We know that originally Sgt Peppers was to be a concept album where the Beatles would take on alter-egos. There is also a story that they planned to make up a name for their band and play at small clubs around the US. My question is why did the alter-ego idea only last through the first 2 songs and the last one (Reprise)?
They played in the same “style” throughout the album. This was a style they had not used before. The only exception might be A Day In The Life. But Lucy, Fixing a Hole, For The Benefit of Mr. Kite, Good Morning, 64, etc., all could easily have been played by Sgt. Pepper’s and not The Beatles if you wanted to imagine (heh, heh) it that way. Why should every song a band plays refer to the name of the band?
Really? I have trouble finding any common style between, say, “She’s Leaving Home”, “Within You Without You”, and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”. They’re all in radically different genres, using no common instrumentation, and in one case coming from an entirely different musical tradition than anything else on the album.
Paul championed the idea of acting like another band, so they could take on a name and musical style more like the psychedelic stuff coming out of SF (Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Strawberry Alarmclock, etc.). The others, most notably John, were less into the concept both because they weren’t really into it and there was some push back at Paul stepping into the lead role (even though John was not playing the lead role as much as earlier, being distracted by a variety of goings-on).
So the others played along with Paul’s idea enough for SPLHCB to be portrayed as a “concept album” - but there really isn’t much of a concept. John didn’t consider Strawberry Fields (not on the album but kicked off the recording sessions) or A Day in the Life to be related to the concept…
Paul had just recently died too. That put a damper on things.