En el mismo, los Beatles produjeron una simpática y profunda obra conceptual de 10 canciones sutilmente relacionadas entre sí.
Algunas contaban con arreglos completos para orquesta sinfónica; otras utilizaban instrumentación hindú; y su letra se apartaba del 'Yea Yea Yea' de los primeros años del grupo, para explorar temas como el suicidio (‘A Day in the Life’), el abandono de la casa de los padres (‘She's Leaving Home’), la fantasía alucinante (‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’) o el liberador poder de la amistad (‘With a Little Help From My Friends’).
Años después, la reputación del disco se ha mantenido casi intacta: en 2003, por ejemplo, ocupó el primer lugar cuando la revista Rolling Stone publicó un artículo sobre los 500 mejores discos de rock de todos los tiempos.
Resulta claro que, para cuando estaban terminando de grabar el disco a principios de 1967, los Beatles sabían que sus talentos estaban manoseando una joya muy especial y que un disco de esa magnitud pedía a gritos una presentación fuera de lo normal.
Pero el concepto final tardó en llegar.
La idea original era que un grupo de diseñadores amigos de los Beatles, conocidos como the Fool, produjeran el diseño de la portada. Sin embargo, Robert Frazer, un comerciante de arte y dueño de una galería y que a su vez era amigo de Paul McCartney, tuvo la oportunidad de ver ese primer diseño y rápidamente le comentó al bajista que no lo consideraba demasiado bueno y que, peor aún, ya estaría anticuado para cuando el disco saliera a la calle.
Enseguida Frazer se propuso a sí mismo como director artístico de la carátula, algo que fue aceptado por todos los Beatles, y de inmediato reclutó al artista pop Peter Blake para que elaborara un nuevo diseño.
Blake, a su vez, comenzó a trabajar de inmediato con su esposa, Jann Haworth, partiendo de un a idea original de McCartney de que en la portada apareciera la ficticia agrupación Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band (La banda del club de los corazones solitarios del Sargento Pepper) tocando en un parque.
Luego la idea fue evolucionando en nuevas reuniones efectuadas en la casa de Blake, a la que asistían siempre McCartney y, a veces, John Lennon.
En determinado momento se decidió que los Beatles se transformaran en la ficticia banda de Sgt. Pepper, rodeados por sus héroes de la historia y de la cultura popular.
McCartney fue quien sugirió la mayor parte de las figuras, aunque Frazer y Blake también lanzaron sus ideas. Lennon solo propuso a tres: Jesucristo, Adolfo Hitler y Mahatma Gandhi.
Le vetaron a los tres: a Jesucristo, según se dice, porque el disco saldría más o menos al cumplirse el primer aniversario del polémico comentario de Lennon acerca de que los Beatles eran más populares que Él, y se temía que fuera interpretado como una burla.
Blake, entretanto, fue confeccionando las figuras recortadas de tamaño natural de cada una de las más de 70 imágenes.
Finalmente, la tarde del 30 de marzo de 1967, los Beatles se presentaron en el estudio londinense del fotógrafo Michael Cooper, para una sesión que duró tres horas.
¿Cuál era el significado de la carátula, si acaso había alguno?
“Hay que tener en cuenta que para mediados de los sesenta los Beatles estaban en su apogeo y todo el mundo artístico estaba pendiente de lo que hacían”, analiza el arqueólogo, antropólogo y excantante de rock, Osvaldo García Goyco.
“La carátula del disco Revólver era muy artística”, agregó. “Sin embargo combinaba el concepto de dibujos de la cara de los Beatles con un collage de fotos de ellos mismos, por lo cual era una continuidad del patrón comercial establecido anteriormente”.
“De esta manera cuando los Beatles lanzan la carátula de Sgt. Pepper, rompen con el esquema establecido y crean una expectación apropiándose de la gran fama de todos los personajes que estaban representados. El mensaje era muy claro: la fama de los Beatles era tal que ya superaba a todos los personajes que estaban en la carátula: quien la veía conocía a muchos o solo algunos de los personajes, pero todo el mundo sabía quiénes eran los Beatles”.
En fin, el costo total del diseño de la carátula ascendió a 2,868 libras esterlinas (lo que equivaldría a poco más de $60,000 en la actualidad).
Para ese entonces, resultaba ser la carátula más cara de cualquier disco de la historia, habiendo costado unas 100 veces más que una carátula promedio.
Pero valió la pena, ¿no?
Por Jorge L. Pérez / jperez@elnuevodia.com
Fuente: http://www.elnuevodia.com
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The Album:
Who are they?
The recording of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band spanned 129 days, perhaps the most creative 129 days in the history of rock music. Here is a guide to the way the album was made.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The title track of this epochal album, 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' was a fine Paul McCartney song utilizing - in addition to the usual Beatles instrumental line-up - four French horn players (overdubbed on 3 March 1967), various sound effects including those of a band warming-up and audience applause and laughter from the Beyond The Fringe stage recording, and a terrific McCartney lead vocal. The song inspired the concept of the album, not the other way, around, so until this recording commenced on I February 1967 the two previously taped album songs had not shared any deliberate, connecting thread. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on February 1 1967. Album version mixed from take ten. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: Paul. Producer: George Martin. Recording engineer: Geoff Emerick. Second engineer: Richard Lush.
