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'Sgt. Pepper' ages well

Complex album set stage for the next generation of rock 'n' roll recordings

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 28, 2007 at midnight

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The Summer of Love's soundtrack was issued on June 1, 1967. Within days, Jimi Hendrix was playing his own version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band onstage. The music poured endlessly from radios and flew out of record shops.

"It really did kick off the Summer of Love. The timing was perfect," said the Denver DJ who goes by Archer, host of the weekly Breakfast with the Beatles on The Mountain-FM (99.5) .

"With Sgt. Pepper, we were all blown away within the industry, both as a fan of the Beatles and someone who was producing music. I think the impact was greater now . . . than when it was first released," said Lou Adler, the influential producer whose Monterey International Pop Festival came less than three weeks after Sgt. Pepper was released.

"There wouldn't be 'album rock' without Sgt. Pepper. That's really the album that turned radio around. That's what started people listening to albums for what they were," Archer said. "They set the sonic pattern of what would happen next in music."

The genesis of the album was partly a result of the Beatles' decision not to go on the road after the 1966 U.S. tour.

"The earlier albums were rushed around tour schedules. They were constantly touring and constantly busy. George Martin only had them for blocks of time," said Archer.

On Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane, released earlier in 1967, the band began giving the full work-over to each song rather than rushing through an album. Sgt. Pepper, one of the most complex albums in history, was completed in round-the-clock sessions with primitive equipment.

"For $300 now you can buy a home recording system for your computer that can do five times what they could do with Sgt. Pepper," Archer said, adding that the cacophony of sounds and effects were recorded on a four-track tape machine.

"They wanted to create brand-new sounds using normal instruments. It involved putting things through rotating speakers, that kind of thing, track by track."

As John Lennon once noted, Archer said, "it wasn't really a concept album, it was a bunch of conceptual tracks stuck together."

Archer has interviewed all four Beatles and created the 10-hour radio show The Beatles Chronicles at the request of the late Beatle employee/confidante Derek Taylor. The DJ started collecting Beatles rarities with vinyl and now has amassed a collection of unreleased material that even the most ardent bootlegger would envy.

Oddly, most Beatles fans haven't heard Sgt. Pepper the way the band intended - in mono. That's the mix the band and producer George Martin slaved over, making each note, effect and sound just right.

"They spent all their creative effort on the mono because that's how it was in those days," Archer said.

When they were done, an assistant did the stereo version, with no Beatles present. But that's the version that overtook the airwaves and got issued on CD - the wrong version. Even with the 40th anniversary coming up, Apple has not issued the mono version.

"There's so much stuff to make a cool Sgt. Pepper box set. The mono mix, the stereo mix and a whole lot of goodies. But no," Archer said.

While the album has been named the most influential of all time, producer Martin told Archer in an interview that he likes others better.

"It's not really my favorite. I do like it very much and I'm very happy I was involved with it," Martin said. "But I've got a sneaking regard for Abbey Road as being a better album."

Take your pick

Here are five ways to hear Sgt. Pepper:

• Stereo CD: Available since 1987.

• Original mono mix: Vinyl only, out of print, but fans have transferred it to CD, available through BitTorrent bootleg download sites and illegal auctions on eBay.

• 5.1 mixes: Some of the songs appear in surround sound on the Beatles Anthology and Yellow Submarine DVDs.

• Full 5.1 mix: Put together on DVD by fans, available through BitTorrent sites.

• Remastered stereo: Several tracks appear on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, remixed in 1999.

Hear for yourself

• What: DJ Archer will play mono mixes and alternate stereo cuts from Sgt. Pepper, plus comments from George Martin, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Geoff Emerick and Micky Dolenz on Breakfast with the Beatles.

• When and where: 9 a.m. Sunday, 99.5 The Mountain. 11 million copies sold to date of Sgt. Pepper. It was the first album to be given "diamond" certification, for sales of more than 10 million

Their interpretation

The BBC will broadcast a re-creation of Sgt. Pepper on Saturday where bands such as Oasis and The Killers will re-record songs from the album in the Abbey Road studios using the same four-track machine that the album was recorded on. Colorado band The Fray was just invited to participate; no word on what song they did.

If you're going to San Francisco...

THE SUMMER OF LOVE

Some dates during the year dubbed the Summer of Love, which saw thousands flock to San Francisco to be part of the scene:

• Jan. 14, 1967: The Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where Timothy Leary famously urged the crowd to "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

• June 1: Release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

• June 16-18: The Monterey International Pop Festival, three days of music featuring breakout performances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix, above, Janis Joplin, right, and Otis Redding.

• Oct. 6: The Death of Hippie march, a mock funeral staged in Haight-Ashbury to tell aspiring flower children to stay home.

+ Nov. 9: First edition of Rolling Stone published in San Francisco, launched with $7,500 borrowed from publisher Jann Wenner's wife's family.

RELIVE THE LOVE

A partial look at CDs, documentaries and other events surrounding the 40th anniversary of the summer:

• A two-CD collection of songs from the festival, Monterey Pop Festival, will be in stores on June 5.

• VH1's Monterey 40, a VH1 documentary, premieres at 9 p.m. June 16.

• Rolling Stone magazine will publish a Summer of Love double issue in June.

• The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is marking the anniversary with "Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era," through Sept. 16.

• The Monterey Summer of Love Festival will be held July 28-29 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, Calif. The event, which is not being staged by the promoters of the first festival, will include what's left of bands such as Jefferson Starship, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Cathy Richardson and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Call 1-510-317-0373 or:

A HIT PROMO

John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas was a hit machine in the '60s. He even scored a hit with San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair), created to promote the Monterey International Pop Festival. The song reached No. 4 on Billboard's chart of singles. Lyrics from the song performed by Scott MacKenzie:

If you're going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear

Some flowers in your hair

If you're going to San Francisco

You're gonna meet

Some gentle people there.

Mark Brown is the pop music writer. 303-954-2674 or