Showing posts with label Sgt. Pepper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sgt. Pepper. Show all posts

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Sleepless Nights by Lizzie Bravo (final installment)

June 4, 1967

 
June 7, 1967


Sunday, June 4, 1967 -  Paula and I went to the Saville.  Procol Harum and Jimi Hendrix were on tonight.  We stood by the door watching the people go in, went to have something to eat, and ended up missing Paul.  The girls told us someone kicked Jane when she got out of the car and that Paul was upset, but found it funny, too.  He had his "joker" jacket on (as usual these days).  George, Pattie, and Cynthia also arrived.  Cyn was wearing orange.  We saw Mick Jagger and Peter Asher.  During intermission, we managed to sneak into the theatre and saw the part with Jimi Hendrix, which was great!  Paul and the others were there at their usual upstairs place.  He clapped many times, smoked about 4 cigarettes, and bent over like he was trying to see something.  Jimi started his show playing "Sgt. Pepper," --fantastic!  We went outside to wait for you-know-who.  HE came with Jane and was rather in a hurry -- I suppose he was worried the girls would kick Jane again.  He put his left hand on Paul's shoulder and said, "Excuse me" (which left her rather dazed), then took Jane's hand, got in the car, and left immediately.  Jane had a nice light flowered dress with a headband of the same material.  I took two photos of Paul. 

Tuesday, June 6, 1967 -  Went to Cavendish.  Saw Paul and Jane arriving in the Aston around 6:00.  He had on green trousers, light green jacket,  and the baseball boots he's been wearing. 

Wednesday, June 7, 1967 -  Paula came here around 11:00, and we listened to the LP, then we went to Cavendish.  Paul was in.  Neil arrived and left shortly afterwards with John and Mal in his car.  They came back in about 15 minutes.  John was smiling and playing the guitar, gorgeous!  I took some pictures. They all left again.  This time Paul was in the back seat with Jane in his lap (his fans didn't like seeing that too much...).  We rushed to EMI.  Mal and George Martin arrived first, then at around 7:30pm, was in Ringo arrived in a new black car.  He was in a great mood, signed for a few people, and pretended to scare a girl who was trying to take his picture!  Neil, John, Paul, and the others arrived next.  John signed a few autographs and said, "I've got no time, luv."  Paul just rushed in.  A long time after that, Pattie, Cyn, Carl Wilson, and Mick Jagger arrived. Cyn had a blue dress on.  She looked at me a lot -- I wonder if she realizes that I am the one that asked her to send that letter back.  

Ringo was the first one to come out.  He was in a great mood, signed my "Sgt. Pepper" album, and asked me quite seriously why wasn't I wearing the moustache (from inside the cover), for which I greatly apologized!  Paul was second out at 2:40a.m.  Paula stopped him by the door, politely asking him to sign for her (she was rather shaky at this moment), to which he replied, "Sure, got a pen?"  She handed him the pen, and he signed.  One of the girls took a photo of him and her at that moment.   She thanked him and, he said, "Alright luv, good night" and went down the stairs, with his hands in his pockets.  He met Carl Wilson, who asked him, "Can I go with you?" getting, "No, Jane's home" as a reply.  (he was walking backwards while saying this!)  He said, "See ya" and walked home.  Mick and Marianne left next, full of bell sounds (from necklace)  . George came out, signed my album,, and said, "Hello."  John left around 3:00.  Paula accidentally bumped into him.  I said, "Can you sign, John?" and he said "Yes, I can!" and "Yes, you may" to Paula (I can't remember what she asked him). I took some photos and gave Cyn some roses I had picked up at a garden for her.  I told her they looked nicer when I'd just picked them.  She was genuinely pleased, but I think at first she thought I was going to hit her (some of the girls would call her names and be really rude).  She was surprised when I handed her the roses.  She said, "Oh, thank you, great!"  and smiled, and I asked her if Julian was alright, to which she replied, "Yes, fine, great, thank you"  I asked her to give him my love and said,, "Yes, great, thank you."  She was very, very sweet and kind and has a very sweet voice too.  (Mad me feel REAL guilty for wanting her husaband so much, still I can't help it -- how can I possibly resist the handsomest, sexiest human being on earth?).  My album slipped out of its cover right on the ground, and John bent down and picked it up for me, for which I thanked him.  I gave him the little lucky charm from Brazil that my mum had sent for him, and he said, "Thanks mum!"  Cynthia sat on his lap in the car but thank goodness I didn't see that --the girls told me.  I would have died of jealousy and pure envy.  This girl must be the luckiest person on earth.  I walked back home and went to sleep.



Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Wearing those cut-outs





How many of you cut out the items from the Sgt. Pepper album and actually put them on?   

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fan's Perspective -- A Book Review





2017 has really been the year of Sgt. Pepper and I have to admit that while I am not tired of the music, I am getting a little tired of hearing about it.   However, I decided to give Pepper one more hurrah for the year and bought a copy of Bruce Spizer's newest book  The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper:  A Fan's Perspective.   


If you are hoping to get a new "Spizer" book that is in line with his other books, then this isn't the book you are wanting.     It is a completely different book than what he has published in the past.  This book is really a bunch of short articles about the Sgt. Pepper album put together in one spot.


Spizer wrote two or three of them and they are very well-written and informative, although there really wasn't any new information to be found in them, they still made you think about how things were in 1967 and what Sgt. Pepper meant in the middle of a changing world.      Piers Hemminsen wrote a great piece about Sgt. Pepper in Canada in the summer of 1967, Al Sussman contributed two pieces about his thoughts (both very insightful), Frank Daniels wrote about the influences on Sgt. Pepper and Bill King had a story first published in 1997 included. 

The best part of the book, however, is not the articles but the short stories about Sgt. Pepper told from first and second generation fans from around the world.   I was surprised to see so many names of people I personal know or have heard of in the book and I really enjoyed reading thier stories about how Sgt. Pepper became a part of their Beatles' life.   I was really shocked to see my own story included!    I had sent something in many months before the book was published and never heard back if it was going to be in the book, and so I figured that it wasn't.    Lo and behold, there is my very own Sgt. Pepper story from 1988!    And since I figure no one was told if his/her story was included, I thought I would put the names of stories that were included so you can see if your own story or a story of a friend is included:

Kris Spackman Tash, Karen Rothman, Gary L. Anderson, Jeff Mooney, Richard Zahn, Sara Schmidt, Brian Barros, Linda Marshall, Valerie Strand, Sandra Eagleton Venables, May Pang, Peter Tork, Kay Zar Crow, Ten Quinn, Dan Tomaszewski, Timothy Swan, Farrell McNulty, David Raugh, Billy Joel, Mark Lapidos, John Bezzini, Chuck Gunderson, Matt Hurwitz, Karen Duchaj, Debbie Gendler Supnik, Walter J. Podrazik, Dwayne Hicks, Mark Lewisohn, Tim Goodacre, Tony Perkins, Andrew Phillips, Jim Berkenstadt, Mark Alan, Pat Dinizio, Barry Winslow, Brian J. Moran, Terry Thompson, Larry Miller, Gay Linvill, Bob Burris, Michael Rinella, Kit O'Toole, Perry Cox, Stephen Bishop, Fred Young, Thorsten Knublauch, Lou Simon, Nancy Riley, Jude Southerland Kessler, Eddie Deezen, Jennifer Sandi, Leslie Samuels Healy, Ellen Berman, Glenn Murphy, Denny Seiwell, Tim Coulter, Serene Dominic, Scott Korf, Steve Marinucci, Gene Flanagan, Ron Arnold, Lanea Stagg, Tom Frangione, Stan Denski, Sean Anglum, Jim Wilson, Dan Lawton, Garry Marsh, Greg Sinclair, Tom Miller, Thomas Grosh, Rich Tomera Aaron Krerowicz, John H. Auld, Terri Whitney, Rainer Mores, Renato Facconi, Dirk Van Damme, Mikhail Goltsfarb


Those last entries are especially interesting because they talk about the album release in non English speaking countires, including Russia, where Beatles albums had to be sneaked into the country.

The last part of the book is all about the music and recording (date, instruments, how many takes, etc) and has some beautiful Beatle Book Monthly photos.


I am not sure what I was expecting out of this book, but for $30 spent, I think I was expecting a little more than what it was.    A bunch of articles and stories by fans is nice, but did it deserve a full hardback book?  (Although if I had bought it from Amazon instead of directly from the author, I would have saved some money)  The recording information seemed out of place to me. I am not saying that it was a bad book by any means, but I was a bit disappointed and was expecting something of a little more substance from Bruce Spizer.

