THE BEATLES’ NEW ALBUM, SERGEANT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, has only been out a couple of weeks, and already it is one of the biggest-selling and most controversial albums to make the music scene.
The controversy has arisen from some of the lyrics of some of the songs, particularly “A Day in the Life,” which was banned by the British Broadcasting Company. The particular lyrics that were found objectionable supposedly connote the taking of drugs. For instance, one line goes “found my way upstairs and had a smoke, somebody spoke and I went into a dream.” Some people believe this line deals with someone smoking marijuana, but that’s not the meaning the Beatles intended it to have.
In a recent interview in a British music trade paper, Disc and Music Echo, Paul McCartney said, “If they want to ban ‘A Day in the Life’ that’s their business. Drugs must have been in their minds, not ours. And the point is banning doesn’t help. It just draws attention to a subject when all the time their aim is to force attention away from it.”
Whether or not the lyrics on the album are objectionable is a minor question, for the Beatles have progressed so far that the album is a musical masterpiece. The lyrics have a poetic quality all their own, and the transition from one song to the next is done smoothly, without a break between cuts, so that the album tells one long story.
In a recent United Press International story, the Beatles discussed the present state of their lives. “We have always said that if we could, we’d leave every job where it was and leave it there, a pleasant memory, then go on and do something else,” said Paul. “In other words, every year that goes by try different venues.”
Ringo Starr quickly added, “The past is past. That tour thing, for instance. We probably won’t do any more tours, at least not like the old ones. We’re trying to break new ground. We could spend all our lives making one record. But we must get on to the next one.”
George Harrison, who, a few months back, went to India to study the sitar, a stringed Indian instrument, with Ravi Shankar, the world’s greatest sitar player, said, “People are always asking where do the Beatles go from here? It’s been that way ever since things started happening for us.
“But everything’s relative and things don’t stay the same,” George said. “We’re different people now. We’ve had more experience, been around seeing more of life, expanded our environment. The more we live, the better we ought to get. The better our music ought to get.”
The Beatles music has gotten better. They proved this in front of some 300 million people last Sunday on “Our World,” a live worldwide television broadcast produced by the BBC. On this program, which was beamed, via satellite, to twenty-four different countries, the Beatles were seen recording a way out new single, which will probably be released in the near future.
To add to the furor over their new album, Paul admitted taking LSD. Incidentally, you might check the lyrics on one of the album cuts, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” then glance at the title of the song to pick out the main words, Lucy, sky, and diamonds. The initials spell out LSD.
The other cuts on the album are “A Little Help from My Friends,” “Getting Better,” “Fixing a Hole,” “She’s Leaving Home,” “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” “Within You Without You,” “When I’m 64,” “Lovely Rita,” “Good Morning, Good Morning,” and the title tune.
Three songs on the album have psychedelic sounds: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Within You, Without You,” which was the only song on the album written by George Harrison and in which George plays the sitar.