Monday, March 20, 2017

PIPER, NOT PEPPER




I’ve been told my whole life (or at least since Rolling Stone started getting obsessed with “best of” lists) that Sgt Pepper is the be-all end-all BEST ROCK ALBUM EVER.  Let’s get real, though.   It’s been 50 years, we can go back and look at things rationally.



Is it a good album?  Sure.  Is it the best album ever?  Probably not.  Sure it was original and influential, but here’s the thing – it isn’t even the best psychedelic album ever.  Or even the best British psychedelic album ever.  Or even the best British psychedelic album of 1967.



Here’s the breakdown – a handful of stone-cold classics, a tedious George Harrison piece and a bunch of retro, music hall/vaudevillian numbers that sounded quaint the day they were released.  Hell, I could’ve played these tunes for my grandmother and she would’ve patted me on the head “What a nice song!”  I understand that McCartney loved that music.  Fine.  But, please, don’t try and tell me that “When I’m 64” or “She’s Leaving Home” or “Fixing a Hole” (or even Lennon’s “Mr Kite”) are psychedelic.  They’re not.  Period.  They’re pastiches of older genres given a gloss of studio whimsy.





Look what Pink Floyd was doing on Piper at the Gates of Dawn at the same damn time.  Find me a tune off of Sgt Pepper that can even approach “Astronomy Domine”, “Lucifer Sam”, “Pow R Toc H” or “Matilda Mother” for sheer 1967 psychedelic energy.  The Beatles come off sounding stodgy.



But, you know – poor Syd.  Seriously.  His solo stuff is good, but it makes me sad.


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