To what extent did Buddy Holly, Minimalism and
Indian music influence the music of the BeaTles?
Introduction
The Beatles were the first band to come out of England to lead a
generation and to be followed excessively by the world. From touring England in
the early ‘60s, performing legendary shows on the Ed Sullivan show and in L.A.,
taking an inspirational three-month trip in India, to filming five ‘Beatle’
movies. Throughout their band lifetime, we have been able to seem them change
from their early American influences, such as Buddy Holly and the
Crickets, Elvis Presley and founding
Blues artists, in the turn of the 1950s and 1960s decade. We saw them becoming
influenced by the pop-drug culture of the 1960s: the LSD period—where their
songs became more surreal, ‘far-out’ and political. In their final years in a
band we see members, especially George Harrison, becoming largely influenced by
the great Ravi Shankar—combining Indian Classical Music with their already
‘Beatle-esque’ music. To find what extent these influences from the 50s, 60s
and India, we must analyse their songs in depth. Analysing all of their songs
would be sufficient to find influences from around the globe, however I am only
able to analyse three, and so therefore I have decided to analyse those which
seem most appropriate to their different genres they had. It is to say the
least, however, that the Beatles were, throughout their band life, largely
influenced by external factors, whether that be Blues or American pop music of
the 50s, drug influence of LSD or Indian Classical music and Ravi Shankar.
The
Influence of early Rock ‘n Roll on the music of the Beatles
Focus
Piece: “In Spite Of All The Danger”
“In Spite Of All The Danger” was an early Beatles song
composed by Paul McCartney and George Harrison. It was recorded in the home
studio of Percy Phillips, July 1958, by Lennon, lead tenor vocal and rhythm
guitar; McCartney, backing alto vocal and rhythm; Harrison, lead guitar and
backing tenor vocal; John Lowe on the piano and Colin Hanton on the drums. The
song was not professionally mastered by sound engineers until 1981, and
released on the “Anthology 1” disc in 1995[1].
Both the
Beatles' “In Spite Of All The Danger” and Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day”
begin with bluesy intro guitar solos, both shown below.
“In Spite Of All
The Danger”
e--0-4-7-12-12-12-10-7-12-12-10-7-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
B---------------------------------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
G---------------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
D---------------------------------1-1-1-1-1-1-1-|
A---------------------------------2-2-2-2-2-2-2-|
E---------------------------------x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
Fig.
1
“That’ll
Be The Day”
Fig. 2
Looking at Fig.
2, we can see that Holly’s solo introduction is sophisticated: leaping more
in the blues scale than the Beatles’ at the end of the first two bars, where Fig. 1 shows how the Beatles’ solo is
more slow and swung melody. Though the differences are only slight, “That’ll Be
The Day” in cut common time and “In Spite Of All The Danger” in common, both
intros are 8 beats long and both use anacrusis with “In spite of all the…” and
“Well…”
[B7] [E]
In spite of all the danger
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
The use of anacrusis is used in many blues
and American folk songs from the end of the Second World War. In both Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 we can see the use of anacrusis just before the primary I
chord: in Fig. 3 and E, and in Fig. 4 a D. Anacrusis is repeated
constantly throughout both songs, where in the Beatles’ it always appears in
the vocal line “in spite of all the…” whereas in the Buddy Holly’s anacrusis is
used at the end of every vocal phrase with only one word rather than phrases.
Chord
progression in “In Spite Of All The Danger” and “That’ll Be The Day” also
follow the same principle of blues but are used differently. “In Spite Of All
The Danger” uses very simple and basic chord progressions throughout the entire
piece. In E major, the Beatles’ use the route chords I (E), IV (A) and V (B).
In comparison, Buddy Holly, though mostly keeping to primary chords like the
Beatles, also uses more complex chords, such as Aaug7, D#dim and B9 (Fig. 5) Because of the complexity and
cut timing of Buddy Holly’s piece, the chords change more regularly than the
Beatles', where one can remain on E for four bars.
Fig. 5
Both songs use a
very similar use of harmonies in the vocals. However, once can see a higher
level of sophistication and complexity in the vocal harmonies of Buddy’s piece.
