How, or why, is "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ considered a theme album?
What’s the theme? All I see is a refrain regarding the original “Sargent’s Pepper” song near the end. And this somehow makes it a theme album?
Why did this album receive so many accolades as being a “theme” album?
Well, it was originally meant to be more themed than it ended up being. EMI needed a Christmas single, and in those days singles didn’t appear on albums, so the first two songs written for Sgt. Pepper - Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane - were used. It was supposed to be about the Beatles memories of Liverpool. I think they quickly gave up on the idea of theming, just retaining the two Sgt Pepper songs.
Next year (1968), the Pretty Things brought out S F Sorrow (arguably the first genuinely themed album), people got interested in themes (very arty, you see), and Sgt Pepper got thrown in with the genre. I don’t remember anyone (myself included) in June 1967 being particularly aware of a theme.
I suspect **Biffy ** will be in here soon to elaborate (and is **fishbicycle ** around anymore? Man, he knows his Beatles)
To my knowledge, it was a concept/story album…in concept only. Paul wanted to pursue the Sgt. Pepper’s idea (i.e., have the Fabs be another band) and the album was constructed with an intro and outro to frame them as a different band and lead into Ringo singing as Billy Shears, but at best, you can really only consider the songs as unrelated songs sung by “Sgt. Pepper & band.” But even that doesn’t hold, since they make no attempt to maintain the “live concert” feel past the first bit. You can poke at it, but there’s nothing there to string things along or tell a story. Heck, **Ziggy Stardust ** has more arc.
Regardless, it is widely considered to be the album that forced rock music over into the “legitimate art form, not just commercial pap/pop” category in the public consciousness and elevated the **album **as the artistic unit over the single.
The term is usually “concept album,” but there’s a quote from John somewhere about how it was only received as a concept album because that’s what the Beatles said it was. I think the idea of pretending to be another band was Paul’s and the others just sort of started ignoring it as time went on. Only three songs really sound like the Sgt. Pepper’s band, stuff like “Lucy in the Sky” and “A Day in the Life” or “Within You Without You” is absolutely the Beatles. So there isn’t much to that aspect of it.
But there are still little things that link the individual tracks together, and that contributes a lot to the concept album view.
As a slight hijack, has any concept album ever completely stuck to the concept throughout the entire album? I’m sure some have, but I’m not a big prog-rock fan and have serious knowledge gaps in that area.
The Wu-Tang Clan usually stuck to their Kung Fu or “ghetto-mafioso” themes.
FYI - I think that’s the movie trailer for that bad film version - sound can start up right away. Not good at work.
Now there’s a flick we were trying to forget, and you had to bring it up.
Good question, but one big enough to warrant its own thread, IMHO.
But, for starters, the aforementioned S F Sorrow had a coherent story of a man’s life.
The main trouble with this is how broad the theme is allowed to be. Pink Floyd have many contenders including Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, but the concept is a mood or feeling: lunacy and being absent. Do they count, or are you looking for albums that tell a story?
Sorry about not warning about video.
I actually like some of the covers in that movie more than the Beatles versions.
Sure - plenty have. I haven’t reviewed all lyrics in detail for compliance, but The Wall, Operation Mindcrime, 2112 and tons of others. Heck, **Tommy ** as a Rock Opera is a form of concept album and it is consistent…
But a concept is a slippery thing. Dude, you of all people
[obscure, guilty-pleasure 70’s U.S. glam-rock moment]
I mean, **Violation by Starz ** is a concept album, with Subway Terror, Violation and a few others inspired by A Clockwork Orange. But Cherry or Cool One? They have nothing to do the concept…
[/obscure, guilty-pleasure 70’s U.S. glam-rock moment]
Tommy and Quadrophrenia, depending on how you define it.
Layla (about Clapton’s love/affair with Patty Harrison).
Arthur, Preservation Act I, Preservation Act II, Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-go-Round, Muswill Hillbillies, Soap Opera, Schoolboys in Disgrace, and probably even Low Budget by the Kinks. Lola vs. Powerman and the Money-Go-Round is the most successful – the story of a rock music group and its trial, successes and tribulations.
Props for the Starz 
I think Cherry Baby had the lines “When the Master, he has locked the gates”, etc…, so it fit, but some of the stuff on that album was earlier material that was refitted to the concept (Rock Six Times used to be called “Do It With The Lights On”) [/Starz geekery]
Also, the second side of 2112 isn’t part of the Anthem-aping concept, although maybe *Passage to Bangkok * could be a post-liberation sequel (Equality 7-2521’s Dope Tour!).
I’d say perhaps there’s a difference between adherence to concept and one-trick-ponyism, but I’ll leave that debate for another time…
You’re scaring me, dude.
Yeah, sometimes I think that the sectors of my brain occupied with that sort of thing would be better utilized formulating my plans for world domination, but have yet to be able to figure out how to do that.
Subliminal suggestions under the tracks of a theme album, obviously.
By Jove, I think you’ve got something!
OK, Leaffan, I’m very sorry for the hijacking. What I’ve read from various sources, including the Spitz book, was that they started out with a view to make it a concept album, but it didn’t really “come together” (sorry) that way.
Days of Future Passed, released by The Moody Blues in 1967 traces a day in the life of everyman, from dawn until night:
Re: Days of Future Passed.
This is where I think it gets a bit nebulous. There’s no story as such. It’s just a sequence of songs with titles reflecting the time of day.
I took (hijacking) OP to mean something with a plot. And they are thin on the ground.