A 1990s Rock Star Realized These Beatles Songs Are More Complicated Than They Look
Some of The Beatles‘ songs might look a little simple these days. A 1990s rock star once said that many Fab Four songs are so layered they are otherworldly. Interestingly, their intricacy didn’t stop him from recording some fantastic Fab Four covers.
A 1990s rock band covered every song from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’
The Flaming Lips are a neo-psychedelia band most known for their 1990s hit “She Don’t Use Jelly.” Between their dreamlike, hazy production and oddball lyrical choices, The Flaming Lips are the heirs of the Fab Four circa Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. For that reason, it’s not surprising that they covered Sgt. Pepper from front to back for their album With a Little Help from My Fwends.
During a 2014 interview with The Stranger, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne was asked if any song by The Beatles was more complex than it seemed. “A lot of them were like that,” he replied. “When you casually play these songs, or just listen to them, they have this evocative nature. What they’re actually playing isn’t quite what you’re hearing.” Coyne pointed to “A Day in the Life” as the Sgt. Pepper song that surprised him the most when he went to record it.
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne explained the brilliance of the Fab Four’s songs
Coyne discussed his feelings about the Fab Four. “The Beatles, and [their regular producer] George Martin, and John and Paul, are in another realm,” he opined. “They have that seeming ease. I’m not sure if they were always happy with it.
“What I mean by that is sometimes you can put the color red on something, with the color blue right next to it,” he added. “From a quick distance, there’s this sort of blending in the middle that isn’t really there. It’s a trick that’s being played by your perception. Music does the same thing. There isn’t really any purple in the song, but by them playing the essence of one color next to the other, you hear purple. If you go in there and analyze it, you hear that no one’s actually playing purple [laughs].”
How The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ performed compared to The Flaming Lips’ cover
Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles’ biggest studio album in the United States. It topped the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks, lasting on the chart for 233 weeks in total. The title track and “With a Little Help from My Friends” were released together as a single. That combination peaked at No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for seven weeks.
The Flaming Lips’ With a Little Help from My Fwends was not nearly as popular. It charted at No. 58 on the Billboard 200 for a week. The album mostly received publicity for its guest appearances from Miley Cyrus, who contributed vocals to covers of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “A Day in the Life.” After all, anything Cyrus did in 2014 was bound to get some attention. The commercial failure of With a Little Help from My Fwends is a real shame, because the album is an excellent treat for Beatlemaniacs and anyone who loves avant-garde music.
While The Beatles knew how to make simple pop, they also made songs that are still difficult to deconstruct 60 years later.
