VE 125 Pepper Day 6/1
Jimi Hendrix: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
George Burns: With A Little Help From My Friends
Elton John: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Status Quo/Kaiser Chiefs: Getting Better
Hue & Cry: Fixing A Hole
Bryan Ferry: She's Leaving Home
Frank Sidebottom/Eddie Izzard/Burnkit2600: Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Sonic Youth: Within You Without You
Keith Moon: When I'm 64
Michelle Shocked: Lovely Rita
The Triffids: Good Morning, Good Morning
Wes Montgomery: A Day In The Life
The Beatles: Sgt Pepper Reprise/A Day In the Life
Today on the VE
A birthday party for a record album! You could forget your mom's birthday, or even your spouse....but I'll
bet you remember what record was born on June 1, 1967.
I'm PC and this is the VE
Jimi Hendrix: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
June 4, 1967. The Saville Theater, London. The Jimi Hendrix Experience played before the rock royaly of
the day, and only 3 days after it's release, Jimi wowed Paul McCartney and George Harrison with
his rendition of rthe just-released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." On the original album, the song
segues right into the next number, "Witih A Little Help Froom My Friends." Joe Cocker's slow and soulful
version redefined the song, which was conceived as a lightweight vehicle for Ringo. But what worked well
for Ringo, worked wonders for George Burns!
George Burns: With A Little Help From My Friends
Elton John: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
The VE celebrating Sgt Pepper's birthday. The watershed album was released int ihe UK by Parlophone
Records on June 1, 1967, and on June 2 by Capitol in the USA. The only time that a Beatle participarted in
a cover version of a Beatles song was in 1974 when John Lennon helped Elton John remake "Lucy In The
Sky With Diamonds." They would perfrom it together at Madison Square Garden later that year, in what
would be Lennon's last concert appearance.
Celebrating Pepper's birthday has become a bit of an event, and in 2007, the BBC did it right, gathering
contemporary groups at Abbey Road to re-create the album using the original 4 track equipment The
Beatles used--even the same microphones and analog tape machines. In performance, and sonics, the
Kaiser Chiefs got it right...
Status Quo/Kaiser Chiefs: Getting Better
"All This And WWII" was one of three films that featured Beatles songs as a soundtrack--the other two were
the ill-fated Bee Gees Peter Frampton Sgt. Pepper film in 1978, and Julie Taymor's Across The Universe in
2005. But All This...was the first...and Status Quo had their way with "Getting Better." Liscensing Beatles
songs is a pricey affair--Mad Men just paid a ransom for the use of "Tomorrow Never Knows," but when
Michael Jackson controlled The Beatles catalog, Gomez version of "Getting Better" popped up everywhere
as a Phillips TV commercial (CLIP)....
Eighties covers of Sgt Pepper tunes were collected for charity on the British compilation "Sgt Pepper Knew
My Father," and we'll source a few versions from that collection. I had the good fortune to nab a vinyl copy
at Rough Trade on Portobello Road in London. From it, Pepper's next selection, "Fixing A Hoile," re-
imagined by Hue & Cry...
Hue & Cry: Fixing A Hole
Bryan Ferry: She's Leaving Home
From All This and World War II, a natural for suave Bryan Ferry...'She's Leaving Home. The VE is throwing
a birthday party for Sgt Pepper's LHCB. Now, for the problematic "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite." It's a
novelty song to begin with, and the versions I've uncovered are unconventional to say the least. First, since
"All This" is still cued up, here's British comic Frank Sidebottom's take, followed by a bit
