A Meticulous Accounting of How The Beatles Recorded ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’

British video essayist Film Retrospective gave a meticulous accounting of how The Beatles recorded the much-awaited 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was a tumultuous time for them. George had quit the band after the show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco but rejoined after they promised to quit touring.

The Beatles 1966 World Tour was a living nightmare. They fled Manila fearing for their lives. Been met with an anti-Beatles backlash with public burnings of memorabilia inn the States and faced crazed fans at Candlestick Park. They were now done with touring. …Back in the UK, George is enraged. …Declares he’s leaving the band. Brian Epstein, their manager, frantically reassures him there will be no more touring on this condition he agrees to stay in The Beatles. 

After a long break and new attitudes, The Beatles returned ready to make their seminal album. They experimented with creative lyrics, new and unusual instruments and new mixing technologies to finally achieve the sound they wanted in the way they wanted.

Two big changes in the recording process between Revolver and Pepper. Where the Beatles now had no deadlines, they were free to work as long as they wanted. The second was the time of the sessions they would now barely even start recording until 700 p.m. they parted late into the night and slept late into the day if revolver had been their sonic Masterpiece Sgt. Pepper was the album that legitimized pop music as an art form

via b3ta