True Liberation for Today

Paul McCartney was flying home from a vacation in Kenya. He (like friends and fellow band members, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr) was exhausted by the punishing pace of concert touring (Beatlemania was at its zenith and live shows were thought to be necessary to promote any new collection of songs); furthermore, he had grown to resent the stereotyping of the boys from Liverpool (mop-topped haircuts, matching suits, and boyish grins). It was November, 1966.

As he sat on the long flight home from Nairobi, McCartney had an idea. What if the Beatles produced an album “in disguise,” pretending to be an alter-ego group that dressed differently, sang differently, and broke the mold? He even cooked up a name: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“We’d pretend to be someone else,” he later reflected, “It liberated you—you could do anything when you got to the mic or on your guitar, because it wasn’t you.” It was goodbye forever to the “Can’t Buy Me Love” Beatles; it was hello to the “A Day in the Life” and “She’s Leaving Home” Beatles. The boys became men. And pop culture was turned on its head. The now-iconic album was released 40 years ago this month, in June, 1967.

In 2003, Rolling Stone dubbed Sgt. Pepper’s “the most important rock ‘n roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock ’n roll group of all time.” It has since been described as one of the most important emblems of the modern age, defining, driving, and capturing the tenor of not just one, but several generations. Not only did the album usher in the famous (infamous?) “summer of love” and hinge a sea-change in popular mores, it almost single-handedly moved FM radio to the forefront (because AM radio formats demanded “single hits,” Sgt. Pepper’s “streaming” tunes, one flowing out of the other, were relegated to FM—which, in turn, drew large numbers of listeners to FM for the first time) and transformed the recording industry. No longer would live tours be required to promote new music (the Beatles never gave a live concert again) and new technologies found a niche in the mainstream (eight-track recording, over-dubbing, orchestration synthesized with electronic instruments, etc.). Sgt. Pepper’s was the first album to include printed lyrics for the listener, the first to elevate cover design to art, and the first to run one song into another, seamlessly creating a musical tapestry, woven together from start to finish.

But, c’mon. It’s just a record. Big deal. Well, maybe. But, interestingly, 40 years after its release, Sgt. Pepper’s remains one of the world’s best-selling collections. It has popularized, for two generations, a cultural vocabulary that transcends commercial music. In another age, when biblical metaphors and imagery were almost universally understood—even outside of the church—phrases like “I get by with a little help from my friends,” “picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies,” and “lovely Rita, meter maid,” would be the stuff of Alice in Wonderland. Not so today. Biblical phrases are unfamiliar and Sgt. Pepper’s lyrics have become the reference points of ordinary conversation.

Not so long ago, in a random survey, high school students were asked who first uttered the famous line, “There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Most answered, “Abraham Lincoln.” (Wrong: it was Jesus.) Everyone knew that “I read the news today, oh boy, about a lucky man who made the grade,” was a Beatles’ line—and a line from Sgt. Pepper’s. Hmmm.

Still, pop culture ebbs and flows. The same questions, the same angst, the same wrestling with the sad and impossible stories from real life that have given Sgt. Pepper’s traction over all these years are in play today. Maybe that’s why the album still sells.

The Beatles never seem to find the answers to those questions, though; their best effort simply escapes them. But, the answers can be found—in the timeless masterpiece that is also the most influential and transcendent work of all time: the Bible.

For the next few weeks, walk with me through Colossians—a New Testament gem that answers the questions Sgt. Pepper’s, “the summer of love,” and people of all ages have been asking for 40 years (and more). McCartney’s pretend band poses real questions. The Bible patiently—and consistently—provides real answers. It was twenty—er uh—forty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They’ve been going in and out of style, but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile. So may I introduce to you... Sgt. Pepper’s meets Colossians, Sundays this summer at Madison Park Church. Connect. Grow. Serve.