The “Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band” anniversary and math

I hate posting this. I do. It’s just that a flaw in a featured piece about the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album anniversary over at Creative Loafing Tampa has an outright flaw quite early in the piece:

Sing it with me, children, all together now …

“It was 50 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.”

Uh, excuse me? Excuse me… Hi… Uh, I need to make a correction for you here (and for anyone else locked in on the 50th anniversary of the album). Let me quote the writing tandem of John Lennon and Paul McCartney here to point out the issue with history:

It was twenty years ago today
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play

— “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” lyrics via Genius

If it was 20 years on June 1, 1967 (the date of release for the album), it’s 70 years in 2017. I realize the intention of the length of time is something to revel in here and the intro attempt by the article author is a rally-point, but add some logic here…  Sgt. Pepper (the personality) and his colleagues had been around a while, going “in and out of style” but they remain “guaranteed to raise a smile”.

At any rate, the article touches on the weight of Sgt. Pepper to the Fab Four, it’s worth a click-thru and a read…