I don’t have a problem with Sgt P dropping down to 24th best album. While I completely get its importance historically, a lot of its songs just don’t hold up nearly 60 years later. But I love the idea of Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields part of the album.
I’m going to make a “Sgt Pepper Revised” playlist that includes those two songs but drops some of the dreck (imho). I’ll come back and list the song order to get your thoughts.
O.k. Looks like people don't want this, but here is my "new and improved" SPLHCB song listing.
Side 1
Sgt. Peppers LHCB
Help From My Friends
Lucy Sky Diamonds
Getting Better
She's Leaving Home
Strawberry Fields
Side 2
Penny Lane
Lovel Rita
Only a Northern Song (Anthology 2 version)
Good Morning
Sgt. Peppers (reprise)
Day in the Life
I drop one song each from John, Paul, and George, and add a different one from each. Only a Northern Song from Anthology 2 is a little tighter and fits better than the one on MMT. Revised album comes in at just under 38 minutes and is a pretty cool psychedelic rock album. I know the original is sacrosanct, but I really like this version.
What a great essay! Rolling Stone caved to “woke” and put Marvin’s all right album on top. They did the same thing to Dylan, vis a vis, the greatest singles of all time.
God. Did Rolling Stone magazine fuck up or what. Marvin is one thing but many of those don't belong on any best list. Pepper is top 5. Easily. With Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road in the top 20. Shame on them
Love this article! The student singing in WalMart is awesome. I LOVE Sgt Pepper just as it is but it would have been even more amazing with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. Spent some time in Liverpool last summer and fell madly in love with the city. Got to see John and Paul’s childhood homes and Penny Lane and other cool places. Got to play the piano in Paul’s house. Liverpudlians are amazingly friendly and welcoming. Hope to “get back” some day.
Great story about the student in Wal-Mart. The perennial Beatles will continue into the far future. How lucky we are to have lived in the same time, for me, to have heard that music as a pre-teen when it first stormed the shores of the US. It seemed like every time I turned around there was another Beatles album, and they kept getting better. I grew to accept that as a given. Pepper is as astounding as it is. With the addition of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, other songs would have had to be pushed off, and though the first choice surely would have been Within You Without You, that edit would seriously weaken Pepper. My friend Kevin Harvey (gone from us now) wrote a great piece in the old edition of Muddy Water on how the double A side single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields was the greatest single ever released, which I believe is true, and the impact that it had on its own, pre-Pepper. It blew the world open for Pepper to come through. So, hindsight is fine, but the actual history has its own strong merits.
Soooo….exactly how does Donald Trump fit into this article? I wrote about the Fab Four having the top five songs in MY book, Trump in Atlantic City, The rise and fall of the Trump Casino Empire (Amazon). No book signing, advertising by Amazon and Facebook denied. Anyhoo, it was 1964 when the Democratic Convention was held in Atlantic City, and the Beatles appeared there a couple of days prior. JFK had just been assassinated a few months earlier, and the Beatles were at their the top of the world.
What music to pick and when to introduce it, is an old and very difficult art all in itself. I guess you can say many big names, got big at least partially due to timing in this regard.
Leave well enough alone so no no need for George Martin 2nd guessing himself with this masterpiece & yeah fuck the list makers too. From my perspective it was quite a baller move to not only release Sergeant Pepper at the time but say hey here's a 45 with two other great songs not on our latest album that most bands couldn't even dream to write.
I guess the beauty of our digital world now, is that we can make a Sgt Pepper playlist with "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields" included! Having said that - you are so right, John. There was no need for George Martin to leave the songs off the LP. He'd already included "Please Please Me" and "Love me Do" on the first LP, so ...! The other issue: what on earth would the running list have been if those two had been included? Or do you think of substituting "Strawberry Fields" for "Mr Kite", and "Penny Lane" for "Lovely Rita", perhaps? Peace.
I don’t have a problem with Sgt P dropping down to 24th best album. While I completely get its importance historically, a lot of its songs just don’t hold up nearly 60 years later. But I love the idea of Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields part of the album.
