# It was 40 years ago today... Favorite/least favorite Sgt. Pepper tracks **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419 "2007-06-01T22:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/21 "2007-06-02T02:08:04Z")
Favorite. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Least favorite. A Day in The Life. For some reason, this song has never done it for me. Within You, Without You would have been my least favorite the first 100 times I listened to the album. The song is such a period piece, so I’ll now place it as my second least favorite on the album. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/22 "2007-06-02T02:27:40Z")
I have two _Sgt. Pepper’s_ albums; the Beatles one and the Big Daddy one. _ **L** ucy in the **S** ky with **D** iamonds_ is my favorite on the Beatles’ version and my least favorite on Big Daddy’s. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/23 "2007-06-02T02:46:29Z")
Weren’t they the first band to have backward masking? Maybe first rock band to have a “song suite” on an album? And of course, first band to secretly have a dead member replaced with a lookalike impostor ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/24 "2007-06-02T03:10:24Z")
Favorites: _When I’m Sixty-Four, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, With a Little Help From My Friends, She’s Leaving Home_. That last one has special meaning to me because it reminds me of a friend who ran away from home on her 18th birthday. ☹ Least favorite: _Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite_ ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/25 "2007-06-02T04:18:57Z")
I used to really not like _Within You, Without You_, but it grew on me (this was around college when I started really getting into George’s songs) and I’d have to say it’s in a three-way tie for my favorite on the album - the other ones are _Lovely Rita_, a great garage-sounding track, and _Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite_. I’ve always really liked that song. It’s novelty, yes, but it has a certain edge to it that I like. I still like _When I’m Sixty-Four_, but it’s starting to remind me of the schmaltzier songs that Paul went on to record with Wings…_Silly Love Songs_, etc. IMHO, _She’s Leaving Home_ sounds the most out of place on the album - classical instrumentation (harp and all), no drum beat, and just downright depressing. Pretty much everything else on the album is either more upbeat or has nice percussion. But I’d leave that track off. ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/26 "2007-06-02T04:29:08Z")
_A Day In the Life_ is the clear top for me. One of my favorite songs ever. _She’s Leaving Home_ is the lowest point of the album for me, but even so it’s not terrible. And I actually don’t think that the album has aged terribly badly. I’m only 17 years old, so I wasn’t around back in the ol’ days when it was released, but even the first time I heard it I was blown away. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/27 "2007-06-02T04:33:09Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo] IMHO, _She’s Leaving Home_ sounds the most out of place on the album - classical instrumentation (harp and all), no drum beat, and just downright depressing. [/QUOTE] The only way that song could’ve been any more of a downer is if George wrote it. 🙂 However if George had written it, it would’ve been neither syrupy nor a ballad. Oh Paul… ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/28 "2007-06-02T05:35:04Z")
“Within You Without You” defines it for me. That’s what made me sit up and take notice. That was just a little before my 24th birthday. Now I’m about to turn **64**. :eek: Yep. The numbers still work out. I’m me. And when I listen to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” I still think of the images from **Yellow Submarine**. Did that ever come out on DVD? Least favorite? “Fixing a Hole.” But I don’t dislike it. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/29 "2007-06-02T06:01:57Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] There was one, but it seems to have disappeared. 😕 [/QUOTE] Very odd. I blame it on the person in that thread who pointed out that, since it was already 20 years ago today when the album was released, now that it is 40 years ago today it is actually 60 years ago today, thereby causing the entire thread to vanish into a chronodimensional paradox. Personally, I prefer to celebrate the album’s _American_ release, which coincided with my 11th birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/30 "2007-06-02T06:12:14Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] And when I listen to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” I still think of the images from **Yellow Submarine**. Did that ever come out on DVD? [/QUOTE] **Yellow Submarine** was released on DVD, but has since gone out-of-print, unfortunately. The second-hand copies on sites like Amazon are a bit pricey, too ☹ Hopefully it will get a special edition DVD treatment like **A Hard Day’s Night** did in the near future. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/31 "2007-06-02T06:20:45Z")
My favorite is A Day in the Life As for my least favorite, it depends on my mood. There are some songs like _When I’m Sixty-Four_ and _She’s Leaving Home_ that I enjoy sometimes but am annoyed by at other times. I first heard it about four years ago when I was 16 and thought it was terribly dated. I guess I still do, but am mostly able to get past it. For a lot of it I have to listen to it in an appreciative Old Music mindset, something I don’t have to do with most of their other albums. When we hooked up our big speakers a few years ago and I listened to the album on them with the volume cranked up I wasn’t able to handle it. It was a genuinely frightening experience, similar to what I imagine a bad acid trip would be like. I don’t know what happened there, but I might have had other stuff going on at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/32 "2007-06-02T07:18:15Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Very odd. I blame it on the person in that thread who pointed out that, since it was already 20 years ago today when the album was released, now that it is 40 years ago today it is actually 60 years ago today, thereby causing the entire thread to vanish into a chronodimensional paradox. [/QUOTE] Sorry. I also do that 20 years from now, so I should apologize in advance. :smack: I’ll risk the demise of this thread by saying I like Within You Without You. When I went to college, I saw a band recreate Pepper note for note with full instrumentation, and that was the song that stood out. My least favorite could be Mr. Kite or Good Morning Good Morning. If you replaced those songs with Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, I think you have an album as good as Abbey Road. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/33 "2007-06-02T08:52:32Z")