In “That’ll Be The Day” harmonies not only give Buddy’s vocals a thick
homophonic texture on import vocal phrases, such as “That’ll be the day” and
“When I die” but also harmonize with the chord progressions which emphasize the
sevenths and diminished. In contrast, the Beatles’ harmonies are less complex
in comparison to Buddy Holly’s. Paul sings with John on the on the primary
chords which emphasize the use of anacrusis throughout the song. For example, Fig. 3 Paul will sing with John on
“Danger”. At the end of John’s vocal phrase, Paul climbs a minor seventh scale
and attempts an old bluesy “wah-wah” technique in the bridge. Paul’s vocal
harmonies increase the song’s pitch-range with these arpeggios he sings. In the
outro, Fig. 6, John and Paul also
increase the range of the pitch by experimenting with their voices. John goes
much lower than before and Paul goes much higher.
Fig. 6
On the last line of Fig. 6 “to me” is harmonized by Paul, where he scalatically
harmonizes on E until finishing the song on the primary E chord.
Fig. 7
In contrast,
Buddy Holly’s harmonies are detailed and thick in texture with tenor and bass
singers male and female. Fig. 7 shows
how only some areas are sung to create harmonize, the main motif of the
Beatles’ track. The circled “That’ll be the day” shows where all the vocals
sing, and the lines in between, for example: “when you say good-bye” and “when
you make me cry” are followed by ‘aah-ah’s and ‘ooh-oh’s. Much like “In Spite
Of All The Danger”, in “That’ll Be The Day” the vocals harmonies are left out
during the anacrusis to bring a larger emphasis on the actual vocal phrases:
for example in Fig. 5, the circled
“Well” will not have backing vocal harmonies but, as mentioned, in Fig. 7 the circled “that’ll be the day”
will.
The importance
of instruments is also crucial to linking the Beatles' “In Spite Of All The
Danger” to the Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day”. The guitar plays important
roles in both songs, laying down the blues chords in both songs.
By comparing the
two solos of the guitars, Fig. 8 and Fig. 9, we can see that the complexity
and skill requirement is much greater in Buddy’s solo compared to Harrison's.
Where looking at Fig. 8 the solo can
mostly be played on the 6th string on the guitar whereas Buddy’s
range on the guitar is much higher. Harrison’s
solo is played on the blues scale and is a variation of the 12 bar blues, from
the I chord to the IV and ending on V. The melodic phrase of the solo is that
of what was hinted at in the intro. Though both solos use the blues scale,
Buddy Holly’s uses a large complexity with more blues features such as striking
empty strings and muting strings. Because of the slower time signature in the
Beatles’ piece, Harrison’s solo also seems a lot more swung and more orientated
around the chords the background guitar plays. Unlike the Beatles’ piece,
Buddy’s solo also includes a lot more rhythmic features, where around the 6th
tablature down in Fig. 9, Buddy plays
more chords to let the drums play.
The drum-kit in
Buddy’s piece, and fact that the Beatles’ do not even include a drum-kit shows
the ability and larger accessibility Buddy had compared to the early, poor
Beatles. Though this may be true, it is important to see that the Beatles
should not be considered incompetent to the Blues. In “In Spite Of All The
Danger” one can hear the tinkering of a piano in the background, which
importantly follows the chord progression in a bluesy fashion. It is
interesting to see that the rhythmic interest of the drum set in “That’ll Be
The Day” uses an extensive use of the ride symbol—much like in jazz music.
Where the drums in “In Spite Of All The Danger” is too hard to distinguish due
to the quality of the recording—where one can only really recognize the bass
drum on every second beat through out the song. However, rhythmic interest is
nevertheless created through the two guitars and piano. The way the guitars are
strummed give the distinctive beat of the song.
The Bridge follows the verse, beginning with the IV
chord: A. The bridge is also 8 bars long, and is played in a very similar
fashion to that of the verse. However, towards the end of the bridge, all
instruments stop after the B chord in the seventh bar, to emphasize John’s
voice and to call an end to the bridge. Lennon continues to sing the first line
of the third verse, accompanied by the instruments on “danger” in the second
bar. After this verse, an instrumental follows along with a lead guitar solo
from Harrison.
During the solo, the other instruments repeat the
harmonic accompany heard in the verses. The break then continues to the outro,
where a verse is repeated with the addition of the lead guitar repeating the
melody in the solo and the intro to call an ending to the song. Vocals
harmonize scalatically with each other, and the instruments finish the verse
with an I-IV-I chord progression and conclude with E major imperfect cadence.
