Comments on: It was 40 years ago today…

By: nokomisjeff

nokomisjeff — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:09:53 +0000

Absolute awesome post.

Aloha,

Jeff

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 18:43:59 +0000

I feel like there have been times when the MUSIC was there, but the society wasn’t. Look at what U2 did with WAR, UNFORGETTABLE FIRE and JOSHUA TREE. The music to change the world was certainly there – I’m not sure any band has ever produced three in a row that exceeded that level. And they did exert some force – if you go back to the late ’80s, U2 mattered in ways no band has mattered since (including Nirvana). And look at Springsteen – he was close, but I think got scared and ran from it.

But there’s only so much the band can do. You can’t lead them what won’t be led….

By: Mike P.

Mike P. — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 18:17:19 +0000

I agree with Sam – Green Day is the only existing band I’m aware of that could even come close, as they did with “American Idiot.”

But Sgt. Pepper’s greatness has never been equalled, and after 40 years I’m afraid it never will be in my lifetime. It was the music itself, of course, but also so much more that is unlikely to all come together at one moment in time again. There have been similar albums in time – The Clash’s “London Calling,” and Green Day’s “Idiot,” for example, but nothing that has so completely captured the spirit of the moment.

That’s OK by me – I’m old – but I really do feel for the kids these days.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:05:35 +0000

There is one band with the talent and the balls, but it’s an established Xer band, not an emerging new talent: Green Day.

I keep hoping that U2 has another moment in them, but we haven’t seen extended greatness from them since ACHTUNG BABY. There have been some extended very good moments and a few great songs (the single out now with the video of all the rock legends is the stuff of magic – if they could sustain that for an entire record it would be 5 stars out of the box). But that’s not enough. And besides, they’re old. We’d have to be talking about somebody NEW.

Right now, the best of the new bands are people like Franz and Killers. Killers have the ambition – SAM’S TOWN was absolutely grand in its attempt, although the result wasn’t as mythic as I’m sure Flowers hoped it would be. And past that, the best bands out there are working off in “genre” styles. I can show you great in trip-hop and industrial, but that’s always going to be marginal in our current market.

So there’s no hope. Of course, it probably looked that way in 1961, too….

By: Jim Booth

Jim Booth — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:40:23 +0000

First, yeah I knew about the thing with Hendrix, Sam – Paul’s told that story a number of times. And I don’t need no stinkin’ radio station to tell me – I was there, dude….

Second, all that “urban myth” stuff that Jack mentioned, belongs to the times themselves. I’m more interested here in the musical/cultural impact – couldn’t get everything in if I’d made the post ten times as long.

Third, NoOneYouKnow might be right that the culture’s too fragmented for such a galvanizing moment around a band/album/song – but he/she might be wrong, too. Hell, everybody feels so disjointed and separated, it’s human inclination to move back to the other side of the spectrum. And music is always a gathering/uniting force….

Finally, Sam, do I see a band out there that might do something like what The Beatles did with Sgt. Pepper? I can’t name one at this moment, but it would need these characteristics:

1) It would have to sweep in unexpectedly – and defy conventional wisdom – and create a kind of hysteria about itself – tough go, now, in our hyper-mediated climate, but I believe still possible.

2) It would have to see its popularity not as a sign to play it safe and maximize profits, but as a signal to push itself – and its audience – toward reconceptualizing – that’s what “Pepper” is – a reconceptualizing of what a rock album could be.

3) Its members would have to live the difficult lives that The Beatles lived (constant scrutiny, etc.) and still be able to do the work needed to produce such a ground-breaking and galvanizing work.

Is there a living band? U2 has the talent, but I don’t know about the drive anymore as musicians. REM is over. Nirvana is gone. There’s no one else around who’s even close to the level of these bands, is there?

So we wait to see if a band rises up. I just have a feeling about these Millenials…I believe they may have the “musical DNA” – and a mindset – that might allow such a group to emerge.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 00:38:56 +0000

Jim, you

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 00:30:48 +0000

I have always said that if I were to leave snivilization with one and only one album it would be Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The author didn’t mention all the urban ‘myths’ (?) surrounding this alum as well, such as on the back cover where Paul is the only one NOT facing the camera (because it wasn’t Paul . . . Paul himself has said in interviews he was stuck in traffic). And of course the Billy Shears mention (Billy won a Paul lookalike contest) in the theme track. There’s plenty more (the guy holding his hand over ‘Paul’ on the front of the cover is supposedly a sign pronouncing someone as dead).

Growing up in the 80’s I went through the typical pop and punk, but it was when I bought Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that I think I finally found my musical stride, and a few other things.

By: NoOneYouKnow

NoOneYouKnow — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:55:09 +0000

I still remember every pop and skip on my sister’s copy.
Western culture, such as it is, has become too fragmented, amorphous, and media-pillaged and infected for an album to have this kind of effect again. Heck, I’d be happy with a protest song that caught on.
Also, right-wingers still suck.

By: Kelly Bearden

Kelly Bearden — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:23:54 +0000

although born after (not much, but still) this amazing album was recorded and let out into the world, it will reign as one of my favorites forever. i have argued many times over which was the better Beatle album – Sgt Pepper or Revolver? – but i will still go down saying *this* one is the best. as a child, i had an apple single of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” which just sent me over the moon with the odd lyrics (the Beatles’ lyrics of this era were just made for us kids who grew up watching sesame street every day – seemingly nonsensical, easy to remember, and fun to sing at 8 years old) my favorite song on the album, though? it has to be “Fixing a Hole”:
“I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where will it go”
a simple philosophy that partially shaped my perspective on the world.
love it and always will.

By: Sam Smith

Sam Smith — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:23:43 +0000

I can’t tell you how often I wish we lived in a world where music could change … EVERYTHING. At this point, I wonder if it’s even possible anymore for an album to change MUSIC. When was the last time that happened – NEVERMIND? Before that, maybe U2? But even they had nothing remotely like the impact that SGT PEPPER’S did.

What do you think is the best we could hope for? And is there a band alive right now that could accomplish it?