Pepper inspired countless one-off covers, including notable versions of “Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds” ( Elton John) “With A Little Help From My Friends” ( Joe Cocker), and other good covers by Harry Nilsson, Fats Domino, Bryan Ferry, Jeff Beck, Sonic Youth, Al Jarreau, Billy Bragg, and even Billy Connolly. Pepper song coversĪs well as entire albums, Sgt. In 2016, British artist Chris Barker did a modern makeover with a cast of much-missed stars who died that year, including Leonard Cohen, Prince, and footballer Johan Cruyff. It is one of the most enduring images of the whole 60s psychedelic era, and has been affectionately imitated hundreds of times, including by The Simpsons. Michael Cooper’s photograph of the band dressed in satin marching-band outfits showed them in front of artist Peter Blake and his then-wife Jann Haworth’s cardboard college of historical figures such as Mae West, Oscar Wilde, Laurel And Hardy, and WC Fields. The dazzling visual on the front helped confirm the album cover as a work of modern art, and was the first rock album to incorporate complete song lyrics as part of the album’s packaging. Rutler’s Only Darts Club Band, and even children’s TV show Sesame Street recorded a song called “With A Little Yelp From My Friends.”Ĭlick to load video Groundbreaking artworkīut it wasn’t only The Beatles’ music that blazed new trails. Pepper has also been parodied by The Rutles, with Sgt. Pepper album cover and satirized the political stance and supposedly phony “hippie” values they thought were at the heart of the late 60s counterculture. We’re Only In It For The Money, released by Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention in 1968, on Verve Records, parodied the Sgt. Some of the albums it inspired were altogether less serious. The idea that you could step outside everyday life and take on different personae on stage and on record was “liberating” said McCartney, and part of a journey that would go on to include David Bowie and the glam rock of KISS, among many others. Pepper also popularized the idea of the musical alter ego. When singer Carla Bley heard the album she “decided to match it” and spent the next four years creating the 1971 triple-album Escalator Over the Hill, an avant-garde jazz LP featuring Linda Ronstadt. It was not only in rock circles that The Beatles triggered change. The Who’s stunningly successful double-album Tommy (1969), and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) are both branches on the Sgt. Genesis, Yes, Rush, and Jethro Tull were among the bands influenced by The Beatles, and their seminal album also played a part in inspiring the so-called “rock opera” craze. Even if that’s not necessarily accurate (drummer Ringo Starr freely admitted that there was no consistent theme to the record, and two superb songs from the very early sessions, “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane,” were issued separately as singles), people believed it was a “concept” album and the term became part of music folklore. Pepper is sometimes hailed as the first concept album. Pepper made “the big difference” in music culture was that previously “people played it a bit safe in popular music and we realized that you didn’t have to.” Inspiring concept albums and rock operas The use of multi-tracking was also groundbreaking, as Martin helped blend Western music with Indian music, jazz with psychedelic rock and pop (throwing in some Victorian music hall for good measure), into a dizzying collage of voice and instrumentation. The idea that you would carry on recording until a record was finished (instead of hiring a studio for a few days) was a revolutionary concept and helped, said producer George Martin, to re-define “the studio as an instrument.” No wonder production costs at Abbey Road Studios reached a record-breaking £25,000. Pepper between November 1966 and April 1967. Whereas The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, had been recorded in about 10 hours in a single day, an estimated 700 hours of work (according to producer Geoff Emerick) went into recording Sgt. The production of the record also set new standards in expertise and innovation. Pepper gave other musicians new ideas and new attitudes to the approach of music. By breaking traditional rules about what a “rock album” should be, Sgt. The Beatles had brought the values of the counterculture into the mainstream. Pepper, my life was never the same again,” said Fripp. Guitarist and producer Robert Fripp said he was inspired to make the groundbreaking prog rock album after listening to John Lennon and the rest of The Beatles on Radio Luxembourg. A year later, King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King paid direct homage. Other albums shaped by The Beatles came thick and fast, including 1968’s SF Sorrow by British rock group The Pretty Things.
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