Happy Anniversary to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . . .
#MikePortnoy: "Sgt. Pepper is not only the landmark and groundbreaking album for the Beatles, itโs the landmark and groundbreaking album for rock and roll. This is the album that changed everything โ no album had ever sounded anything like this. You have 'Within You Without You' which is like Indian music, and then you have 'When Iโm 64' which is almost like old '40s music, and then 'Sgt Pepper (Reprise)' which is hard rock.
"And then beyond the music, the Beatles look completely different, with long hair and mustaches for the first time, they come out with this album cover that nobody had ever seen anything like, it had the lyrics on the back which nobody had ever done. On every level it just took the idea of an album to another level.
"I mean, that was the thing: it felt like an album, that you listened to from beginning to end . . . up until then albums were just collections of songs, but this was the first time that it felt like you were watching a movie from start to finish.
"To me, itโs not only my number one Beatles album, itโs my number one album of all time. It is literally, I think, the greatest album ever made."
#DreamTheater #SonsOfApollo #WineryDogs #HeavyMetal #HardRock #ProgRock @mikeportnoy #OnThisDay #SgtPepper #TheBeatles #GOAT
Source: 2017 Interview with #EddieTrunk, The Volume Channel, SiriusXM
19 May 1967. The Beatles held a press launch at Brian Epsteinโs house at 24 Chapel Street, London, to promote their landmark album Sgt Pepperโs Lonely Hearts Club Band which was due for official UK release on 1 June 1967.
"I didn't grow up on the Beatles. My tastes expanded a bit when I was in college, but the Beatles were always this huge group that I just thought couldn't be all that interesting if they were so popular. However, as I got more into music, and even started making music, I started to hear more and more about how the Beatles had been a huge influence on much of the music I was discovering. I had some research to do . . .
"I bought the albums, read books and watched any documentaries I could find. What an unreal story.
"The thing that really spoke to me was that at the peak of their career โ with anything and everything a band at that time could have possibly wanted โ they made a change: they stopped playing live. The decision allowed them to make music that wouldn't have to be replicated at a concert. They could experiment in the studio in ways no one making popular music had ever really done. They pioneered countless recording techniques that are now standards today . . . even sampling. All of these things had influenced much of the music I loved, and now it made me really look at creating music as an art form.
"In a five-year span the Beatles released Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles (the White Album), Abbey Road, and Let It Be โ arguably the greatest span of consecutive albums put together by anyone. Here was a band who had achieved the ultimate fame and fortune and instead of basking in more adoration, they veered away from millions of screaming girls to do something more challenging and meaningful to them. Of course, they didn't really lose much of the fame and fortune after all, but that's not the point.
"The point was that sometimes it's not what you have, but what you choose to do with what you have that can change the world, and inspire other people to do the same."
--#DangerMouse
#GnarlsBarkley #BrokenBells #TheGreyAlbum #BrianBurton #ProducerOfTheYear #Grammys #GoldenGlobes #HipHop #AltRock #TheBeatles #Innovation #Influence #GOAT
"Nothing hit me as hard musically until the Beatles came on the scene. It was organized music that had quality songwriting, playing, and singing. It was in a completely different league.
"I had the very good fortune of touring with Ringo a few years back. And before I went out on tour with him, I thought Iโd get the Best of The Beatles book, just in case he wanted to play a song on short notice. I bought the book and took it home, and I sat there one evening โ it was about six oโclock โ and I started to play through the book. It got to about eleven oโclock and I realized I was only half way through. I flipped to the back and I could see there was over two hundred songs there. Itโs just an incredible body of work, when you think of the short time they were together.
"I was also very fortunate to see the Beatles, in the very early days, before they ever came to America. And they were just stunning. They were just unbelievable live. They were very tight, very powerful, fantastic harmonies, pitch perfect . . . and they had this property which was almost spiritual: to be able to somehow be better than great. They would push you to a point where you couldnโt stand it emotionally; you didnโt know whether to laugh or cry. Youโve heard the term 'Beatlemania' โ and that is exactly what that is. They could drive an audience beyond the point where they just lost it, really, and started to scream. I saw it with my own eyes, it was a phenomenal thing. That ability, that spiritual power, to drive an audience right over the edge . . . itโs remarkable; you only see it once or twice in a lifetime.
"As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful rock'n'roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference."
--#GregLake
#KingCrimson #ELP #EmersonLakeAndPalmer #Songwriter #ProgRock #LuckyMan #TheBeatles #Influence #GOAT