Being a Beatles fan first (at least time wise) I felt I should start the blog entries with the Beatles and start with something to represent diversity and universality and that falls right into the area of Sgt. Pepper's. Nothing is more cult/mainstream except perhaps for Monty Python And The Holy Grail. One of the things I like about it is that it was released with the same tracklist in America as it was in England. Previous albums like A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver had been edited down taking about ten to fifteen minutes off the album to be put into Something New, Yesterday And Today etc. However Sgt. Pepper's was too cohesive to be broken up (although some songs were edited out in other countries like the Philippines). The first three songs are regarded as legendary even in Beatles standards as "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was a number one for Elton John, Joe Cocker had his signature hit with the song "With A Little Help From My Friends" (which was made into the theme song for The Wonder Years) and the opening self-titled track was famously covered by Jimi Hendrix. Outside of that "Getting Better" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" are huge crowd pleasers even by people who don't know who made them. "Good Morning Good Morning" strangely enough was the first song from the album I ever heard though and continues to be a favorite. When I was a toddler I was a huge Monkees fan (and still am) and I would watch the episode "Mijacogeo aka The Frodis Caper" and hear the opening to "Good Morning Good Morning" serve as an alarm clock and occasionally I would think that was so cool because they didn't actually have an alarm clock but at sunrise the needle (by means of a simple contraption) would fall on a blank vinyl (which made it bothersome not to see the name of the album) and play the song. When I finally heard it on Sgt. Pepper's I was ecstatic (after I recognized the connection). Outside of that there was even the epic closer, perhaps the best finale ever, the song "A Day In The Life" primarily a John Lennon song with a Paul McCartney bridge which as a John Lennon sider I am reluctant to say made the song better giving a five minute tune the complexity that would serve it well. "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" was a wonderful escape song. "Within You Without You" a George tune was philosophically and spiritually profound. "Lovely Rita" was a fun, flirty song and for a last tidbit I will mention I am for the Lucy O'Donnell explanation of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" as I've seen the picture Julian allegedly drew of her that inspired his father to write this song. The trippy elements are simply of a Lewis Carrol theme who was one of John's favorite writers so it naturally influenced to fantasy tone of the song.
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