The New York Times did not like Sgt. Pepper

Making Pepper 

Recently I was listening to "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles, which appeared on their Revolver album in 1966 and I thought: "what must the critics have made of this? It must have seemed so alien to anything they'd ever heard under the label "rock and roll." 

I've written about Eleanor Rigby on this blog before, about what an amazing accomplishment the song is, especially considering it was written by Paul McCartney when he was 24 years old.

So I decided to do some Googling and in a minute I discovered that the New York Times was none too impressed by the Beatles' next album, "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" when it was first released:

Like an over-attended child “Sergeant Pepper” is spoiled. It reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a 91-piece orchestra. On at least one cut, the Beatles are not heard at all instrumentally. Sometimes this elaborate musical propwork succeeds in projecting mood. The “Sergeant Pepper” theme is brassy and vaudevillian. “She’s Leaving Home,” a melodramatic domestic saga, flows on a cloud of heavenly strings. And, in what is becoming a Beatle tradition, George Harrison unveils his latest excursion into curry and karma, to the saucy accompaniment of three tambouras, a dilruba, a tabla, a sitar, a table harp, three cellos and eight violins.

Actually the author thought "Within You Without You" was "among the strongest cuts" which I have to disagree with. It is the first song on side two, on the olde thyme vinyl album and after I heard it a few times - I listened to Sgt. Pepper a lot after I first bought it - I used to put the record's needle down at the end of the track and start side two right off with "When I'm Sixty-Four."

I do like a few George songs, but this is not one of them.

I have recently been listening to the audio book "Revolver - how the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock and Roll" and the author pointed out that a common theme in George songs is disapproval. And after quickly making a mental inventory of George songs, I concluded: "so true!" 

His negativity was a running theme in the Let it Be sessions, which is why I called him a buzzkill.

And sure enough Within You Without You expresses disapproval. The lyrics include:

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?

Because if you are "one of them" then George disapproves.

Even my favorite George song, the under-appreciated "It's All Too Much" (this guy gets it) has a title that is basically a complaint. Although fortunately the rest of the lyrics are more hippie-trippy than disapproving and then there are the immortal lines:

Set me on a silver sun, for I know that I'm free

Show me that I'm everywhere, and get me home for tea

I will have more to say about the Revolver book soon.

The New York Times review doesn't even mention some of the songs on Pepper: Lovely Rita, Good Morning, With a Little Help, Getting Better and Fixing a Hole are ignored. And "She's Leaving Home" is compared, unfavorably, to Eleanor Rigby. 

But the reviewer loves "A Day in the Life":

With one important exception, “Sergeant Pepper” is precious but devoid of gems. “A Day in the Life” is such a radical departure from the spirit of the album that it almost deserves its peninsular position (following the reprise of the “Sergeant Pepper” theme, it comes almost as an afterthought). It has nothing to do with posturing or put-on. It is a deadly earnest excursion in emotive music with a chilling lyric. Its orchestration is dissonant but sparse, and its mood is not whimsical nostalgia but irony.

With it, the Beatles have produced a glimpse of modern city life that is terrifying. It stands as one of the most important Lennon-McCartney compositions, and it is a historic Pop event.

“A Day in the Life” starts in a description of suicide. With the same conciseness displayed in “Eleanor Rigby,” the protagonist begins: “I read the news today, oh boy.”

There's Eleanor Rigby again. I'll be talking about the critics' response to that song next.

In the meantime - it's all too much!