Sgt. Pepper drumhead at Cavendish

It was 50 years ago today Sgt Pepper album cover was born!

50 years ago today--on March 30, 1967 the Beatles had the photo shoot for the Sgt. Pepper album cover.   That album cover has been of great interest to me and so these behind the scenes shots are really cool!

Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper - A film review

The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band has always held a special spot for me. It was actually the first Beatles album that I owned (cassette tape, actually).  I know that for you first generation fans reading this, it is hard to think that Pepper would be someone's first real exposure to the Beatles, but that is how it was. I listened to that tape nonstop for a very long time, and it was the first Beatles CD I purchased once I could afford it.  For many years, Sgt. Pepper was my favorite Beatles album, and "A Day in the Life" was my favorite Beatles song.  However, I grew and matured as a Beatles fan and was exposed to their entire catalog, and my favorite eventually switched to Rubber Soul.   To be honest, Pepper has been sort of pushed to the back of my Beatles collection, and I really hadn't listened to it in quite a while.

Since 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper sessions and album, it is a great time to dust off the album and give it another listen.  It was with this mindset that I went into seeing the film Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper at the Tivoli Theater in St. Louis with my mom and some other great fans this past Monday night.   I really didn't know what I was going to watch.   I just knew that it was something Beatles.  I quickly learned that I was going to see a lecture by Scott Freiman about the breakdown of the album. I was not familiar with Scott at all, but apparently he teaches Beatles courses at the university level as well as being a very successful composer and producer.

If you are like me, your first thought when you hear the word "lecture" is, "Oh no---this could be really boring." However, I am happy to report that Freiman's lecture was far from boring.  It was very entertaining and educational.  

As the title, "Deconstructing the Beatles," would suggest, Freiman went through the Sgt. Pepper album track by tack and talked about each song in detail.  He gave the background information of why the song was written and then talked about the actual recording of the song.  He showed photographs of the various instruments that were used in the songs, which I found to be helpful because I can read the name of the instrument in a book, but without a photograph of it, the name alone doesn't mean a lot.    

Most of the time was spent breaking down the songs.  Parts of the songs were played by isolating the individual tracks so that you might only hear Ringo's drumming or John's vocals, and then he showed that it all went together to make the song.  There were plenty of photographs of the Beatles in the recording studio as well.  

My only real complaint is that some of the songs he just skimmed over and didn't break it down.   Fixing a Hole, for example, was just mentioned in that "yeah--that song is on there.  It might have been about Paul fixing up his home in Scotland."  I would have liked more information.   If we are deconstructing the Sgt. Pepper album, then let's do it for all the tracks.  

There were some really neat things that came out during this lecture. Some of the things I already knew, but for someone who doesn't know the Melanie Coe story, I am sure would be interested in seeing the video clip that was shown.   I didn't know that in the song "Lovely Rita," the Beatles used a comb wrapped in toilet paper to make a kazoo-like sound.   I also liked hearing what the Beatles were saying underneath the animals' noises at the end of "Good Morning Good Morning."

It was a very interesting lecture, and I think it was a perfect way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper album.    I am not sure if this program will be released on DVD or shown on a streaming site anytime soon.   But if it happens to be showing in your area, it is well worth your time to go see it for yourself.

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this on DVD.  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/3wL3FLa

The Man who killed Paul McCartney -- a book review

The title of this book, The Man Who Killed Paul McCartney, is what caught my attention.   When I bought it off Amazon, I thought it might be a book about someone behind the Paul is Dead story.  Maybe someone that worked at the radio station that really got things going, or one of the college students that first published a story about Paul's death. Don't be fooled---this is not a book about Paul is Dead.  Instead, it is a series of articles written by Jim Yoakum.

Some of the articles are better than others.   The first one is about the Charles Manson murders and Manson's connection to 1960s music.  The second one is about the commercialism of rock n roll.  This article could have been interesting, as it shows how music began being used in commercials and how it was thought of as "selling out" but now is more common place for musicians.  However, the article dragged on and on and at one point listed an entire page of songs that have been used in commercials over the years.

The next article is the title of the book, "The Man Who Killed Paul McCartney."  The author tells the story of Mohammad Chtaibi, who I have never heard of before reading this story.   Mohammad was the personal assistant to Robert Frasier and therefore was part of the Beatles circle of people in 1967.

Mohammad Chtaibi (in the white pants) with the Beatles on the day the Sgt. Pepper cover was shot 

A shortened version of the story in this book says that on January 7, 1967 Paul McCartney had a big party at Cavendish and invited all sorts of people including Mick Jagger, Robert Frasier and Mohammad Chtaibi.  Paul had a book that was emptied out and was full of all sorts of drugs (heroin, acid, pot, etc).  After a long night of partying, some of the guys decided to keep the party going at another location. Six guys got into a Mini and Mohammad took the drug book and was driving alone in Paul's custom Mini. Mohammad was stoned and not familiar with Paul's car and ended up totaling the car and leaving on a stretcher.  Since people recognized Paul's car and saw a dark-haired guy on a stretcher, they put two and two together and thought Paul had been injured in a car wreck.  (By the way, Mohammad was fine--just some scratches).    

This is the first time I have ever heard any of this story and while some of it makes since, other things don't at all.  But at the time, it must have made waves among fans because Beatle Book Monthly printed this:

The author says that this is the beginning of the Paul is Dead story.  Maybe it is?  When I try to look up information about this online, all I run into is a bunch of Paul is really Dead nonsense.

The next article was a fun read.  It was about the Beatles Cash-in records that were filling up the record stores in 1964. You know those records that at a glance look like the Beatles and a young unsuspecting fan might actually buy the discounted record thinking that it really is the Fab 4, to be tricked into buying a dud band singing Beatles songs?

