Heston wrote: ↑19 Dec 2020, 9:59pm
We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. By all accounts the sound of A Day In the Life blew people's minds back then. I haven't heard many records pre 1967 that sound like it.
It appealed to music critics more than hippies and other cool kids. Everyone had to take it seriously because it was the Beatles, but it was something that proved their significance to older doubters. It's great artistry, definitely, but it's about legitimizing rock to those who were skeptical before.
TNK and ADITL both use "musique concrete" methods, which were uncommon in pop music before then, but not unheard of. My point was ADITL did it with some interesting musical aspects rather than the drone that is TNK.
I just don't hear musique concrete in ADITL. The sound effects are slight and not in the least bit jarring. But, again, I'm not denying the significance of ADITL. It builds on approaches used in ER, but it is massive in listener experience and scope. ADITL is headphone music and it amps up the tension. It's the sound of a pop band claiming to be more than just the distraction of conventional rock n roll (in that way, yes, like TNK). But what's important here—and what I've been trying to stress—is who they were making this claim to. The cool kids in the counterculture weren't the ones drawn to ADITL (Lucy in the Sky, Mr. Kite, sure). But ADITL or She's Leaving Home were for a different, more mature audience. It shouldn't diminish the technical achievement, but we have to be honest about who would have been impressed by what.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft