Sgt. Pepper is The Beatles... who knew?

50 years ago, in June 1967, the Beatles released a 'concept album' - before that term was ever used - but that's what it was.  

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a way of distancing themselves from Beatlemania. This advert, on the front page of the NME, suggests EMI were worried they might have gone too far.

As history shows, Sgt. Pepper was Paul McCartney's idea that the Beatles present themselves as some kind of vaudeville act, as a means of releasing new material that would reflect a broader range of their songwriting skills.

The first release of this new era was the double A-side single of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, which was previewed on TV's Juke Box Jury in February 1967.

I can remember seeing the show and, on first listen, being rather baffled by Strawberry Fields Forever. I was only a youngster and, like many people I'm sure, assumed The Beatles would carry on making records we could all hum the tune to.

Strawberry Fields really was unlike anything they - or anyone - had done before, inspired, fairly obviously, by their discovery of LSD. Fans of the Beatles' simple pop tunes would have been writing letters to the editor that very evening - "Beatles go mad!"; "Less of this druggy nonsense lads!"

I remember they showed the Penny Lane promo film but I have no recollection of the one for Strawberry Fields. Maybe they didn't show it or maybe it was just too much for a young boy to process. The surreal promo The Beatles made to accompany it (see below) shows them all clearly off their heads. It's fair to say that people sitting in their living rooms at tea-time on a Saturday evening were not ready for this.

I don't remember whether it was voted a Hit or a Miss by the celebrity jury. You could certainly understand if the panel of judges (never the hippest cats) were unsure what to make of it.

The Beatles had anticipated a hostile reception from many of their fans. While Sgt. Pepper turned out to be massively influential to other musicians and artists, as an extension of the art revolution of the 1960s, traditionalists hated it.

As time went on and people came to realise the Beatles had made a radical and historically influential musical shift, the initial 'shock of the new' created by Strawberry Fields Forever wore off. Nowadays, it is hard for people to appreciate just how pivotal a cultural event this moment was.

Penny Lane was a different matter of course, being a much more traditional song with a strong melody and a jaunty piano-led rhythm. Classic Paul.

Recording sessions for the album concluded in April 1967 and release was planned for June. Anticipation was intense for any new Beatles album, particularly since they had stopped playing live in 1966. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was unveiled at a media launch hosted by their manager Brian Epstein at his London flat. It hit record stores on 1 June. 

It was the Summer of Love, peace, hippies and LSD - so not surprisingly, when the band were attending the cover shoot for the album, two of them, John and George, were literally flying.

The Beatles at the Sgt. Pepper launch party

Was anybody really fooled by this masquerade of The Beatles pretending to be someone else?

Well, to judge from EMI's advertising, they must have been worried that people were confused about the band's identity. Otherwise they wouldn't have felt the need to remind people who was behind the album.

"Remember - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is The Beatles"

Oh thanks, I was wondering who it was...

The initial shock, when the most famous band in the world transformed from lovable moptops to psychedelic freaks, has been lost sight of over the intervening years.

That's why, I think, Sgt. Pepper is no longer considered by some as The Beatles' masterpiece. People have forgotten what a dramatic effect it had on popular culture, not just music. 

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters said, "Sgt. Pepper freed a whole generation of young English men and women to write songs about real things."

My vintage 1967 mono copy of Sgt. Pepper, with insert cut-outs and inner sleeve

And consider this: When Sgt Pepper was released on 1st June 1967 (their 8th album) Paul McCartney and George Harrison were still only 24 years old.

For the back story to the making of Sgt Pepper, you could do worse than visit this page:
http://www.thebeatles.com/album/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band

And of course, this week sees release of the 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. We hope you will enjoy the show...

Elsewhere on this blog:

LIFE magazine reports on 'The New Far-out Beatles', 1967

The Beatles escape the madness of the road to create Revolver

At Home With the Lennons, 1967

A Night With John Lennon - The Fab Faux at Radio City Music Hall

Crossing the Bridge of Sighs - Robin Trower live

The rock trio format produced many great bands in the 1960s and 70s, from Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, through Taste, the early Thin Lizzy with Eric Bell and - one of my personal favourites - the Robin Trower Band.

Trower had been a member of Procol Harum, demonstrating a versatile blues guitar style on albums including Home and Broken Barricades.  

His first post-Procol band, Jude evolved into the three-piece Robin Trower Band. Their first album Twice Removed from Yesterday established the blues rock blueprint they refined through the 1970s.

Early days of the RT band, with Reg Isidore (right)

Trower's guitar playing drew instant attention because of the similarities in tone and sheer power with Jimi Hendrix. The early comparisons with Jimi were valid to some extent.

The RT sound did borrow from the master. Perhaps the most obvious early example was the Procol Harum track Song For A Dreamer, which carries much of the same feel and atmosphere as Jimi's songs like 1983... and Are You Experienced.

But Trower was soon able to demonstrate that he had his own individual style. He was genuinely trying to forge a new direction for the rock trio and, as Charles Shaar Murray’s review of their second album Bridge of Sighs indicates, Trower was able to win people over with the sheer force of his playing.

CSM's review states: "Trower and his sidemen seem to give the evoking of an atmosphere very high priority, which means that unless you’re prepared to sit down and listen hard, you’re going to miss the point completely. By pursuing a direction totally unlike that of any other three-piece guitar-led band, Trower may well be cutting himself off from a large number of potential listeners who are only interested in guitar pyrotechnics of the kind he is quite capable of playing if he so desires. However, what he is doing here is ultimately far more valuable."

The NME review of  'Bridge of Sighs' from 1973

"It's just a bit of a yawn," said Robin at the time, with regard to the Hendrix comparisons: "I guess it gives people something to talk about. People like to put you in a pigeonhole if they're uncertain. Maybe it makes it easier for people to accept what I'm doing, the Hendrix thing gives them something to hold on to."

Of course, the Trower sound had another key ingredient – the smooth soulful voice of bass player Jimmy Dewar who, along with drummer Reg Isidore provided the dynamic backing on the first two RT band albums. Dewar was undoubtedly one of the great British vocalists and his contribution was crucial in making their albums and live shows so memorable.  

This video clip shows what a silky smooth voice can really add in a rock context. It's an early (pre-album) version of Day Of The Eagle (from Bridge of Sighs) with different lyrics.

Isidore was muscular and frenetic - a key part of the band in the early days. But he was maybe a little too loose for Trower’s liking. Robin said at the time of the third album For Earth Below, when Bill Lordan joined, “'Reggie just started to drift a bit. I run a very tight ship”. 

And so in came the tall blond American, Lordon, who had previously played with Sly Stone and had actually jammed with Hendrix in 1969 (photo at left).

Trower said they all knew when they got together that he was the right choice: “It was classic! He knew he was right for us before we did. He'd been into us from the time the first album came out and he's been trying to get hold of me ever since, cause he knew he was The Drummer. He phoned me up and said, 'I'm the guy you want. Don't listen to anybody else.' And he was right. He was absolutely perfect.”

My vantage point for Robin Trower at the Reading Festival in August 1975

The RTB were one of the best live bands I ever saw. And that run of albums, from Twice Removed… through Bridge of Sighs, For Earth Below and Long Misty Days were constants on my record deck at the time. I saw them live a few times, notably at the Reading Festival in 1975, when they provided the high point of the Sunday afternoon. 

I have this memory of the crowd getting in such a frenzy – it was a sunny afternoon at the end of what had been a typically sodden weekend (it poured down during the headline set by Yes on the Saturday night) and a kind of delirium came over the crowd during Trower’s set. At the climax of one of the songs, a great wave of cheering could be heard as a good-natured rubbish fight broke out across a no-man’s land puddle of mud in the middle of the crowd. I just remember this cloud of paper and empty bottles suspended in the air, the crowd seemingly spurred on by the excitement of the music.

The BBC recorded them for an In Concert show in early 1975, but then ruined the recording by releasing it on CD in the mid 1990s with fake crowd noise. Thankfully, the original tapes survived (see link above and more links below). I also have the original, recorded off the radio. It’s an old-fashioned ‘wireless’ recording onto a Phillips portable cassette recorder, complete with Pete Drummond’s between song announcements. I've never heard a better version of Daydream. Trower and Dewer are both incredible. It’s a must for any fans of the classic-era Trower band. The band are at the top of their game, Trower's tone and fluid soloing have rarely been captured so consistently in one show.