The song is arguable early Rock ‘n Roll in the United
Kingdom, with large influences from the United States’ Buddy Holly, however one
could also argue that the song would have fit more suitably in the genre of
blues, with George Harrison using the blues scale in his soloing and the I-IV-V
12 bar blues chord progression. One could go even further to argue that the
piece had influences from U.S. Country music—vocal harmonies found similar in
pieces such as “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” by The Tune Wranglers. Whatever this song’s
genre may be, it remains certain that the song did not foreshadow the Beatle’s
talent that would soon to come in the following years. However, Alan W. Pollack
states that at the same time it would be “precipitant to dismiss them as merely
uninteresting or incompetent juvenilia.”[2]
The Beatles were
largely inspired by Buddy Holly and these influences can be see in this early
piece. However, looking at an example of one of Holly’s pieces, such as
“That’ll Be The Day”, one can see that his techniques and musical knowledge is
much more complex and sophisticated that “In Spite Of All The Danger”. Though
the fundamental form of the two songs are both very similar, both with regular
phrase lengths, simple time signature and the extensive use of anacrusis,
common both in the Blues and Beat music.
The
Influence of LSD (change to Minimalism?)
on the music of the Beatles
Focus
Piece: “Tomorrow Never Knows”
Minimalism is a
Western Art genre of the 20th Century that took place in the post
Second World War era. Minimalism was a strong musical movement that had strong
elements of repetition, pulse and the use of taped loops and ostinatos.
On the 6th of April 1966, the Beatles
recorded “Tomorrow Never Knows” on the Revolver LP. The Beatles had confessed
on different occasions to taking the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which, no doubt,
had great influences on their compositions. After nearly a decade after “In
Spite Of All The Danger”, the direction of the Beatles’ music had completely
changed—becoming more flagrant and colourful in terms of style, melody and
harmony.
The piece begins
with an Indian tambura drone in C Major in common time. During the second bar
of the tambura, the percussion enters on a looped tape. The rhythmic
progression is very syncopated and emphasized on the “3+” beat, seen in Fig. 1. Syncopation is also very
dominant in the lead vocals, where anacrusis is used to enable the vocal
progression to syncopated. In Fig. 2,
one can see that “Turn off—” appears syncopated in the end of the third bar:
where “turn” is sung before the C note on the tambura.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Much
like the Beatles, La Monte Young, a minimalist composer from the late 50s, also
uses a drone in some of his works. If we look at “B Flat Dorian Blues”,
performed in 1962, we can hear a drone throughout the entire song. Though the
instrumentation is different to the Beatle’s, the effect of the drone is much
the same. Instead of the Indian Tambura, La Monte Young uses voices and bowed
guitar to create the drone effect. “Dorian Blues” is also an example of
experimentalism in the percussion, where the hand percussion seems chaotic and disorganised much like the saxophone’s melody throughout the piece.
La
Monte Young’s saxophone experimentalism can also be compared to George’s guitar
solo in “Tomorrow Never Knows”. George’s solo is played backwards throughout
the recording, adding to the insanity and surrealism of the piece. Minimalism
also had other strong elements that also appear in the Beatles' music.
Repetition of tape looping was first mastered by Terry Riley at the start of
the 1960s, and is also used in “Tomorrow Never Knows”. Fig. 5 shows a taped loop of George’s solo that is repeated a total
of 11 times towards the end of the song. The seagulls, which appear throughout
“Tomorrow Never Knows” is another example of splicing ‘real-world’ tapes and
looping them into the song. In Terry Riley’s earliest taped looped piece,
“Mescalin Mix”, a similar noise is heard. At around the 4th minute
into the piece[3]
With help from
the anacrusis, the syncopation in the vocals become very separated from the
drone, the drums and the multiple looped tapes of seagulls. This separation
creates many different layers to the homophonic texture of the piece. The piece
then would fall apart if it were not for the underlying bass that holds all the
different elements of the piece together. The bass line, seen in Fig. 3, is very much minimalistic,
staying within the A and C note on the D string for the entire song. The
simplicity of the bass line is very common in minimalism. Where we see in La
Monte Young’s “Dorian Blues” the bass plays with the droned voice with a bow.
La Monte Young’s “Dorian Blues, the percussion contrasts with that of the
Ringo’s rhythm. Where Ringo’s percussion is consistent throughout the piece, La
Monte Young’s is a lot more random and disorganised.
