The Beatles Album Where the Fab Four Pretended to be Other People
While The Beatles was their band name, the four members were always themselves. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr shared their authentic selves in their songwriting and public personas. However, on one album, The Beatles pretended to be different types of people.
The Beatles pretended to be other people for one album
In an interview with Barnes & Noble’s James Daunt, Paul McCartney asked if he ever pretended to be Wings or The Beatles while performing. McCartney said he has always been himself during his music career, except for one album with The Beatles. The album was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“We weren’t pretending to be beetles. That was just, we thought that was just a great group name that a lot of girls particularly thought was creepy,” McCartney explained. “I wasn’t pretending to be Wings. It was, again, it was a group name. But we were pretending to be Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band because that was the whole idea of that record.”
Paul McCartney explains why they developed alter egos for ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’
The imagery associated with Sgt. Pepper’s came to define The Beatles for part of their career. The bright and colorful visuals combined with their bizarre and eye-popping outfits riveted many of their fans. Even the songs on the album were more psychedelic and surreal. Paul McCartney said they wanted to create alter egos because they believed the Beatles album could be more unrestrained if they weren’t confined to being themselves.
“The whole idea for that record was that we were gonna have alter egos because we thought if we make another record under The Beatles when I walk up to a microphone, it’s Paul walking up to a microphone, or John walks up, it’s John singing the song,” McCartney said. “So you know, it’s kind of quite nice if it’s not Paul if it’s this guy out of another group. We freed ourselves and made a very free record because of that. That was the one that we were pretending to be.”
McCartney says ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ is his favorite album artwork
The album artwork for Sgt. Pepper’s is one of The Beatles’ most memorable as it is visually distinct. It’s a clutter of images as The Beatles are in the center frame in their iconic outfits, surrounded by cutouts of famous living and dead historical figures. Some examples include Marlon Brando, Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Temple, Mae West, Carl Jung, Fred Astaire, Bob Dylan, and Oscar Wilde.
In an interview with Paulmccartney.com, McCartney said Sgt. Pepper’s is his favorite Beatles album cover because everyone “had a say.”
“Sgt Pepper comes to mind because it was a lot of fun putting it together: designing and having our costumes made at a tailor shop (at a theatrical costume shop, actually!) and getting Peter Blake to stage the whole cover and so on,” McCartney stated. “It was very collaborative, and we all had a say. So, I think for that reason, maybe that’s a favorite.”