Apart from the version of Daydream, highlights for me are the new song 'Gonna Be More Suspicious' which really jumps out of the speakers on the BBC version. Lady Love crackles with intensity. Too Rolling Stoned was an instant classic. Here's my recording (below) of Daydream, and I have pasted links to a re-broadcast of the entire show at the foot of this post:

I saw the RTB again at the Hammersmith Odeon on the tour promoting Long Misty Days. Trower provided a jaw-dropping volume on the title track with its wall-of-guitar intro. 

Although he has continued to make records to this day, his reputation rests on that golden period in the mid 70s and the trio format with Jimmy Dewar on vocals. 

Dewar sadly died in 2002. Robin Trower is still out playing the classic material. In 2005, when I saw him playing at the Mean Fiddler in London, the volume knob was still way up at 11. He began the set with a terrific rendition of Too Rolling Stoned. What amazes me about this clip is that my camera was able to process the sound so well. It really was very loud.  

BBC In Concert Program, January 1975
Day of The Eagle, Bridge of Sighs, Gonna Be More Suspicious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnGbbd_nU-Q&list=PL-R4Z6A4NVglr89GKkAf-Smwb-SStIlMZ

Fine Day, Lady Love, Daydream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlQN66vOQo&list=PL-R4Z6A4NVglr89GKkAf-Smwb-SStIlMZ

Too Rolling Stoned, I Can't Wait Much Longer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPg6b8im6sw&list=PL22xMk52Uk_QUi0CbEMmbUPTJzHJSSboT

Alethea, Little Bit of Sympathy, Rock Me Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVtICWvcXE&list=PLA4AD3535D7E692A6

Robin Trower Band - Reading Festival, 23rd August 1975
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAoVe9CvCHM 

Also on this blog:

Memories of the Reading Festival, 1975

Jimi Hendrix - The Last Interview, September 1970 

Steely Dan interviewed in 1975, 1976 and 1977

Here are three interviews with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker from the mid 70s, when they were producing some of their most excellent music. They talk songwriting technique and what they look for in the musicians for each session. And true to form, they never take themselves too seriously. 

Click on the images to read the original articles

Starting in April 1975, at the time of the album Katy Lied, the first interview appeared in the NME and was based on a meeting in California with the writer Richard Cromelin.  Having moved to the west coast from New York, the two are clearly still adjusting to the change in lifestyle.

"It's about 10 or 15 years behind," says Fagen of suburban San Fernando Valley. "We're going to have to relocate. Our heart is still on Second Avenue, and that's what we like to write about. Our lyrics are basically experience combined with a little fantasy."

Becker explained how he and Fagen like to make each song original: "We'll set up a framework, no matter how bizarre it may be. I'll come up with an idea and he'll come up with a scenario and we'll decide what we think the song is about, and which part of the exposition of what is happening is in each verse and get a title together. And no matter how strange the idea may be, we just go along and hope that we can finish the song."

They met at Bard College, where Fagen was "the dean of the pick-up band syndrome". Turns out there were several bands at the college and Fagen was the leader of all of them. Mostly, this appears to have been because the other musicians were not at his level. "We were writing tunes where some of the chords were not triads, and you couldn't use your capo that much. It was hard to get what we wanted in those days, so it didn't come out in utter magnificence," Becker said of the duo's early collaborations.

They tell the story about how the various band members were recruited, especially Denny Dias, who at this point, in 1975, was the only remaining member from the original band. Apparently Fagen and Becker hooked up with Dias's band and "we used to chastise and abuse them," Fagen recalls. "They all quit. So there was Denny and we'd ruined his band. He had no place else to go."

They also explain how, after some initial success with Reelin' In The Years from the first album, 'Can't Buy A Thrill', the threat of obscurity loomed dangerously near. The next single, Show Biz Kids, from the second album 'Countdown To Ecstasy' was, in Fagen's words "a brutal failure". They followed it with an edited version of My Old School, which saw even less action.

