Classic Rock Album of the Day- The Beatles - Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) *****
This afternoon, I'll cover a classic, and forgo the ranking of the individual cuts on the LP, because of the difficulty of parsing such genius. While re-preparing this, I kept changing the seriatim, because sorting these was just too difficult, because they are so good, and I just kept changing my mind on the rank.
My great interest in Rock music started on Christmas 1965, aged 8 when I received as a gift Meet the Beatles. Can't remember whether it came from my parents or my Aunt and Uncle, but I flat out wore that LP to a crackling mess.
As a rock band, none can probably claim to be more iconic as The Beatles. Their history is so well documented in so many places, it would be pointless for me to cover. From '62 to most of '66 as the Band took a formula of fabulous songwriting rockers and ballads that made them not only a melodic machine, but a chart dominating band. I understand there was a point in their early history that they held all 5 of the billboard top spots. Uncanny accomplishment, and unmatched in musical history to that point and since. And added to that dominance was that this was pretty much in the era of vinyl, and '45's.
But something historic happened on May 26, 1967. The Beatles produced an album, so different, so strange, so bizarre, that the mainstream critics went nuts, and mostly panned it as a self destructive move intended to alienate their fan base.
But, what actually happened was the birth of Psychedelia, and it was the birth of counterculture. In almost all modern rock reviews, this LP is now considered a top 5 GOAT, and a basic benchmark of songwriting prowess. This album has a hypnotic mesmerizing feel to it, that transverses anything close that they had ever done before. Yes, a few months earlier Rubber Soul and Revolver touched a slight bit on what was yet to come, but this was the full fury of a massive change of a direction musically.
And damn... every song is a classic. And sadly, because the Beatles catalog is monitored like a speed trap on YT, there is no chance of providing an entire copy of the LP for listening.
So, instead I will include what I feel are the 3 greatest, most iconic songs for this classic.
And what was so exciting about this era, The Beatles came up with an extension of this genre with Magical Mystery Tour. an Icon in its own right. These two albums are what I consider the ultimate of a creative genius being "In the Zone"
This afternoon, I'll cover a classic, and forgo the ranking of the individual cuts on the LP, because of the difficulty of parsing such genius. While re-preparing this, I kept changing the seriatim, because sorting these was just too difficult, because they are so good, and I just kept changing my mind on the rank.
My great interest in Rock music started on Christmas 1965, aged 8 when I received as a gift Meet the Beatles. Can't remember whether it came from my parents or my Aunt and Uncle, but I flat out wore that LP to a crackling mess.
As a rock band, none can probably claim to be more iconic as The Beatles. Their history is so well documented in so many places, it would be pointless for me to cover. From '62 to most of '66 as the Band took a formula of fabulous songwriting rockers and ballads that made them not only a melodic machine, but a chart dominating band. I understand there was a point in their early history that they held all 5 of the billboard top spots. Uncanny accomplishment, and unmatched in musical history to that point and since. And added to that dominance was that this was pretty much in the era of vinyl, and '45's.
But something historic happened on May 26, 1967. The Beatles produced an album, so different, so strange, so bizarre, that the mainstream critics went nuts, and mostly panned it as a self destructive move intended to alienate their fan base.
But, what actually happened was the birth of Psychedelia, and it was the birth of counterculture. In almost all modern rock reviews, this LP is now considered a top 5 GOAT, and a basic benchmark of songwriting prowess. This album has a hypnotic mesmerizing feel to it, that transverses anything close that they had ever done before. Yes, a few months earlier Rubber Soul and Revolver touched a slight bit on what was yet to come, but this was the full fury of a massive change of a direction musically.
And damn... every song is a classic. And sadly, because the Beatles catalog is monitored like a speed trap on YT, there is no chance of providing an entire copy of the LP for listening.
So, instead I will include what I feel are the 3 greatest, most iconic songs for this classic.
And what was so exciting about this era, The Beatles came up with an extension of this genre with Magical Mystery Tour. an Icon in its own right. These two albums are what I consider the ultimate of a creative genius being "In the Zone"
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