wrt LSD xpost.

^ suggest ban

sort of fell in love with this aged 17 when the radio did this "it was 15 years ago today..." (sic) bit, and they played virtually all of side 1. I sat there on the carpet and out rolled these treacly melodies, crystal sounds, loopy wurlitzers. And we teenagers weren't supposed to like it coz it was all punk for us mate. Sgt Pepper was establishment even then.
So all this trashing of the legendary album turned out to be pretty irelevent. Why knock pepper off its perch? To purge the music of all that studio "bullshit", or so that revolver will eventually take its place in everyone's list? Neither LP is exactly back to basics. That came later, a little less rapturously, for the beatles.
SPLHCB is still charming, like kids at play. Is there a low point? Maybe if you compare the opening track with its fabulous reprise, you might drop the opener, but that would sort of spoil the effect of the whole thing.
When I first bought the record, I disliked WYWY, but it hypnotised me somehow with its filthy eastern ways and now I can't imagine the album without it.
If I had to choose anything it would be When I'm 64 for the crimes of being twee and insincere.

So all this trashing of the legendary album turned out to be pretty irelevent. Why knock pepper off its perch?

I would say two reasons.

1. It got praised to such a degree in the early 70s that there just had to be a backclash. I mean, it was almost seen as objectively the best album ever, and there was almost no way that anyone could possibly argue against it. This had to lead to a backclash

2. Punk. "Sgt. Pepper" was pretty much the beginning of prog. Punk was a protest against all things prog, and once prog values became less important (which was the more visible long term effect of punk, although arguably prog may as well have been killed by AOR), "Sgt. Pepper" also felt relevant. It was a huge influence on virtually everything that happened until 1976, and then, it hasn't influenced one tenth as much music after that.

and once prog values became less important (which was the more visible long term effect of punk, although arguably prog may as well have been killed by AOR), "Sgt. Pepper" also felt relevant.

Also felt LESS relevant, I mean.

I've always considered The Beatles to be a 'pop' band or at least a 'not weddded to one genre' band rather than a 'rock' band. The fact that psychedelia to them was about stuff like Revolution Number Nine or Day in the Life or For the Benefit of Mister Kite than "traditional" psychedelic music actually rings truer to my experiences.

just want to debate the "guitar-ness" of this record...

GUYS there is TONS of guitar on this record. u def???????

my only preference is that "good morning" with the horrible brass arrangement be left off in favor of the ROCKING version on Anthology 2.

Samuel: nah, I'm retired fully from writing.

Voted Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds because it's fucking shit.

I always thought prog was killed off by their album cover art.

I've always considered The Beatles to be a 'pop' band or at least a 'not weddded to one genre' band rather than a 'rock' band.

The pop vs. rock thinking started later.

If there was pop in 1967, then Engelbert Humperdinck and Petula Clark were pop, in which case The Beatles were obviously rock.

And, I mean, I say that as an outspoken fan of POP rather than rock. Only in the sense that The Beatles later came to be define as the most classic of POP bands. This was not the case in 1967 though.

I really like the beatlemania-era Beatles on the cover

in which case The Beatles were obviously rock.

Um, okay but 'For the Benefit of Mr Kite' is not a rock song. It's probably not even a pop song until they become "the most classic of pop bands". By my standards, the Beatles do have some excellent rock songs. me and Charlie M<anson, fwiw, agree on 'Helter Skelter', for example, but anything even from Revolver on is likely to have at least a halfway heteroclite collection of songs on it that were little like (the collection in its entirety) many other acts out there, or at least mega-huge ones. This has not entirely changed today.

"rock" is a red herring phrase introduced to this discussion by Geir.

I really don't care about genres that much anyway; they're useful sometimes and obfuscatory at others.

particularly do not care about genres as defined by geir

I also believe, since they are essentially descriptive, that epithets and genres are mutable over time. Case in point: it never fails to amuse me how many little kids I know now are really into the once terribly rebellious Ramones. What was 'unthinkable' 'race music' in the 50's sounds almost quaint, now, and yet it is unmistakably 'rock' and often quite good at that.

Lovely Rita is one of the best songs in here. Anyone voting Lovely Rita gets a SB from me and I never give SB.

Agree with George Martin that leaving Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields off of this album was a really bad decision, if I could play god I'd remove 'mr. kite' and 'when im 64' and substitute them by Penny and Strawberry fields, not because I think they're bad songs but because they do seem to ruin the overall 'concept' sound they were trying to achieve here.

Fwiw, I once decided Lovely Rita was my fave on this, but I can't help thinking, now, that I really like the whole album as an album.

I like the whole album too, but imo the individual songs seem sorta slight when you isolate them

but I don't wanna be SB'd for voting Rita! :(

I would have a tough time picking a worst song on this album let alone a bad song. If you remove one song the whole album falls apart, like a game of Jenga! But if I am forced to choose, Good Morning Good Morning because of the rooster sound.

I like GMGM in context: Lennon bored out of his mind in suburbia doing massive amounts of acid by himself.

It kind of sets up A Day in the Life, too.

I don't get the hatred against "Mr. Kite". I see it as one of the highlights of this album, crowded with strange and weird noises and just the perfect Music Hall/Vaudeville feel that really fits so well into the entire album concept. One of the best Lennon songs ever.

Lovely Rita is one of the best songs in here. Anyone voting Lovely Rita gets a SB from me and I never give SB.

― Moka, Thursday, September 24, 2009 10:12 PM (Yesterday)

These threads bring out the worst in people!

She's Leaving Home is boring. Admit it.

She's Leaving Home makes me cry.

Not sure that I agree with George Martin. "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" stand apart from the Sgt Pepper concept, being site-specific and personally autobiographical

From what I understand this is because the album was going to be based on their childhoods of growing up in Liverpool, and "When I'm 64" was brought out before "Penny Lane" was even finished because it was a tune they used to do when they were first starting out. Whether they could have kept up this theme over the length of an album (especially in the midst of ego-destroying drug binges) is another matter, but had the single tracks ended up on the album, perhaps a number of the character songs ("Lucy", "Mr. Kite", "Rita") would have been left off. Possibly more introspective songs would have taken their places.

kinda :( that anyone would hate on the title track or the reprise. the drums and guitars, so damn hot

"when i'm sixty four" is the worse for me; should have left it w/the rest of the rejects, paul!

She's Leaving Home makes me cry.

― VegemiteGrrrl, Friday, September 25, 2009

If you've ever had a sibling run away even briefly, and this was something that was like epidemic in the 1960s into the 1970s, it is indeed sad

Fixing A Hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRrnlP4pYE

xxpost....or if you've moved continents :(

although I know they were at one point intended to be on the record, in no way do I think penny lane or strawberry fields fit in with the rest of the album, and don't belong there.

Is there a thread somewhere on "how would you sequence Sgt. Pepper with PL/SF added and two songs subtracted?" I think I'll be playing around with that this weekend while riding the train...

Switch SFF in for LSD, and PL in for 64; sorted.

Yeah, but really, they'd have written a whole bunch of themed songs instead, and possibly made the least interesting album of their career!