The album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band says a huge amount about the constitution of The Beatles. Not only does it showcase the cultural influences that whirled in the welter of their fevered imaginations, but how the whole thing came about also speaks volumes about the legendary band.
First and foremost, the cover had to match the 1967 record. It was a kitchen-sink album: avant-garde yet commercial, revolutionary yet classical, a comic farce with deadly serious intent, a thousand instruments yet only four folks still firmly at its heart. Unrivalled scope, cooked up in a storm. So, Jann Haworth and Peter Blake, the duo tasked with bringing the visual side of the album to life, got to work. “I suggested that they had just played a concert in the park. They were posing for a photograph, and the crowd behind them was a crowd of fans who had been at the concert,” Peter Blake told Spencer Leigh.
Tasked with creating a mob of fans, The Beatles figured that there was little point choosing any old buffoon from the proletariat. So, Blake asked the band for a list of their fantasy crowd. He made one, too, along with the art dealer Robert ‘Groovy Bob’ Fraser. “The way that worked out was fascinating. John gave me a list, and so did Paul. George suggested only Indian gurus, about six of them, and Ringo said, ‘Whatever the others say is fine by me’ and didn’t suggest anyone.”
This offers a nuanced insight into their characters, and in many ways: the antagonistic anti-heroes and figures of bold profundity reflective of Lennon’s radicalism; McCartney’s earnest folk heroes, stars of the people, beloved and endearing; then you had the spiritual focus and discipline of Harrison, staying in his lane and yet steadfastly present; while Ringo was happy to simply support the others and relinquish egoism.
Finally, there is the influence of others in the mix. The Beatles were always happy to accept help, it brought vitality to their work and fresh infusions, evidenced by the fact there is an endless slew of people dubbed ‘The Fifth Beatle’. Thus, giving space in their fantasy line-up to Blake and Groovy Bob is symbolic of the open platform that made George Martin such a fixture.
While this might be an oversimplified way of looking at The Beatles and perpetuates tropes that didn’t necessarily always play out, there is an underlying grain of truth to it that makes the cover a fascinating artefact in a multitude of ways; somehow not merely a cornucopia of influences, but a mark of the interplay that made the Fab Four a uniquely tessellated force.
However, the reason it is sweated over so much is because of its vital importance—a point that didn’t seem to go missing within the band. Tensions had already started to show, and with touring now a thing of the past, there is an element of Sgt Pepper that feels like the band knowing that they have to push the gauntlet before time runs out to do so. This makes it all the more peculiar why their one-time ultimate hero doesn’t feature. So, where is Elvis Presley?
Well, despite Bob Dylan and Dion being present, it would seem that the band figured he would simply dwarf those who were around. “Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention,” McCartney said, according to the History Channel. “He was more than a pop singer. He was Elvis the King.” Considering that Lennon suggested that Jesus Christ should go on there, it goes to show the revolutionary esteem in which he was held that The King remains absent.
However, it also seems pertinent to add that the cover was being constructed during a period when the band’s views were shifting. As George Harrison famously declared: “Ravi was my link into the Vedic world. Ravi plugged me into the whole of reality. I mean, I met Elvis—Elvis impressed me when I was a kid, and impressed me when I met him because of the buzz of meeting Elvis, but you couldn’t later on go round to him and say, ‘Elvis, what’s happening in the universe?’”
