Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth album by The Beatles. It is often cited as their magnum opus and one of the most influential albums of all time by prominent critics and publications, ranking number 1 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and often cited as the first art rock album.
One rock musician who apparently did not like the album was Frank Zappa, who accused the Beatles of co-opting the flower power aesthetic for monetary gain, saying in a Rolling Stone article that he felt "they were only in it for the money." That criticism later became the title of the Mothers of Invention album (We're Only in It for the Money), which mocked Sgt. Pepper with a similar album cover. (The original cover, featuring Zappa and his bandmates in drag against a yellow background, was a spoof of the inside cover of Sgt. Pepper's; the original outer cover of the album, featuring Zappa and his band standing before a Sgt. Pepper-like collage and fronted by a flowerbed lettered "MOTHERS", was withdrawn by MGM Records used as the inside gatefold. The original LP issue nevertheless included a "cut-outs" card featuring facsimiles of Zappa's trademark moustache and of a button with a nipple on it.) Ironically, when recording of Sgt. Pepper was completed, McCartney said, "This is going to be our Freak Out!", referring to Zappa's 1966 debut album, which is considered by many as the first rock concept album.
