Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978 film)

Oh Blasphemy of Blasphemies! I had a warning that this would be bad, but I thought it had a Beatles soundtrack and after-all all 4 Beatles were still alive would John, Paul, George and Ringo all sit back and let such an atrocity happen in their name!!! Okay enough over-drama, but really this film although filled the joyful tunes of the Beatles (an all Beatle soundtrack with an albums worth of songs qualifies as a Beatles specialty and up for a personal review) but it does not contain the spirit of the Beatles as I knew the experience coming as a fan. So what I say may not apply to every Beatle fan. Anyway, the problem is a band that sang "All You Need Is Love" and "Revolution" it doesn't seem likely to have designed their alter ego band to have literal militant origins. In the previous film incarnation of Sgt. Pepper's via Yellow Submarine Sgt. Pepper's had no military background and the Beatles posed as Sgt. Pepper's to fight the meanies with music and they joined to Pepperland and left the Dark Side. A children's tale of ideology worthy of Dr. Seuss. But in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band it lacked the charm of an urban fantasy of a Utopian Wonderland and went for the unbelievable concept of small town patriotism who shamed Hollywood fame. The 70's generation seemed so hypocritical making this moral lesson against materialistic decadence. Really think of how many coke induced orgies the stars of this film participated in. The 70's was the worst elements of the 60's and this film to me perfectly reflects that, not that I don't like many of the performers or that I think ill of all who participated afterall Aerosmith sobered up and in this film gave one of the best Beatles covers ever (note on Permanent Vacation they also did a great job on the Beatle tune "I'm Down"). Back to the theme of the film, it just seemed too preachy and yet not saying anything. And I suppose I'm still being overdramatic but to quote John Lennon in a depressed stage of his career circa 1970 Plastic Ono Band "The dream is over." And for a long time it seemed to ring true for generations of disingenuous charities and self indulgence.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967 album)

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.