# Sgt. Pepper's - What's the "audience" laughing at? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2011, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091 "2011-09-21T17:53:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [September 22, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/21 "2011-09-22T22:27:45Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Then why wasn’t it Sergeant Shears’ Lonely Hearts Club Band? The same reason Manfred Mann wasn’t called Paul Jones? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/22 "2011-09-22T22:55:00Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Wasn’t he the leader/ front man of the Lonely Hearts Club band? No, he’s the singer. In pre-rock-era 1947, you cannot assume that the vocalist is the bandleader. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/23 "2011-09-22T22:59:26Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > The same reason Manfred Mann wasn’t called Paul Jones? I don’t know who that is. But I was mostly joking anyway. I guess I didn’t realize they were singing about an _actual_ band. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/24 "2011-09-22T23:00:38Z")
I always pictured Billy Shears as the “Special Guest Vocalist” at that afternoon’s concert. he wasn’t part of the band, but they were backing him for this very special event. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/25 "2011-09-22T23:21:46Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I don’t know who that is. But I was mostly joking anyway. Manfred Mann was a '60s rock band–like the Beatles, one of the British Invasion bands. Manfred Mann himself was the keyboard player and leader, but Paul Jones was the (original) front man/singer. From one of their songs: _Manfred Mann plays the organ Mike Vickers plays guitar And there’s a geezer called Paul Who’s so thin and so tall And sure wants to be a star._ ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/26 "2011-09-22T23:59:22Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I just assumed it was because Ringo is the lead singer. I like this answer. I imagine the audience is thinking “Hmm - Billy Shears - I wonder what he sounds like - oh fuck, it’s Ringo LOL” ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/27 "2011-09-23T01:23:24Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > No, he’s the singer. In pre-rock-era 1947, you cannot assume that the vocalist is the bandleader. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/28 "2011-09-23T13:19:56Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I always pictured Billy Shears as the “Special Guest Vocalist” at that afternoon’s concert. he wasn’t part of the band, but they were backing him for this very special event. For some reason, I’ve always heard “the one and only Billy Shears, of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” But the lyrics sites seem to agree that it’s “_and_,” not “_of_,” so this suggestion seems quite plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/29 "2011-09-23T13:38:01Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I always pictured Billy Shears as the “Special Guest Vocalist” at that afternoon’s concert. he wasn’t part of the band, but they were backing him for this very special event. According to wikipedia, Billy Shears is the band leader. And Sgt. Pepper’s was made up by the Beatles. (I thought it might be real.) ---
**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:** [September 23, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/30 "2011-09-23T14:51:58Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > But the lyrics sites seem to agree that it’s “_and_,” not “_of_,” …as well as the lyrics printed on the actual album. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/31 "2011-09-23T18:51:50Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > While we’re at it, who is Billy Shears? The winner of the Paul McCartney lookalike contest who replaced him when he died in the car wreck that can be heard in “Revolution 9”… ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/32 "2011-09-24T07:15:01Z")
I was sure this thread was going to be about the laughter at the end of _Within You Without You_, another song on the same album, which has been the subject of considerable theorizing by listeners and even professional musicologists. In case anyone’s interested, [Alan W. Pollack sums it up as follows](http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/wywy.shtml): > [@](#): > > So what about the laughing at the end? I’m aware of at least two schools of thought on the matter:[ul][li]The xenophobic audience (remember there’s an underlying element in the “Sgt. Pepper Concept” that at least indirectly connotes a Victorian/Edwardian-era outlook of supercilious Imperialism) is letting off a little tension of this perceived confrontation with pagan elements.[/li][li]The bedazzled composer, in an endearingly sincere nanosecond of acknowledgment of the apparent existential absurdity of the son-of-a-Liverpudlian bus driver espousing such other-wordly beliefs and sentiments, is letting off a bit of his own self-deprecating steam in reaction to the level of true courage expended by him in order to come out of the uneasily-anti-materialistic closet.[/ul][/li]But, don’t you think it’s a combination of the two? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/33 "2011-09-24T18:24:45Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Then why wasn’t it Sergeant Shears’ Lonely Hearts Club Band? I know you’re mostly kidding…but it’s probably worth mentioning that Paul (and the boys) intended the Sgt. Pepper band name to reflect (and/or mildly parody) the vogue at the time for certain rock bands with sort of folkish aspirations (mainly in the SF area) to give themselves long band names that sound like something from a Mark Twain short story…like [Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_McCree%27s_Uptown_Jug_Champions_(album)). ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/34 "2011-09-24T20:54:19Z")
One afternoon before a gig, the lead guitarist of our band called the fucking “Pied Pipers” (just Pied Pipers, okay? I only said “fucking” because I was made to wear forest green tights with a red tunic and this idiotic cap with a feather on it) came to me and said this: “It’s official. The Beatles have changed their name to SPLHCB.” I’m sure this was some bull-shit rumor, and I told him as much, as I tried to figure out why my balls and dick wouldn’t stay straight up in front of me, but I’ve often wondered: Could they have been considering a name change, thinking to breathe some new life into the group in order to keep it together? Any Beatles historians know anything about this? Oh yeah. Our Moms made those outfits for us, and I almost cut a hole in the crotch of mine, because my package was so crammed together sitting on the throne, I was having blue balls and didn’t even have a girl nearby. Q ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091/35 "2011-09-24T22:28:33Z")
No, the Beatles never considered a name change to SPLHCB. In fact, other than Paul, the rest of the band was lukewarm at best toward the whole concept album, alternate image conceit of Sgt Pepper. [For example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper%27s_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band): > [@](#): > > Lennon was unequivocal in stating that the songs he wrote for the album had nothing to do with the Sgt. Pepper’s concept, and further noted that none of the other songs did either, saying “Every other song could have been on any other album.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sgt-peppers-whats-the-audience-laughing-at/597091.md?page=1)