SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

According to Mike Portnoy, this is where prog began (if you subscribe to that lineage).

As a child, my father (who was a big fan of early Beatles music) always talked down about this album, mainly to do with its drug-inspired themes and odd lyrics. I suppose, since I was never into 60s music much, that I'd just never bother with The Beatles. And to this day, I am only familiar with their radio hits although that is now beginning to change after actually fully listening to Sgt. Pepper.

I'd heard bits and pieces of this album, namely Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and With A Little Help From My Friends, but the rest was a mystery to me. I decided to get a copy after reading a review submitted here 2 weeks ago, and I was quite surprised at where I was taken during my listen. The drug-inspired stuff was there, but since I'm not opposed to light recreational use, I rather enjoyed what the band had achieved with this album. Each of the songs have a unique quality that was fairly unmatched at the time (excepting for The Doors, Zappa, etc) and feature some interesting instrumentation (eg, Within You Without You).

Essentially, this album has been copied and copied since it's release. Being new to most of these songs, I heard the sounds that have accompanied many many bands and even more largely for other British bands. The Beatles are subject to more criticism because they are so widely known and immortalized by Lennon's murder that many seem to forget just how influential this album alone was to all of rock.