Anxiety said:

Uh, why in world are you listening to Abbey Road tracks on shuffle?

That is more for me than you as I'm the only person in the world that refuses to use the shuffle option. I like my playlists to be set in stone. Shuffle just leads to chaos and before you know it, the earth explodes.

Hmmmm.....interesting thread.

Question: How many of the posters were age 16 or over when Sgt. Pepper was released in 1967?

Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion but there is a distinction to be made between the opinions of those that were "there" in the late 60's vs those who were born later and are looking back from a later cultural viewpoint.

The fact is the Sgt. Pepper album made an incredible impact at the time, not just because it was so sonically and compositionally different from anything that had come before but because it was embedded in a period of intense cultural flowering. The drugs and sex and openness to new thought provided a unique environment in which our listening was taking place.

Given the evolution of what rock music had been up until this point, Sgt. Pepper was like a giant exclamation point on the musical landscape of the time and one that was totally unanticipated.

In a few short months it created a whole new world of musical possibility and it literally blew our minds. It was what in today's parlance might be referred to as the most giant OMG! you could imagine.

So if you are a gen X or gen Y'r reading all the glowing reports of priase for this album from back in the day it may well seem like hyperbole to you and I understand.

But remember, you are looking back at it from a vantage point tempered by 41 years worth of musical innovation later.

Your listener's ears have a context of relativity that was not yet there back in the late 60's. A lot of what you take for granted and say "so what" about now was absolutely mind shatteringly ground breaking when Sgt. Pepper hit the shelves.

This is one of those, "you had to be there" things.
[Edited 4/11/08 11:11am]

PurpleJam said:

I think MMT is more purely psychedelic than Sgt Pepper. It would be unfair to limit Sgt Pepper by describing it merely as psychedelic.

NDRU said:

And side two was all of McCartney's ideas and work. The guy could be a brilliant composer when he wanted to. I guess you would not know this by listening to most of his solo albums I suppose, with the possible acception of 'Band On The Run'.

NDRU said:

I think the point (ha ha ha, a pun there) is that Sgt. Pepper spearheaded us into a new territory musically speaking and for that event alone, it sits head and shoulders above anything that had come befofe and it is an accolade that it can never lose to another piece of music. There can only ever be one "first."

It's only natural that what would issue forth from that opening would become more developed in that vein. Of course MMT would be more psychedelic. Of course the WA would explore more styles. Of course AR would emulate a symphonic work.

The music was maturing and it has been ever since but it was Sgt. Pepper that got the party started and pointed to a whole new way.
[Edited 4/12/08 10:44am]