1 00:00:12,901 --> 00:00:15,427 It's 25 years now since it was issued, 2 00:00:15,537 --> 00:00:18,404 and there aren't many records which really last in the memory 3 00:00:18,506 --> 00:00:20,304 for a quarter of a century. 4 00:00:22,076 --> 00:00:24,170 I suppose it is a museum piece. 5 00:00:24,279 --> 00:00:26,771 ♪ It was twenty years ago today ♪ 6 00:00:26,881 --> 00:00:29,248 ♪ Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play... ♪ 7 00:00:29,350 --> 00:00:31,375 It invoked the spirit of the age, 8 00:00:31,486 --> 00:00:33,921 of the Carnaby Street and Mary Quant. 9 00:00:34,022 --> 00:00:37,083 It was a joyous Spurting-out of life. 10 00:00:37,191 --> 00:00:39,558 ♪ The act you've known for all these years ♪ 11 00:00:39,661 --> 00:00:43,393 ♪ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ♪ 12 00:00:43,498 --> 00:00:47,264 ♪ I get by with a little help from my friends... ♪ 13 00:00:47,368 --> 00:00:50,463 It was colourful, and it was peace, and it was love, and it was music. 14 00:00:50,572 --> 00:00:55,203 ♪ Lucy in the sky with diamonds... ♪ 15 00:00:55,310 --> 00:00:58,575 The songwriting team thing will keep going on whatever happens, will it? 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,116 Yeah, we'll probably carry on writing music forever, you know? 17 00:01:02,617 --> 00:01:06,110 ♪ It's getting better all the time... ♪ 18 00:01:06,220 --> 00:01:08,086 That's probably the big difference, 19 00:01:08,189 --> 00:01:10,556 is that people played it a bit safe in popular music, 20 00:01:10,658 --> 00:01:13,719 but I think that's what we suddenly realised, that you didn't have to. 21 00:01:13,828 --> 00:01:18,129 ♪ I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in ♪ 22 00:01:18,232 --> 00:01:23,398 - ♪ She... ♪ - ♪ We gave her most of our lives ♪ 23 00:01:23,504 --> 00:01:25,404 ♪ Is leaving... ♪ 24 00:01:25,506 --> 00:01:27,838 ♪ For the benefit of Mr Kite ♪ 25 00:01:27,942 --> 00:01:31,537 ♪ There will be a show tonight on trampoline ♪ 26 00:01:31,646 --> 00:01:35,981 ♪ We were talking ♪ 27 00:01:36,084 --> 00:01:38,143 ♪ About the... ♪ 28 00:01:38,252 --> 00:01:41,552 I remember track by track, it was exciting at that time, 29 00:01:41,656 --> 00:01:43,590 nothing like it had ever been. 30 00:01:43,691 --> 00:01:47,093 ♪ Will you still need me, will you still feed me ♪ 31 00:01:47,195 --> 00:01:49,459 ♪ When I'm sixty-four ♪ 32 00:01:49,564 --> 00:01:52,124 ♪ Lovely Rita, meter maid ♪ 33 00:01:52,233 --> 00:01:54,827 ♪ Nothing can come between us ♪ 34 00:01:54,936 --> 00:01:58,497 ♪ When it gels dark, I tow your heart away ♪ 35 00:01:58,606 --> 00:02:02,338 ♪ Good morning, good morning, good morning ♪ 36 00:02:02,443 --> 00:02:08,507 ♪ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club... ♪ 37 00:02:10,118 --> 00:02:12,951 ♪ Found my way downstairs and drank a cup ♪ 38 00:02:13,054 --> 00:02:15,785 ♪ And looking up I noticed I was late ♪ 39 00:02:17,325 --> 00:02:19,487 ♪ Found my coat and grabbed my hat ♪ 40 00:02:20,294 --> 00:02:22,058 ♪ Made the bus in seconds flat ♪ 41 00:02:22,864 --> 00:02:24,229 In 1966, 42 00:02:24,332 --> 00:02:27,358 the Beatles had been working most successfully for three years. 43 00:02:27,468 --> 00:02:30,631 They'd conquered the world in a way nobody else had done before. 44 00:02:30,738 --> 00:02:35,005 ♪ Ah, ah-ah-ah ♪ 45 00:02:35,877 --> 00:02:40,371 ♪ Ah-ah-ah... ♪ 46 00:02:41,215 --> 00:02:43,115 And yet, things started to fall apart. 47 00:02:43,217 --> 00:02:45,379 All sorts of troubles beset them. 48 00:02:45,486 --> 00:02:46,976 John Lennon had made his famous remark 49 00:02:47,088 --> 00:02:49,284 about being more popular than Jesus Christ, 50 00:02:49,390 --> 00:02:54,055 which, although arguably true, caused a great deal of upset in America. 51 00:03:05,273 --> 00:03:08,004 They were performing incessantly. 52 00:03:08,109 --> 00:03:10,373 They had heavy guards wherever they went. 53 00:03:11,412 --> 00:03:14,382 And when they went to the Philippines, they barely escaped with their lives 54 00:03:14,482 --> 00:03:16,576 after they'd offended President Marcos 55 00:03:16,684 --> 00:03:19,210 by not turning up at one of his receptions. 56 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,382 And Imelda Marcos was outraged at the way the Beatles had ignored her. 57 00:03:23,491 --> 00:03:26,927 So, they decided they didn't want to tour again. They were fed up. 58 00:03:27,495 --> 00:03:30,590 They really wanted to lead something of a normal life. 59 00:03:33,501 --> 00:03:37,836 I remember we all used to run in the back of these big vans they'd hired. 60 00:03:38,573 --> 00:03:42,066 And this one was like a silver-lined van, chromium, 61 00:03:42,176 --> 00:03:45,737 nothing in it, like a furniture van with nothing in it, just chrome. 62 00:03:45,847 --> 00:03:49,511 And we were all piled into this after this really miserable gig. 63 00:03:49,617 --> 00:03:51,210 And I said, "Right, that's it!" 64 00:03:51,652 --> 00:03:53,984 No, we were absolutely fed up with touring. 65 00:03:54,088 --> 00:03:56,182 And why were we fed up with touring? 66 00:03:56,290 --> 00:03:59,487 Because we were turning into such bad musicians. 67 00:04:00,361 --> 00:04:03,729 Because the volume of the audience 68 00:04:03,831 --> 00:04:06,596 was always greater than the volume of the band. 69 00:04:06,701 --> 00:04:10,103 And for me personally, 70 00:04:10,204 --> 00:04:13,572 on stage there was no chance in hell I could do a fill, 71 00:04:13,674 --> 00:04:15,108 because it would just disappear. 72 00:04:15,209 --> 00:04:18,406 So I ended up just hanging on to the off-beats 73 00:04:18,513 --> 00:04:20,345 and watching the other guys' bums 74 00:04:20,448 --> 00:04:23,509 and trying to lip-read to see where we were, you know? 75 00:04:23,618 --> 00:04:26,918 It sounds marvellous, being a multi-millionaire pop star, 76 00:04:27,021 --> 00:04:30,355 having the whole world at your feet, girls screaming wherever you go. 77 00:04:30,458 --> 00:04:32,222 In actual fact, it's hell. 78 00:04:32,794 --> 00:04:35,525 And that was happening wherever we went, even in India. 79 00:04:35,630 --> 00:04:38,497 You know, we went to India from the Philippines. 80 00:04:38,599 --> 00:04:41,330 I planned to go there to buy a sitar, actually. 81 00:04:41,769 --> 00:04:43,965 I was thinking, "At least this is going to be one place" 82 00:04:44,071 --> 00:04:46,039 where we can have a bit of peace." 83 00:04:46,140 --> 00:04:49,440 And when we get off the plane, there was all these Indian faces in the night, 84 00:04:49,544 --> 00:04:52,138 all shouting, "Beatles! Beatles!" 85 00:04:52,246 --> 00:04:54,476 Paul went to Kenya, 86 00:04:54,582 --> 00:04:57,916 went on a safari trip as I remember, 87 00:04:58,019 --> 00:05:02,513 and John had already been booked by Richard Lester 88 00:05:02,623 --> 00:05:04,489 for a part in "How I Won The War". 89 00:05:04,892 --> 00:05:07,122 So he went off to Spain to film. 90 00:05:07,228 --> 00:05:11,256 And Ringo joined him there for a while, just to hang around with him. 91 00:05:12,066 --> 00:05:16,367 George went to India and worked with Ravi Shankar. 92 00:05:16,470 --> 00:05:19,872 There was no question of disbanding at that point. 93 00:05:19,974 --> 00:05:21,999 It was just, "We gotta get off this road." 94 00:05:22,109 --> 00:05:26,342 And at that time, a lot of other things were changing. Society was changing. 95 00:05:26,447 --> 00:05:30,782 The psychedelic era was coming in, and we were very much part of that. 96 00:05:31,252 --> 00:05:32,742 And I think we really felt that 97 00:05:32,854 --> 00:05:36,722 it could be done better from a record than from anything else. 98 00:05:37,391 --> 00:05:40,383 The record could go on tour, was the theory. 99 00:05:41,229 --> 00:05:42,628 I think Paul made the phone call. 100 00:05:42,730 --> 00:05:45,324 Paul always made the phone call. "Let's go back to the studio, lads." 101 00:05:45,433 --> 00:05:49,028 It used to terrify John and I cos we'd be in the garden, 102 00:05:49,136 --> 00:05:53,073 and Paul would want us to work all the time, cos he's the workaholic. 