The resounding commercial success of the third album 'Pretzel Logic' and the single Rikki Don't Lose That Number, was consolidated in 1974 by a world tour. But Fagen still felt that "We've more or less abandoned hope of being one of the big, important rock and roll groups. Our music is somehow a little too cheesy at times. and turns off the rock intelligentsia for the most part. And at other times it's too bizarre to be appreciated by anybody."

Becker and Fagen also talk about the sound problems during the recording of Katy Lied, that forced them to remix the album and delayed its release. They also address the question of the departure of former member Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter. Skunk, they claim, was only missing from the last album because he was on the road with The Doobie Brothers.

But it's clear they were not content to rely on the same musicians for each album, and wanted to push their session players to stretch themselves. Becker talks about how Rick Derringer was initially freaked out by what was expected of him on the track Chain Lightning. "Then he realised he needed to do something a little different from what he normally does."

click on the image to read the article

June 1976

The NME's Steve Clarke encountered Becker (then still only 26) and Fagen (28) a month after the release of 'The Royal Scam', announcing that the band was ready to tour again, including dates for Britain in 1977 (when in fact, they didn't come to the UK again until 1993!). Becker even talks about who will be in the touring band. Denny Dias is the only one who has the stamina to stay the course with The Dan, he says. "He's willing to indulge us a little more than our old compatriots," said Becker.

Both deny being difficult to work with and lead the interviewer a merry dance when he asks what some of the songs are about. Becker denies Kid Charlemagne is about a dealer, more "a man of science. Someone who makes consciousness expanding substances of the most dramatic sensational type no longer in vogue."

(Indeed, it's about Augustus Owsley Stanley, the famous king of the LSD manufacturers). 

At one point, Donald Fagen states that the lyrics on their recent albums have a bit more maturity. When Clarke suggests Steely Dan songs are intentionally obscure, Becker counters that "it seems to us that people are intentionally dumb." Fagen adds that, "You can only do so much with a song, and because we are probably more literary, we use more literary techniques."

Paul Griffin plays the piano solo on Sign In Stranger and also receives a writer's credit on The Fez. This came about because, according to Fagen, "He wrote the main theme". Becker disputes this, saying "I wouldn't call it the main theme. He wrote a melody that is featured. At least he says he wrote it."  They gave him a credit "in case later on some sort of scandal developed".

'Don't Take Me Alive' is very much a song of these troubled times, writes Clarke about a song that still resonates with the times today. Fagen says of the song: "In Los Angeles and through the world in general, terrorism is a way of life for a lot of people."

They feel little affinity with anything else that is going on in rock in '76, though both express a fondness for Single Bed by Fox. They also enjoy The Eagles, Phoebe Snow and Van Morrison. They say comparisons between Steely Dan and 10cc are ridiculous: "Last time here we were being compared to The Doobie Brothers."

Talking of which, former Dan back-up singer Mike McDonald, now livening up the Doobies, told Clarke that Becker and Fagen wished they were Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. "That's essentially true," says Walter. 

 

 Click on the images to read the articles.

December 1977

Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe writes about the second coming of Steely Dan, following the release of the stylistically different but nonetheless peerless masterwork 'Aja'.

Read the full interview here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-second-coming-of-steely-dan-19771229

 

Here's an interesting interview with producer Gary Katz, about how they got Steve Gadd in to record Aja https://ultimateclassicrock.com/gary-katz-steely-dan-aja-interview-2022/?fbclid=IwAR2lW4PbW0n72qu0SjboGkM4nM40DrQ5hNNcsG8wmUC0brIjnljhe7F5P28

My most-viewed Youtube clips: 2. Tommy Bolin live 1976 - 'Delightful'

I put this together using whatever photos I could find of Tommy Bolin and the band, which included drummer Narada Michael Walden, fresh from his time with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Michael had just released his first solo album, The Garden of Love Light, which features Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana. Tommy's band took the track 'Delightful' and played a beautiful version of it here, catching the groove just right. There's a later show on the CD this was taken from (First Time Live) which is much quicker, and loses the groove as a result.