Fig. 3
The surrealism of the piece is also reflected in the small pitch
range of John’s voice. Monotonic almost, John is able to connect tonally with
the drone, while still staying syncopated with it. By looking at Fig. 2 and Fig. 4, one can see the extent of the vocal’s pitch range. In Fig. 2, the vocals hardly stray from the
E note until a small melodic change in the last bar, until ending on an E an
octave lower.
The use of instruments is also very important in the piece. First,
and most recognizably, the tabura used is not only very much Indian, but also
common in neoclassical minimal music. In addition to the neoclassicism, an
ensemble of strings is also used. Though not being played live like in
neoclassicism, the looped taped and distortion of which is remarkably similar
to that in minimalism. As Riley had used in several of his works, the Beatles
repeated real-world sound loops—splicing and distorting them.
An organ is also used on the change of notes, as can be seen in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4, the changes from C to B♭. Guitar and piano
are also used and can be seen as an old link the old “Rock ‘n Roll” style the
Beatles used to play. The guitar solo is played within the blues scale, but yet
the recording of which is warped, twisted and played backwards, which to add to
the surrealism of the piece. The tinkering of the piano at the outro of the
song is another reminder of the early Beatles.
Fig. 4
Fig.
5
It is interesting to note that the
Beatles have a signature to hiding little elements within their songs. For
example in “A Day In The Life” the phrase “sugar plum fairy” is used as a
count-in and an alarm clock is used to switch from the A section to the B
section. In “Tomorrow Never Knows” the Beatles used a single tone directly in
the middle of the song, at 1:28. This tone would have signalled an hour check at
radio-station or phone-station. The absurdity of the Beatles pulled them away
from the typical pop genre and more towards a form of minimalism.
The genre of the Beatles
had definitely changed, yet at the same time they had been able to maintain
certain aspects of themselves through the change. Both new and old features
appear in this piece. George Harrison says that
change is a must and that one doesn’t live without changing. With the change
from mainstream pop, the Beatles' associated themselves more with the
neoclassical minimalism. Some aspects remained, such as syncopation in the drums had been apparent in older songs, along with
the bluesy guitar in the break and Lennon’s singing—which the long triplets
“open your mind…” are very similar to that of Buddy Holly’s “Wishing”. However
the new aspects would also be followed in later songs, like “Revolution
9”—famously composed of taped loops. Although
one can tell that the Beatles were expanding and experimenting they were able
to hold on to what was able to make them so successful in their early years.
The
influence of Indian music on the music of the Beatles
Focus
Piece: “Within Without You”
To
help investigate to what extent the Beatles’ music was influenced by Indian
music, I have taken the piece “Within Without You”, composed by George Harrison
and appeared on the “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” album in 1967. This
piece was chosen because of its dominant use of Indian instruments and
similarities in structure with Indian music.
By
looking at the raga structures of Indian classical music we find that a similar
structure can be found in the Beatles' “Within Without You”. The vadi and
general structure are both present in the Beatles' piece. A raga can be
characterized into three separate segments. The first being alap, where the
soloist plays all the main phrases of the raga with no rhythmic accompaniment.
The alap is for the soloist to bring “all the notes and the mood(s) of the raga
to life”[4]
The second section is the jor. The jor directly translated from Hindi means
‘join’. It brings a rhythmic pulse to the raga and introduces “introduce the
notes of the raga in their musical context”. Finally the jhala, the most
excited part of the raga. With increasingly fast 16 beats the notes of the raga
are “twisted and broken by plucking the chikari[5]
strings”. Fig. 1 shows an example of
a basic rhythmic pattern of the jhala. The ‘c’ indicates where the contra
strings are played, and ‘X’ where stress on the notes is played. In Fig. 1 each line represents 16 beats.
XcccXcccXcccXccc
XccXccXcXccXccXc
XccXccXccXccXcXc
XccXccXcXccXccXc
XccXccXccXccXcXc
Fig. 1 [6]
In
Barun Kumar Pal’s “Raga Desh”[7],
the three characterized segments can be seen in the raga. From the beginning of the piece to 3:46, the
alap is played, without rhythmic accompaniment. At around the 12th
minute the jol segments moves to the jhala, where the piece becomes more
rhythmically active and increases in tempo. The Beatles' “Within Without You”,
though being one third of the length, also has these similarities in its
structure. Though the alap is much shorter, only lasting 22 seconds, it is
significant to note its appearance at all. Though comparing western scales with
Indian ragas prove to differ in complexity, “Within Without You” seems rather
similar to the Mixolydian mode. The Mixolydian mode has a Major third at the
bottom and a flat 7th at the top[8].