103 00:05:54,942 --> 00:05:58,173 On 24th November 1966, a Thursday, 104 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:02,944 the Beatles came into Abbey Road Studies to start the new album. 105 00:06:03,050 --> 00:06:06,850 And the track they started with didn't appear on the album. 106 00:06:06,954 --> 00:06:09,150 It was a song called "Strawberry Fields", 107 00:06:09,257 --> 00:06:12,716 and the way it was done that night, that Thursday, 108 00:06:12,827 --> 00:06:16,058 was virtually complete, we actually made virtually a master. 109 00:06:17,064 --> 00:06:19,761 And it was the way I heard it originally when John sang it to me, 110 00:06:19,867 --> 00:06:23,326 and it was a sweet, gentle, simple song, 111 00:06:23,437 --> 00:06:25,098 starting with the verse, you'll notice, 112 00:06:25,206 --> 00:06:27,971 - not the chorus. - ♪ Misunderstanding all you see ♪ 113 00:06:30,044 --> 00:06:32,979 ♪ It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out... ♪ 114 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:37,415 We were still in our primitive slate in technology in those days, 1966. 115 00:06:37,518 --> 00:06:39,850 We were just recording on 4-track. 116 00:06:39,954 --> 00:06:43,584 - ♪ No one I think is in my tree ♪ - Bass and guitar, add to it. 117 00:06:45,192 --> 00:06:48,059 - ♪ I mean, it must be high or low ♪ - Still nothing else. 118 00:06:48,162 --> 00:06:50,153 Dead simple. 119 00:06:50,264 --> 00:06:54,428 ♪ That is you can't you know tune in, but it's all right... ♪ 120 00:06:55,403 --> 00:06:59,636 Now we have a slide guitar played by George added. 121 00:06:59,740 --> 00:07:02,471 - Curiously enough, on the vocal track. - ♪ Let me take you down ♪ 122 00:07:02,576 --> 00:07:04,840 - Listen. - ♪ Cos I'm going to ♪ 123 00:07:05,947 --> 00:07:08,245 - ♪ Strawberry Fields ♪ - Just on the vocal track. 124 00:07:11,018 --> 00:07:13,248 ♪ Nothing is real ♪ 125 00:07:14,355 --> 00:07:18,087 ♪ And nothing to get hung about ♪ 126 00:07:18,192 --> 00:07:21,253 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪ 127 00:07:22,697 --> 00:07:24,688 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever... ♪ 128 00:07:24,799 --> 00:07:27,029 I think that version is very charming. 129 00:07:27,134 --> 00:07:29,569 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪ 130 00:07:29,670 --> 00:07:32,605 A very simple version of a very simple song. 131 00:07:33,507 --> 00:07:37,375 But in fact, it never appeared like that, and no one's ever heard that one since. 132 00:07:37,945 --> 00:07:39,208 We left that waning, 133 00:07:39,313 --> 00:07:43,216 and John thought about it, and Paul thought about it over the weekend, 134 00:07:43,317 --> 00:07:46,048 and on Monday we tackled it again quite differently. 135 00:07:46,587 --> 00:07:49,022 John decided he wanted it in a lower key. 136 00:07:49,123 --> 00:07:50,921 It had an introduction for the first time 137 00:07:51,025 --> 00:07:54,552 which was played on that weird instrument, the mellotron, 138 00:07:54,662 --> 00:07:56,824 and became a really key feature. 139 00:07:57,431 --> 00:08:00,423 And it started with the chorus rather than the verse. 140 00:08:04,605 --> 00:08:06,596 "Strawberry Fields" immediately, isn't it? 141 00:08:10,811 --> 00:08:12,745 ♪ Let me take you down ♪ 142 00:08:12,847 --> 00:08:16,181 - Double-tracked voice right away. - ♪ Cos I'm going to 143 00:08:16,283 --> 00:08:17,444 ♪ Strawberry Fields... ♪ 144 00:08:17,551 --> 00:08:20,486 Again, all rhythm instruments on one track. 145 00:08:22,490 --> 00:08:24,822 Voices on three and four. 146 00:08:25,359 --> 00:08:28,693 ♪ And nothing to get hung about... ♪ 147 00:08:28,796 --> 00:08:32,494 But John thought about it and said, "I think I can do it better than that." 148 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,093 He said, "I want to have a bit more bite in it. Brass. Strings." 149 00:08:36,203 --> 00:08:38,570 So, I said, "OK, let's give it a whirl." 150 00:08:39,573 --> 00:08:44,306 ♪ Let me take you down cos I'm going to ♪ 151 00:08:44,412 --> 00:08:46,744 ♪ Strawberry Fields... ♪ 152 00:08:48,149 --> 00:08:53,815 Double-tracked voices on three and four, but with percussion as well on three. 153 00:08:55,022 --> 00:08:58,048 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever... ♪ 154 00:08:58,159 --> 00:09:00,025 Swarmandala. 155 00:09:02,563 --> 00:09:05,965 An Indian instrument that George had brought back. 156 00:09:06,067 --> 00:09:08,968 Like a kind of harp. Had a marvellous effect. 157 00:09:10,871 --> 00:09:14,307 ♪ That is you can't you know tune in, but it's all right 158 00:09:14,408 --> 00:09:18,936 - Backward cymbal on track one. - ♪ That is I think it's not too bad... ♪ 159 00:09:21,782 --> 00:09:24,717 Always sounds like Russian language to me. 160 00:09:24,819 --> 00:09:27,151 ♪ Strawberry Fields ♪ 161 00:09:28,989 --> 00:09:30,115 ♪ Nothing is real... ♪ 162 00:09:30,224 --> 00:09:32,886 Brass slabs and so on with a cello. 163 00:09:32,993 --> 00:09:36,987 But underlying it all, this wonderful rhythm section. 164 00:09:40,801 --> 00:09:42,860 About nine or ten players there. 165 00:09:44,872 --> 00:09:47,773 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪ 166 00:09:48,709 --> 00:09:51,735 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪ 167 00:09:51,846 --> 00:09:54,543 ♪ Strawberry Fields forever ♪ 168 00:09:54,648 --> 00:09:57,583 Well, we finished up then with a track 169 00:09:57,685 --> 00:10:00,279 which would show the way that "Pepper" was going to be. 170 00:10:00,387 --> 00:10:03,914 This was our first psychedelic track. 171 00:10:04,024 --> 00:10:07,153 I mean, when I started songwriting, it wasn't to write rock 'n' roll, 172 00:10:07,261 --> 00:10:09,355 it was to write for Sinatra. 173 00:10:09,463 --> 00:10:11,227 It was to write cabaret. 174 00:10:11,332 --> 00:10:14,768 In fact, one of my first songs was "When I'm Sixty-Four", which was... 175 00:10:14,869 --> 00:10:18,032 ♪ Da-da-doo-da-da, Ba-Dee-oo-eh, hey! Ooh bop! ♪ 176 00:10:18,139 --> 00:10:20,403 You know, it's big band stuff kind of thing. 177 00:10:20,508 --> 00:10:26,003 And so your aims weren't set to doing rock 'n' roll. 178 00:10:26,113 --> 00:10:28,980 But when we started working together, 179 00:10:29,083 --> 00:10:32,053 I think... I certainly, and I think John, too, 180 00:10:32,620 --> 00:10:36,022 wanted to be a Rodgers and Hammerstein, a Lennon/McCartney. 181 00:10:36,123 --> 00:10:40,026 We consciously wanted to be a team. 182 00:10:40,127 --> 00:10:42,721 I mean, the funny things is, I wanted McCartney/Lennon, 183 00:10:42,830 --> 00:10:45,162 but of course John was always bossier and he said, 184 00:10:45,266 --> 00:10:48,531 "No, no, it sounds much better the other way, Lennon/McCartney." 185 00:10:48,636 --> 00:10:49,865 So I gave in. 186 00:10:49,970 --> 00:10:52,564 The next song we did, actually, was "When I'm Sixty-Four", 187 00:10:52,673 --> 00:10:56,507 but that was one that harked back quite a long way. 188 00:10:56,610 --> 00:11:00,808 The one immediately after that was curiously allied to "Strawberry Fields". 189 00:11:00,915 --> 00:11:01,939 It was "Penny Lane". 190 00:11:02,383 --> 00:11:04,374 Penny Lane was a place that John knew about, 191 00:11:04,485 --> 00:11:07,546 so for me to just say, "I've got a song called "Penny Lane", 192 00:11:07,655 --> 00:11:09,521 he knew flatly what I was doing. 193 00:11:09,623 --> 00:11:11,182 Similarly, "Strawberry Fields". 194 00:11:11,292 --> 00:11:15,752 I knew about that from when I used to go and visit him when we were kids. 195 00:11:15,863 --> 00:11:17,558 It was the place right opposite him, 196 00:11:17,665 --> 00:11:20,532 where you used to go and play in the garden. 197 00:11:20,634 --> 00:11:24,093 So it was kind of a magical childhood place for him. 198 00:11:24,205 --> 00:11:28,506 And we transformed it into the sort of psychedelic dream. 199 00:11:28,609 --> 00:11:32,239 It's like everybody's magic place, instead of just ours. 200 00:11:32,346 --> 00:11:36,476 We took them from being little localised things and made them more global. 