narrative criticism

Stephen Crawley

LIT 3312

November 16, 2010           

The Narrative of Sgt. Pepper’s

            After ascending the heights of pop music stardom in the early years of the 1960s The Beatles found themselves in the middle of a fanatical frenzy which would come to be called Beatlemania.  While touring the United States in support of their seventh studio album, Revolver, the band encountered everything from screaming mobs in Cincinnati to death threats from overzealous Christians in the Bible Belt.  The band members grew tired of the expectations placed on them by their crazed fans and in late 1966 set out to create an album that would tour the world for them.  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was that album and from its earliest conceptions became the proxy between the band and their audience.  Within the album The Beatles create a loosely connected story of a fictitious band populated by the alter-egos of the actual members.  The characters and setting created within the context of Sgt. Pepper’s do more than produce a psychedelic nod to the works of Lewis Carroll.  They in fact give useful albeit shrouded insights into the personal and professional sentiments of the artists involved in its creation.  Through the analysis of the narrative techniques present in Sgt. Pepper’s it is possible to understand the musicians’ motivations and aspirations in making the album.

        

Sgt. Pepper’s has been heralded by several music critics as one of the first concept albums because of the overarching theme and narrative thread carried through its entirety.  The album begins with an orchestra tuning up and the subsequent quieting of a fictional audience.  This initial background noise fashions the setting of an imaginary concert held within the confines of the album.  From there the listener is introduced to the main characters of the story most notably the band’s leader Billy Shears, played by drummer Ringo Starr, with the title track “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”  The opening song flows seamlessly into the second, “A Little Help From My Friends,” an effect created by the sounds of cheers from the audience instead of the standard period of silence between tracks.  This method of blending is present throughout and enhances the continuity of the album.  The concept of a fantasy concert can be seen in every song on the album.  With the making of Sgt. Pepper’s The Beatles were able to make a successful departure from the public’s previously held opinions of the band as teen idols.  The album was made during the years directly preceding the height of the so-called hippie movement and has been retroactively deemed a primary catalyst for the famed Summer of Love in 1967.  For the musicians involved it came at a time when they were beginning to achieve a degree of autonomy in the recording of music.  Author Olivier Julien in the introduction to his collection of articles from various scholars titled Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles describes the way in which the band previously recorded their albums. (Julien, 3)  The context of earlier albums is described in this quote from Julien, “On their first visit to Abbey Road, in June 1962, they had discovered a very formal place: studio time, for instance, was limited to three three-hour sessions per day engineers wore white coats, producers wore a collar and tie and a suit and all those people stood very pompously in the control room where artists were not allowed to touch anything.” (Julien, 9)  Widespread success allowed the musicians to begin experimenting with innovative and groundbreaking techniques that led to Sgt. Pepper’s. 

In order to analyze Sgt. Pepper’s from a narrative perspective it is important to understand what traditional aspects of a story the album exhibits and why they are relevant to the creators’ motivations.  The album has a setting which is established with the first song as being concert of Lonely Hearts Club Band.  In fashioning a made-up gig the artists place the listener within the audience of their show without actually having to put one on.  Along with an implied setting Sgt. Pepper’s also has characters a vital part to any narrative work.  According to Paul McCartney in an interview with Rolling Stone on the anniversary of the album’s release the main characters were intended to be alter egos of the band members.  The impetus for these disguises is described in this quote from the McCartney interview, “Every time you approach a song, John, you gotta sing it like John would. Every time I approach a ballad, it's gotta be like Paul would. Why don't we just make up some incredible alter egos and think how would he sing it? How would he approach this track? And it freed us. It was a very liberating thing to do." (Rolling Stone, 1)  Thus their assumed personas allowed the musicians to make music completely new and unique to the style that people had grown to expect from them.  Setting and characters are the two crucial elements of a narrative necessary in understanding the artist’s intent in making the album.