It's hard to describe what hearing Sgt Pepper in 1967 was like. I was 15, was brought up by a music-loving father who worshiped Sinatra, the big bands, Nat King Cole, and a smattering of jazz and blues. The first time I heard it I knew it was, well, seminal...though I didn't know that word.
I knew several guys who bought two copies (unheard of at the time) because we wore out one from repeated listenings and from dropping needles on one song over and over again.
No amount of post-40-year analysis can really explain the influence of that album, because with each passing year, its role became increasingly part of the foundation. If Aimee Mann is worn out by it, that's because she should be. I don't think anyone created words like "the" or "and," but, regardless of how essential they are, who wants to talk about them? Instead, let's talk about "dysentery" and "psychosis."
To compare the Beatles to the creation of words is hyperbolic, yes, but I guess you had to be there. How many times in a person's life can you point to a particular moment and honestly declare that, at the time, even at a tender age, you knew that nothing in music was ever going to be the same again. After the summer of 1967, if an artist couldn't at least match Sgt. Pepper, let alone surpass it, it was hard to listen to.

amongs the posted commentary on the commentary, i appreciate yours most as seemingly most personally experienced.

thanks for not describing how the album 'resonates' with you still. that happy omission resonates with me.

w n c

hathead52 hit the nail on the head in terms of the difficulty of explaining the album's influence, at least on folks like me. I, too, first heard it as a 13-year-old when my buddy forced me to sit in his den and listen to the album from start to finish. We just stared at each other in disbelief. The "British-ness" of Sgt. Pepper's, to which Rosen speaks, also forced me to look up new words in the dictionary and grab an Atlas. It was all so -- new.

Rosen and others left out two footnotes that I think also make Sgt. Pepper's compelling: First, the album cover itself, which was the danish with the coffee. We spent hours poring over that cover, trying to identify all the personalities and whether their arrangement pointed to any "hidden" themes. What fun! I think about that every time I look at a music CD today, and how today's generation of listeners is somehow missing out.

Also, according to a TV documentary I once watched, Sgt. Pepper's arrived after many thought the Beatles and their influence on the music scene were fading. McCartney was only too aware of that notion and, as he and the others were in the studio recording Sgt. Pepper's, he said: "Just you wait."