201 00:11:45,793 --> 00:11:49,195 That actually was what Paul heard me play on television. 202 00:11:49,296 --> 00:11:51,788 It's the second "Brandenburg Concerto", as you know. 203 00:11:51,899 --> 00:11:56,393 And he was obviously sitting at home and saw this little trumpet, 204 00:11:56,503 --> 00:11:59,962 and thought, "Well, that's a new gimmick and a new sound," 205 00:12:00,074 --> 00:12:04,170 and he'd just written "Penny Lane" and had had a rather bad backing track, 206 00:12:04,278 --> 00:12:07,612 so apparently that was how I came to do it. 207 00:12:08,082 --> 00:12:10,551 And eventually, of course, we got to what he liked, 208 00:12:10,651 --> 00:12:13,416 and this is what he wrote. 209 00:12:30,804 --> 00:12:33,796 ♪ Penny Lane is in my ears... ♪ 210 00:12:33,907 --> 00:12:36,433 The reason that "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" 211 00:12:36,543 --> 00:12:37,942 didn't appear on the album 212 00:12:38,045 --> 00:12:40,275 was that Brian Epstein, their manager, was worried, 213 00:12:40,381 --> 00:12:43,043 and said to me, "The boys need a lift. They need a great single." 214 00:12:43,150 --> 00:12:44,777 "What have you got?" 215 00:12:44,885 --> 00:12:47,354 Well, I said, "We've got two wonderful songs." 216 00:12:47,454 --> 00:12:49,149 "Let's issue them both." 217 00:12:49,256 --> 00:12:51,657 In those days, we didn't include single releases on albums, 218 00:12:51,759 --> 00:12:53,921 as we thought that was rather conning the public. 219 00:12:54,028 --> 00:12:56,463 One of the biggest errors I ever made. 220 00:12:58,432 --> 00:13:02,335 ♪ Please release me ♪ 221 00:13:02,436 --> 00:13:06,168 ♪ Can't you see... ♪ 222 00:13:06,273 --> 00:13:09,334 A newcomer with the unlikely name of Engelbert Humperdinck 223 00:13:09,443 --> 00:13:11,935 had a song called "Please Release Me", 224 00:13:12,046 --> 00:13:17,815 and for the first time, a Beatles single failed to reach No.1 in the UK charts. 225 00:13:21,221 --> 00:13:28,491 ♪ To live a lie would be a sin ♪ 226 00:13:31,332 --> 00:13:36,771 We were in this big white room that was very dirty. 227 00:13:36,870 --> 00:13:39,464 It hadn't been painted for years and years, 228 00:13:39,573 --> 00:13:42,770 and it had all these old sound baffles hanging down 229 00:13:42,876 --> 00:13:45,436 that were all dirty and broken. 230 00:13:45,546 --> 00:13:47,173 Not a very nice atmosphere. 231 00:13:47,281 --> 00:13:51,377 When you think of the songs that were made in that studio, No.2, 232 00:13:51,485 --> 00:13:53,749 it's amazing, cos there was no atmosphere in there. 233 00:13:53,854 --> 00:13:56,380 We had to make the atmosphere ourselves. 234 00:13:56,490 --> 00:13:59,391 The great thing about these studies in Abbey Road 235 00:13:59,493 --> 00:14:02,724 was that you were always bumping into people. 236 00:14:02,830 --> 00:14:06,130 Sir Malcolm Sargent would look in at the session and wave 237 00:14:06,233 --> 00:14:09,533 in his pin-striped suit and his carnation: "Hello, boys." 238 00:14:09,636 --> 00:14:12,162 And George would say, "Sir Malcolm would like to say hello." 239 00:14:12,272 --> 00:14:14,969 "Hello, Mal." "Hello, boys." 240 00:14:15,075 --> 00:14:17,703 I remember seeing Sir Tyrone Guthrie on the steps here, 241 00:14:17,811 --> 00:14:19,779 you know, the great man himself. 242 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:21,279 So, it was always very like that. 243 00:14:21,782 --> 00:14:26,310 It was a joke, really. They had this toilet paper like lino 244 00:14:26,420 --> 00:14:29,481 that had EMI on every piece. 245 00:14:29,590 --> 00:14:32,321 The refrigerator had a padlock on it, 246 00:14:32,426 --> 00:14:34,394 so if you wanted a cup of tea, 247 00:14:34,495 --> 00:14:38,329 we'd have to break open the padlock on the fridge to get the milk out. 248 00:14:38,432 --> 00:14:42,164 EMI being this huge monster company, 249 00:14:42,269 --> 00:14:46,638 when they bought the 8-track, the first 8-track in England, 250 00:14:46,740 --> 00:14:49,835 they were so cheap, they didn't buy the plug to plug it in. 251 00:14:49,943 --> 00:14:52,571 It was going to be boring to just make another Beatles album. 252 00:14:52,679 --> 00:14:57,446 And we'd stopped touring, we now had this huge, liberated opportunity. 253 00:14:57,551 --> 00:14:59,485 We could do anything we wanted. 254 00:14:59,586 --> 00:15:02,783 I went on a trip to America and came back 255 00:15:02,890 --> 00:15:05,018 and had this idea on the plane. 256 00:15:05,125 --> 00:15:07,389 "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". 257 00:15:07,494 --> 00:15:11,158 It was all very "Uncle Joe's Medicine Show" 258 00:15:11,265 --> 00:15:15,259 "with dancing bears and elixir of life", 259 00:15:15,369 --> 00:15:17,565 you know, those kind of jokey titles. 260 00:15:17,671 --> 00:15:19,969 Everything about the album will be imagined 261 00:15:20,073 --> 00:15:22,064 from the perspective of these people. 262 00:15:22,176 --> 00:15:23,905 So it doesn't have to be us, 263 00:15:24,011 --> 00:15:26,105 it doesn't have to be the kind of song you want to write, 264 00:15:26,213 --> 00:15:28,443 it could be the song they might want to write. 265 00:15:29,049 --> 00:15:31,484 "Sgt. Pepper", the opening track of the album, 266 00:15:31,585 --> 00:15:34,316 really a good, old-fashioned rocker, 267 00:15:34,788 --> 00:15:38,691 starts off with applause or rather atmosphere noise 268 00:15:38,792 --> 00:15:42,751 from a recording I made up in Cambridge with the "Beyond the Fringe"-crowd, 269 00:15:42,863 --> 00:15:45,298 Dudley Moore and company, 270 00:15:45,399 --> 00:15:49,336 and this super electric guitar. 271 00:15:50,404 --> 00:15:54,568 And tied together beautifully by a great rock voice from Paul. 272 00:15:54,675 --> 00:15:56,734 - ♪ It was 20 years ago today ♪ - Listen to this. 273 00:15:56,844 --> 00:15:59,336 ♪ Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play ♪ 274 00:15:59,446 --> 00:16:01,938 ♪ They've been going in and out of style ♪ 275 00:16:02,049 --> 00:16:03,710 ♪ But they're guaranteed to raise a smile ♪ 276 00:16:03,817 --> 00:16:07,151 - He got sawdust in his voice there. - ♪ So may I introduce to you ♪ 277 00:16:07,254 --> 00:16:09,780 ♪ The act you've known for all these years... ♪ 278 00:16:09,890 --> 00:16:14,225 And then a bit of classical work, bringing in four French horns. 279 00:16:21,268 --> 00:16:25,262 Always there's the audience punctuating the whole thing. 280 00:16:27,374 --> 00:16:29,308 ♪ We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely... ♪ 281 00:16:29,409 --> 00:16:31,969 And then the chorus, singing the chorus. 282 00:16:32,579 --> 00:16:36,209 ♪ We hope you will enjoy the show ♪ 283 00:16:37,584 --> 00:16:42,420 ♪ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ♪ 284 00:16:42,523 --> 00:16:45,754 ♪ Sit back and let the evening go... ♪ 285 00:16:47,394 --> 00:16:49,522 And together with the audience and the horns, 286 00:16:49,630 --> 00:16:53,032 it's an exciting thing saying, "Come and join our show, listen to it." 287 00:16:53,133 --> 00:16:56,569 - "We're a great band." - ♪ ...Lonely Hearts Club Band ♪ 288 00:17:08,882 --> 00:17:13,945 ♪ Picture yourself in a boat on a river ♪ 289 00:17:14,054 --> 00:17:20,221 ♪ With tangerine trees and marmalade skies ♪ 290 00:17:21,495 --> 00:17:26,899 ♪ Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly... ♪ 291 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,695 I remember him going up on the roof. 292 00:17:28,802 --> 00:17:31,828 John went up on the roof and got lost and came back. 293 00:17:35,008 --> 00:17:36,339 ♪ Cellophane flowers... ♪ 294 00:17:36,443 --> 00:17:39,970 He took an aspirin. Know what I mean? And it turned out to be something else. 295 00:17:40,347 --> 00:17:44,113 ♪ Towering over your head... ♪ 296 00:17:44,785 --> 00:17:47,083 He accidentally took some LSD. 297 00:17:47,187 --> 00:17:50,179 It'd certainly keep him awake for a while. 