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase this book..   I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3SZsdYp

Thursday, June 22, 2017

A good day during the summer of love



This is one of my top 20 favorite fan photos.   I love that the fan here, a girl named Maureen, is holding out the Sgt. Pepper album for Paul to sign for her .  She also appears to have a gift to give to Paul---or is that her bag?     I love that Paul is wearing purple pants.   I love that Paul is going to the rehearsal and press event for All you Need is Love.     It was a good day.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

The Sgt. Pepper Blu-Ray disc--- A Review





I have seen a lot of reviews about the 50th anniversary Sgt. Pepper album, but nothing about the Blu-Ray/DVD that comes with it.    So, I figured for tonight's "Wednesday Review," I would tackle the video portion of the set.

I watched the Blu-Ray version, but the DVD is the same thing.  The main part of the DVD is the 1992 documentary called "The Making of Sgt. Pepper."  This official Apple production was originally shown in the United States on the Disney Channel (back in the days when you had to pay extra for that channel) in the Fall of 1992.  I was a fairly new Beatles fan when I saw it on a weekend "free trial" of the Disney channel and it totally blew me away at the time.   It was the first time I had ever heard John's isolated vocals for "A Day in the Life" or the "Sugar Plum Fairy" at the beginning of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

It is about time this documentary came out on Blu-ray or DVD!   It should have been out on VHS a long time ago (Maybe it was after it was first shown, but I never had it).  This was made in April 1992, and you get to hear first-hand experience about the making of the Sgt. Pepper album directly from George Martin, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Peter Blake and others.  Since at least two of the men involved are no longer with us, this is a treasure.  

I love to see George Martin behind the mixing board.  He really seems to get a bit emotional when he hears John's voice and when he is talking about John.    ou can see how proud he was of the work he did on Sgt. Pepper, and it really drives home the fact that without George Martin, the Beatles would have been a totally different group.  I especially enjoyed seeing George M. and Paul together at the board, talking about Paul's bass playing on "Lucy."

I do think that documentary was way too short.  It is only 45 minutes long, and they do not talk about all of the songs on Sgt. Pepper.  "Fixing a Hole," "Lovely Rita," "She is Leaving Home," and "Getting Better" are all missing.  I was hoping that when this was released for the 50th anniversary, we would see more of what was filmed.  Surely, there were things that were originally edited out.  

I enjoyed most of the interviews with the non-Beatles people. Peter Blake was interesting.  The guy who played the trumpet on "Penny Lane" was neat to see.  Even Brian Wilson was interesting.   However,  Phil Collins really seemed out of place and not needed.  It is almost like they stuck Phil in there because it was 1992 and he was popular at that time.



The rest of the Blu-Ray was filled with the promo films for "A Day in the Life,"  "Strawberry Fields,"  and "Penny Lane."  They really weren't necessary because we just saw this on the Beatles 1 DVD release.  It feels like they just stuck them on there because the documentary was so short.

It was disappointing that a new film was not released for the 50th anniversary, although, as I said, the 1992 film is a classic. I am glad that it was preserved and looks much better than the YouTube videos. It is a nice addition to the CD set, but it would not be worth buying just for the DVD alone.

 The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this box set.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Pepper Days

No matter what generation Beatles fan you happen to be, you will agree that the Sgt. Pepper album was a breakthrough in the world of music.    It was a big change from Revolver and it was groundbreaking in so many ways.    It was the first album to have the words to the songs included with the record.   The Beatles and George Martin pushed the limits in using different instruments and microphones.  

Fans around the world had a strong reaction to the album when it was released 50 years ago today.   Many fans honestly disliked it.    It was too much for them at that time.    They wanted to hear "yeah yeah yeah" and not the strange sounds coming from the album.    Many first generation fans who thought that way in 1967 grew to love Sgt. Pepper later in life.    They just didn't originally get it.   Other fans, however did get it.    They could relate to the songs, especially "She is Leaving Home."   It was the first time some people really started to take the Beatles past the "boy band" stage and as real musicians.  

Let's take a time machine back to 1967 and enjoy some vintage photos of the beginning of the Summer of Love.






Remember when it really was 20 years ago today....





Remember when George said to "take a piece but not too much?"  Linda--I think he was talking to you.  Look at that slice of cake!





Monkee-ing around with Sgt. Pepper



The day the Monkees realized that they better step up their game because the Beatles just blew them right out of the water.