Beatles St.

Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (1966)

Facts/Background
The Beatles had massive fame and commercial success from the early 1960s
proved by their 15 no 1 albums. Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
was one of the most important ever to be produced but it comes from a time
when the publics obsession with the Beatles was beginning to fade. The band
had stopped touring in August 1996 to become studio-based. Sergeant
Pepper was recorded over a 129-day period beginning in December 1966 at
the Abbey Road Studios in London. It was a concept album meaning all songs
are linked by unifying theme in this case a fictitious band who sing about
themes of loneliness/isolation.


John Lennon Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Paul McCartney Vocals, Bass Guitar
Ringo Starr Drums
George Harrison Lead Guitar

Music
Harmony and Tonality:
-Beatles used both classical and innovative harmony in their songs.
- Circle of fifths used in before the coda in Day in the life.
- Unusual harmony in Being for the Benefit Cm, G+. Bb, Dm augmented chord
gives chromatic colour. But the melody is descending sequence and repetitive to
contour this unusual chord progression.
- Fixing a Hole uses augmented, 6
th
, 7
th
and 9
th
chords largely because of the use
of the blues scale on F in the melody line. This gives the song a heavily blues feel
with prominent Ab and Ebs except on the lines it really doesnt matter,
perhaps showing word painting suggesting that previous melodic trends also no
longer matter.
In fact, the flattening of 6
th
/7ths is a linking harmonic theme on album also
seen in LSD resulting in a chromatic bassline and also in chorus of Help from my
Friends.
- Unusual modulations from Amaj (verse), to Bbmaj (link) and then G
major(chorus) in LSD, although the chorus chords are I, IV and V which is
influenced by traditional chord progressions.
- Unusual time sigs of , 4/4 and 5/4 in Good Morning shows
innovation/invention.

Instrumentation - Album famous for its various instrumentals and influences.
- When Im 64 uses clarinet trio (two Bb clarinets and bass clarinet) to
give music hall effect, also very unusual for pop. McCartneys father was
British music hall performer.
- Strings in Shes leaving home show classical orchestra influence. Vocals
are also falsetto by Lennon in features a rare duet between Lennon and
McCartney. All unusual.
- Extensive use of organs in Being for Benefit shows blues influence and
also helps create the overall effect of a fairground to support the lyrics.
Hammond Organ, Harmonium and Harmonica. The chaos of the
instruments is also supported by the irregular rhythms 2+2+3 irregular
stanza groupings.
- Indian classical instruments show the influence of Indian Classical music
and Ravi Shankar on George Harrisons Within You, Without You. Tabla
plays elaborate rhythmic patterns, Sitar plays a pseudo-improvised solo
with dialogue between instruments. Tambura provides drone on this
track and LSD.


A Day in The Life: the most harrowing song ever written Allan Moore.
Inspired by sad news events in Lennons sections.
-Unusual structure intro, 3 * verses, orchestral crescendo, interpolation, dream
sequence section, 2*verses, orch. Crescendo.
-Diatonic harmony with stepwise bass movement created through chord
inversions.
-Simple melody with limited range panned hard right to reflect the detached
emotional nature of the vocals. Free rhythm again give spoken feeling as if
reading the newspaper. Phrase lengths are very irregular. Finished with
chromatic vocal passages give feeling of instability as we go into the next
section.
-2 orchestral cacophonous crescendo orchestra instructed to improvise within
given range over a certain length of time with dynamics ppp-fff. Shows influence
of aleatoric music favoured by experimental composers. The orch. are double
tracked and played back at slightly different speeds to add depth. The orchestra
are also panned across whole stereo field for depth of sound. Perhaps we could
say that the orchestra represent being transported to another world when the
lyrical content changes so radically between sections.

-Mixylodian mode hints in McCartneys section folk influence. Tempo doubles
to show idea of the manic morning McCartneys lyrics reflect and an alarm clock
sample is added to support the lyrics here. Crotchet piano chords support this.

-Word Painting in dream sequence with lyrical, legato vocalisation representing
a dreamscape because it moves has bigger melodic leaps and much longer
phrases. Slow tempo and sparse texture perhaps represent isolation. Uses ADT
and echo here. Rising circle of 5ths used in dream sequence

Another Verse concerto like piano chords on albert hall to represent the lyrics
reference. In this final verse the left and right channels have been reversed
perhaps signifying that the singers perspective has changed following the dream
sequence?

-Ends on Emaj chord lasts 47 seconds because the stereo masters are boosted
to amplify the natural decay of the sound beyond its normal auditory limits.
Expressive use of technology, suitably epic ending for such an ambitious song.



Being for The Benefit of Mr Kite
- Unusual phrasing because verse 1 has 7 line stanza divided 2+2+3 across
unequal numbers of bars.
- The melody in the verse has descending sequences (traditional device)
but has octave intervals in the last line to represent the acrobatic circus.
Bass becomes more like countermelody as verse progresses.
Rhythm section sounds march like with snare drum rolls reminding the
audience of a tension creating circus drum-roll. Harmonicas and
harmoniums give a circus-like feel to support lyrics.

