Would "Sgt. Pepper's" be a better album if.....

I don't listen to much psychedelic music anymore but I think there are some great examples of psychedelic songs that still sound good today.  It's probably true that the lesser examples of the genre are more embarrassing than those of some other styles, but every category of music has its hits and misses.  Personally, I think rock peaked some years later, around 1973.  While it still survives and produces some worthy recordings there hasn't been much in the way of revolutionary sounds since then.  There are a lot of nice re-treads and mish-mashes.

Psychedelic music is somewhat of a misnomer since the music is not necessarily linked to drug use, probably very seldom, or even a drug lifestyle nor would the group or singer had to have taken LSD or any other drug to write or play psychedelic music. Maybe to listen to the music, though. 😃 Exceptions perhaps are Morrison and Joplin who performed with bottle in hand frequently and Carlos Santana who ingested LSD just prior to Santana’s set at Woodstock. Whaaaat! Yes, I know alcohol is not considered a psychedelic.😁 Of course the Stones’ Something Happened to me Yesteday was most definitely about taking LSD. 😳

I was being a little tongue-in-cheek, deliberately and intentionally provocative. I love "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "A Day In The Life", and they most likely came to be as a result of ingesting. Brian Wilson’s Smile definitely did. In "psychedelic", I was referring to the more pompous and self-consciously "high-art", grandiose practitioners of the style. 

I love a lot of the psychelic era stuff. Within You is more eastern mysticism/raga stuff that influenced George (and the other Beatles). The Stones Satanic Majesty, Pink Floyd, Spirit 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus, Captain Beyond--all great somewhat trippy stuff. 

Shame, the 2017 new release has been compressed to the hilt.
https://www.stereophile.com/comment/567554#comment-567554

Cheers George