I think people assume the Boys couldn’t play it live when I think they could have. They could have hired orchestras and toured with Billy Preston on keys and hired a horn section. Or they could have played the songs more raw and straight forward. ... ... ...
I think you're quite right, Michael. J,P,G&R could definitely have performed their main parts live, as could Billy and an orchestra, with horn section included. And being a little raw, or "naked" as Paul may call it, would have been fine, even expected, for live performance! Perhaps even a few extra guitarists (Clapton, Page, Jamerson!) and vocalists (Frankie Valli, Aretha Franklin!, Stevie Wonder) to help with some multi-dubbed parts could have been added, ... or not.
It's just all the technical production wizardry and backwards tape loops that Martin and Emerick added which would have been very difficult to "perform" live, unless they simply made tapes for the musicians to play along with. Hmmm, how many soloists do just that today!
... ... ... We have to keep in mind what touring with a rock band looked like in 1966 and 1967 as opposed to the advantages that modern Beatles bands have. The Beatles did have inferior PAs monitors etc. ... ... ...
The Beatles stopped touring in '66 because the technology
and logistics were simply too primitive for an act of their massive popularity. Security in movements was overwhelmed and unreliable. PAs in stadiums? Fuhgeddaboudit! Not even the biggest Vox amps could reach the stadium seats from center field.
Instead of barnstorming 10 shows every week in different stadium towns every show, they shoulda tried a more manageable 5-7 shows in a week at just one big city
theatre venue every
other week to allow reasonable travel and recuperation time. A sort of mini-residence in each major city, if you will. I guess Epstein, et. al., thought they couldn't sell more than one show per town back then.

... ... ... I could be wrong but I think their astonishment was of the whole picture of what Peppers was. The first “concept” album? The way they were able to get so much onto extremely limited tracks. Give credit to George Martin for the planning and execution of it and Geoff Emerick for figuring out how to get it all on tape and the Boys for bringing all their brilliant ideas to it. So I think the astonishment was in the production of the album, the execution of it and the thinking outside the box of it. ... ... ...
Right, Michael. The total package was quite astonishing, and truly unthinkable to other bands who could not afford to stop touring. Even the touring contingent of The Beach Boys balked at non-touring Brian Wilson's first foray into "high concept" songs, if not full albums. The two artforms of touring bands and "concept" albums were simply incompatible, both technologically and logistically, at the time.
... ... ... When I think of Peppers I can’t help but wonder how the album would have changed if they broke their unwritten rule of never including singles on and album and had included Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane. Wow. Where would you have put those songs on that album? Where would they have fit? And if the acetate could not physically add those two songs what could have been removed?
What do you folks think?
I would put Strawberry Fields in between When I’m sixty four and lovely Rita. And I think I might try Penny Lane after Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

Rumbley, I arrived at exactly the opposite!
I see "Strawberry Fields" as the perfect calming balm after the halcyon swirling calliopes of "Mr. Kite" wrapping up Side 1, yet with it's manic flute fade out, fade in, fade out again ending sort of clearing the psyche in preparation for Side 2 and "Within You, Without You".
Then, after the 'forward reminiscence' of "Sixty Four", the traditional backward reminiscence of "Penny Lane", which I see as a perfect seque into "Lovely Rita" as a more in-depth character we could have met on the Lane, like the barber and the fireman.
Here's more food for thought on this subject:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Wikipedia
Ah! Concepts! What an idea!!!

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