With A Little Help From My Friends
Written by John and Paul expressly for Ringo, this song was one of the final Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band recordings,commenced on 29 March 1967 with the briefly adopted working title 'Bad Finger Boogie'. The song is segued to its LP predecessor by more sound effects, including screaming Beatles fans from the group's Hollywood Bowl concert recordings! The song was completed the next day in a late night session after the Beatles had spent the evening shooting the photographs for the sleeve of the album.'With A Little Help From My Friends' has twice been taken to number one on the British singles chart: by Joe Cocker in 1968 and by Wet ,Wet, Wet in 1988. Clearly then, a special song. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on March 29 1967. Album version mixed from take 11. Writers: John and Paul. Lead vocal: Ringo. Producer: George Martin. Recording engineer: Geoff Emerick. Second engineer: Richard Lush.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Inspired by a painting by his almost four-year-old son Julian, who gave his work of art the same title, 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' swiftly evolved into a kind of Lennon musical vision of Alice In Wonderland. The basic track, overdubs and mixing were all effected at different speeds giving the song an ethereal quality in keeping with the imaginative lyrics. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on March 1 1967. Album version mixed from take eight. Writer: John. Lead vocal: John. Producer: George Martin. Recording engineer: Geoff Emerick. Second engineer: Richard Lush.
Getting Better
A fine Paul McCartney song, with a little lyrical help from John Lennon. Like Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds', the recording includes a tamboura played by George Harrison. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on March 9 1967. Album version mixed from take 15. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: Paul. Producer: George Martin.
Fixing A Hole
The recording of 'Fixing A Hole' took place at two different studios, London Independent Regent Sound and the Beatles' customary EMI venue in Abbey Road. It was the group's first British session for EMI outside of Abbey Road, although this was to prove a more regular practice thereafter. Recording commenced at Regent Sound Studio, Tottenham Court Road, London, on February 21 1967 and later completed at Abbey Road. Album version mixed from take three. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: Paul.
She's Leaving Home
The great ballad on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, again written by Paul. There is no Beatles instrumentation on this recording, just ten outside musicians recruited to play violins, violas, cellos, double-bass and a harp, and apart from Paul's lead vocal the only other Beatle present is John, who joins Paul for occasional backing. The musical score was arranged not by George Martin (who did nonetheless conduct the recording) but by Mike Leander, five years before his memorable teaming with Gary Glitter. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on March 17 1967. Album version mixed from take nine. Writer: Paul with John. Lead vocal: Paul. Producer: George Martin.
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!
A fine Lennon song which benefits greatly from a superbly atmospheric studio recording and the simple innovation of chopped up and randomly reassembled recording tape. The lyric is derived almost entirely from an antique poster advertising a circus which took place at the Town Meadows, Rochdale, on Tuesday 14 February 1843. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on February 17 1967. Album version mixed from take nine. Writer: John. Lead vocal: John. Producer: George Martin.
Within You Without You
A moving, philosophical song written by George Harrison, his only composition on the album. The second of his two Indian music Beatles recordings, it features session musicians recruited from the Asian Music Circle in north London, more Indian instruments played by George and the Beatles' assistant Neil Aspinall, eight violins, three cellos, a little acoustic guitar and a great Harrison vocal. No other Beatles participated and 'Within You Without You' was the album's last song to be completed. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on March 22 1967. Album version mixed from take two. Writer: George. Lead vocal: George. Producer: George Martin.
When I'm Sixty-Four
The first album track to be completed, 'When I'm Sixty Four' was wrapped up ten days before the end of 1966. The song had been written by Paul some years previously - the Beatles had performed it acoustically in the Cavern Club when their amplifiers broke down; now newly revived and suitably polished, recordings began on 6 December 1966, while 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was on the boil and before 'Penny Lane' was begun. (See Magical Mystery Tour.) Three clarinetists were brought in on 21 December to augment the Beatles' own instrumentation, then - like 'Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds' - the song was speeded up quite considerably during remixing. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on December 6 1966. Album version mixed from take four. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: Paul. Producer: George Martin.
Lovely Rita
Paul's ode to London's female traffic wardens, first recorded on 23 February 1967 and completed with an overdub of honky-tonk piano played by George Martin on 21 March. Considerable tape echo in their headphones encouraged the Beatles to add moans, sighs, screams and the sound of a comb and toilet paper at the end of the song. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on February 23 1967. Album version mixed from take 11. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: Paul. Producer: George Martin.
