I have to write a paper on the Sgt. Pepper's album...

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It should be easy:

All I have to do is wtite an intro, about a page on each song, and a conclusion.

But I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good references or source material I should look at,

Also, if there is any literature that is inspired by or alludes to the album (or vice-versa, if the album alludes to any literature) that would probably be good.

Thanks.

― Colin_C., Sunday, 13 May 2007 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

for anything beatles one important reference is definitely revolution in the head by ian macdonald. it analyses each song and gives details about its origin, the recording etc. often quite technical but always worth a read.

― alex in mainhattan, Sunday, 13 May 2007 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

Why don't you write about Karlheinz Stockhausen

― JW, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

Write your paper on the soundtrack to the 70's movie, and feign total ignorance of the original when your teacher asks.

― dlp9001, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

^ anti rockist action now

― JW, Sunday, 13 May 2007 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

You need Alan Pollack:

http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-beatles_projects.shtml

(scroll down to 'project 8')

― Tim R-J, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

"Write your paper on the soundtrack to the 70's movie, and feign total ignorance of the original when your teacher asks."

do this. and insist that the soundtrack version of lucy in the sky with diamonds is much better than the elton john original.

― scott seward, Sunday, 13 May 2007 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the info...

I think I might just write fifteen pages on the intro to the Wonder Years...

― Colin_C., Sunday, 13 May 2007 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, Alan W. Pollack will set you right.

― St3ve Go1db3rg, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Just to add another voice to the crowd, the Pollack stuff is pretty cool.

― The Reverend, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

I just listened to the Anthology V.2, and that had interesting info you could use on the recording process and whatnot. I was surprised how much I enjoyed listening to that thing.

― dr. phil, Monday, 14 May 2007 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

Are you just doing a critical reading of the lyrics/music, or are you doing a more historical analysis? (The implication of your question - doing a page per song - suggests the former.) If it's the former, I'd stay completely away from any current criticism. Anything you read will just overwhelm your own reading with the abundance of opinions surrounding the album (not to mention the assumptions of its place in canon). If it's the latter, there must be a plethora of historical documentation about the album - right?

― Mordechai Shinefield, Monday, 14 May 2007 05:47 (nineteen years ago)

"Sgt. Pepper" is probably better viewed through critics from before the mid 70s. They were right about it, while more recent critics are wrong. :)

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 14 May 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Some of my favorite writing about the Beatles includes the Greil Marcus chapter in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll and the book Growing Up With the Beatles, if that helps. If they still print magazine indexes, old Rolling Stones will have all the background you need and then some.

I might be going out on a limb here, but one thing people rarely talk about with this album is how completely the Beatles' had absorbed the latest R&B rhymthms by 1966. I love the sound of the drums and bass and percussion on Rubber Soul and Revolver, but the versions of funk on those records seems stiff compared to, say, the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's" (later sampled by the Beastie Boys) or even "A Day in the Life." I'd be really curious why this album and Are You Experienced?, released a month earlier, are such a huge leap ahead rhythmically, and whether James Brown was the source of inspiration--that is, if you wanted to do some original cultural research and not just echo the chamber.

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

Or maybe that looseness on the snare is all Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

I just saw at the Library of Congress a copy of the old trailer for the Sgt. Pepper's movie with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. Maybe you should write about that! Ha.(or give it at least a footnote).

― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:52 (nineteen years ago)

My local Borders was just selling several different Beatles coffeetable size books for cheap.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 14 May 2007 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

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