St Pepper has to have big shoulders to carry the (impossible) load that music critics pile onto it. However the fact that much of the load is rubbish doesn't detract from the fact that it is a most remarkable collection of songs. We just should not get carried away.

After all the Beatles were obviously the most successful of the Merseybeat bands but were not initially unique. Neither can they be taken as some isolated musical engine taking popular music into a a completely new area. It was rather the case that the whole period went through a rapid evolution and several musical proto styles crawled out of the ooze, the booze and the drugs of the mid/late 60's.

The Floyd were already showing signs of what would eventually produce Dark Side of the Moon and lets not forget that one of the greatest musical influences of the period was Jimi Hendrix. (a prophet without honour in his own land?)

Clapton & Cream, the Who, the Kinks, the Yardbirds and last but definately not least, the strolling bones were all pushing in different directions around this time. (and picking up influences form many sources, not least US blues singer).

As for prog-rock, the Moody Blues were already exploring this avenue.

So whilst the Beatles certainly set a benchmark with the Pepper album, and no doubt sent a lot of other bands surrying back to the studio, it wasn't quite the musical earth shattering event that some would have us believe.

Neither did Lennon & McCartney have a unique angle with the "Englishness" of their music. This, unsurprisingly, is a common thread through English rock & pop music and stretches from the Kinks of the 60's to today's Kiaserchiefs, by way of the Jam, Squeeze & even Oasis. (To name but a few).

What is remarkable about the Beatles and some of the other bands of the period, is what they managed to achieve with the studio equipment available at the time.

The final point that I'd like to make is that time has the habit of washing away all the dross, so that we only really remember the good stuff like the Beatles etc from a particular period.

Good post and I agree with most of what you say. To me the best English music from this period was the Beatles and Kinks. But a lot of the Kinks stuff is only OK, but their best stuff is right up their with the Beatles best.

Lord, was just going to post a quick comment but got carried away. Apologies. Excellent post and good comment about the ‘Englishness’ of the music. Jimi may be a prophet without honour in a lot of the States, but to me he sits on the right hand of God (with SRV on the left, lol).

I bought my copy of Sgt. Pepper’s in 67 and have played it over and over again. But I think the emphasis placed on it now is a bit overblown. Yes, it was a seminal work, but so were Pet Sounds, Are You Experienced, Piper at the Gates, etc. The Beatles had been experimenting with unusual instruments and arrangements since Rubber Soul, in many ways Sgt. Pepper’s can be seen as the next step in a logical progression. A lot of critics call it the first concept album, but then again a lot of critics say Zappa's 'Freak Out' was the first.

Pepper’s was certainly a concept album, at least in the creation of a fictitious band, the packaging and careful song arrangement, though Lennon always vehemently denied that he wrote the songs as part of a coherent concept. Zappa thought the album was awful, that the Beatles had sold out. The Mother’s 68 album’ We're Only In It For The Money’ was a direct parody. Maybe Zappa had a point, given that the awful 'Magical Mystery Tour' followed on it's heels.

A lot of people say Pepper's greatest legacy was in it's innovative recording techniques. Though some highly original techniques were used on the album, particularly in double tracking the vocals, the basic techniques for multi-track recording and dubdown were already well established. Pet Sounds, Are You Experienced, Axis Bold as Love and Piper at the Gates of Dawn made extensive use of them. Phil Spector had been doing the Wall of Sound thing for years. Perhaps Peppers popularized the techniques, but it certainly didn't invent them.

Jimi released the single Hey Joe/Stone Free in 66. In early 67 he released Are You Experienced and later in the year Axis Bold as Love. Electric Ladyland in 68. Pet Sounds came out in 66 also, as well as The Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, which a lot of people think put Brit Blues on the map. Floyd released Piper in 67. So popular music was already moving in a lot of different directions prior to Peppers.

The Airplane released Surrealistic pillow in 67, another psychedelic direction by an already established band. The Stones released 3 albums, Flowers, Their Satanic Majesty’s Request and Between the Buttons.

Their Satanic Majesty's Request is often viewed as a cheap knock-off of Sgt. Peppers, the Stone's attempt to cash in on psychedelia, but in fact recoding began in Feb of 67 and ended in October of the same year. It was well in the works by the time Sgt. Peppers was released. So I don't think it was inspired or particularly influenced by Peppers, rather it represented a different psychedelic direction taken by a different band. I actually think it holds up very well.

There were also initial releases by The Grateful Dead, The Doors, David Bowie, and Pink Floyd. I don’t see much Pepper’s in any of those releases.

In 68 Jimi released Electric Ladyland, a work of at least near genius. Van Morrison released Astral Weeks, Simon and Garfunkel released Bookends. Johnny Cash did Folsom Prison Blues. Floyd did Saucer Full of Secrets, the Byrd's Sweetheart of the Rodeo kick started the alt country movement, The Doors released Waiting for the Sun. Wheels of Fire from Cream, We're Only In it for the Money by Zappa and the Mothers. Again, not a lot of Pepper's except for We're Only In It For the Money, which wouldn't have been recorded except that Zappa was so pissed off with Lennon and McCartney.

That said, it's a great album, and is still on my regular playlist. But let’s not over-hype it’s influence.

I played around on the edges of that scene at that time and The Beatles' influence, despite the hype, was hardly understated. These folks all knew each other and all of the them, whether friends or rivals, were anxiously awaiting the release of Pepper. Clapton, Baker and Bruce, The Rolling Stones, The Zombies all made some major changes in the what they were producing in reaction to Pepper. Far beyond merrie olde englande, Brian Wilson, even Dylan, as well as up and comers like Joni Michell, changed their musical vocabulary in response to it. I heard it bruited about at the time that The Four Seasons, who had been displaced by the Beatles as the kings of American pop three years previously, called it day in direct response to Sgt. Pepper. I can't say its true, but, three members of the group did cease to perform at all and went into the production end of the business.

Brian Wilson's reaction was almost as extreme. He went into a funk which lasted decades, losing the most creative years of the only collaboration which seriously rivaled the Beatles at the time. Remember that Pet Sounds came before Pepper.

The music scene then wasn't all Beatles; nor, could The Beatles be given credit as inventors of the styles they worked in, anymore than Shakespeare invented the five act play or Hamlet first. The San Francisco scene had already made its statement. Dylan had already turned the folk scene on its ear. Bossa Nova ruled in a huge chunk of the world that Americans never even thought about as well commanding a lot of ear time here. But, with the launch of Sergeant Pepper, The Beatles changed every musical scene, classical to conga line, in a positive way. They were the most influential band of their time, And, despite some really wonderful music that's been made in whole new styles since then (and some really grotesque stuff, too), we're still waiting for someone new to shape music the way they did.