40 years ago to day, 1st june 1967

The Bulletin’s view … June 1st 2007 .. “ There are iconic albums and then there is Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the stunning, drug-infused Beatles classic that defined the Sixties and changed pop music forever. By Hall Greenland.

By 1969 Mick Jagger could say that the difference between the world's two greatest bands was that the Rolling Stones were a touring band and the Beatles a studio band.
That of course hadn't always been true. The Beatles even made it to Australia during their 1964 world tour (itself a new concept in rock'n'roll). On that visit the moptops did two concerts a night - now that's touring. But what Jagger said was definitely true by 1969 and the change had been marked by the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album released on June 1, 1967. It was an album packed with studio and electronic effects and it's now received wisdom that after Sgt Pepper's not only would the Beatles never be the same again (the Fab Four were stoned dead), nor would popular music.
As critic Greil Marcus said after hearing an advance copy: "You mean this is going to be in the stores, you can buy it?"
Most of the album was pure McCartney (he composed seven of the 12 songs - his whimsy delightful on "When I'm 64" and "Lovely Rita") but it was the Lennon songs - particularly "A Day in the Life", "With a Little Help from my Friends", and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - that confirmed the Liverpool lads were now into psychedelic drugs and flower power.
While there was some quibbling about the drugs bit, the Beatles had indisputably become champions of the counter-culture and personal liberation. Beyond the music, the sleeve for Sgt Pepper's has become the best-known cover of all time. Think of the '60s, see that image. While their record company EMI ultimately decided who would be included in the photo gallery (EMI's chairman vetoed Gandhi because he feared offending the huge Indian market) the Beatles were allowed to nominate figures. Ringo didn't bother, Paul chose mostly from popular culture, John went for the more literary (Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll et al., as well as the more obscure Liverpudlians), George was responsible for the spiritual gurus. Jesus, Hitler, Magritte and the Marquis de Sade were among those rejected. Inconceivable as it would have been a few months before, BBC radio banned two songs from the album because they could encourage drug-taking.

Whatever your view it was and still is a brilliant album. M