On June 1st, 1967, the Beatles have shocked the world with the inauguration of a new album, that was unlike anything the Rock music arena have seen before. That was evident even before anyone heard one song from it, by the appearance of the album cover, which became a culture icon by itself.
(Source of Image: Wikipedia, fair use assumed)
"Sgt. Pepper" was a thematic album, with lyrics sophistication and a musical production quality, that set a new standard for Rock music. So much, that it is told that Brian Wilson, the leader of "The Beach Boys" had his severe nervous breakdown because he thought that "The Beach Boys" will never be able to create something as great.
However, as far as the story of "the fabulous four" goes, "Sgt. Pepper" was the beginning of the end. Starting with this album, the Beatles did not function as a group, but as four separate great talents that were held together by the merits of a brilliant producer and the advanced post production techniques that started to emerge at that time. "Sgt. Pepper" may, therefore, probably considered as the first Rock album that suffered from "over production", and this is why, although I certainly recognize its artistic and cultural contribution, it is my least favorite Beatles album.
Less than a year before that, the Beatles issued their best album, "Revolver", which is considered by some music critiques as the best Rock album of all times. "Revolver" signified a real revolution in Rock music. It turned the Beatles from a group of four good guys from Liverpool, who play fantastic, but simple love songs, to a group with much more mature and sophisticated music, and socially meaningful lyrics. In "Revolver", the Beatles did a much more responsible use of experimental recording techniques and the participation of background musicians. In spite of the fact that, already in "Revolver" it was clear that each of the group's members is beginning to develop an artistic way of its own. The Beatles were still able to function as a team and present the wonderful harmony that dominated their previous albums. But starting at the summer of 1966, artistic and other disputes have broke this harmony down. At the end of 1966 the Beatles were on the verge of breaking up and the work on Sgt. Pepper was an attempt to save the group. It took another two and a half years from the inauguration of the album until the Beatles officially broke up, but in fact, they never actually worked together anymore. They would come to the studio, record songs that were created by each of them separately, and let the post-production cover up for how much they hated one another. Sometimes that did not work very well, and so musical absurds were created, like the two versions of "Revolution" in "The white album" or the striking difference between the two sides of "Abbey road", with side A being a John Lennon album and side B, a Paul McCartney one.
So "Sgt. Pepper", that was inaugurated 50 years ago this week, may be considered as one of the most tragic Rock albums, and don't get me wrong, when I say that it is my least favorite Beatles album, that doesn't mean that I don't think it is a wonderful album. It's just that their previous albums when they still worked as a group with a fabulous harmony , and also their later albums, in which we begin to see the great careers that each of them will have separately, are even better.