This is also shown in Fig. 2 below.
Unlike Kumar
Pal’s “Raga Desh”, “Within Without You” uses three leading melodic instruments:
the Sitar, the Dilruba[9][10]
and George’s vocals. In the introduction, or alap, of “Within Without You”, the
Dilruba plays the leisurely mood of the song accurately with the accompaniment
of a drone in C♯, the melody can be seen in Fig. 4. The sitar is introduced in the 7th bar, as shown in Fig. 3, playing a ascending scale. This
is played just before the tabla begins to play. Alaps are supposed to be spread
over a long period of time—where an entire piece can go on for much longer than
an hour. If we look at another raga by Kumar Pal, “Raga Jog” the tabla only
comes in at the end of the 24th minute.[11]
To effectively explore every aspect of mood and notation of the raga, it is no
surprise that the alap usually goes on for so long. However, “Within Without
You” only has a few seconds to explore this movement, most likely because of
the impossibility of putting an hour-long track on the “Sgt. Pepper” album.
Fig. 4
This dilruba’s
melody is also used is repeated often in the jhala segment of the piece, after
the introduction of the tabla, at 0:23. However, George’s vocals add an extra
layer to the piece, singing in unison to the melody of the dilruba. The melodic
idea is repeated throughout the song.
Though the
instrumentation of the piece seems very Indian classical—with no other
percussion accompaniment than the table, traditional instruments such as the
sitar and dilruba—the piece does include western instruments. A string
orchestra can be heard first at 1:12, where the jhala would begin. The strings,
not only a strong western art influence, give a thicker homophonic texture to
the piece as well as giving countermelodies and imitating phrases from the
melodies of George and the dilruba. The melody the strings is a repetition seen
in Fig. 4.
According to
jhala, the raga should become more excited and dramatic. This is created
through several steps taking by different elements within the song. Once the
strings have made their first appearance, the cello develops a bass line with
harsher and more frequent bows of the strings.
Seen below in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5
Though the strings are a western influence of
the song, the way they are played is very much influenced by Indian classical
music. Sliding on the strings and Indian ornamentations occur frequently in the
string ensemble. This is a key feature of Indian influence on western
instruments. One could argue that George’s voice is used in very much the same
way. Other western features occur in the song such as a change in the tala of
the tabla, where it slows down at 1:50 and 2:20—in the jhala the tala of tabla
would only speed up to create excitement towards the end of the piece.
It
is clear to see the Indian classical influence within “Within Without You” The
instrumentation and ornamentation of the western string ensemble create a
vibrant Indian feel to the song. Though the structure could be argued to have
been very western—with an intro, verse, chorus, refrain and outro—they can also
be grouped together as parts of a raga—alap, jol, jhala.
[1] http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/in-spite-of-all-the-danger/
[2] http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/shellac.shtml#q2
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYqp-VD07lo
[4] http://india.tilos.hu/english_ragarend.html
[5] chikari,
contra strings of the sitar, by the help of which the musical space can be
filled, the chikari is also used to create the characteristic rhythm the jor
and closing jhala
[7] “Raga
Desh - Alap & Gat in Ektal” by Barun Kumar Pal in “Ragas On Hansa Veena”
[9]
“Dilruba is a cross between the sitar and sarangi. The difference is to be
found in the shape of the resonators and the manner in which the sympathetic
strings attach.” http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/dilruba.html
[10] http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/awp/wywy.html:
“a leisurely exposition by the dilruba of one of the main arch-shaped melodic riffs
of the song”
[11] “Raga Jog - Alap & Gat in Teental“ Barun
Kumar Pal in “Ragas On Hansa Veena”
Research
Question: “Comparing the Sgt. Pepper
album cover artwork to two other famous album covers (David Bowie and The
Rolling Stones), all released in June of 1967, but also in general; what made
the Beatles album cover an artistic revolution?”
-->
EXTENDED
ESSAY
Second
Draft
Title:
Research
Question: “Comparing the Sgt. Pepper
album cover artwork to two other famous album covers (David Bowie and The
Rolling Stones), all released in June of 1967, but also in general; what made
the Beatles album cover an artistic revolution?”
