All I know is that when it first came out, Side One of Pepper coupled with A Day In The Life was about as beautiful and fabulous a soundtrack to the year as it was possible to get. I remember coming back home with my father, when I was a twelve year old, from an evening out. Before calling it a night, my dad made a cup of tea and put the radio on. Over the airwaves came Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. I was absolutely blown away with the dreamy magic of what I was hearing. I realise now it was in mono and that, as Lennon was to declare, was the way to hear it and the whole album. It is so brilliantly sung and performed by guys in their mid-twenties!

We really sometimes forget just how stunning was the creativity of this band . They produced something for every taste. If Pepper is not quite to one’s taste, just dive into the equally brilliant (I’m serious) A Hard Day’s night album or fall in love again with the autumnal Abbey Road.

No? Well scream along with Twist and Shout as I do with the seven year olds at the school I work at. The kids love the abandon from the day’s discipline.

Even Lennon didn’t like Pepper that much! That’s what’s so endearing about the Beatles…they are as critical as the public about themselves. How did planet Earth enjoy life before The Beatles?!

My big thing about Sgt Pepper – or rather two big things – is/are that for decades it was kind of assumed by people of a certain age that it was the Greatest Album Of All-Time and topped all the lists – almost without question; and that it falls off so dramatically after the classic start.

I think it’s fair to say that the only album that can match the start to all this is ‘Blonde On Blonde’. Maybe ‘Astral Weeks’ (thinking as I go along here…). But anyway, you reach a point where you’ve had the optimism of the opening track; the genius segue into ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ where your heart just leaps and anything from childhood seems possible; the wondrous complexity of ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ which is so complex I hadn’t actually appreciated how complex it is till your comments – until then it just was (I listened to it again specifically in light of what you said…Well, I’ve been listening to the album a lot generally recently to see if my friend was right and I was wrong…); and ‘Getting Better’ which sounds like the world, everything, is already better. And then…

er, ‘Fixing A Hole’ and for me it all begins to unravel. Up until the ‘reprise ‘from then on in every track disappoints me so much. ‘Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite’ probably more so because it’s Lennon and because it sticks to the concept of the album and…I don’t know, it just spoils what might have been a great place to be. ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ shouldn’t have been allowed and ‘Lovely Rita’ is worse.

So far as ‘A Day In The Life’is concerned, can I imagine it without Paul’s middle eighth? Not now I’ve heard it but I think the song very easily could have been the finished article without any of Paul’s involvement. It would just have meant a little bit more work by John. Maybe he couldn’t be bothered, maybe he wanted to get on with Paul again…I still maintain that Paul’s bit is pedestrian and to me adds nothing to the final track. If anything, like I said before, it taints what might have been the greatest Beatles track. So I have to find others…

The concept album thing doesn’t really matter either. I always stick that in because it’s true but it’s a red herring. If I loved the album, I would turn it round to argue that a ‘concept album’ that forgets the concept was actually a work of genius. Ahhhh…

Yes, The Beatles on a bad day are better than most bands of all time. That’s fair enough. But this isn’t their finest moment by a long way and I will always argue it is massively overrated….Because it is.

Cheers, Martin.

I do think the McCartney bit adds to A Day in the Life, personally. There’s a dramatic contrast, in my view, between the ‘cosmically absurd’ insights of Lennon’s section and the everyday whimsy of McCartney’s, each transforming the other to provide something unique. It’s almost Mahlerian, if that’s not too pretentious a thing to say. Try imagining the song without it, and I think it would be diminished.

I agree with your point about the concept behind the album falling short. But there are ‘organising principles’ throughout the album, musically, sonically and stylistically, and that’s what makes it cohere as a great work.

And like all great artists, even when the Beatles aren’t on top form, they’re still a long way ahead of most other artists in their field.

I don’t mind you posting negative comments – it all adds to the conversation!

He argues that it’s a great place to be which is really important for an album now – with ipods, it’s not enough just to be a great set of songs, there has to be more to an album to keep you going back.

My argument was that SPLHCB wasn’t a great set of songs, let alone a wonderful place to go. It’s the only concept album where the band forget the concept but beyond that I just think there is so much weak material on there.

‘A Day In The Life’ is pure art in Lennon’s hands but even then McCartney’s bit sabotages it. Or almost does. I still think it is a monumental song. But it could have been perfect if John had kept Paul off it…

I was so disappointed by ‘Love’. It made musak of so much great material. Great clarity on the remastered stuff that worked though.

Tim, not all my posts will be this negative. I just stumbled upon this post and it was a fresh discussion with a friend…

If you haven’t heard it, it is breathtaking – Giles Martin is simply amazing.