Sgt Peppers: "Smell the Sawdust" Said Lennon

Allan F. Moore has written a new book about a record that changed the American music landscape. I read a piece about the book in the WSJ a few weeks back.

The Beatle's Sgt Pepper album, which was released in 1967 was and is considered a revolutionary recording. Just before it came out, John Lennon told George Martin that the group was done with touring.

They had been heckled and hassled in the Philippines. This was after John's "we're more famous than Jesus," comment, and the band was fighting and the tour was a bummer.

So they retired to Abbey Road to make the record of the decade. After it came out, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys gave up on his "Smile" project and descended down into a funk.

John told the engineer who was recording the song Mr. Kite that he wanted to 'smell the sawdust' because the song was a circus poster sung to life. The producer tried his best to capture this essense of the circus, though he wasn't really sure what Lennon meant.

Lee Abrams, a VP at XM satellite radio, said that the production and stereo effects of Pepper sounded so bad on AM radio that it influenced the further development of free-form FM stations. "It really helped foster the stereo age, which created the need for FM," he said. "We finally could listen to these songs on the radio and have it sound as good as our stereos."