(2017, 95 min.)

Two screenings in Hallwalls Cinema:
Wed., Feb. 15, 7:30pm
Thurs., Feb. 16, 7:30pm

For all of you who attended (and all of you who missed) Hallwalls' exclusive Buffalo screening of Deconstructing the Beatles: The White Album back on December 7th, the wait for the second film in the series is over! Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band will be released this month, and, in response to the popularity of The White Album movie, Hallwalls will be presenting two screenings this time.

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most influential albums of our time. Rolling Stone described it as the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art, and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time.

In Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, composer, musician, and Beatles expert Scott Freiman looks at Sgt. Pepper from multiple angles, exploring the history behind the music. Freiman conducts an educational journey into the creative process of The Beatles' performances and recording sessions. You are guaranteed to leave amazed at The Beatles' innovation in the studio and have a newfound appreciation for the talents of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.

"It was fifty years ago today (i.e., around this time) that The Beatles (along with producer Sir George Martin & recording engineer Geoff Emerick) were hard at work at Abbey Road Studios creating Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which would be released in June 1967. This filmed lecture (illustrated with rare audio and video clips) will give you a behind-the-scenes, making-of look at how the innovative, critically acclaimed, and popular album was assembled, how the cover art was created, and how this legendary and groundbreaking album fit in at the time with the Beatles' own trajectory as a band and their and the album's immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beach Boys, and Frank Zappa" (E.C., 2/16/17).

"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" (M. Faust, The Public, 2/15/17).