Four young men from the United
Kingdom conquer the musical world in no time, leaving a trail of creativity,
dreams and causing revolution. One of the most reputable art works of the late
60’s was the artwork album cover for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,
which was released on the first of June in 1967.
Its not only reflecting the Beatles music but
also altered state of mind at that time. It contributed to the revolutionary
change and replaced the poor attempts of art on the usual album covers, and
immediately set a trend in the art and music industry. But what, except for the
concept of being creative and original, were the essential ingredients to the
success of this astonishingly unusual album cover?
By comparing the Beatles Sgt. Pepper
album cover artwork to two other albums released in the same month, one by
David Bowie and the other by the Rolling Stones, I want to identify and be able
to point out the tricks, illusions and artistic influences which played a
crucial role in the Sgt. Pepper albums way to climb the throne of artistic
revolution.
Colour, symbolism and juxtaposition
are all vital components of the sensation that has given album covers a new
meaning, yet the main part of the magical transformation from packaging to
meaningful art yet remains a mystery. ==Expand introduction by adding more
details about how album covers ‘started’ and how they used to be, include size
shape and measurements; inside sleeve; the back; usually only image of artist
portrayed on front. ‘Keiner tanzt aus der Reihe, alles nach Reih und Glied da
das wichtige nur die Musik war und nicht wie sie verpackt wurde.’ An idea
triggering a monumental change in the art and music industry, as well as
marketing and advertising agencies. David Bowie’s album, with the same title as
his name, was released on the first of June in 1967, the same day as Sgt.
Pepper. This is a perfect example of the ordinary album cover designs which
were flooding the record shops.
(example of ordinary album covers in 1969)
Even though his
genre was pop and folk-rock, his album cover artwork did not display a single
hint to this, only an image of himself on a simple green background. In plain
blue font (typical and ordinary 60s style font) his name was displayed which at
the same time was the album title, not awakening any creative senses of the
potential buyer.
“Flowers” by the Rolling Stones was
also released in June, to be precise on the 26th. Its genre is rock,
but the attempt of trying to display and convey that on the album cover is
poorly done. The so called art work consists of their five faces, each
separately blooming like a flower out of the yellow middle. The flowers are red
and yellow, and effort was wasted on trying to make it look psychedelic. The
font used to spell out “flowers”, which also is the only spelling on the cover,
reminds strongly of Jimmy Hendrix.
The title of this album refers to the album
cover, exactly the opposite of the Beatles album cover that displays the Sgt.
Pepper band and is based upon such ideas. The artwork on this particular album
cover is by Nicole Monea, Patricia Sheppard, Lenne Allik and Tom Wilked.
Of course, a revolutionary piece of
art does not happen by itself, therefore the brain behind the album cover
artwork is a foundation stone which can eventually lead to the mystery of its
success. The amount of time, effort and money spent into this project should
never be underestimated – (actual amount 3 times more than first three albums
together) and the numerous people playing a role in its production. The actual
album cover artwork for Sgt. Pepper was designed by Peter Blake and his wife
and artistic partner Jann Haworth. The art direction was lead by Robert Fraser,
who was a friend of Paul’s and therefore was able to get him and Peter Blake in
touch. The man who actually captured the wild collage was Michael Cooper, the
set for Sgt. Pepper consisting of numerous life sized cardboard models, was put
up in his photography studio for almost three weeks. As mentioned before,
mystery plays an important part in this albums success route shooting through
the roof. (first best album of the year grammy award winning) The colourful
costumes worn by the Beatles on the cover are custom made military style
outfits made out of satin which was dyed in day-glo colours. This extravagant
creation was designed and produced by Manuel Cuevas. Because the name of the
album was supposed to ‘make fun’ of the uselessly long names of some bands, the
setting was supposed to be of the Sgt. Peppers band just finishing a concert.
