HOW THE BEATLES CAPTURED “A DAY IN THE LIFE” IN 34 HOURS
Every single day is a Beatles anniversary of some kind. This week alone marks several worthy commemorations. 1963: the Beatles scored their second No. 1 hit with “She Love You.” 1965: “Yesterday” was released as a single in the US. 1966: Revolver started a six-week run atop the US chart. 1967: the Fab Four began filming Magical Mystery Tour. 1968: “Hey Jude,” clocking in at seven minutes and ten seconds, became the longest chart topper of all-time. In this edition of Audio Rewind, though, I’m honoring an anniversary with a much shorter lifespan, an event that long eclipses the Beatles era.
This week in 2005, Q Magazine polled music experts and determined “A Day in the Life” to be the best British song of all-time, calling it “the ultimate sonic rendition of what it meant to be British.” And indeed, the track is one of the most indelible in modern music history—British or otherwise. Complex. Innovative. Topical. Dynamic. Haunting. A sonic approximation for what it feels like to live “A Day in the Life.”
The song arrived as the final track on the Beatles seminal record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The 1967 full-length is one of the earliest examples of the concept album, where narrative ties together a record’s individual songs. For Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles donned alter egos as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and found artistic freedom in their alternate identities. That, in addition to their then-recent decision to stop touring (a Ron Howard documentary about their touring years hits theaters today), prompted them to be more experimental. They wouldn’t have to play these songs live, so they were unencumbered by the limitations of instruments and physical spaces. In short, they could do whatever they wanted. And man did they ever.
By: Maceagon Voyce
Source: The Nerdist
