Music Book Review: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles and the World in 1967 by Brian Southall

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles and the World in 1967
by Brian Southall [Music 781.66 Beatles] 

2017 is the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As part of the celebration of this milestone, PBS aired a marvelous special, entitled “Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution” several times in June, hosted by Howard Goodall. And this book came out, looking at the origins of this significant album, and contextualizing it within the bigger scheme of what was happening in the world in 1967.

Just like an old-style record album, which has a Side A and a Side B, this book divides its coverage into two halves. The first half of the the book is a profile of the members of The Beatles, and their history, and what led them to write and record the album Sgt. Pepper, which was ground-breaking in its experimental nature at the time of its release. The second half of the book is a month-by-month chronology of the year 1967, highlighting the major world and cultural events of the year, and how the Beatles fit into that year’s timeline. I think I actually appreciated that second half more than the first half in this book — the making of the Sgt. Pepper album has been covered in many previous tomes, but looking into world history and how Sgt. Pepper fits into the other events of the year was enlightening. This book features a huge number of photographs, many of which I don’t remember seeing previously. All in all, an entertaining read, especially if you want to pop your vinyl, CD or digital album copy of Sgt. Pepper into its appropriate playing device and listen to the music as you’re reading along.

[ publisher’s official Sgt. Pepper book web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for Brian Southall ] | [ Sgt. Pepper’s Musical Revolution – on PBS site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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