ABSTRACT
Sgt. Pepper can be seen as sitting precariously atop this fault line; hence the rhetoric of danger and destruction from critics like Bangs and Shoales. This chapter proposes to survey a range of commentators – rock critics, academics, the Beatles themselves – each of whom invokes some pattern of interference as a frame for assessing Sgt. Pepper. Rock writers who are favourably disposed towards Pepper often emphasize the band's early live performance history as way of establishing the Beatles' rock bona fides. Framed thusly, Sgt. Pepper marks the moment when the Beatles' pursuit of authenticity required them to reconsider previously accepted ideas of artist, audience and community. In numerous aspects, Sgt. Pepper draws attention to itself as an artefact that has been shaped by human hands. The Beatles were at the beginning of it, and Sgt. Pepper was a great recording which everybody enjoyed.