It seems like there’s not much love for _Good Morning, Good Morning._ Now that I think about it, _Lovely Rita_ might actually be my favorite track, but I’m curious as to _why_ so many of you dislike the former song. If you can’t explain it, that’s fine, but it seems like we’re all music people here, so I’m sure you could identify certain things about the song that cause you to not like it. Or, rather, let me explain why I like _Good Morning, Good Morning._ [ul] [li]Uncharacteristically dark opening line: “Nothing to do to save his life, call his wife in.” In other words, a patient has died, and the doctor is acting callously about it (“Nothing to say, but what a day, how’s your boy been?”) Just another day at work. One of only five Beatles songs I can think of that reference death in any way. _Maxwell’s Silver Hammer_, _Yer Blues,_ _Rocky Raccoon_ and _Taxman_are the other four[/li][li]Powerful, aggressive horn lines behind verses - similar to _Savoy Truffle_, another one of my favorite Beatles songs.[/li][li]Interesting time-signature change for the mini-bridge ("Everybody knows there’s nothing doing…) during which the beat is subdivided into 3/4 time on the hi-hat cymbal.[/li][li]A short but effective guitar solo incorporating (I think) an Indian-style scale.[/li][li]Unorthodox and slightly jarring use of animal sounds at the fade-out, including chicken cluck that morphs into a note on the guitar for the segue into the _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ reprise at the end.[/li][/ul] I think the track fits perfectly into the album, and represents a creative use of musical techniques. I also kind of like the clarinet choir on _When I’m Sixty-Four,_ although I admit it’s kind of a silly song. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/34 "2007-06-02T09:14:43Z")
Upon opening this thread I expected _Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds_ to be the runaway favorite. I’m more than a little surprised to see it favorited so few times at this point. It’s certainly the most quintessential song of the album for me, I love it. Strangely, I’ve always disliked that reprise of Sgt. Peppers. Just why? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/35 "2007-06-02T09:48:03Z")
[QUOTE=Omniscient] Strangely, I’ve always disliked that reprise of Sgt. Peppers. Just why? [/QUOTE] I never liked it much either, but as my friend pointed out one time (when we were both very stoned and listening to the album,) the opening drum beat of the reprise sounds very before-its-time - almost like a hip-hop beat. Listen for it, you’ll know what I mean. ---
**Author:** ![GuyNblueJeans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@GuyNblueJeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuyNblueJeans)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/36 "2007-06-02T16:53:20Z")
Sgt. Pepper’s was one of two albums that when I listened to it for the first couple of times, I didn’t get it. But then on the third listen, I GOT IT. This odd event also happened with CSN&Y’s De Ja Vu album. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/37 "2007-06-02T17:24:59Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] It was twenty years ago today that it was twenty years ago today. [/QUOTE] I’m a day late, but twenty years ago yesterday (June 1, 1987), the city of Toronto put on a free show of Beatlemania in Nathan Phillips Square to celebrate the fact that “it was twenty years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.” I was at that show and remember it quite well; it’s hard to believe that it was twenty years ago yesterday. Even harder to believe that the album is 40. And so, I’m even older! :eek: Anyway, my favourite from the album has to be “A Day in the Life.” So many different musical styles, but they work together; and that great huge orchestral crescendo and fade at the end. This one hasn’t, IMHO, gotten old; it remains fresh to this day. My least favourite? “Within You Without You.” Sitars and the Indian mysticism that George Harrison (and the other Beatles, but it’s George’s song) were into at the time just didn’t seem to translate well over the years. This song dates the album as a product of the groovy, psychedelic, mystical 60s; but while interesting from a music history perspective, the song is not (again, IMHO) very influential today. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/38 "2007-06-02T20:55:31Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo] **Yellow Submarine** was released on DVD, but has since gone out-of-print, unfortunately. The second-hand copies on sites like Amazon are a bit pricey, too ☹ [/QUOTE] NetFlix has it readily available, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/39 "2007-06-02T21:01:38Z")
Having listened to it again yesterday, my favorite is the triple punch of “Good Morning,” the reprise, and “Day in the Life”. I like Ringo’s drumming in the reprise better than just about any track he did. Listening to the end of Day in the Life again, I really got Timothy Leary’s comment, which I quoted in the other thread, after hearing Sgt. Peppers for the first time: “Well, my work here is done.” Worst: “She’s Leaving Home” is just treacle. Perhaps if I were a downtrodden teenager I would like it better, but I didn’t much care for it when I first heard it back when I was a not so downtrodden teenager. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419/40 "2007-06-02T23:09:53Z")
[QUOTE=Intravenus De Milo] **Yellow Submarine** was released on DVD, but has since gone out-of-print, unfortunately. The second-hand copies on sites like Amazon are a bit pricey, too ☹ [/QUOTE] I’m shocked! I had no idea this had been allowed to go out of print. It was such a high-profile release less than eight years ago, with a _massive_ promotional push (I still have my inflatable yellow sub from the Wherehouse) and probably as many merchandising tie-ins as there were for the original theatrical release (and that was a helluva lot). It’s bad enough that **Help!** was only in print on DVD for about ten minutes and is still awaiting a proper reissue job. Damn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-40-years-ago-today-favorite-least-favorite-sgt-pepper-tracks/406419.md?page=3)