Five artists who hated The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
Many people, including this writer, believe that Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most defining albums of the 1960s. The Beatles were the biggest thing to happen to music in that decade, and this album represented a period of experimentation and boundarylessness that made that decade such a huge period for music. Many people share this opinion; however, others think the complete opposite.
A lot of artists were deeply moved by the album and saw it as a turning point for music as a whole. As soon as Jimi Hendrix heard it, he learnt how to play the title track on guitar and opened his next show with it only two days after it had come out.
“He must have been so into it because normally it might take a day for rehearsal, and then you might wonder whether you’d put it in, but he just opened with it,” said Paul McCartney, recalling when he heard the cover, “It’s a pretty major compliment in anyone’s book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career. I mean, I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought of it as an honour, I’m sure he thought it was the other way round, but to me, that was like a great boost.”
While many artists might have been deeply moved by the album, some hated it. Both members of The Beatles and people outside the band saw the album as a confused mishmash that represented the band beginning to lose its way. This might be a controversial opinion, but it’s certainly one to consider, as these are five artists who positively hated Sgt Pepper’s.
The artists who hated Sgt Pepper’s:
Keith Richards
When Rolling Stones were initially marketed to the American crowd, their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, tried to sell them as the more rugged-looking bad boys of music. That being said, there were undoubtedly a number of similarities between the bands, particularly when you look at Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was dubbed a clear knockoff of Sgt Pepper’s.
Richards agreed with these critiques, as, in hindsight, his reasons for disliking Sgt Pepper were the same reasons why people disliked Satanic Majesties. “I understand—the Beatles sounded great when they were the Beatles. But there’s not a lot of roots in that music,” he said, “I think they got carried away. Why not? If you’re the Beatles in the ’60s, you just get carried away—you forget what it is you wanted to do. You’re starting to do Sgt. Pepper. Some people think it’s a genius album, but I think it’s a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like Satanic Majesties.”
Ray Davies
The Beatles’ offering with Sgt Pepper created a new dimension for concept albums. Where there had previously been confusion about what a concept album was, on Sgt Pepper, the Beatles showed how much potential there was for storytelling within the confines of an album. However, the record still left much to be desired, as the story is somewhat lacking.
The Kinks also escaped their roots around the same time with their album Village Green Preservation Society. Arguably, this is the better concept album, as it has an easier narrative to follow and an honest effort at social commentary. It remains overlooked because of timing, though, so Ray Davies resented The Beatles’ offering.
Billy Childish
Billy Childish shared Keith Richards’s opinion about Sgt Pepper. He felt that the Beatles were hampered by their own success, which meant that they overcomplicated things when it came to Sgt Pepper. While a lot of people liked the band’s new angle, Childish had a different reaction.
“It sounds like it took six months to shit out. The Beatles were the victims of their success. This is middle-of-the-road rock music for plumbers. Or people who drive round in Citroëns – the sort of corporate hippies who ruined rock music,” he said, “I bought it the day it came out: it was ideal for a seven-year-old. These days, well, it’s my contention that it represents the death of the Beatles as a rock’n’roll band and the birth of them as music hall, which is hardly a victory.”
John Lennon
John Lennon was never afraid to make his opinion on music known, even if that meant criticising his own band. When discussing some of his favourite albums that The Beatles put out, he quickly dismissed Sgt Pepper’s and said The White Album had much more to offer.
“I always preferred it to all the other albums, including Pepper,” he said when talking about The White Album, “Because I thought the music was better. The Pepper myth is bigger, but the music on the White Album is far superior, I think.” Lennon was also dismissive of his own contributions to the album, saying that his track ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’, was a “throwaway” and a “piece of garbage.”
George Harrison
While George Harrison’s disdain for the album might not have been as strong as John Lennon’s, Sgt Peppermarked a particularly dark period within the band where he felt particularly disconnected from the band. This is best reflected in the song he wrote for the album, ‘Only a Northern Song’.
Harrison wrote this song to be included on the record, but it was disjointed and half-written, and nobody in the band was particularly interested in it. Even Harrison himself seemed to lose interest. George Martin commented on the track, saying, “I’m disappointed that George didn’t bring something better.” The song never made it onto the finished product; instead, it was shelved and included on Yellow Submarine.