298 00:17:53,226 --> 00:17:57,254 ♪ Lucy in the sky with diamonds... ♪ 299 00:17:57,364 --> 00:18:00,425 At that point, the session was in effect over. 300 00:18:03,337 --> 00:18:05,897 I was rather offended when the album came out 301 00:18:06,006 --> 00:18:09,067 and people said, "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds" - "LSD, you know?" 302 00:18:09,176 --> 00:18:10,166 Which was nonsense. 303 00:18:12,546 --> 00:18:14,878 The real story about "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was 304 00:18:14,982 --> 00:18:17,542 I showed up at John's house one day, 305 00:18:17,651 --> 00:18:20,951 and he said to me, "Look at this great drawing Julian's just done." 306 00:18:21,054 --> 00:18:22,988 And he showed me, I remember it very well. 307 00:18:23,090 --> 00:18:27,459 It was a kid's drawing, and kids always have people floating around 308 00:18:27,561 --> 00:18:30,531 like Chagall does in all his things. They're always just floating. 309 00:18:30,631 --> 00:18:32,998 I think it's something to do with kids not realizing 310 00:18:33,100 --> 00:18:34,932 that people have to be put on the ground. 311 00:18:35,035 --> 00:18:38,096 I've seen the painting that this little kid does. 312 00:18:38,205 --> 00:18:39,730 I don't know if you've get kids, 313 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,673 but they just slap paint everywhere and say it's a painting. 314 00:18:42,776 --> 00:18:46,770 And of course we put them in frames and put them on the well. And... 315 00:18:47,547 --> 00:18:50,482 And it was just this crazy little kid's painting. "What is that?" 316 00:18:50,584 --> 00:18:52,678 John had said, "What's it called, then?" 317 00:18:52,786 --> 00:18:56,279 And Julian had said, "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds." 318 00:18:56,390 --> 00:18:57,824 And John went, "Ding!" 319 00:18:59,826 --> 00:19:02,761 They were able to conjure up a wonderful, evocative image 320 00:19:02,863 --> 00:19:04,592 with very sparse material. 321 00:19:05,065 --> 00:19:07,625 And the opening to "Lucy" is really a case in point. 322 00:19:13,740 --> 00:19:16,038 And it's a most wonderful phrase. 323 00:19:16,143 --> 00:19:19,977 I think, if Beethoven was around, he wouldn't have minded one of those. 324 00:19:20,947 --> 00:19:23,575 And over that very, very simple and beautiful phrase, 325 00:19:23,684 --> 00:19:26,483 John sang just one note. 326 00:19:26,586 --> 00:19:31,046 He developed it. He had a way of finding out what he wanted to sing, 327 00:19:31,158 --> 00:19:32,922 even as we were recording. 328 00:19:33,026 --> 00:19:36,018 But to begin with, all he sang was, 329 00:19:36,129 --> 00:19:41,067 "Picture yourself on a boat on a river..." 330 00:19:41,168 --> 00:19:44,399 ♪ Newspaper taxis appear on the shore... ♪ 331 00:19:44,504 --> 00:19:47,269 Notice the tape echo on the voice already, 332 00:19:47,374 --> 00:19:49,968 even though this is a very early rehearsal take. 333 00:19:51,411 --> 00:19:53,971 ♪ Climb in the back with your head in the clouds... ♪ 334 00:19:54,081 --> 00:19:55,913 - No bass again. - No. 335 00:19:56,016 --> 00:20:00,510 Because it was much better for me to work out the bass later, you knew? 336 00:20:01,421 --> 00:20:04,254 And it allowed me to do... 337 00:20:04,925 --> 00:20:05,949 That's me. 338 00:20:06,059 --> 00:20:13,625 The good thing about doing it later was it allowed me to get melodic bass lines. 339 00:20:15,936 --> 00:20:18,564 Which was always... All the bass lines were always very interesting. 340 00:20:18,672 --> 00:20:22,336 On this album, I think that was one of the reasons. 341 00:20:22,442 --> 00:20:27,676 ♪ With plasticine porters with looking glass ties ♪ 342 00:20:29,049 --> 00:20:34,044 ♪ Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile ♪ 343 00:20:34,154 --> 00:20:38,955 ♪ The girls with kaleidoscope eyes... ♪ 344 00:20:39,059 --> 00:20:40,220 Go for it! 345 00:20:42,129 --> 00:20:48,364 The climate was influenced by the psychedelic era. 346 00:20:48,468 --> 00:20:52,564 I think the only difficulty about talking honestly about that period 347 00:20:52,672 --> 00:20:55,733 is that new the drug scene is a much heavier thing, 348 00:20:55,842 --> 00:21:03,579 and if you're now in any way seen to incite or advocate drug-taking, 349 00:21:03,683 --> 00:21:06,983 you're now talking about crack, you're now talking about glue sniffing, 350 00:21:07,087 --> 00:21:09,215 you're now talking about life-threatening things. 351 00:21:09,322 --> 00:21:13,657 So, I don't actually like doing it, because it can easily be misconceived. 352 00:21:14,427 --> 00:21:16,156 If you could get back to the period 353 00:21:16,263 --> 00:21:19,927 and everyone could understand how the period was and how innocent it was, 354 00:21:20,467 --> 00:21:22,697 then it is easier to talk about it. 355 00:21:23,770 --> 00:21:28,173 It mightn't have affected creativity for other people. 356 00:21:28,275 --> 00:21:30,744 I know it did for us, and it did for me. 357 00:21:30,844 --> 00:21:38,581 I mean, the first thing that people who smoked marijuana and were into music 358 00:21:38,685 --> 00:21:43,088 is that somehow it focuses your attention better on the music. 359 00:21:43,190 --> 00:21:46,490 And so you can hear it clearer. 360 00:21:46,593 --> 00:21:48,891 Or that's how it appeared to be. 361 00:21:50,197 --> 00:21:53,690 You could see things much different, 362 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,293 I mean, LSD was something else. It wasn't just... 363 00:21:57,404 --> 00:22:01,466 I mean, marijuana was just like having a couple of beers, really, 364 00:22:01,575 --> 00:22:04,408 but LSD was more like going to the moon. 365 00:22:04,511 --> 00:22:08,106 We found out very early on that, 366 00:22:08,215 --> 00:22:11,412 you know, if you played stoned or derelict in any way, 367 00:22:11,518 --> 00:22:14,283 it was really shitty music, you know? 368 00:22:14,387 --> 00:22:19,325 So we would have the experiences and then bring that into the music later. 369 00:22:20,026 --> 00:22:24,793 Famous old story of one of the cleaners at the Hammersmith Odeon saying, 370 00:22:24,898 --> 00:22:27,833 "That Ray Charles must be a mean git, you know? 371 00:22:27,934 --> 00:22:32,167 "I just saw two of his musicians in the toilets sharing a cigarette." 372 00:22:32,272 --> 00:22:33,762 "He can't pay them anything!" 373 00:22:33,874 --> 00:22:36,969 I knew that the boys smoked pot, 374 00:22:37,077 --> 00:22:41,139 and they equally knew that I disapproved, and they never did it in front of me. 375 00:22:41,248 --> 00:22:43,546 They would always have Mal roll them a joint 376 00:22:43,650 --> 00:22:46,244 and they'd nip out to the canteen and lock it 377 00:22:46,353 --> 00:22:49,152 or else to the loo and have a smoke and come back again, 378 00:22:49,256 --> 00:22:50,587 beaming all over their faces. 379 00:22:51,291 --> 00:22:52,986 We mainly wrote in the afternoons. 380 00:22:53,093 --> 00:22:55,653 I'd either go to John's house or he'd come to mine. 381 00:22:55,762 --> 00:22:57,457 So I'd drive out to Weybridge. 382 00:22:57,564 --> 00:23:00,829 Now, you don't want to be stoned doing that. 383 00:23:00,934 --> 00:23:03,904 So we'd go out, and we'd have an afternoon of it, 384 00:23:04,004 --> 00:23:08,168 and it would be later, listening, in the evening 385 00:23:08,708 --> 00:23:12,076 that the little wine might come out and this and that might come out. 386 00:23:12,178 --> 00:23:14,613 But I say, you know... it's very difficult for me 387 00:23:14,714 --> 00:23:17,877 because I realise now being a father of four kids 388 00:23:17,984 --> 00:23:21,716 that if I make this sound as exciting as it was, 389 00:23:21,821 --> 00:23:24,188 the natural corollary is for someone to say, 390 00:23:24,291 --> 00:23:26,487 "Well, why don't we write like that?" 391 00:23:26,593 --> 00:23:28,823 And I don't want to be seen to do that, 392 00:23:28,929 --> 00:23:31,762 cos now, as I say, it's a much more dangerous ballgame. 393 00:23:31,865 --> 00:23:34,232 There was a kind of spirit of adventure that they both had. 394 00:23:34,334 --> 00:23:36,098 They were going to conquer the world. 