The 1978 musical fantasy film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band, was a celebrity-filled homage to The Beatles, but was a critically lambasted bomb that nearly ruined the careers of its stars, Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees.
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In a new episode of Paul McCartney’s McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast, The Beatles legend reflects on why he thought the film wasn’t going to work, while also taking part in an in-depth discussion about his old band’s 1967 chart-topping hit “Penny Lane.”
“Penny Lane” was recorded during the sessions for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band album, but was released as a single a few months before the album arrived. The evocative tune conjured a series of whimsical scenes of a bustling area near his hometown of Liverpool for the listener.
McCartney explained that he liked that people could create their own images when they listened to songs like “Penny Lane,” which is one of the reasons he had a hunch that the Sgt. Pepper’s film wouldn’t be successful when he was first told about the project.
“[W]hen they came to film Sgt. Pepper with the Bee Gees, I said, ‘This is never going to work,’ because everyone has their own image from Sgt. Pepper, the album,” McCartney explained. “And so, if you select one image, that’s never going to be enough. Because your vision is different from mine.”
The rock legend added that he had a similar thought about how his fans perceived his songs when he played a concert.
“I think, ‘Every single person in those 40,000 people is having a different experience,’ he noted. “I’m singing this song. Someone thinks it’s sad, someone thinks it’s dramatic, someone thinks it’s funny, and I am fascinated by that idea, that everyone’s perception is completely different.”
As for the discussion about “Penny Lane,” McCartney shared that much of it was inspired by real places and people, but enhanced by a bit of creative imagination.
“It was a place that featured very much in my life and in John [Lennon’s] life,” he said. “It was near a church, where I was a choir chorister. A lot of stuff happened there. I used that [bus] terminus a lot, to go to John’s, for instance. The scenery, it’s quite accurate. And the nice thing is, in writing it, John knew exactly where I was talking about.”
As for the creative aspect of the lyrics, McCartney noted that even though some of the lines he wrote “just fell out” he was proud of how evocative they were.
“Like the fireman who’s cleaning his fire engine, ‘It’s a clean machine,’” he said as an example. “Those kind of phrases stick. There’s something slightly ominous [about it].”
As previously reported, the McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast was inspired by McCartney’s 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which features profiles of 154 of his songs. The podcast incorporates audio interviews that McCartney did with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, which served as the basis for the book.
Two 12-episode seasons of McCartney: A Life in Lyrics are planned, with new episodes of the first season premiering in weekly installments. McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is co-produced by iHeartPodcasts and the Pushkin audio-production company.
The first five episodes of the podcast can be heard now at iHeart.com, Pushkin.fm, and on various popular streaming services.
In addition, the entire first season of the podcast series is available now to subscribers to the Pushkin+ service.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
