sgt peppers and cartographic memory of place

Ode to an England at the crossroads by James Button June 2, 2007: Sydney Morning Herald

But claims that Sergeant Pepper fathered hippies, psychedelia, progressive rock or the 1967 summer of love surely miss the point. The album is about something both more ordinary and more weird: England.

It is an England of brass bands, fun fairs and music halls; double-decker buses, home maintenance and holidays by the sea; rain, of course, and cups of tea. It is an England that is timeless and caught at a distinct moment in time, as the old ticks over to the new, lords and armies lose their grip on the land and a girl runs away from home to meet a man from the motor trade. It is England at a precise point in the lives of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, whose highly competitive partnership reaches its creative peak on Sergeant Pepper, before the bitter slide towards separation.