395 00:23:36,202 --> 00:23:38,637 But there was that element of competition, 396 00:23:38,738 --> 00:23:42,038 and the competition was the essential thing that made them work so well. 397 00:23:42,142 --> 00:23:45,578 He'd write "Strawberry Fields", I'd go away and write "Penny Lane". 398 00:23:45,679 --> 00:23:51,243 If I'd write "I'm Down", he'd go away and write something similar to that, 399 00:23:51,351 --> 00:23:53,149 to compete with each other. 400 00:23:53,253 --> 00:23:55,483 But it was very friendly competition, 401 00:23:55,588 --> 00:23:58,114 because we were both going to share in the rewards anyway. 402 00:23:58,224 --> 00:24:01,489 But it was a real... it was this. It really helped step... 403 00:24:01,594 --> 00:24:04,393 So we were getting better and better and better all the time. 404 00:24:05,465 --> 00:24:09,299 John and Paul always wrote a song for Ringo on every album. 405 00:24:09,402 --> 00:24:12,428 "With a Little Help from My Friends" proved to be the song. 406 00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:16,298 And Paul wrote that song and wrote it beautifully simply 407 00:24:16,409 --> 00:24:19,208 with just five notes that Ringo had to carry, 408 00:24:19,312 --> 00:24:24,079 all within one little phrase, which was... 409 00:24:31,057 --> 00:24:33,048 All in those notes. 410 00:24:34,661 --> 00:24:37,187 Terribly simple. Terribly effective. 411 00:24:38,465 --> 00:24:42,026 ♪ What would you think if I sang out of tune... ♪ 412 00:24:42,936 --> 00:24:45,871 Like his drumming, Ringo's voice is most distinctive. 413 00:24:45,972 --> 00:24:48,703 And on this track, he put in a really super performance 414 00:24:48,808 --> 00:24:50,833 that makes the song his very own. 415 00:24:50,944 --> 00:24:54,539 ♪ And I'll try not to sing out of key ♪ 416 00:24:54,647 --> 00:24:58,880 ♪ Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends ♪ 417 00:24:58,985 --> 00:25:02,944 ♪ Mmh, I get high with a little help from my friends... ♪ 418 00:25:03,056 --> 00:25:05,184 The original line was, 419 00:25:05,291 --> 00:25:07,316 "What would you do if I sang out of tune," 420 00:25:07,427 --> 00:25:10,294 "would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?" 421 00:25:10,397 --> 00:25:12,365 Or "Would you throw tomatoes at me?", 422 00:25:12,465 --> 00:25:15,628 and I would not sing that line, "tomatoes at me", because... 423 00:25:16,603 --> 00:25:18,264 I hated the line anyway, 424 00:25:18,371 --> 00:25:22,535 and in those days they used to throw all sorts of stuff at us on singe, 425 00:25:22,642 --> 00:25:25,407 and I didn't want this to become a habit either. 426 00:25:25,512 --> 00:25:28,709 And I just hated the line, so I refused to sing that line, "tomatoes", 427 00:25:28,815 --> 00:25:33,048 so they changed it to, "Would you stand up and walk out on me?" 428 00:25:33,586 --> 00:25:37,750 ♪ Do you need anybody ♪ 429 00:25:38,725 --> 00:25:42,025 ♪ I need somebody to love... ♪ 430 00:25:42,128 --> 00:25:43,892 Besides changing that line, 431 00:25:43,997 --> 00:25:48,127 it took a lot of coaxing from Paul to get me to sing that last note. 432 00:25:48,768 --> 00:25:51,169 I just felt it was very high. 433 00:25:51,271 --> 00:25:53,467 I always worry about the vocals, you know? 434 00:25:53,573 --> 00:25:57,441 I'm insecure when I do the vocals. I still am, and I was then. 435 00:25:57,544 --> 00:26:03,313 And so he would get me up, and we finally got that last note. 436 00:26:03,416 --> 00:26:08,479 ♪ ...from my friends ♪ 437 00:26:11,057 --> 00:26:13,719 The role of a producer had changed over the years. 438 00:26:13,827 --> 00:26:16,091 I mean, when we started in 1962, 439 00:26:16,196 --> 00:26:18,927 my job was really an organizer to get them into some kind of shape, 440 00:26:19,032 --> 00:26:22,332 make sure they were tidy in the studio, musically, I mean. 441 00:26:22,435 --> 00:26:23,732 Gradually that changed. 442 00:26:23,837 --> 00:26:25,771 By the time "Pepper" had come along, 443 00:26:25,872 --> 00:26:29,831 I suppose I was a realiser of their ideas, 444 00:26:30,510 --> 00:26:33,707 so that if John wanted something really weird, 445 00:26:33,813 --> 00:26:35,372 I had to try and provide it for him. 446 00:26:35,482 --> 00:26:38,884 Or if Paul wanted some extraordinary orchestration, 447 00:26:38,985 --> 00:26:41,545 I had to try and find out what he wanted. 448 00:26:41,654 --> 00:26:46,717 What I think his great skill then was to allow us to do what we wanted. 449 00:26:46,826 --> 00:26:50,694 So his role changed from really deciding what was done 450 00:26:50,797 --> 00:26:52,424 to allowing us to do it. 451 00:26:52,799 --> 00:26:55,325 I think the role with George became easier, 452 00:26:55,435 --> 00:26:59,372 because at first he was to us... we were kind of frightened, 453 00:26:59,472 --> 00:27:01,463 because we were these nervous kids, 454 00:27:01,574 --> 00:27:05,101 and he was like this big schoolteacher sort of person 455 00:27:05,211 --> 00:27:10,741 who we had to find and have a relationship with. 456 00:27:10,850 --> 00:27:12,841 George was like the big cheese. 457 00:27:12,952 --> 00:27:15,250 He would come in as the producer, 458 00:27:15,355 --> 00:27:18,052 and we were all a little... not afraid, but... 459 00:27:18,158 --> 00:27:20,354 We knew he was the man. 460 00:27:20,460 --> 00:27:24,488 And he was very good, and he was very humorous, so... 461 00:27:24,597 --> 00:27:27,692 That's how George really got into our good books, 462 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,564 because we were very tight, 463 00:27:29,669 --> 00:27:32,229 the little four of us were really tight together. 464 00:27:33,106 --> 00:27:35,473 Very seldom did we let anybody in. 465 00:27:35,975 --> 00:27:38,273 We always felt George had just get off his Spitfire: 466 00:27:38,378 --> 00:27:41,211 "Oh, hello, chaps. Yes, it's chock away." 467 00:27:41,314 --> 00:27:43,749 We always felt he was a bit one of them. 468 00:27:43,850 --> 00:27:46,012 And I think we just grew through those years together, 469 00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:49,646 him as the straight man and us as the loonies. 470 00:27:50,924 --> 00:27:55,521 He was always there for us to interpret our strangeness. 471 00:27:55,628 --> 00:27:57,118 Da, da... 472 00:27:58,198 --> 00:28:00,633 When George Harrison came to me, 473 00:28:00,733 --> 00:28:02,633 I didn't know what to think. 474 00:28:04,037 --> 00:28:06,768 But I found he really wanted to learn. 475 00:28:10,243 --> 00:28:13,440 I never thought our meeting would cause such an explosion. 476 00:28:14,047 --> 00:28:16,914 I'd heard the name of Ravi Shankar, 477 00:28:17,016 --> 00:28:21,886 it must have been around 1965, maybe 1966. 478 00:28:21,988 --> 00:28:25,390 The third time I heard this name, I went out and bought the record. 479 00:28:25,825 --> 00:28:29,887 It was strange, because intellectually I didn't know what it was. 480 00:28:29,996 --> 00:28:31,555 It didn't make any sense to me, 481 00:28:31,664 --> 00:28:34,463 but somewhere inside of me, it made absolute sense. 482 00:28:34,567 --> 00:28:37,036 It made more sense than anything I'd ever heard before. 483 00:28:37,136 --> 00:28:41,004 ♪ We were talking ♪ 484 00:28:41,107 --> 00:28:48,138 ♪ About the love that's gone so cold... ♪ 485 00:28:48,248 --> 00:28:51,218 I found it very fascinating, actually, working with George on that. 486 00:28:51,317 --> 00:28:54,309 Him trying to get from English musicians 487 00:28:54,420 --> 00:28:56,616 what the Indians were already giving us. 488 00:28:56,723 --> 00:28:59,920 It started out by George working with a dilruba player, 489 00:29:00,026 --> 00:29:02,825 which is a kind of Indian violin. 490 00:29:02,929 --> 00:29:08,629 And then I had to copy that with a bank of English violinists. 491 00:29:08,735 --> 00:29:11,432 Here we have the dilrubas on two, 492 00:29:11,537 --> 00:29:15,872 and our English instruments joining in on track three, 493 00:29:15,975 --> 00:29:18,808 but George answering on sitar. 494 00:29:22,015 --> 00:29:23,483 Here it is. 495 00:29:29,555 --> 00:29:32,889 And pizzicato strings accompanying him. 496 00:29:35,895 --> 00:29:38,364 A bit of slurpy cello. 