Social Graffiti: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” The Beatles

By Charles Young
George Washington High School

When I was 10 years old, my father owned a store in Kanawha City. On weekends, I would go to work with him. One day, when pricing socks became tedious, I decided to take a walk. As I took in the sights and sounds of the city, a store caught my eye: Budget Tapes and Records.

At this point in my life I knew that I liked music but had been exposed to very little of it. I only owned two albums - a country album and a soundtrack, both Christmas presents. The only real rock n’ roll music I had ever heard was through my dad, but I knew I wanted more.

As I walked into Budget, I was filled with a nervous rush of adrenaline and the sense that I was doing something wrong. As I wandered through the store, I glanced up at the walls and around at the album covers. Staring back at me were the faces and images of my yet undiscovered heroes.

Images swam through my mind, barely sticking, until one album cover caught my eye: a picture of four mustachioed men in military uniforms in the midst of a collage. The album was “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Clubs Band” by The Beatles. The album was cheap and the picture was so beautiful and mysterious that I had to have it.

As soon as I got home, I put the album in my CD player. I was immediately disappointed because I thought it was broken. All I heard coming through the speakers were mumbled voices and scraping noises.

Within another minute, though, I was blown away. I listened to the album straight through, not believing what I had just heard. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

I spent weeks listening to it over and over alone in my room. I listened, studied and absorbed it.

Although I loved the entire album, I was most intrigued with John Lennon’s work. His songs were druggy and edgy stream of consciousness tracks.

The last one, “A Day in the Life,” was my favorite. It was penned by Lennon in a drug-filled haze while glancing at newspaper headlines.

In the song’s center is a piece written by Paul McCartney about drugs, which fades into a set of meaningless noise, which in turn fades into the next Lennon verse. Each Lennon verse ends with the line, “I’d love to turn you on” before fading into electronic noise.

The last note of the song is at a frequency of 10,000 Hz. It is audible only to dogs.

Hearing “Sgt. Pepper” opened my mind and changed the way I thought. It helped open my eyes to the world around me. It showed me music.

Without that album, I would not be the person I am today. It was my first real album and a stepping stone to all the albums, songs, concerts, memories and emotions that have followed in my life. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” changed my life forever and for better.