50 years later Sgt Pepper still rocks

– Fifty years ago, The Beatles transformed from floppy-haired boy wonders who wanted to hold your hand to abstruse philosophers whose vision spanned civilisations – and the effect is still being felt.

Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been called the original concept album and even the greatest album of all time.

Either way, its release half a century ago represented a landmark in music history, with stars once focused on churning out radio-friendly singles newly imagining albums as intricate pieces of art.

The anniversary of the album, which came out on June 2, 1967, in the US shortly after its British release, has set off a revival of Sgt Pepper, which will include weekend commemorations in The Beatles’s native Liverpool.

A reissued edition, with a dynamic mix by the son of Beatles producer George Martin, is forecast to top the next weekly chart in Britain, where Sgt Pepper was the third top-selling album ever.

“We were always being told, ‘You’re gonna lose all your fans with this one,’” Paul McCartney, the driving force behind the album, told British magazine Mojo for the anniversary.

“And we’d say, ‘Well, we’ll lose some but we’ll gain some. We’ve gotta advance,’” he said.

The album was rooted in a subtle irony. The Beatles, the quintessential pop foursome, performed in character as another, fictional band – “We’re Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/We hope you will enjoy the show,” the opening track declares.

The album was recorded over a then unthinkable five months as Martin made use of early mixing equipment.

Many fans saw hidden meanings in the songs, such as seeing LSD in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The quest for secrets was not entirely off the mark, with McCartney later revealing the album featured a dog whistle inaudible to humans. – AFP