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Rating: Talking about the Beatles is never simple because it involves a complex phenomenon with many facets, determined by the intersection of countless factors: experiments, a mix of different musical genres, and bold experimentation in a game of centrifugal forces in a thousand different directions. And an overview of the albums they released gives us clear evidence of this: from classics of unreachable and eternal beauty to simpler, straightforward rock 'n roll, with influences from blues, folk, musical avant-gardes, and Indian music. In short, a bit of everything.
And in some cases, perhaps the Beatles take it too far. They exaggerate. Too eccentric, too alternative, too ostentatiously peculiar. That mix of varied influences, which is one of the most appreciable features of their style, thus transforms into a shapeless mess, a jumble of tests and oddities, a pseudo-experimental musical concoction covered by a nauseating layer of psychedelia and pseudo-poeticity. And "Stg. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" openly shows it.
It has been defined as the most important rock album ever, a milestone in the musical history of recent decades. Right from the start, it was hailed as a masterpiece, a definitive consecration, the absolute peak. In my opinion, the album has the merit of anticipating and announcing, albeit still in a magmatic state, trends and perspectives that would be widely developed in future years, providing a solid base and an essential point of reference for a large part of recent music, but it is of very little value when considered as a complete work, on its own. It is a disjointed and not at all compact album, pathetically pervaded by an exaggerated search for the exotic and the unusual, stuffed with lyrics without meaning or purpose. Modest and in some ways unlistenable songs follow one another: "Lovely Rita" with its annoyingly playful rhythm and its unremarkable melody, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" with its chorus which I challenge anyone to find more childish, superficial, and obvious, "Strawberry Fields Forever" with its heavy and pompous instrumentation. Not to mention the other tracks, merely fillers lacking any interesting point. Only "A Day in the Life," at times truly splendid, and "Within You Without You," pure psychedelia and exoticism gifted to us by good old George Harrison, are worth saving.
Many may disagree with my judgment, but perhaps it's better to start resizing the Beatles' experience, to frame it within its real and effective artistic value. We must not forget that the Beatles were a collective craze in the '60s, profoundly influencing the customs, fashion, art, and culture of the time. Therefore, it is advisable to ask whether their role as forerunners, prophets, and reservoirs from which to draw freely is due to their extraordinary success in every field rather than to their true merit in the musical sphere.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (03:30)
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Aaaaaah
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds...
05 Fixing a Hole (02:39)
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
I'm filling the cracks that ran though the door
and kept my mind from wandering
where it will go
And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
See the people standing there
who disagree and never win
and wonder why they don't get in my door
I'm painting the room in a colorful way,
and when my mind is wandering
there I will go
And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
they worry me and never ask me
why they don't get past my door
I'm taking my time for a number of things
that weren't important yesterday
and I still go
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
where it will go
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
08 Within You Without You (05:07)
We were talking
about the space between us all
and people who hide themselves
behind a wall of illusion
never glimpse the truth
then it's far too late
when they pass away
We were talking
about the love we all could share
When we find it
to try our best to hold it there
with our love, with our love
we could save the world
if they only knew
Try to realize it's all within yourself
no one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small
and life flows on within you and without you
We were talking
about the love that's gone so cold
and the people who gain the world
and lose their soul
They don't know, they can't see
Are you one of them
When you've seen beyond yourself
then you may find
peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come
when you see we're all one
and life flows on within you and without you
10 Lovely Rita (02:44)
Lovely Rita meter maid
Lovely Rita meter maid
Lovely Rita meter maid
nothing can come between us
When it gets dark I tow your heart away
Standing by a parking meter
when I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book
In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man
Lovely Rita meter maid
may I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me
Rita!
Took her out and tried to win her
had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again
Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home and nearly made it
Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two
Oh! Lovely Rita meter maid
where would I be without you
give us a wink and make me think of you
Lovely meter maid
Rita meter maid
oh, Lovely Rita meter, meter maid
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Other reviews
By Aerith
The most beautiful track on the album is the closing one: A Day In The Life is perhaps one of the most beautiful and modern songs by the Beatles.
She’s Leaving Home still manages to move me, blending perfectly in the myriad of bright lights and colors of the album.
By waties
"’A Day In The Life’ is the masterpiece above another 4-5 masterpieces, I seriously wouldn’t know how to define it."
"It’s like going to the theater and seeing 4 strangely dressed guys doing strange things singing natural, human music."
By Sanjuro
The whole class watches him squirm like a Houdini of the urban underclass, the new feminist girls then... kick the male chauvinist bear and spit rains down everywhere.
Davide X instead of lady laxatives could have found with unchanged results... a copy of the already much-mentioned Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
By vellutogrigio
Although inferior to contemporary "hard" rock songs by The Who, Rolling Stones or Kinks, it perhaps has the merit of introducing this kind of music to less attentive listeners.
A masterpiece that seems to have no weak points... you won’t hear it played in any dance entertainment for sixty-year-old professionals. Chapeau.
By enbar77
"Sgt. Pepper’s should be protected by an impenetrable case to avoid attacks from any deterrent agent of natural or artificial origin."
"Anyone who loves rock music and beyond MUST own ‘Sgt. Pepper’s.’"