Yoakum goes through several of these records and discovers that not all of the music on them are terrible.  There are some hidden gems in there, but there is also a lot of awful stuff.  It was a fun article to read.

Next up was the story about how Yoakum got involved working with Monty Python founder, Graham Chapman which leads into the final story which was the true treat of the whole book:  The story about how the author got to jam at Friar Park with George Harrison in 1995.

I will leave that amazing story for those of you who want to get this book for yourself.   But let me say that it ends with Yoakum listening to the at the time unreleased tracks from Anthology 3 with George Harrison at Friar Park after spending the day playing the drums with him.  

This was an extremely short book (less than 100 pages) and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all, however it was alright.   Not something I highly recommend, but not a bad read on a day when you are snowed inside your house and don't have much else to do but read.

Here is where you can get it on Amazon.

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/3T4HAi9

Record Rummage

Sgt. Pepper party

On December 4, 1967 John attending the premiere of the Jonathan Haugue Exhibition.  I assume Jonathan in the guy that John is chatting with in the photos.

Pre-Pepper John

Another great photo brought to you by the lovely people at Tracks.    This is a photo we have seen on this blog before, but we did not see the fan in the photo, as someone (sadly) cropped her out.    I looks like John was trying out a "Pepper suit" before he wore that greenish yellow one. 

The band you've know for all these years

Look what is back!    It is the signed Sgt. Pepper album obtained by friend of this blog, Carole in 1967.     On June 23, 1967 she got Ringo, Paul and John (who didn't sign his last name!!!) to sign the inside of her Sgt. Pepper album in the parking lot of EMI.    This has gone up for auction a few times over the years.    It would be amazing to own, especially since I have talked to the original owner, but alas I can never afford it.  But if you can---go for it!   Up for auction now from RR Auctions.  

Within you without you session

These photos are from the Sgt. Pepper Session for "Within you, Without you," which was recorded beginning on March 15, 1967 at EMI.

A man named V.J. Young worked at a film company with Amrat Gajjar, who was a man from India who had studied under Ravi Shanker.   One day he asked Young if he knew his way around London.   He told him that he needed to find the EMI recording Studio in St. John's Wood.    Mr. Young agreed to take him there.  On the way he was pretty shocked to learn that he was driving his co-worker to a Beatles recording session!   He went into the studio and met George Harrison and many other Indian musicians that had worked with the Beatles during the film Help!.    He met all four of the Beatles plus Mal, Pattie Boyd, and George Martin.   

Paul told the driver that he needed to keep quiet about the session, but he was still allowed to get autographs (except for Ringo) and snap a few photos in the studio.   In total, Gajjar was there 5 days as part of the recording session.

You Gnome my name

The autographed garden gnome that was on the Sgt. Pepper album cover sold at auction a few weeks ago for £29,000.  I really enjoy seeing the items from the famous Sgt. Pepper cover.  

Up the stairs to the studio

Add caption

Notice John there in the background just past the Sgt. Pepper cover??   

Tracking down Pepper

On June 23, 1967 the Beatles were working on the song, All you need is love.    And three of them signed the inner sleeve of their latest LP, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.    A fan named Carole was a regular outside of EMI during that time and she asked John, Paul and Ringo to sign them album for her.  She was unable to get George signature on the album.    John just signed "John" with a kiss next to his name.   That is how things were when a Beatle actually knew you, I guess.

This autograph (along with the two photos of Paul and Ringo signing the album) are up for auction.  I am sure that you have read on other blogs that Tracks in England is having a really awesome auction next month.   They have a ton of great stuff from collections of people like Pete Shotton and Buddy Dresher as well as some of the fans that you read about right here (like this album that belonged to Carole).    So many things that I wish I could afford!    You can drool over the amazing items if you click here.   Just a word of warning---I spent about 2 hours looking at stuff this evening.  

Look a round round round round round

War is over if you want it

I found this photo on ebay and I thought it was interesting.  Some GIs taking some rest and relaxation from the Vietnam war in Nice, France at Christmastime in 1967.    What else do these fellows need?  They got their whiskey, got great music (can't get much better than Sgt. Pepper), oh yeah and of some them wrote on the back of the photo that they are stoned.   

Sgt. Pepper on Craigslist

Craigslist is a strange place in this internet world.   You just never know what you might find on there, and most of the time it is something you don't want to see.     You may recall that in 2011, someone found the Wings Tour Bus for sale on Craigslist (which still totally blows my mind!).   Well I found something really cool, but not nearly as awesome as the Wings tour bus.   In the London Craigslist someone from Florida was selling these photos taken during the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions!    I wonder who took these.   He was selling them for $400 each.   I am not sure if they sold or what became of them at this point, but they are great photos!

Japanese doll and Sgt. Pepper

I am going to stray from the theme of Beatles and fans for a moment, for the simple reason that the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover has always fascinated me.    While looking through the Beatles photos on Gettyimages this afternoon,  I spotted this photo of a Japanese doll taken by Robert Whitaker.   It was a doll that the Beatles purchased in the Hilton Hotel room while they stayed in Japan in early July 1966.   Since they could not leave the hotel to shop, many Japanese items were brought to them to buy.   One of the item purchased was this Fukusuke doll. 

So I was looking at this photo and thought, "where have I seen that before?"   Then it hits me.  On the cover of Sgt. Pepper.   It is right there on the bottom left next to the Snow White figurine.   But is it the exact same doll that was bought in Japan?   I can't really say for sure.  The one on the album cover looks fatter and maybe has a beard?   But it is still neat to think that Robert Whitaker photographed a Sgt. Pepper album cover item before it was even thought of.