Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, compared to the Beatles' own past albums, has a greater focus on serious story telling than ever before. It gives most of the songs a story and topic that has no clear-cut conclusion, which ultimately ends with a suggestion of self-discovery. The deliberate use of the lyrics in most songs surpasses that of any other album they've done so far, even Revolver. At the same time, there are some more whimsical, lighthearted songs that are very circus-like.
----------------------------------For example, the whimsical songs are "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "Lovely Rita", and to an extent "With a Little Help From My Friends". They all are very upbeat, grand, and basically show no signs of sadness or stress. They're songs you can listen to without really paying attention to the lyrics closely and still understand what the song is about. That being said, they are not bad songs by any standard...in fact, "With a Little Help From My Friends" is my favorite song from the album (good job, Ringo).
Those songs only have a few layers to them, but the rest of the songs are much more complex tonally and lyrically. I noticed that they focus on real struggles that every-day people can relate to, and leave behind the basic storyline of the Beatles chasing girls for their love.
"Fixing a Hole" is about how people can't seem to agree on anything, and how argument is essentially pointless because regardless of what you say, everyone has the mindset of you're wrong and I'm right, and no one will let anyone else "into their door" - in other words, into their mind.
"She's Leaving Home" is their most heartbreaking story of the album. The most powerful line of all is "she's leaving home after living alone for so many years" once the Beatles mention that the girl had a father and mother at home. Thus, it isn't a literal life alone, but a figurative one. We are never told explicitly the issue the girl had with her parents, but it's clear she didn't feel wanted or wasn't allowed to do what she wanted so she felt alone. The story becomes more than just a child-running-away story when we are given the parents' point of view, as they ask "what did we do wrong?" and say "we never thought of ourselves". The misunderstanding between the two parties is tragic because its obvious there was never any dialogue to resolve their issues, and thus must end with the girl leaving and starting anew. The song shows there is never one side to a tragic split, and that the lack of mutual understanding and respect prevents any mending.
"Within You Without You" is a great song about self-discovery, and really reminded me of "Love You To" from Revolver. The entire song's tone is very trippy and other-wordly, as it makes great use of the sitar and other funky instruments. The lyrics also reflect this other-wordliness and self-discovery path, coming to the conclusion that "you're really only very small" and that "life flows on within you and without you". The Beatles are saying that individual life is futile and pointless; life is bigger than us and can easily go without us. What a person does with this information is up to them, but the Beatles plant the seed for that hard, confrontational discussion with this song. "When I'm Sixty-Four" has the same whimsical upbeat tone of the songs I mentioned previously, but despite it, the lyrics show the uncertainty and on-edge feeling of growing old, waiting to see if your significant other will still be with you. It really demonstrates that reality is constantly is in motion, and that just when you think you've settled down, people may come and go.
"Good Morning Good Morning" covers the other perspective of "When I'm Sixty-Four" - the downsides of settling down. In other words, boredom. The subject in the song is bored by his same daily routine, seeing that nothing's changed and he has basically nothing new to say. The repetition of the phrase "Good morning" is honestly annoying and not pleasing to hear, but that's done with great purpose here. It drones on and on four times throughout the time, and shows the painful, forceful repetition of the subject's daily routine. Just as the repetition of the lyrics isn't pleasant to hear, the monotone lifestyle is painful to live through.
"A Day In the Life" is the way to create an exceptional end to an exceptional album. Ignoring even all the cool facts about how the song was recorded, this song still holds up as one of the Beatles' most interesting songs. The sound may not be for everyone, and most people wouldn't even listen to it as a "song", but the artistic value is unavoidable.
It starts off with a slow, woozy melody from John, telling the story of someone who died in his car at a traffic light. The pace picks up for a few seconds when Paul joins in to harmonize the line "the house of lords", giving a taste of what's to come. After another verse, the line "I'd like to turn you on" devolves into an unexpected, shocking, wake up call. The orchestra plays their lowest notes to their highest, pumping up the nerve of the listener. The subject is falling into a dream, with a beehive buzzing all around them, causing him panic.
Abruptly, the next verse starts up, sung by Paul, just as jolly and upbeat as any Beatles song. An alarm clock signifies the start of a new day, but where did the day that John sung about go? It puzzles the listeners, intrigues them, and forces them to intensely paying attention to the words now if they were not doing so before. The verse goes on to describe a man's morning routine. At the end of that verse, the line "somebody spoke and I went into a dream" actually prepares us for what's about to happen. John harmonizes "ahhhhh" while the orchestra's trumpets, violins, and cellos sloooowly engulfing John until the climax. Then, again, the song abruptly turns into the next verse. This one has nonsensical lyrics, but again John sings the same line from the first verse: "I read the news today, oh boy". And, for the last time, the lyric "I'd like to turn you on" returns, along with the same swelling orchestra. Once the orchestra finishes, the piano is slammed on an off-note, like it is waking you up from a dream, but putting you into a different world, not the one you went to sleep in.
The piano note is held for 50 seconds, naturally fading out. The subject is in space, he doesn't know where he is or who he is. As he wakes up, a high pitched noise pierces his ears and a raw, distorted, unsettling, disorienting "never gives me any other way" loops over and over again. Until, finally, the song is done. As you finish the song, you might be thinking, "what just happened". I'm thinking the same thing. But uncovering the purpose and story of such an intricate song like this one is the fun of music. I see the purpose of "A Day In the Life" is to take you in and out of your world and the other-worldly. John's verses all are sung in the same dreamy, confused tone, with the same background music, and even the same story of reading the news or watching a movie and ending with "I'd love to turn you on". It leads me to believe the majority of the song is happening all at once, with the subject floating in and out of consciousness. He is completely petrified, confused, and woozy by his experiences, but is forced back to his normal day-to-day life to experience the whole thing again, but with a different narrative. But, in the end, the subject never returns to his world like in the previous verses and instead wakes up in something he - and we - cannot comprehend.
I think it's safe to say this album is the Beatles' deepest, most thought out album thus far. It nearly completely leaves behind the poppy, bland material of the early 60's and pushes through to tell a story within each song that connects back to an overall themes of heartbreak, confusion, conflict, purposelessness, and discovery of the self by escaping your current circumstances (the Beatles even create the alibi of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to experience all of this, not as the Beatles themselves).