Of course the Beatles were allowed to choose whom they wanted to have in their
‘crowd’ on the album cover. George, Paul and John all made lists (Peter too for
funsies) of the people they had wanted to see in the crowd. Ringo was content
with the people the others chose and therefore was acting rather passive and
not even creating his own list of heroes, idols, anybody he wanted to see on
the cover since he had no particular wishes. This also ties in with him joining
the band late and not really having anything to do with this particular topic. Because
of copyrights and to avoid any legal complications, all living people which
were chosen by the band were asked permission for using their picture on the
album cover. Mae West refused at first to allow the Beatles to use her picture
for the album cover, but after the Beatles wrote letter a personal letter, she
agreed. Supposedly as a joke, John wanted Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and
Jesus Christ. (previous happenings which stirred up the crowd – Lennon’s
comment about the Beatles being “bigger than Jesus” .. decided against
including Jesus). A lot of mystery has been put into this album cover by the
buyers and fans themselves, by telling stories and spreading rumours which were
made out of thin air. Such mystical stories included the “Paul is dead scare”
where people supposedly found many clues on the cover to Paul’s death –
example: hand sticking out above Paul’s head omen of death, him being taller
than the rest, some arrow you can find by placing a mirror on the cover which
will then point directly at McCartney. Also, Paul is wearing an OPP badge, which
stands for Ontario Provincial Police, on his right sleeve. Of course this was a
chance the marketing advisors took, as it was a fantastic strategy to get more
people to purchase the album.
Apparently
the flowers spell out “Paul”
In
this picture, people believe that it looks like Paul is being held up my John
and George, being propped up since he is deceased. Also, he is in the foetal
position which is how Indians bury their dead.
In
the back cover of the album, of the four Beatles only Paul has his back to the
camera. Notice also that the braids on the other three Beatles are no on their
left sides, whereas on the front the braids were on the right. These braids
have been consciously changed as wearing them on the left side is part of the
military funeral dress code in England.
On
this picture, George appears to be pointing at the words “Wednesday morning at
five o’clock as the day begins”, which was supposed to have been the time of
Paul’s fatal accident.
Before Fraser actually got into
touch with Peter Blake about this project, he urged the Beatles to abandon
their first album cover design by “The Fool” which was a psychedelic painting.
The whole concept
of the cover was rearranged and improved, but in the end they did use The
Fool’s designs for the inner sleeve for the first few pressings.
At first the cover was supposed to display the
Beatles, as the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band performing in a park. This
idea was altered by more influences and brainstorming which developed into the
idea of the Beatles as the Sgt. Pepper band being surrounded by a crowd which
consists of their heroes, idols or important people in their lives.
Even their own wax
figures were included because to them, this represented freedom of creativity
and speech, and that it is possible to be anyone you desire to be.
Flowers spell out the word BEATLES
on the front cover of the album, therefore staying within the barriers of the
park concept. The plants in the arrangement were often thought out to be
cannabis plants, a statement made my many people who jumped to conclusion far
too quickly only associating the explosion of colours and ideas with the drug
background of the Beatles. The cover receives a personal touch by having some
of John’s and George’s belongings placed in the arrangement. On George’s left side, at the very edge of
the scene, a Shirley Temple doll is visible wearing a sweater (rolling stones)
(favour returned in their satanic majesties request). The drum placed in front
of Paul and Ringo’s feet was painted by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave, this
hand-painted drum skin was sold at Christie’s House in London in July of 2008
(10th) for 541,250 pounds which are approximately 1,071,000 US
dollars. This set a record for Beatles auctions, a non-lyrics Beatles
memorabilia. The large collage itself is filled with special personalities
until the rim of the cover, more than 70 famous people including musicians,
movie starts, writers and even Indian gurus which were listed on George’s list.
Due to EMI’s fear of causing offence in India, Mahatma Gandhi was later removed
from the crowd. Brian Epstein (Beatles manager) did not approve of the Sgt.
Pepper album cover design – brown bag incident last wish. It was designed to be
a gatefold album cover which meant that it would open up like a book and reveal
the picture of them four sitting in their satin costumes against a contrasting
yellow background. (compare to light blue background on the front – symbolism?)
The gatefold was originally made for two LPs, and they had already been sent
and printed when they realized that they did not have enough material for two
LPs. Many extras and goodies were planned to be included in the album, but they
figured it would become too expensive (more than it already was which was very
unusual) therefore they decided on the cardboard cutouts.
(here include Paul
and John Liverpool memory of 30 minute bus ride only to go to record store and
read every letter and word on the cover on the way home, examine it – part of
the experience). The cardboard cutouts
included a mustache, a picture card, stripes, badges and stand up. Total amount of money spent on cover 2,868 5s
3d pounds which is equal to about 38,823 pounds today, which was a very large
sum of money back then. “quote belmo; most creative piece of concept art ever
designed for a record”.
This is a picture showing the
“goodies” that were included in the original few printings of the album