# A Day In The Life- The Beatles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726 "2005-09-08T22:13:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/21 "2005-09-09T19:54:51Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I think what Sgt. Pepper did was get the public - at the time - to accept the concept of the Album as a full-length statement and to really embrace psychedelia as crossing over into the mainstream. The fact that it bounces around was - at the time, near as I can tell - seen as part of that, not as laziness or randomness. Other conceptual CD’s that have come along since do a better job of consciously using cuts, interstitials, etc. make the work of art seem whole. YMMV. There’s a very telling quote of John Lenon’s, it might be from the Playboy interview, I’d have to check, in which he kind of deflates the whole Sgt.-Pepper’s-was-an-act-of-God assessment among rock critics. The thrust of the idea of this “other” band being played by the Beatles (Billy Shears, etc.) was apparently Paul’s, primarily, and Lennon was only semi-taken with it. John points out that the whole thing collapses as soon as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” kicks in. . . by the third song, in other words. But it maintained itself throughout the album, to quote Lennon, “because we said it did.” Such was the power of the Beatles at their peak. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/22 "2005-09-09T19:58:29Z")
> [@Mal Adroit](#): > > There’s a very telling quote of John Lenon’s, it might be from the Playboy interview, I’d have to check, in which he kind of deflates the whole Sgt.-Pepper’s-was-an-act-of-God assessment among rock critics. The thrust of the idea of this “other” band being played by the Beatles (Billy Shears, etc.) was apparently Paul’s, primarily, and Lennon was only semi-taken with it. John points out that the whole thing collapses as soon as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” kicks in. . . by the third song, in other words. But it maintained itself throughout the album, to quote Lennon, “because we said it did.” Such was the power of the Beatles at their peak. Yep - it was in the Playboy interviews, but I think he said it elsewhere, too. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/23 "2005-09-09T20:10:45Z")
A slight hijack, but I feel compelled to point out a funny quote from the Playboy interview linked above: ONO: _When John and I would go out, people would come up and say, “John, what are you doing?” but they never asked about me, because, as a woman, I wasn’t supposed to be doing anything._ Uh, Yoko…you think it’s because you’re a “woman” that nobody is asking what you’ve been up to? Yeah, yeah…that _must_ be it. You’re standing next to John frickin’ Lennon and you can’t understand why nobody bothers to ask about _your_ music? I have to say, that’s pretty funny… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/24 "2005-09-09T21:11:34Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Uh, Yoko…you think it’s because you’re a “woman” that nobody is asking what you’ve been up to? Yeah, yeah…that _must_ be it. You’re standing next to John frickin’ Lennon and you can’t understand why nobody bothers to ask about _your_ music? Sounds more like nobody would ask “how are you,” which is a little rude. Still, the reason is pretty much the same. I do think it’s worth keeping in mind that Yoko experienced some real bigotry and undeserved loathing (I say undeserved to differentiate it from the _deserved_ loathing of her music), so comments like that have a real-world foundation. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/25 "2005-09-09T21:24:00Z")
Having read various and sundry articles on the Beatles, during the recording of Sgt Pepper, many of the songs were incomplete. As I heard it, they were trying to merge the words 4,000 holes and Albert Hall and then someone like Mal Evans thought “fill”. Spt Pepper had a basic theme to it. People forget that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields had been destined to be on this album but was released separately. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/26 "2005-09-10T00:17:51Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Having read various and sundry articles on the Beatles, during the recording of Sgt Pepper, many of the songs were incomplete. As I heard it, they were trying to merge the words 4,000 holes and Albert Hall and then someone like Mal Evans thought “fill”. > > Spt Pepper had a basic theme to it. People forget that Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields had been destined to be on this album but was released separately. Wrong - on at least three fronts: - Penny Lane and Strawberry Field were written to be singles, period. That’s how it was back then: you wrote and released singles as teasers, but did not include them on the album - or, at least, that’s how the Beatles did it. Read Lewisohn’s Complete Abby Road Recordings and he explains it. The fact that those two singles were included on Magical Mystery Tour in the U.S. is a tangled story involving the complex differences between the U.K. and U.S. record label preferences. - Even if they were intended to be on Sgt Pepper (which they weren’t) Strawberry Field was written by Lennon, who was in no way bought into any sort of Sgt. Pepper theme. He wrote the song because he wanted to - it was part of his move into experimentation with tone-poem type of writing, where the words are meant to evoke a mood as much (or more) than they are meant to mean anything. - When you get down to it, there is no “theme” to Sgt Pepper. Paul was worried that: a) there was nowhere to take the Beatles for a next step; b) he was aware of the psychedelic trend in SF and other places that involved long names like Quicksilver Messenger Service; and c) he was worried that people might not be willing to accept the Beatles going that way. So…he thought “why not act like we’re a completely different band?” and that’s where the idea came from. But other than the intro, the Billy Shears song and the outro, there is no coherence to any " Sgt Peppers" - unless you want to say “oh, the reason these songs are kinda all over the place is because they are being performed by a psychedelic band - Sgt Peppers…” That’s about it. My $.02 ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/27 "2005-09-10T01:03:08Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Wrong - on at least three fronts: I would say partly wrong. The original concept for the album was songs about their childhood in Liverpool. Both Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane fit this. Later, obviously the concept changed. From the Beatles Anthology: > [@](#): > > George Martin: We started off with ‘Strawberry Fields’, and then we recorded "When I’m Sixty-Four’ and ‘Penny Lane’. They were all intended for the next album. > > … > > George Harrison: The only reason that ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Penny Lane’ didn’t go onto the new album was a feeling that if we issued a single, it shouldn’t go onto the album. The was a crazy idea, and I was partly responsible. It’s nonsense these days, but in those days it was an aspect that we’d try to give the public value for money. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/28 "2005-09-10T03:25:29Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > - Penny Lane and Strawberry Field were written to be singles, period. Wrong. By January 1967, Capitol was putting increasing pressure on the Beatles to give them new material to release; the last new Beatles material had been _Revolver_ and “Paperback Writer/Rain” from August of 1966. So the Beatles gave them what they had in the can, which happened to be “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane.” George Martin, for one, said he always regretted the decision. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726/29 "2005-09-10T20:13:21Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Wrong. By January 1967, Capitol was putting increasing pressure on the Beatles to give them new material to release; the last new Beatles material had been _Revolver_ and “Paperback Writer/Rain” from August of 1966. So the Beatles gave them what they had in the can, which happened to be “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane.” George Martin, for one, said he always regretted the decision. Good stuff - thanks for setting the record straight. Knowing that they were only released in the UK as singles and knowing that the Beatles did not include singles on their albums, I incorrectly assumed that was their intent. **Petey** - I didn’t know that and am a little suspect, but will certainly do research IRL to find out more about this. It seems to fly in the face of Lennon not playing along. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-in-the-life-the-beatles/320726.md?page=1)