Henry the Horse Dances a Waltz triggers the waltz section. um paa paa
bass given a chaotic feel rapid descending chromatic scales. Lots of reverb
here to add mystery. Sections ends with dom.7
th
chord of honky tonk
piano. Drums were given high eq boost to make sure they cut through the
timbre of this section.
Fairground samples of calliope organs on tape were cut up, thrown into air
and spliced back together aleatoric influence of experimental and tape
concrete composer, Stockhausen.
Vocals panned right to give a sense of narrative.
Cmin key gives mysterious feel. The use of augmented chords help this too.


Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds
Verse Part A- has very simple melody with even phrase structure and syllabic
crotchet rhythm and use repetition.
Uses inversions and chromatic harmony to produce stepwise bass movement.
First chord = Dmin6/F, unusual in key of A and add harmonic colour to support
colourful, surreal lyrics.
No percussive time keeping supports the dreamlike, free floating lyrics.
Tambura enters on somebody calls you Indian influence.

Verse Part B faster harmonic rhythm. V-1 progression repeated over towering
over your head.

Chorus has higher register and is double time outlines unusual interval of
minor 7
th
with descending repeated quaver melody.
Melisma on word diamonds to represent shimmering?
Tonic/dominant polarity in harmony very standard, influence of traditional
Western harmony.
I-IV-V7 progression is also very functional/traditional this simple harmony
backs up simplistic nature of lyrics here just 3 repeated statements of lucy in
the sky with diamonds very much like repetition in The Kinks - You Really Got
Me. Harmonised on final LintheSwithD to move the song forward also used by
The Kinks.
ADT used on vocal with reverb and phasing to give dream-like quality.

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Use of French Horns shows influence of traditional Western orchestral music
backs up the idea of marching band. Homophonic comping style also backs up
the idea of Sg.Peppers fictitious band. Otherwise, a standard rock track in 4/4
like The Kinks early work.
Pre-recorded audience noises begin the track and help set the scene of a concert
about to take place.
Verse 1 McCartney has a harsh rock timbre like The Kinks.
- Uses repetitive phrases of semiquavers of tonic G and lower chromatic auxiliary
of F# before repeated higher on Bb and A. The Kinks also use simple devices like
ascending sequence Verses of You really Got Me.
- Beatles use lyrics to introduce the band
French Horns represent the trad. marching band when they enter with duet
over the Bridge.
Chorus
lyrics support and introduce the concept album idea.
Syncopated chords under hearts club band to emphasise the theme.
In Gmaj which makes the Bb chords give blues-y feel to lonely again
emphasising the album theme.
Lots of reverb on vocals give impression of a concert hall acoustic
ambience.

Ending introduces Billy Shears and segues into With a Little Help from my
Friends giving feeling of concert.


Influences
The album cover features influential figures including Stockhausen (electro-
acoustic composer who worked with aleatory, as seen in Day in the Life) and
Indian gurus (representing Indian influence in Within You, Without You).

Aleatory (music with element of chance by experimental 60s composers)

Classical instrumentation, (string quartet) harmonic progressions, traditional
structures, tonic dominant relships, diatonic harmony, tonal.

Folk story narratives in songs, refrains in lyrics, accordian,

Blues (organs/blues scale on f fixing a hole/use of modes like blues
scale/chord extensions/

Indian instruments (sitar by George in Withinu and LSD/ravi Shankar taught
George/pseudo improv in WithinU/raga and tabla in WithinU/

British Music Hall compere to introduce songs/clarinet trio 64/Pauls dad BMH
performer.





Technology
George Martin album producer known as 5
th
Beatle because of his input during
recording. Effects like wah-wah pedals and fuzz boxes were also used.

Bouncing Down/Multitrack recording - First album to use 4 track recorder which
meant that errors on single tracks easily replaced. Often these 4 tracks were
bounced down to create single layer on a separate master four track machine.
This made more room for further overdubbing of layers.

Guitar Pedals

ADT Automatic Double Tracking was a machine that allowed for double
tracking without having achieving it manually (a process Lennon hated).
Invented for the album innovation. Uses tape delay to create a copy of an audio
signal that could then be doubled on top. Used on Fixing a Hole to give bass part
a fretless tone. On vocal parts of Within You, Without You. With an additional
flange effect on LSD to give dreamlike quality to vocals.

Segueing Most tracks on the album link seamlessly together, supporting the
idea that all the tracks were linked by united theme of loneliness.

Using non-musical samples to support lyrics features heavily in album. Eg.
Panting and alarm clock in Day in the Life and Animal Sounds in Good Morning
used to increase ferocity as song progresses.

Mics were placed close to audio signal and compressed heavily in Good Morning
to also achieve an aggressive sound.

Panning Beatles are known for separating instruments separately into left and
right fields with panning. For example compere in SG Pepper panned hard left
and then band vocals panned hard right to give impression of separation.
Sounds alongside musical sounds (high pitched sounds and alarm bells to
highlight meaning of lyrics at Day of Life)