I’m going to make a “Sgt Pepper Revised” playlist that includes those two songs but drops some of the dreck (imho). I’ll come back and list the song order to get your thoughts.
O.k. Looks like people don't want this, but here is my "new and improved" SPLHCB song listing.
Side 1
Sgt. Peppers LHCB
Help From My Friends
Lucy Sky Diamonds
Getting Better
She's Leaving Home
Strawberry Fields
Side 2
Penny Lane
Lovel Rita
Only a Northern Song (Anthology 2 version)
Good Morning
Sgt. Peppers (reprise)
Day in the Life
I drop one song each from John, Paul, and George, and add a different one from each. Only a Northern Song from Anthology 2 is a little tighter and fits better than the one on MMT. Revised album comes in at just under 38 minutes and is a pretty cool psychedelic rock album. I know the original is sacrosanct, but I really like this version.
What a great essay! Rolling Stone caved to “woke” and put Marvin’s all right album on top. They did the same thing to Dylan, vis a vis, the greatest singles of all time.
Anyway, the WalMart story alone was greatness.
God. Did Rolling Stone magazine fuck up or what. Marvin is one thing but many of those don't belong on any best list. Pepper is top 5. Easily. With Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Abbey Road in the top 20. Shame on them
Love this article! The student singing in WalMart is awesome. I LOVE Sgt Pepper just as it is but it would have been even more amazing with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. Spent some time in Liverpool last summer and fell madly in love with the city. Got to see John and Paul’s childhood homes and Penny Lane and other cool places. Got to play the piano in Paul’s house. Liverpudlians are amazingly friendly and welcoming. Hope to “get back” some day.
Great story about the student in Wal-Mart. The perennial Beatles will continue into the far future. How lucky we are to have lived in the same time, for me, to have heard that music as a pre-teen when it first stormed the shores of the US. It seemed like every time I turned around there was another Beatles album, and they kept getting better. I grew to accept that as a given. Pepper is as astounding as it is. With the addition of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, other songs would have had to be pushed off, and though the first choice surely would have been Within You Without You, that edit would seriously weaken Pepper. My friend Kevin Harvey (gone from us now) wrote a great piece in the old edition of Muddy Water on how the double A side single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields was the greatest single ever released, which I believe is true, and the impact that it had on its own, pre-Pepper. It blew the world open for Pepper to come through. So, hindsight is fine, but the actual history has its own strong merits.
Just one correction. Paul McCartney grew up in Liverpool, not London. ‘Penny Lane’ was written about sites of Liverpool.
Those two songs make the Magical Mystery Tour album great. Why mess with a good thing?
Soooo….exactly how does Donald Trump fit into this article? I wrote about the Fab Four having the top five songs in MY book, Trump in Atlantic City, The rise and fall of the Trump Casino Empire (Amazon). No book signing, advertising by Amazon and Facebook denied. Anyhoo, it was 1964 when the Democratic Convention was held in Atlantic City, and the Beatles appeared there a couple of days prior. JFK had just been assassinated a few months earlier, and the Beatles were at their the top of the world.
What music to pick and when to introduce it, is an old and very difficult art all in itself. I guess you can say many big names, got big at least partially due to timing in this regard.
Leave well enough alone so no no need for George Martin 2nd guessing himself with this masterpiece & yeah fuck the list makers too. From my perspective it was quite a baller move to not only release Sergeant Pepper at the time but say hey here's a 45 with two other great songs not on our latest album that most bands couldn't even dream to write.
I guess the beauty of our digital world now, is that we can make a Sgt Pepper playlist with "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields" included! Having said that - you are so right, John. There was no need for George Martin to leave the songs off the LP. He'd already included "Please Please Me" and "Love me Do" on the first LP, so ...! The other issue: what on earth would the running list have been if those two had been included? Or do you think of substituting "Strawberry Fields" for "Mr Kite", and "Penny Lane" for "Lovely Rita", perhaps? Peace.
Thank you , John !
I was 14 in 1964 and the Beatles have always been my favorite group. Enjoyed this article !
God this was beautiful.