Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Super Deluxe

We're all used to a wave of hoopla whenever a big product is released, but in the case of Sgt. Pepper it's all true. Sgt. Pepper was not just a great album by the Beatles; it was the high point of the Sixties decade itself.It was the unexpected artistic triumph of all that had begun in early 1964.THE ERA::Beatlemania and the British Invasion precipitated a virtual mass extinction event for almost the entirety of the Early Sixties pop music scene. Almost everyone who had been big then never had a hit again and the few acts that survived (Lesley Gore, Gene Pitney, Jan & Dean, Elvis) were never as big as they had been after a final hit or two in '64. Only the Beach Boys went on to greater heights. Dismissed as a teen-idol type fad that would soon die out, the second wave of British Invasion groups that included the Animals, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones showed that there was more to this music than at first seemed the case.Coincidentally by 1965 the Folk Music Scene which had been big from 1961-63 was winding down very fast with less and less interest being shown by anyone but die-hard fans. Bob Dylan's going electric seemed to act as a signal, sending many of the creative artists of folk into the pop/rock scene which had been so re-energized by not only the British Invasion but also the concurrent rise of Motown. First came Folk-Rock, but there was far more to it than jingle-jangle 12-string guitars and Dylan songs. The folk people brought in a whole new set of musical values that included literate lyrics, topics besides romantic love and the idea that the album was the thing, not just two hit singles and a bunch of covers. Artists from folk would be in many of the top groups or solo acts of '65-'66 including the Byrds, the Mamas & the Papas, the Loving Spoonful, the Association, Simon & Garfunkel, Donovan etc.The Beatles did not ignore all this. They responded in two releases. Yesterday was accompanied by a string quartet and by doing this, opened the door to rock & pop absorbing classical influences and instrumentation, a major trend in 1966-67. Then with the acoustic, folk-influenced Rubber Soul, they indicated their joining with the folk artists and their views on making truly artistic albums. By this point the rock/pop scene was open to virtually all influences. By late summer of '66, everything went into a kind of hyper-drive; in the period roughly bookended by Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, everyone was doing their finest work, even the pure pop artists, with great material coming from every quarter. By this time people couldn't ignore this any longer and even the adult media who typically dismissed the teen scene had to take notice, peaking with Leonard Bernstein, in patrician tones, extolling the value of this music on the CBS special, Inside Pop - The Rock Revolution in Spring, 1967.Music was not all that was changing. To understand the Sixties you must understand it as being a time of total and unbridled optimism. Since the late Fifties in the U.S. and Western Europe there had been a feeling that everything was really wonderful, prosperity was the new normal and what few problems there were would soon be solved by science. You must understand that environmental problems were still unknown (Silent Spring had only been out a few years) and it was believed the Civil Rights Act alone would cure past racial disparities. The only problems were those of "The Affluent Society". From their prosperous lives the Sixties teens looked out at the world and saw things weren't so nice everywhere, and like a whole generation of Siddhartha's sought to save the world from its problems. The old order began to fray, especially on the two coasts (hings stayed the same in the interior much longer) and a new youthful counterculture began to arise, their answer being Universal Love. Naive? Yes, but it was very sincere and well-intended, and music became the vehicle that spread it.At the peak of all this, with much anticipation after Rubber Soul and Revolver, the Beatles produced Sgt. Pepper to absolute and universal acclaim from all quarters. It was seen as the great fulfillment of all the recent trends in pop music, the greatest pop album ever made, perhaps even one of the greatest works of art ever made. The superlatives were endless. It sold far beyond any album before it. Though it had no singles, radio stations played it as if every track was a single, even all of the five minute A Day In the Life, especially at night, its double crescendo seeming to sum up everything that was going on. It was like an explosion, played everywhere all summer long, with other pop music almost at a standstill, reacting to it. All the rest of 1967 and early 1968 were enveloped in its psychedelic haze. Then everything changed again, almost all the mid-Sixties artists vanished, and the new, heavier era of the Late Sixties began.THE BOX SET: This is everything a die-hard Beatles fan could possibly want. A 3-D cover curiously recalling Their Satanic Majesty's Request. An original LP facsimile inside containing four CD's of music and DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the 1997 documentary and a beautiful hard-cover book full of photos of the band and era. The CD's are the original mono and new stereo mix of the album, plus two discs of the Sgt. Pepper sessions that include various takes of the songs in development, some being vocal or instrumental tracks only, plus Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. Those two songs were originally intended for the album but were released in early '67 as singles because the Beatles needed something after Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby. George Martin truly regrets that they weren't included but I'm happy the way they were. Sgt. Pepper is already 40 minutes long, pushing the length of a 60's LP before sound quality was lost. It is also a fairly light-spirited album with two "heavy" tracks of five minutes each, and adding Strawberry Fields may have been too much. It's perfect as it is. Besides, Strawberry Fields was a major event in itself. What kind of pop song was this? Nothing like it had been done before. It was a remarkable breakthrough that showed the Beatles were rapidly advancing. Penny Lane was a perfect bright foil, a bouncy, cheery song guaranteed to get major airplay; a perfect single between two important albums. Though the two extra discs will be of most interest to lifelong fans (of any age) they do show the importance of George Martin, the true fifth Beatle, who brought their ideas into existence.THE SOUND: To judge the sound, especially important with not just a new remastering but a new mix, I made a playlist that song by song listed the Mono; then the original stereo (from the Beatles 2009 box set) then the new mix. Mono is mono. It's hot now in oldies CD's because people want to now hear things the way they originally did, and we all heard almost all 60's music on mono home, transistor and car radios and mono albums. Of course Sgt. Pepper was the album that caused the huge boom in sales of stereos that made stereo the norm very quickly, so the set shows this somewhat ironic transition. The new mix wins by light years. The sound is deeper, richer, more enveloping, clear, more transparent and more detailed. It's the kind of improvement that makes you think, "Well, what was I listening to before ?" It's that good.A PERSONAL NOTE: I have to thank the makers of the box set for clearing something up for me. I was beginning to think I had a false memory. I clearly remembered a Penny Lane that ended with a trumpet fanfare instead of the cymbal fade-out, yet no such version ever appeared on CD. Finally, here it is on Disc 4, listed as "Capitol Records mono US promo mix". It seems to have been the one most played by my local radio station back then. Thank you for including it!

