Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Naw, actually, it was twenty-FIVE years ago today, that producer Robert Stigwood had a flea placed in his ear by SOMEBODY, (maybe agent/co-producer Dee Anthony, who repped both the Bee Gees AND Peter Frampton at the time,) and the flea said: "What is the greatest rock-and-roll album of all time? Who right now are the greatest, most popular music stars? And how can you possibly lose if you combine them both?"

Answer that question with a question: How could you possibly WIN???

To those who decry the defacing of a sacred cow, first of all, and pay close attention to this, people: THIS MOVIE IS A PRODUCT OF ITS TIME. Nothing in the late Seventies succeeded (or exceeded, as it were) like excess. If big was good, then bigger was even better, and the King of Media Overkill was Robert Stigwood at this period. Which was his standout quality, and his company's undoing. (Not to mention the undoing of quite a few careers along the way.)

Second of all, as it has already been pointed out, the timing SUCKED, even moreso than the movie itself. The SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER backlash was just beginning with PEPPER'S release, and even though Peter Frampton had proven himself still able to chart with such current hits as his cover of "Signed, Sealed and Delivered" and "I'm In You," (please hold your snickers), his album sales had begun to wane, a surefire indicator that his status as a pretty-boy guitar god was fading fast.

For the most part, the audience demographic the movie was aimed at was served as well as they could be. None of the teenybopper females in the theater audience I saw it with, (yes, I DID see it in a theater), gave one whisker on a rat's bee-hind that the album the movie was derived from was a classic, or that George Martin actually produced the soundtrack (well, most of it.) They sighed in rapture on cue when a dreamy closeup of The Brothers Gibb or Frampton came whizzing by, or sobbed uncontrollably at the 'oh-my-GAWD-this-is-so-maudlin' ending. I swear, THIS is the audience the producers should've seen it with, when the reviews came in chopping the entire project to shreds.

So, for a movie that represents everything that was both bad AND good about That Decade simultaneously, was there anything of merit to observe? YES. First of all, for the most expensive musical ever made in its day ("tupping the bill" at a whopping $60 mil plus), every cent is evident on-screen. Owen Roizman (who shot THE EXORCIST) managed to get every shot right, even if the pastels were enough at times to send an epileptic into grand mal seizures, and there was enough condescending sweetness for twelve diabetic comas.

Also, contrary to the rabid rantings of Beatlemaniacs everywhere, the soundtrack is the best part of the movie. I guess what makes it so hard for most people to watch, are the scenes that are almost painful indicators of what the movie COULD'VE been, because the energy and drive is so different from the rest of the goings-on.

Meaning Aerosmith's ball-busting cover of "Come Together," the finger-snapping, funk-injected "Got To Get You Into My Life" from Earth, Wind and Fire, and Steve Martin's super-manic "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," echoing his even better turn to come in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. No matter how much the remainder may induce severe bouts of wincing and cringing, these moments almost redeem Henry Edwards' "Yellow-Submarine-on-peyote-buttons" screenplay. ALMOST.

I bought this (and I'd be embarassed to tell you how much I spent) for a So-Bad-It's-Good movie party I decided to throw for some friends on New Year's Eve. Just to see if it was as bad as I remembered, (and as bad as people have credited it to be), I gave it a spin just for old time's sake. Time does heal old wounds, I guess, and as much as I snickered, groaned and chortled at the outlandishness of it all, I have to admit that at the very least, I was entertained. Kind of like when you're watching virtually nothing on Saturday night, until a rerun of "Donnie and Marie" comes on Nick At Night. And though you'd never tell your friends you did, you watched every painfully corny moment of it...and actually enjoyed it.

So that's how I think of PEPPER now, as a very secretively guilty pleasure.

And for those reading that last line and yelling "Is he CRAZY??? This is the BLACK HOLE OF MUSICALS!!" I can only say this: you have not lived as long as I have, or seen as many movies to be able to make that statement with any kind of confidence.

How do I know? Let me ask you: have you ever seen the musical version of LOST HORIZON? Mae West in SEXTETTE? Lucille Ball in MAME? Go sit through even ONE of those, boys and girls. I dare you. We can talk about really bad musicals after you've weathered THAT ordeal. I did...and lived to tell about it.

A Beatles fan all my life and this was a pleasant surprise as I had avoided it over the years as being pastiche cliched crap, but hey, life is full of surprises. And I like it. Just shows that brilliant music can make a mediocre story look good. Never the other way around. Bee Gees and Frampton were good choices.

