Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

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For better and worse, <i>Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band</i> helped set the precedent that rock bands could (and should) do more or less whatever they wanted. Songs got longer, albums grew concept, and the idea of the LP as a concise product meant to showcase a performer’s talents gave way to the suspicion that commercial concerns ultimately only served The Man. A few months before The Beatles were set to record <i>Sgt. Pepper’s</i>, Bob Dylan had released <i>Blonde on Blonde</i>, an album so expansive it had to literally be pressed onto two record, while The Beach Boys’ <i>Pet Sounds</i> stretched the dimensions and possibilities of the three-minute pop song. McCartney in particular had been fascinated by things like Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s 1966 debut, <i>Freak Out!</i>, a double album whose hodgepodge of song, noise, skit, and sound gags mirrored conceptual art’s breaking of the painterly frame. Where The Beatles had once sought to distill and consolidate, now they were looking to expand. McCartney had even come up with an alter ego and pseudo-unifying backstory—a move Lennon later said only worked because the band <i>said</i> it worked. In other word, they didn’t want to just exorcise the group that made “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” they wanted to smother them with a pillow. Vacationing in France just before recording had started, McCartney slicked his hair back with Vaseline and wandered the streets in a fake mustache and clear-lens glasse, an experience he called “quite liberating.” .

via Apple Music

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