If you were alive and reasonably conscious in the Spring of 1967 you might have heard a prematurely released, unauthorized version of a brand new Beatles album on the radio before it quickly disappeared for another 6 weeks. It was a tantalizing treat. At the same time, a new single sounding suspiciously like the Beatles hit the FM airwaves but the record was a red herring: New York Mining Disaster by the BeeGees, who were then new to America and something of a Beatles sound-alike. The album was real, however, and when it was finally released for good at the end of May it literally changed the world in ways that are inconceivable today.Sergeant Pepper's release 50 years ago coincided with a ramp-up in the Vietnam War, an increase in protests on campus and in the streets, and the birth of Hippies and the so-called "Summer of Love." The album was heard absolutely everywhere all Summer long and it became the soundtrack of that amazing and complex era. It influenced song writing, studio recording, every aspect of music production, the artistic layout and design of LPs (it was the first Rock album to include written lyrics and inserts and the cover was unique and brilliant) and its phenomenal commercial and artistic success remains a legend in the music business, unique in ways that may never reoccur. In celebration of that artistic success, Capitol has released this Deluxe Edition DVD + Blu-ray + Audio CD | 4 CD Box Set. It is quite an expansive tribute to this iconic record (Rolling Stone's number one Rock album of all time).Disc one: A brand new stereo mix by Giles Martin sounds clearer, cleaner and more spacious than the original and the subsequent re-masters. The crowd noises at the album's opening sounds alarmingly real, and the guitars, drums and vocals sound great. A Little Help From My Friends has an even more infectious groove because Ringo's voice and the music now have a wider soundstage and greater clarity. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds has been opened up and now has a trippy, spacey infectiousness that really makes you suspect the official version of the title's initials. Getting Better, Fixing A Hole and She's Leaving Home are cleaner with more detail and presence. Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! has been especially improved with the calliope/harmonium/organ sounds produced by a Hammond organ, tape loops and harmonicas now whirling around the room with thrilling three-dimensional clarity.The rest of the album continues Sergeant Peppers' sonic re-vitalization, with much less audible compression and improved transparency. A Day in the Life now has explosive crescendos that sound like hammers of fate while John's voice has never sounded so terrifying. The new Sergeant Pepper stereo mix isn't revolutionary but it is a substantive improvement in presence and immediacy, making the album sound more vibrant and alive than previous versions.Disc two and three: Over 100 minutes of studio outtakes and chatter that helps to illuminate the recording process. Some of you will love this stuff, enjoying the backstage glimpse of the Beatles as they recorded their masterpiece. Others of you may find it a little repetitive after a while. I found it a fascinating historical excursion into musical memory. It's a matter of taste.Disc four: The original 1967 mono mix that was released with the Beatles' approval. This mono recording was reportedly the Beatles' favorite version of the album. The band considered it more unified in expression and containing greater musical impact. I get the point but still prefer the stereo version for its sonic magic.Disc five and six: The restored 1992 documentary The Making of Sgt. Pepper, which includes interviews with Paul, George and Ringo, has been around for awhile but has never looked better. It is great to hear George again, speaking about the creation of the album. The in-the-studio footage, which is introduced by the late George Martin, feels and looks like opening a time capsule and watching the band work. The restored promotional films for 'A Day In The Life', 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' look and sound terrific.The 2017 Giles Martin 5.1 surround sound mix and the high-resolution 96KHz/24bit stereo audio of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band plus 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' are icing-on-the-cake. Sergeant Pepper in surround sound and hi-res are an entirely different audio experience. This is how the album might sound if it were recorded today. The music is superbly alive and totally immersive. The 144-page hardback book with song-by-song details and recording information, essays about the design of the cover, the album's many innovations and its historical context are enlightening. The illustrations feature photos from the recording sessions, as well as handwritten lyrics and Abbey Road studio documentation.Anyone that loves the music produced by the Beatles during this amazingly creative period will probably love this box set. It's pricey but it's a treasure trove of memories and definitely worth acquiring.