But another source of inspiration was Lewis Carroll; John himself admitted this “support”: "The images of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds were from Alice in Wonderland. It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine dream and marmalade sky. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me -- a girl with kaleidoscope eyes who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds”.
But this is not the only song where we can find analogies with Carroll’s writings. If we listen to “I Am the Walrus”, for example, the reference to the walrus that is a character of a tale in the fourth chapter of Alice Through the Looking Glass is evident as are the analogies between the “eggman” of this song and Humpty Dumpty, the protagonist of the sixth chapter of the same book.

3.1 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Before analysing those particular songs and their analogies with Lewis Carroll’s tales, I would like to speak about the albums that contain them.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered to be one of the most influential rock album of all time; it was recorded by the Beatles on December 6, 1966. It is called a “concept album” because it focussed on a particular theme and because of new artistic effects would become a sort of inspiration for other bands. The production of George Martin included special sound effect during the passage between songs.
The whole album is characterised by several innovations, such as new instruments used by all the members: electric piano, Hammond organ and the sitar (used especially in Harrison’s songs).
We can also find new modular effects, such as running voices and instruments through a “Leslie speaker” or a sonic innovation used by Paul McCartney, the “direct injection” technique: he plugged his bass directly into an amplifying circuit in the recording console.
The original idea for this album was to create a fantastic world where fictitious characters had to play with the real members of the band. We can understand this need to disguise or change identity, because they were four of the most famous people in the world.
And this is not an exaggeration. Their moustaches and beards, their long hair, were a reaction to their extreme popularity and this fact was also a sort of inspiration for the Sgt. Pepper costumes that were the perfect way to hide themselves.
This idea was abandoned after the first two songs (“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “With a Little Help From my Friends”) and “Sgt. Pepper Reprise”; John Lennon said that the songs he wrote for this album had nothing to do with the Sgt. Pepper concept; but the common elements which characterised all the songs are the technical complexity and a theme that might be expressed as "stepping outside of one's self".
There are many references to drugs, which certainly influenced many Beatles’ songs, although they have denied this association; “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” became the symbol of LSD, as I said before. But also “A Day in the Life”, the last track of the album, which contains the phrase “I’d love to turn you on”, where “turning on” was a common drug culture colloquialism at the time.
The next song after “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, is “Getting Better”; the title was taken from an expression of Jimmy Nicol, the drummer who took the place of Ringo during his illness, in 1965.
Paul McCartney made this track unique, his performance is perfect, “with a little help from” John.
“Fixing a Hole” is a simple song, made famous because of its reference to heroin; this is the reason why it was censured. Actually, Paul affirmed that this song was addressed to marijuana: the text had to spread a sense of freedom, Paul wanted to be free to do everything, such as “fixing a hole” of his house. The reference to heroin was completely wrong.
When Paul McCartney wrote “She’s Leaving Home” (he was the main author of this text), he was inspired by a Daily Mirror article, about a girl, Melanie Coe, who had escaped from home. So was another song, “Eleonor Rigby”, where we find real elements, but, the end of “She’s Leaving Home” could be happy, whereas Eleonor had died. This was the first song produced by a different person, Mike Leander, instead of George Martin.
“Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!” is another example of John’s interest in the Victorian age. The text, in fact, was taken from an old Victorian circus poster. On January 31, 1967 the Beatles went to Knole Park near Sevenoaks in Kent to make the promotional film for Strawberry Fields Forever. "There was an antique shop close to the hotel we were using in Sevenoaks," remembers former Apple employee Tony Bramwell. "John and I wandered in and John spotted this framed Victorian circus poster and bought it." The main characters of the song appeared in this circus poster: Mr Henderson, Mr H. and Mr Kite, of course.
Inspired by the finely-wrought language and the evocative names of the performers on the poster, John began to compose a song based on it. By now it was hanging on the wall of his music room and John's long-time friend Pete Shotten can remember him squinting at the words while he picked out a tune on his piano.
“Within You Without You” was written by George Harrison who was influenced by Indian atmosphere. The lyric of this song is the deepest of the whole album.
Paul McCartney wrote “When I’m 64” when he was eighteen; when he decided to record it for Sgt. Pepper, he improved the sound effect of his bass. The rhythm reminds us of jazz music to honor Paul’s father, Jim, his first teacher. continua>>>