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Thanks to 'Sgt. Pepper,' rock n' roll wasn't just for kids anymore

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner

• June 1, 2012

Evaluating the awe and significance of the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper” album and its relationship to their canon seems to be a favorite thing to do among writers.

That's true especially today because June 1, 2012, is the 45th anniversary of its first release in the U.K. in 1967.

Back in the day, though, not everyone felt that way. Richard Goldstein of the New York Times, in a now famous review, damned it.

“Like an over-attended child 'Sergeant Pepper' is spoiled,' he wrote. 'It reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a 41-piece orchestra.”

And that wasn't the half of it. “There is nothing beautiful on 'Sergeant Pepper.' Nothing is real and there is nothing to get hung about.”

Goldstein's infamous rant, which is reproduced in “Read the Beatles,” an anthology of Beatles writings that belongs on your reference shelf, did serve one purpose.

It gave notice to the world that rock 'n' roll had grown up. It wasn't just Paul Anka, Pat Boone and David Seville anymore. Rock 'n' roll was serious business and to be criticized as such.

The majority of reviewers, though, loved it and appreciated it for the milestone it was.

Tom Phillips in the Village Voice wrote, “I must say that I think the Beatles have scored a genuine breakthrough with 'Sgt. Pepper.' Specifically, I think they've turned the record-album itself into an art form, and a form that works.”

William Mann, in his 1967 review in the Times of London, gushed even more.

“Any of these songs is more genuinely creative than anything than anything currently to be heard on pop radio stations, but in relationship to what other groups have been doing lately, 'Sergeant Pepper' is chiefly significant as constructive criticism, a sort of pop music master class examining trends and correcting or tidying up inconsistencies and undisciplined work, here and there suggesting a line worth following,” he wrote.

Whew!

Little of this seriousness was evident before. But now you had establishment media outlets -- adults, mind you -- respecting rock music and the Beatles.

This certainly didn't happen in 1964 when the Beatles first came to America. But they certainly had helped build to this with their earlier albums. “Pepper” was the one, however, that showed there was no turning back.

So when someone says it was 45 years ago today, keep in mind it wasn't just for the release of a record album by a rock group.   

It was 45 years ago on June 1 that the "Sgt. Pepper" album was released in the UK. It was released a day later in the U.S. 

Photo credit:  

Apple Corps Ltd.