Good Morning Good Morning
A John Lennon song initially inspired by a television commercial for cornflakes which then drifts into an everyday story about everyday, complete with a reference to the British TV comedy show Meet The Wife. The song includes a brass overdub by six musicians from Sounds Inc, rock music's very own big band, managed by Brian Epstein, and it ends with a succession of carefully compiled animal sound effects from the EMI collection, added to the song, to Lennon's specification, in an order whereby each successive animal is capable of frightening or devouring its predecessor. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on February 8 1967. Album version mixed from take 11. Writer: John. Lead vocal: John. Producer: George Martin.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
The quickest and technically simplest song on the album, this reprised and abbreviated remake of Paul's album title track was recorded from start to finish in just one session on Sunday I April 1967, with all four Beatles sharing the lead vocal. Two days later, Paul flew out to the USA leaving only the completion of George's 'Within You Without You' and the final mixing to be done. Recording commenced in studio one at Abbey Road on April 1 1967. Album version mixed from take nine. Writer: Paul. Lead vocal: John, Paul and George. Producer: George Martin.
A Day In The Life
A momentous recording in every way, melding riveting Lennon lyrics and a contrasting yet perfectly applicable verse penned by Paul McCartney to two superb and effective orchestral buildups and a seemingly everlasting coda - the long, long crashing piano and harmonium chord which slowly evaporates into silence and the end of the album. The recording began as 'In The Life Of. . . 'on 19 January, just two days after the appearance of an item in the Daily Mail newspaper which inspired part of John's lyric. The massive orchestral crescendos were recorded by 40 musicians on 10 February, conducted by Paul McCartney, and they were taped four times over, thus sounding like 160 musicians. The piano/harmonium coda was recorded on 22 February after the Beatles' initial idea of humming the final chord had proved ineffective. Recording commenced in studio two at Abbey Road on January 19 1967. Album version mixed from takes six and seven. Writers: John, with Paul. Lead vocal: John, with Paul. Producer: George Martin.
- Sri Yukteswar Gigi (guru)
- Aleister Crowley (dabbler in sex, drugs and magic)
- Mae West (actress)
- Lenny Bruce (comic)
- Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)
- W.C. Fields (comic)
- Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist)
- Edgar Allen Poe (writer)
- Fred Astaire (actor)
- Richard Merkin (artist)
- The Varga Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas)
- *Leo Gorcey (Painted out because he requested a fee)
- Huntz Hall (actor one of the Bowery Boys)
- Simon Rodia (creator of Watts Towers)
- Bob Dylan (musician)
- Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator)
- Sir Robert Peel (politician)
- Aldous Huxley (writer)
- Dylan Thomas (poet)
- Terry Southern (writer)
- Dion (di Mucci)(singer)
- Tony Curtiss (actor)
- Wallace Berman (artist)
- Tommy Handley (comic)
- Marilyn Monroe (actress)
- William Burroughs (writer)
- Sri Mahavatara Babaji(guru)
- Stan Laurel (comic)
- Richard Lindner (artist)
- Oliver Hardy (comic)
- Karl Marx (philosopher/socialist)
- H.G. Wells (writer)
- Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (guru)
- Anonymous (wax hairdresser's dummy)
- Stuart Sutcliffe (artist/former Beatle)
- Anonymous (wax hairdresser's dummy)
- Max Miller (comic)
- The Pretty Girl (by artist George Petty)
- Marlon Brando (actor)
- Tom Mix (actor)
- Oscar Wilde (writer)
- Tyrone Power (actor)
- Larry Bell (artist)
- Dr. David Livingston (missionary/explorer)
- Johnny Weissmuller (swimmer/actor)
- Stephen Crane (writer)
- Issy Bonn (comic)
- George Bernard Shaw (writer)
- H.C. Westermann (sculptor)
- Albert Stubbins (soccer player)
- Sri lahiri Mahasaya (guru)
- Lewis Carrol (writer)
- T.E. Lawrence (soldier, aka Lawrence of Arabia)
- Sonny Liston (boxer)
- The Pretty Girl (by artist George Petty)
- Wax model of George Harrison
- Wax model of John Lennon
- Shirley Temple (child actress)
- Wax model of Ringo Starr
- Wax model of Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein (physicist)
- John Lennnon, holding a french horn
- Ringo Starr, holding a trumpet
- Paul McCartney, holding a cor anglais
- George Harrison, holding a flute
- Bobby Breen (singer)
- Marlene Dietrich (actress)
- Mohandas Ghandi (painted out at the request of EMI)
- Legionaire from the order of the Buffalos
- Diana Dors (actress)
- Shirley Temple (child actress)
- Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth
- Cloth figure of Shirley Temple by Haworth
- Mexican candlestick
- Television set
- Stone figure of girl
- Stone figure
- Statue from John Lennon's house
- Trophy
- Four-armed Indian Doll
- Drum skin, designed by Joe Ephgrave
- Hookah (water tobacco-pipe)
- Velvet snake
- Japanese stone figure
- Stone figure of Snow White
- Garden gnome
- Tuba
Source: http://math.mercyhurst.edu
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