SGT PEPPERS........ some thoughts.

my now borderline obsessive love for Marion Cotillard aside. HA!

I have been absolutely obsessing on an album of late. that album is called Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. it's made by this little group called the beatles.......ever heard of em?

this is not weird for me. normally I will listen to the same album for like a month. Now with the ipod and iphone I have the ability to listen to single tunes Im fixated on ( A DAY IN THE LIFE ...anyone?? ) or I can listen to the album in its entirety.

Something about this album cracks me up. having now watched a couple of documentaries about the making of it. It fascinates me actually.

The one thought about the album that's genius is they went out of their way to make an album that COULD not be played live, since they were now completely finished with touring. Touring had become a horrible experience for The Beatles and the only time they felt they were really playing together as a band where they could hear each other properly over the screams of 40-60K fans a night was in the the studio. Kind of wild to think that ringo has been quoted as saying he rarely if ever played a drum fill for about 3-4 years for fear that he would lose the back beat. Great stuff.

From what I can tell the album and the idea for SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB band was Paul McCartney's. And besides the theme tune to the album and its reprise thats about it in terms of them being tied into the albums name.....both john lennon and george harrison had been quoted as saying ,these songs could have appeared on Revolver or Rubber Soul. But for us the end user.........they didn't. And Im a happy mf'er for them not having appeared on any other album

Ringo was quoted as saying "Sgt peppers , I learned how to play chess during that album" Meaning that great amounts of time would go by before he was really needed to play anything. George was quoted as saying " I was really into the India thing and I just found the process to be a bit long , my heart was somewhere else." "Within You Without You" is no minor achievement in my book btw. George throughout the years always seemed to be the most balanced beatle. its weird , I really love ringo and george they both seem to have a far more pragmatic and straight forward and honest view of the band. Lennon seemed great and I wish I could have had a chance to meet him. I think he would sill be doing relly wild creative stuff. Now we come to Paul McCartney.

Now , as I said earlier in the piece McCartney came up with the idea for SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND and its actually a really soulful concept. Firstly it was a joke name based on a lot of bands on the west coast of the USA....weird names like Country Joe and The Fish , Captain Beefheart and fictitious names he quotes that I'll just make up like "Diamond Joe and the Fishmen and "Fantastic Willy and his Magical Pudding Convention" just cracked him up. The one soulful bit is that "LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND" referred to the fact that at its core the beatles had been sad heading into the making of the album and were a lonely hearts club band indeed. Years of touring , bickering , bad shows and travel had just gotten the better of them. It interests me that people may not realize how truly difficult it was to be The Beatles. Their only solace on the road was literally when they were in the bathroom. Think about that. They did everything before everyone and wrote the book and major international super stardom. Elvis never left the states and hated to travel. The Beatles took it to that next giant level.

Sgt Peppers is a major , insanely beautiful accomplishment. I know why I cant stop listening to it over and over again. Trust me, this isn't the first time I've been addicted to this album. You can find a little bit of everything you could posibly want from music on this recording. Its perfect.

one quick side note funny story before I end this journal entry.

Ringo Star was mistaken for a jew in Quebec at some point I think in 64 or 65 ( I do not claim to be a beatles expert ) I find that to be hysterical. They had death threats and had to get out of town rather quickly. here's the fun fact that you now all know, RINGO AINT A YID. I kind of wish the beatles had one jewish member.......but that's ok. The guy that helped forge everything was Brian Epstein, their manager,a jew. Sadly he passed away at the young age of 33. Can you imagine , managing the biggest band in the history of Rock and Roll and you are 27 when it all starts. incredible. the pressure, the enormous pressure this guy was under. So, ring one up for the chosen! hahahahaha

SGT PEPPERS....... THREE THUMBS UP

be well,

MOWO!™

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