Am I the only one who liked this movie? After hearing nothing but bad press about it for years, I finally went out and saw it. I thought it was one of the most fun flicks I'd seen in years. All the characters were named after Beatles songs! Starring Billy Shears (Peter Frampton) and the Hendersons (the Bee Gees) "were all there" as well, "Sgt. Pepper" featured Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina) as Billy's leading lady, and Mr. Mustard (Frank Howerd) was "such a mean old man." Let's not forget Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Dianne Steinberg), the Sun King (Alice Cooper), and Sgt. Pepper played by an old Beatles protege (Billy Preston). The movie also depicted countless cover versions of Beatles songs, including Earth Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life." As the narrator, Mr. Kite (George Burns) even covered "Fixin' a Hole." Critics of the movie should be so critical"when they're 64," let alone 82! Sure, the plot wasn't worthy of a Kubrick screenplay, but what could be more accurate than explaining how corporatism is anathema to the fun of music, and how profound an impact the Beatles had on later artists. Look for Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) in one of the many crowd scenes. I have one final case for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It had one of my favourite comedians (Steve Martin) singing one of my favourite Beatles songs (Maxwell's Silver Hammer). I'm picking out a thermos for this movie!

Ok, the acting is absolutely terrible and it's completely campy. But, that's part of it's charm. If you can watch the movie without comparing the Beatles versions, most songs hit the mark. Aerosmith's Come Together, Billy Preston's Get Back, and EW&F's Got to Get You into My Life, are still great. There are a couple of songs like Golden Slumbers that play better on the album. If you are fans of The Bee Gees, mainly Barry Gibb's hair, (which, somehow, actually steals a few scenes) and Frampton, you should be tickled. Some of the guest spots are great, some were just, eh. I imagine it will be up to who your favorite acts are. If you make it to the end of the movie, the credits roll out with a virtual who's who of the 70's singing the title song. The movie won't be for everyone, but those who love the 70's should have fun reminiscing.

Time & death has a funny way of smoothing over harsh criticism. What was deemed a colossal egg upon its release, certainly hated by discophobes and Beatles purists for its sacrilege back in the late 70s, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has since become a historical document on its own. Only 35 years later and after the deaths of 3 Bee Gees are we beginning to chill on our Bee Gees hatred and give this monumental group its due. If you watch this movie not as a Beatles tribute but perhaps as a wacky Bee Gees tribute, you'll enjoy yourself. This movie is a forgotten landmark of the 70s.

The Bee Gees are known for their disco hits like "Stayin Alive" and such, but did you know that in the 60s they were a moderately successful psychedelic rock band quite similar to the Beatles? With that in mind, it's not so far fetched to imagine them playing Beatles music, and in fact they do a pretty good job if you can dump all preconceptions. The opening numbers "Sgt. Pepper" and "A Little Help from my Friends" (with Peter Frampton singing) kick the movie off nicely. I thought the best tune was "Nowhere Man" with their silky smooth harmonies. And where else are you going to hear basically the entire Sgt. Peppers & Abbey Road albums in a movie, Beatles or otherwise? Where this movie sags is in the fact that it's barely a movie. It's more like a string of campy music videos loosely stuck together with a somewhat vapid plot. But hey, aren't a lot of musicals like that?

The plot revolves the Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Next Generation, 20 years after the original horn blowers left the stage. Now amped up and rockified, the new band tops the charts and is lured away from its hometown to LA with a record deal while an evil villain "Mr. Mustard" takes over their hometown and turns it into a city of sleaze. Mr. Mustard answers to an even eviller entity known as "F.V.B." (the meaning revealed only at the end). What follows is a very flimsy chain of events, each represented by a Beatles song. There is no dialogue in this film; it's all music.

Production values are high, and you can expect to see some impressive sets, scenery & costumes as well as decent cinematography. In other words, it's not a cheap production. The style is very tongue-in-cheek, much like The Who's musical "Tommy" released 3 years prior. In fact I had to check to see if both films were directed or produced by the same people. They weren't. But if you were entertained by "Tommy" you'll probably get a kick out of this as well.

I recommend getting acquainted with the Bee Gees before watching this movie. There's a good documentary called "The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time" which might open your eyes and prep you for a better experience if you decide to watch this. Only now, decades after the fall of disco and with only 1 Bee Gee still living, the band is finally getting some respectful treatment. Love em or hate em, you gotta admit they took the world by storm for a brief moment in music history.

Notable guest musicians Earth Wind & Fire, Peter Frampton, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and a hilariously bizarre appearance by fancy-footed soul singer Billy Preston shooting laser beams of love from his fingertips round out this one-of-a-kind experience (Billy played electric piano on the Beatles' original "Get Back" which he sings here). I like to keep this DVD playing at loud volumes while I'm doing household chores to keep me moving. It may scare off some visitors, but then who needs em?