So here we have just about the best example of Tommy Bolin's short-lived band. For their first gig on April 28, 1976 (Deep Purple had split up in March) the TB Band played at La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, San Diego. 

The band members are Norma Jean Bell (sax), Reggie McBride (bass), Mark Stein (keys) and Narada Michael Walden (drums). The song 'Delightful' is from the first solo album by NMW, The Garden of Love Light.

And it's obviously captivated folks, to judge from the comments on the YT page. Over 200,000 views last time I checked. Enjoy.

See also on this blog:
Smoke On The Water - Montreux 50 Years On 

1970 - Deep Purple get heavy with 'In Rock'

Expressions to avoid during a recording session

When Steely Dan reformed in the 1990s, their website was an extension of Fagen and Becker's sardonic humour. This list appeared on the site, together with things like '36 Rules for Bands'. Anyone who has been in a band, or in a studio, should get a laugh or two out of this.

EXPRESSIONS TO AVOID DURING A RECORDING SESSION

1.     Ready, Freddie (pronounced red-eye fred-eye)

2.     Bingo, gringo

3.     Uno, Bruno

4.     The phones sound O.K. but I need more of myself

5.     We won't need a click

6.     I like what you're trying to do but not the way you're doing it

7.     An excellent first attempt

8.     Was that the sound you had on the demo?

9.     Make the click louder

10.   That was a pretty good take for this time of night

11.   If you want the tempo any brighter than that, we better wait for a sunny day

12.   No dynamics? We're playing as loud as we can

13.   I think that's a pretty good sounding take for what were getting paid..

14.   That was great, let's do it again

15.   Is that about as tight as you boys want to get it?

16.   Is it possible the click is speeding up?

17.   I'm at the point where I'm making dumb mistakes - before I was making much smarter  mistakes

18.   So many drummers, so little time

19.  Why don't we do the double first and the lead will be easier to get once we've got the double

20.   I never had this problem when I was being produced by Lenny and Russ

21.   We got some things, we need some things

22.   Fabulous

23.   Punch in at the section

24.   You can't make ice cream out of shit

25.   You can't polish a turd

26.   Just let your spirit soar

27.   My spirit's already sore from the last thirty takes...

28.   Close

29.   Less is more

30.   Less is Paul

31.   Less is Brown

32.   Less is less

33.   That's the way I've been playing it all along

34.   I just wish I could get a whole band that sounds as good as I do

35.   This will be a great opportunity for me to show off my chop

36.   Let's hear the bass, if you can call it that

37.   Does your amp have an underdrive channel?

38.   You can erase that one, I remember exactly what I played

39.   We'll catch that in the mix

40.   You guys can fix that in Soundtools, right?

41.   I brought my kid along, he's never been in a recording studio before

42.   My girlfriend sings great background vocals

43.   I know a great drummer

44.   You guys want to try some heroin?

45.   Your girlfriend's been in the bathroom a long time

46.   Please, man, stay away from my faxes, okay?

47.   I'm not going to be any more dishonest with you than I am with Donald

48.   I'd like a little more of a live feeling on this tune.

49.   I also play eleven other instruments

50.   Sorry I'm late, I just got through with my blood test (or CAT scan)

51.   That vocal's not a keeper is it?

52.   That's how I wrote it but that's not how I like to play it

53.   I can't think of any improvements that won't make it worse

54.   That ground loop is a trademark thing for me

55.   That's the new old comp from today - I want to hear the new old comp from last Tuesday

56.   That reverb would sound a lot better if it were coming out of a piece of MY GEAR

57.   How bout we get rid of these 3M machines and get ourselves a frozen yogurt machine

58.   Skunk called, he's on his way down

59.   The frozen yogurt machine is broken

60.   When was the last time we worked together? Tonight.

While we're on the subject of behaviour in the studio, here's a glimpse of what it was like to be in the studio back in the day (early 1980s) with legendary producer Quincy Jones. My reaction in the comments section (from 2009 apparently) is: have they been at the nose candy or what?

"I Love Quincy" documentary from 1982, featuring Patti Austin 

recording the song "It's Gonna Be Special"