Events

[SCREENING] Fifty years ago this week, the biggest songs on the radio were the two sides of the new Beatles single, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The single was released after an unusual period of inactivity from the band, which six months earlier had announced its retirement from touring. Fans fretted that this might be the end of The Beatles; instead, as this innovative pair of recordings demonstrated, it was the beginning of an era in which they would concentrate on maximizing the possibilities of the modern studio. The single was the precursor to the release in the summer of 1967 of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” a milestone event in the history of recorded music.

No matter how much you’ve listened to the album or how carefully, you’re likely to learn new things from Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the second in musicologist Scott Freiman’s four lectures analyzing The Beatles’ peak albums. (Deconstructing The Beatles’ White Album was screened in December; coming up are filmed lectures on “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul.”) Armed with the original four-track recordings, demos and a wealth of background information, Freiman provides historical context before taking apart each song in fascinating detail. You’ll learn where you can hear the Beatles singing in German, what George Martin’s contribution to “Within You Without You” was, and where Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (or at least their audience) pop up.