497 00:29:39,999 --> 00:29:42,331 Doing the same thing as the dilruba. 498 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,785 ♪ We were talking... ♪ 499 00:30:04,624 --> 00:30:08,356 And here he is singing the same tune as the dilruba 500 00:30:08,461 --> 00:30:11,294 in flatly the same way, the same kind of swoops 501 00:30:11,397 --> 00:30:13,559 that the dilruba does. 502 00:30:13,666 --> 00:30:15,225 You hear his voice. 503 00:30:15,335 --> 00:30:17,429 You hear the dilruba. 504 00:30:19,405 --> 00:30:23,433 ♪ And lose their soul... ♪ 505 00:30:24,277 --> 00:30:26,974 "Within You, Without You" was just my way 506 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,208 of trying to make a Western pop song 507 00:30:29,315 --> 00:30:32,546 using some of those instruments and some of those sounds. 508 00:30:32,652 --> 00:30:34,950 We all knew George liked Indian music, 509 00:30:35,054 --> 00:30:37,853 and there was a kind of toleration, if you like. 510 00:30:37,957 --> 00:30:42,394 But it was a welcome one, because we actually liked the sounds. 511 00:30:43,496 --> 00:30:45,965 The joss sticks even were OK. 512 00:30:46,065 --> 00:30:48,693 They covered the smell of pot. 513 00:30:51,270 --> 00:30:53,796 ♪ Wouldn't it be nice if we were older 514 00:30:53,906 --> 00:30:57,467 ♪ Then we wouldn't have to wait so long... ♪ 515 00:30:57,910 --> 00:31:01,574 To me, the single biggest influence on "Sgt. Pepper" 516 00:31:01,681 --> 00:31:04,514 was the Beach Boys' record "Pet Sounds". 517 00:31:04,617 --> 00:31:07,814 And I think Brian Wilson was a great genius. 518 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:10,685 ♪ You know it's gonna make it that much better ♪ 519 00:31:10,790 --> 00:31:16,194 ♪ When we can say goodnight and slay together... ♪ 520 00:31:17,096 --> 00:31:21,033 I think of "Pet Sounds" in my head, and I think of "Sgt. Pepper's", 521 00:31:21,667 --> 00:31:24,102 and I think, "Gosh! That's not..." 522 00:31:24,804 --> 00:31:26,704 Those two albums aren't very alike at all, 523 00:31:26,806 --> 00:31:29,036 only in that they're very creative. 524 00:31:29,142 --> 00:31:33,943 They must've picked up on the creativity of "Pet Sounds", not the sound. 525 00:31:34,046 --> 00:31:36,515 It's actually very clever on any level. 526 00:31:36,616 --> 00:31:39,779 If you approach it from a writer's point of view, it's very cleverly written. 527 00:31:39,886 --> 00:31:42,378 The harmonic structures are very, very clever. 528 00:31:42,488 --> 00:31:44,923 If you approach it from an arranger's point of view, 529 00:31:45,024 --> 00:31:50,360 the kind of instruments he's got on there, an oscillator, a harpsichord... 530 00:31:50,463 --> 00:31:52,124 It's got some crazy stuff on there. 531 00:31:52,231 --> 00:31:57,670 Well, I remember... I combined an organ with the guitar. 532 00:31:57,770 --> 00:32:01,172 And phew! What a sound, It really worked great. 533 00:32:01,274 --> 00:32:05,575 We get them so that they were absolutely enhancing each other. 534 00:32:05,678 --> 00:32:09,012 It was like a miracle, a miraculous process. 535 00:32:19,292 --> 00:32:22,318 ♪ Keep in mind love is here... ♪ 536 00:32:23,229 --> 00:32:25,823 Because of the work they'd done, 537 00:32:25,932 --> 00:32:30,233 it didn't seem too much of a stretch for us to get further out than they'd get. 538 00:32:46,018 --> 00:32:49,648 We always loved the Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang. 539 00:32:49,755 --> 00:32:51,587 When we were kids, it was a TV thing, 540 00:32:51,691 --> 00:32:53,989 a little bloke came on and they all pushed him out of the way. 541 00:32:54,093 --> 00:32:58,087 But it was those giant big bass... 542 00:32:58,197 --> 00:33:01,565 And John used to play harmonica, so we always liked that. 543 00:33:01,667 --> 00:33:04,398 But when I heard them on "Pet Sounds"... 544 00:33:04,504 --> 00:33:07,769 There's a lot of harmonica, bass harmonica, he uses that... 545 00:33:07,874 --> 00:33:12,368 The instruments he uses and the way he places them against each other, 546 00:33:12,478 --> 00:33:15,379 it's very cleverly done, it's a really clever album. 547 00:33:15,481 --> 00:33:20,920 So we were inspired by it and nicked a few ideas. 548 00:33:25,224 --> 00:33:27,318 ♪ The celebrated Mr K. ♪ 549 00:33:27,426 --> 00:33:30,521 ♪ Performs his feat on Saturday at Bishopsgate... ♪ 550 00:33:30,630 --> 00:33:35,329 I remember we walked into an antique shop in Sevenoaks in Kent, 551 00:33:35,434 --> 00:33:38,301 and we were looking at what they had there, 552 00:33:38,404 --> 00:33:40,668 and John pulled out this thing that he found, 553 00:33:40,773 --> 00:33:43,333 which said, "The Benefit of Mr Kite". 554 00:33:43,442 --> 00:33:46,605 And it was virtually all the lyrics to that song. 555 00:33:46,712 --> 00:33:47,907 When I saw it, 556 00:33:48,014 --> 00:33:51,109 it was hanging up in the hall in his house in Surrey, 557 00:33:51,217 --> 00:33:53,777 and it had everything that the song has on it. 558 00:33:53,886 --> 00:33:57,117 It had the Henderson Twins and Pablo Fanque's Fair, 559 00:33:57,223 --> 00:33:59,191 all those words were written on the poster. 560 00:34:00,059 --> 00:34:05,589 And it obviously inspired him to write a song about a fairground or a circus. 561 00:34:05,698 --> 00:34:07,792 That's how you do it. 562 00:34:07,900 --> 00:34:10,597 You get ideas, you hear people say stuff, or... 563 00:34:10,703 --> 00:34:14,799 you hear a phrase that sounds good and you write it down or remember it. 564 00:34:14,907 --> 00:34:18,639 So I think he was just advanced for those days 565 00:34:18,744 --> 00:34:23,181 in his awareness of putting... everything could be put into a song. 566 00:34:23,282 --> 00:34:26,582 He wanted to create a sound picture 567 00:34:26,686 --> 00:34:28,586 of what the song was all about. 568 00:34:29,121 --> 00:34:32,557 And he actually said to me, "I want to smell the sawdust." 569 00:34:32,658 --> 00:34:34,990 But to get the smell of the sawdust, 570 00:34:35,094 --> 00:34:38,496 we, John and I, both sat on different organs, 571 00:34:38,598 --> 00:34:42,159 Wurlitzers and Lowreys and Hammonds, 572 00:34:42,268 --> 00:34:46,262 and with double-speed techniques created a kind of whirly atmosphere. 573 00:34:46,372 --> 00:34:50,673 And the backing... I had visions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 574 00:34:50,776 --> 00:34:53,040 who had a little pipey organ in their hut. 575 00:34:53,145 --> 00:34:55,739 John thought slightly differently. He thought of "Magic Roundabout". 576 00:34:55,848 --> 00:34:59,284 But it was a tooty kind of sound that we were able to create, 577 00:34:59,385 --> 00:35:03,253 and together with that, we had this weird and wonderful tape 578 00:35:03,356 --> 00:35:06,883 consisting of all little sections of real steam organs, 579 00:35:06,993 --> 00:35:11,362 cut up, joined together in a very haphazard manner, some back to front. 580 00:35:11,464 --> 00:35:13,489 To give us no tune at all, 581 00:35:13,599 --> 00:35:16,967 but just a noise that would convey what we wanted. 582 00:35:17,069 --> 00:35:18,468 And this is what it is. 583 00:35:20,506 --> 00:35:22,565 ♪ The band begins at ten to six ♪ 584 00:35:22,675 --> 00:35:25,337 ♪ When Mr K. performs his tricks without a sound... ♪ 585 00:35:25,444 --> 00:35:27,606 Double-tracked vocal form John. 586 00:35:29,115 --> 00:35:31,106 ♪ And Mr H. will demonstrate ♪ 587 00:35:31,217 --> 00:35:32,776 ♪ Ten summersets he'll undertake ♪ 588 00:35:32,885 --> 00:35:34,614 - Ringo on his cymbals. - ♪ On solid ground ♪ 589 00:35:36,222 --> 00:35:40,591 ♪ ...days in preparation, a splendid time is guaranteed for all ♪ 590 00:35:41,394 --> 00:35:45,126 - And now, here, in come the whirly bits. - ♪ And tonight Mr Kite is topping the bill ♪ 591 00:35:49,268 --> 00:35:51,737 This is the track with all the little sounds on it, 592 00:35:51,837 --> 00:35:54,238 the melange of tapes. 593 00:35:59,545 --> 00:36:03,277 And along with that is the little tooty backing on this track, track four. 594 00:36:12,058 --> 00:36:15,585 And that's it. