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Haha, of course not. But it's relevant that the last Beatles tour was in summer 1966, and that album came out in May 1967. The Beatles were fed up with stadium

Haha, of course not. But it's relevant that the last Beatles tour was in summer 1966, and that album came out in May 1967. The Beatles were fed up with stadium acoustics and screaming fans and whatever else, but definitely a part of it was simply the reality that Sgt. Peppers could not be performed live with the technology available at the time. It's interesting to see how modern artists like Moby tackle this issue— basically they create their music at a computer, and then later on hire a bunch of musicians and figure out how to perform it on tour.

asaph 8y ago
My understanding was that the decision was made to quit touring because they were exhausted by it, not because there were some constraints on what they could record such that it could be reproduced live. But once the live show was a non-factor, it freed the band from that onerous constraint and opened up the possibility of the more densely layered multitrack recording and overdubbing. The result: a record that sounded nothing like anything before it and elevated pop music to a true art form. Some years later, Queen would take the multitrack recording and overdubbing to a further extreme with Bohemian Rhapsody, which they actually did perform live, albeit with the help of recordings.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  Are we sure the emphasis on multitrack recording is due to the Beatles no longer touring and not just due to improvements in studio technology? The first Beatles albums were recorded in mono, so there was a lot of technological innovation happening with recorded sound at the time...
  - asaph 8y ago
    We do know that the Beatles were innovators in the recording studio to a greater degree than their contemporaries. Maybe it was a perfect storm; New recording technology arrives just as talented artists with time, resources and influence are ready to embrace it.
    - danbmil99 8y ago
      Interestingly, The Beatles equipment at Abbey Road was years behind what other bands were doing in more advanced studios. So maybe the imperfection meme is relevant here..

asaph 8y ago

My understanding was that the decision was made to quit touring because they were exhausted by it, not because there were some constraints on what they could record such that it could be reproduced live. But once the live show was a non-factor, it freed the band from that onerous constraint and opened up the possibility of the more densely layered multitrack recording and overdubbing. The result: a record that sounded nothing like anything before it and elevated pop music to a true art form. Some years later, Queen would take the multitrack recording and overdubbing to a further extreme with Bohemian Rhapsody, which they actually did perform live, albeit with the help of recordings.

toasterlovin 8y ago
Are we sure the emphasis on multitrack recording is due to the Beatles no longer touring and not just due to improvements in studio technology? The first Beatles albums were recorded in mono, so there was a lot of technological innovation happening with recorded sound at the time...
- asaph 8y ago
  We do know that the Beatles were innovators in the recording studio to a greater degree than their contemporaries. Maybe it was a perfect storm; New recording technology arrives just as talented artists with time, resources and influence are ready to embrace it.
  - danbmil99 8y ago
    Interestingly, The Beatles equipment at Abbey Road was years behind what other bands were doing in more advanced studios. So maybe the imperfection meme is relevant here..