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. 595 00:36:16,696 --> 00:36:20,291 I mean, when I first met them, they really couldn't write a decent song. 596 00:36:20,399 --> 00:36:22,561 "Love Me Do" was the best they could give me. 597 00:36:22,668 --> 00:36:27,765 Yet they blossomed as songwriters in a way that is breath-taking. 598 00:36:28,941 --> 00:36:32,377 It had an amazing effect on the way people saw records. 599 00:36:32,478 --> 00:36:35,539 I mean, people suddenly thought, "Oh, you can do that?" 600 00:36:35,648 --> 00:36:37,343 Well, they've done it, so of course you can do it. 601 00:36:37,450 --> 00:36:39,714 So I suppose it made... 602 00:36:40,720 --> 00:36:44,122 it opened a door and showed everybody that there was another room 603 00:36:44,223 --> 00:36:46,885 and that you could play around in that other room, 604 00:36:46,992 --> 00:36:50,394 and actually it could still be called a commercial record. 605 00:36:50,496 --> 00:36:52,521 ♪ Good morning, good morning ♪ 606 00:36:52,631 --> 00:36:54,565 ♪ The best to you each morning ♪ 607 00:36:55,034 --> 00:36:58,265 ♪ Sunshine, breakfast, Kellogg's Cornflakes, crisp and full of sun... ♪ 608 00:36:58,370 --> 00:36:59,462 Ah, "Good Morning". 609 00:37:00,039 --> 00:37:04,169 "Good Morning" of course was inspired by a commercial. 610 00:37:04,276 --> 00:37:05,937 You know, a breakfast commercial. 611 00:37:06,045 --> 00:37:10,073 And I suppose that triggered something in John that made him write the song, 612 00:37:10,182 --> 00:37:12,480 and again he drew his inspiration 613 00:37:12,585 --> 00:37:16,351 from very mundane, ordinary things like "Time for tea" and "Meet the Wife... 614 00:37:16,455 --> 00:37:18,321 "Meet the Wife" was a television serial. 615 00:37:18,424 --> 00:37:23,157 It kind of indicates the suburbanality of his songs 616 00:37:23,262 --> 00:37:25,287 and the very Englishness of the whole thing. 617 00:37:25,765 --> 00:37:27,961 "Good Morning" was typical of him 618 00:37:28,067 --> 00:37:32,561 that it was of odd meters, but sounded perfectly natural. 619 00:37:32,671 --> 00:37:35,072 I mean, he would have a 3/4 bar, 4/4 bar, 620 00:37:35,174 --> 00:37:37,006 5/4 bar even, without knowing it. 621 00:37:37,676 --> 00:37:40,077 One-two-three, one-two, 622 00:37:40,179 --> 00:37:44,741 one-two-three-four, one-two, one-two-three-four. 623 00:37:44,850 --> 00:37:47,444 It was to be a very hard-driving, punchy thing. 624 00:37:47,553 --> 00:37:50,022 The tune itself is quite simple. 625 00:37:53,192 --> 00:37:55,923 But it was full of accents all over the place. 626 00:37:56,028 --> 00:37:57,689 ♪ Go to a show you hope she goes... ♪ 627 00:37:57,797 --> 00:38:02,325 John wanted to finish this song with a collection of animal noises, 628 00:38:02,434 --> 00:38:05,529 starting off with a cock, identifying with a Kellogg's commercial... 629 00:38:05,638 --> 00:38:09,165 ...and then each animal was capable 630 00:38:09,275 --> 00:38:12,404 of either devouring or frightening the one before it. 631 00:38:12,945 --> 00:38:14,640 And we had a whole string of them here. 632 00:38:28,694 --> 00:38:30,594 It took a long time, 633 00:38:30,696 --> 00:38:34,724 and it took longer for me, because I would do the basic track. 634 00:38:34,834 --> 00:38:39,635 We would do the basic backing track. We'd do the drums. 635 00:38:39,738 --> 00:38:43,333 And then it would be days or weeks, 636 00:38:43,442 --> 00:38:47,106 even months sometimes, to come back to the track 637 00:38:47,213 --> 00:38:51,116 and put on overdubs like the hi-hat 638 00:38:51,217 --> 00:38:57,020 or, listening again, there's lots of conga drums. 639 00:38:57,456 --> 00:38:59,447 I'm not a percussionist. 640 00:38:59,558 --> 00:39:01,754 That's another field of drums. 641 00:39:02,228 --> 00:39:05,721 I'm on playing the congas, and there's lots of maracas, 642 00:39:05,831 --> 00:39:08,528 and all that stuff sort of came on at the end. 643 00:39:08,634 --> 00:39:11,626 So there was lots of huge gaps. 644 00:39:11,737 --> 00:39:15,605 The biggest memory I have of "Sgt. Pepper" is, I learned to play chess on it. 645 00:39:16,842 --> 00:39:19,971 We were changing our method of working at that time, 646 00:39:20,079 --> 00:39:24,516 and instead of now looking for catchy singles, catchy singles, catchy singles, 647 00:39:24,617 --> 00:39:31,080 it was more like writing a novel, "Sgt. Pepper", I think for me, definitely. 648 00:39:31,190 --> 00:39:34,592 It was much more a kind of an overall concept, "Wow...!" 649 00:39:34,693 --> 00:39:36,422 And you can see that in the packaging. 650 00:39:36,528 --> 00:39:40,897 ♪ And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right ♪ 651 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,968 ♪ Where I belong I'm right ♪ 652 00:39:43,068 --> 00:39:45,230 ♪ Where I belong ♪ 653 00:39:45,704 --> 00:39:48,674 ♪ Silly people run around, they worry me ♪ 654 00:39:48,774 --> 00:39:53,109 ♪ And never ask me why they don't get past my door... ♪ 655 00:39:53,212 --> 00:39:55,476 Cover art in the mid-Sixties 656 00:39:55,581 --> 00:39:58,243 hadn't really been exploited up to "Pepper", 657 00:39:58,684 --> 00:40:01,984 and when the boys decided what they wanted, 658 00:40:02,087 --> 00:40:05,387 they wanted really to put all of their heroes on the album 659 00:40:05,491 --> 00:40:07,289 in some form or another. 660 00:40:07,393 --> 00:40:13,491 And by recruiting Peter Blake, who was an avant-garde artist again, 661 00:40:13,599 --> 00:40:16,694 to assemble their ideas and realise them, 662 00:40:16,802 --> 00:40:18,930 in the same way I was realizing the music, 663 00:40:19,038 --> 00:40:22,030 they did, I think, a pretty smart thing. 664 00:40:22,141 --> 00:40:27,170 I think what happened straightaway was that it was very mysterious. 665 00:40:27,279 --> 00:40:28,747 It was like a game. 666 00:40:28,847 --> 00:40:32,181 There were quizzes to see if you could spot who everyone was, 667 00:40:32,284 --> 00:40:34,776 and of course nobody could. 668 00:40:34,887 --> 00:40:37,788 And I think a kind of cult built up around it, 669 00:40:37,890 --> 00:40:42,919 and then the myths and stories that built up around it, 670 00:40:43,028 --> 00:40:47,124 it became an interesting talking point, I think. 671 00:40:47,633 --> 00:40:50,568 I think we just thought we'll do the best we can 672 00:40:50,669 --> 00:40:54,162 in this very far-out new way that we had of thinking. 673 00:40:54,273 --> 00:40:55,570 Get it to be something... 674 00:40:55,674 --> 00:40:59,611 I still think that is the best philosophy, to really try and please yourself. 675 00:41:00,212 --> 00:41:03,113 Probably the most momentous song on the album, "A Day in the Life", 676 00:41:03,215 --> 00:41:05,343 began in a very simple way. 677 00:41:05,451 --> 00:41:08,421 And we've got the rehearsal fake, take one, 678 00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:10,488 the very first time we heard it, 679 00:41:11,523 --> 00:41:14,788 with John giving a few instructions to people, as usual, 680 00:41:14,893 --> 00:41:16,725 just before he starts it. 681 00:41:17,696 --> 00:41:20,495 "Have the mike on the piano quite low." 682 00:41:20,599 --> 00:41:22,328 "Keep it like maracas, you know." 683 00:41:22,434 --> 00:41:25,631 John was singing while he was playing his acoustic guitar. 684 00:41:25,738 --> 00:41:29,368 Paul was on piano. George was playing maracas, I think. 685 00:41:29,475 --> 00:41:31,910 And certainly Ringo was on bongos. 686 00:41:32,011 --> 00:41:35,242 John counts in by saying, "Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy." 687 00:41:39,585 --> 00:41:42,577 "Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy." 688 00:41:55,567 --> 00:41:59,697 ♪ I read the news today, oh boy ♪ 689 00:42:01,607 --> 00:42:04,133 ♪ About a lucky man who made the grade... ♪ 690 00:42:04,243 --> 00:42:07,543 Even in this early take, he has a voice... 691 00:42:07,646 --> 00:42:12,106 - ♪ And though the news was rather sad ♪ - ...which sends shivers down the spine. 692 00:42:13,652 --> 00:42:16,883 ♪ Well, I just had to laugh ♪ 693 00:42:19,625 --> 00:42:22,617 ♪ I saw the photograph ♪ 694 00:42:25,831 --> 00:42:29,096 ♪ He blew his mind out in a car ♪ 695 00:42:31,904 --> 00:42:36,364 ♪ He didn't notice that the lights had changed... ♪ 696 00:42:38,811 --> 00:42:41,644 Well, I think he's vastly underrated, Ringo. 697 00:42:44,249 --> 00:42:48,482 The drum fills on "A Day in the Life" are in fact very, very complex things. 698 00:42:48,987 --> 00:42:52,423 You could take a great drummer from today 699 00:42:52,524 --> 00:42:55,755 and say, "I want it like that," and they really wouldn't know what to do. 700 00:42:57,663 --> 00:43:00,132 ♪ They'd seen his face before ♪ 701 00:43:00,232 --> 00:43:04,032 ♪ Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords... ♪ 702 00:43:06,805 --> 00:43:10,503 I could only play the drums the best I could, you know? 703 00:43:10,609 --> 00:43:13,169 You know, I've said it before that I was very lucky 704 00:43:13,278 --> 00:43:17,340 that I was surrounded by three frustrated drummers. 705 00:43:17,449 --> 00:43:24,287 All three of them can play drums, but only one sort of style. 706 00:43:24,389 --> 00:43:27,359 There was one great moment with John who played a record to me 707 00:43:27,459 --> 00:43:29,791 and wanted me to... "Well, play it like that, Ringo." 708 00:43:29,895 --> 00:43:34,025 I said, "But, John, there's two guys." He says, "Don't let that bother you." 709 00:43:34,133 --> 00:43:36,966 The first part of the song "A Day in the Life" was John's, 710 00:43:37,069 --> 00:43:38,434 but it was incomplete. 711 00:43:38,537 --> 00:43:41,666 He went to Paul and said, "Have you got anything to pad it out in the middle?" 712 00:43:41,773 --> 00:43:43,901 Paul had another song which he was working on, 713 00:43:44,009 --> 00:43:47,707 which really had no connection with "A Day in the Life", but it was good. 714 00:43:47,813 --> 00:43:50,646 ♪ Woke up, fell out of bed ♪ 715 00:43:50,749 --> 00:43:53,150 ♪ Dragged a comb across my head ♪ 716 00:43:55,087 --> 00:43:58,113 ♪ Found my way downstairs and drank a cup ♪ 717 00:43:58,223 --> 00:44:01,056 ♪ And looking up, I noticed I was late... ♪ 718 00:44:01,994 --> 00:44:03,928 So John said, "Well, let's shove it in the middle" 719 00:44:04,029 --> 00:44:06,054 "and see if we can't connect them up in some way." 720 00:44:06,698 --> 00:44:10,760 We connected them with a series of empty bars 721 00:44:10,869 --> 00:44:16,069 on either side of Paul's section before we came back into John's reprise, 722 00:44:16,175 --> 00:44:20,510 and we knew we had to fill those bars with something sensational. 723 00:44:20,612 --> 00:44:22,273 And we didn't know what it was going to be yet. 724 00:44:22,814 --> 00:44:24,578 In order to keep the 24 bars 725 00:44:24,683 --> 00:44:27,084 so that everybody knew when to come back in again, 726 00:44:27,186 --> 00:44:30,622 dear old Mal Evans stood by the piano counting the bars. 727 00:44:30,722 --> 00:44:35,489 "Seven, eight, nine, ten..." 728 00:44:35,594 --> 00:44:37,426 And just to add further weight to it, 729 00:44:37,529 --> 00:44:41,124 he set off an alarm clock at the end of it to trigger everybody back into it. 730 00:44:42,067 --> 00:44:44,764 Seventeen, eighteen, 731 00:44:44,870 --> 00:44:48,966 "nineteen, twenty!" 732 00:44:49,341 --> 00:44:53,175 They told me they wanted an orchestral climax to fill these empty bars, 733 00:44:53,278 --> 00:44:55,269 a giant orgasm of sound 734 00:44:55,380 --> 00:44:59,283 rising from nothing at all to the most incredible noise. 735 00:44:59,384 --> 00:45:00,783 And this is what we came up with. 736 00:45:25,644 --> 00:45:28,944 And with that, we joined up the two parts of the song. 737 00:45:29,047 --> 00:45:31,914 ♪ Woke up, fell out of bed ♪ 738 00:45:32,017 --> 00:45:34,577 ♪ Dragged a comb across my head... ♪ 739 00:45:36,221 --> 00:45:40,454 I think there's lots of better songs out on different records. 740 00:45:40,559 --> 00:45:43,961 It's just... it was the time, the attitude, 741 00:45:44,062 --> 00:45:46,827 it was the concept, the world was trying to change. 742 00:45:46,932 --> 00:45:49,424 It didn't quite make it, but it made a small move. 743 00:45:50,135 --> 00:45:52,536 It was in the air... 744 00:45:52,638 --> 00:45:55,869 For me, the psychedelic years were the most exciting. 745 00:45:55,974 --> 00:45:59,069 It's like a period. If you listen to music from the '20 or the '30s, 746 00:45:59,177 --> 00:46:03,136 it has a sort of sound to it, and I think that's important. 747 00:46:03,248 --> 00:46:09,346 If you want to listen to something like a Hoagy Carmichael tune, 748 00:46:09,454 --> 00:46:13,118 well, it's partly the song that you like, and it's partly the way he did it, 749 00:46:13,225 --> 00:46:15,785 and it's also partly the way it was recorded, 750 00:46:15,894 --> 00:46:17,988 how the microphones sounded in those days, 751 00:46:18,096 --> 00:46:20,656 how the tube amplifiers in the boards... 752 00:46:20,766 --> 00:46:23,736 You know, it's all that kind of atmosphere, 753 00:46:23,835 --> 00:46:25,963 and it becomes a little period piece. 754 00:46:26,638 --> 00:46:28,299 The concept of the thing, 755 00:46:28,407 --> 00:46:30,774 I mean, before concept albums became a dirty word, 756 00:46:30,876 --> 00:46:32,935 you'd put it on and sit down and say, 757 00:46:33,045 --> 00:46:36,538 "For the next 50 minutes, I'm gonna be going there." 758 00:46:36,648 --> 00:46:38,707 So, it was very new from that point of view. 759 00:46:40,352 --> 00:46:43,720 ♪ And though the holes were rather small... ♪ 760 00:46:46,224 --> 00:46:50,718 Well, you know, the whole flower power thing fell apart in the end. 761 00:46:50,829 --> 00:46:54,288 I mean, there's still some great, old hippies out there, 762 00:46:54,399 --> 00:46:56,561 travelling in their vans, but... 763 00:46:56,668 --> 00:47:00,627 It wasn't the movement that I felt it could have been. 764 00:47:01,006 --> 00:47:03,566 I must confess that when we were going through "Pepper", 765 00:47:03,675 --> 00:47:06,337 people were saying, "How's it coming along?" I'd say "Fine." 766 00:47:06,445 --> 00:47:10,075 And I must confess, as we were getting longer and longer into the album 767 00:47:10,182 --> 00:47:12,981 and more and more avant-garde, 768 00:47:13,085 --> 00:47:16,111 I was wondering whether we were being a little bit over the top 769 00:47:16,221 --> 00:47:18,588 and a little bit... maybe pretentious. 770 00:47:18,690 --> 00:47:22,820 Just a slight niggle of worry. I thought, "Is the public ready for this yet?" 771 00:47:22,928 --> 00:47:25,761 The musical papers which I used to read 772 00:47:25,864 --> 00:47:28,697 were starting to slag us off, because we hadn't done anything, 773 00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:31,098 because it took five months to record. 774 00:47:31,203 --> 00:47:34,195 And I remember with great glee seeing in one of the papers, 775 00:47:34,306 --> 00:47:37,435 "Oh, the Beatles have dried up. There's nothing coming from them." 776 00:47:37,542 --> 00:47:39,840 "They've been in the studio. They can't think what they're doing." 777 00:47:39,945 --> 00:47:43,438 And I was sitting rubbing my hands, saying, "You just wait." 778 00:47:49,454 --> 00:47:54,153 ♪ Friday morning, at nine o'clock ♪ 779 00:47:54,259 --> 00:47:57,559 ♪ She is far away ♪ 780 00:48:00,966 --> 00:48:06,496 ♪ Waiting to keep the appointment she made ♪ 781 00:48:06,605 --> 00:48:11,372 ♪ Meeting a man from the Motortrade ♪ 782 00:48:12,411 --> 00:48:13,776 ♪ She...♪ 783 00:48:13,879 --> 00:48:17,372 ♪ What did we do that was wrong ♪ 784 00:48:17,482 --> 00:48:19,177 ♪ ...is leaving ♪ 785 00:48:19,284 --> 00:48:23,312 ♪ We didn't know it was wrong ♪ 786 00:48:23,422 --> 00:48:24,753 ♪...fun ♪ 787 00:48:24,856 --> 00:48:28,986 ♪ Fun is the one thing that money can't buy ♪ 788 00:48:29,094 --> 00:48:33,656 ♪ Something inside that was always denied ♪ 789 00:48:33,765 --> 00:48:37,633 ♪ For so many years ♪ 790 00:48:40,272 --> 00:48:44,675 ♪ She's leaving home ♪ 791 00:48:44,776 --> 00:48:49,338 ♪ Bye, bye...♪