Sphinx's Music Blog - The Beatles: Revolver
Hello readers! It’s my 10th music blog, so I wanted to do something special. I had to pick my absolute favorite band of all time to celebrate the occasion, so here we are with The Beatles 1966 album, Revolver, released on August 5th. 1966 would be the final year the Fab Four would tour, with their final public show being just a few weeks after Revolver’s release on August 26th at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. 1966 would prove to be a breaking point year for the band - John Lennon was heavily criticized for his out of context comments that “The Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ”, causing thousands to hold rallies to burn their Beatles records. This led to death threats coming towards the boys, and even a threat from the KKK. They also toured in the Philippines which notoriously was a disaster as they denied a meal with the first lady of their government which led to riots as they narrowly escaped Manilla, but had to forfeit their earnings of their show to the government. Essentially they were fed up with it all and stopped touring, never making a public announcement.
The album (along with its counterpart Rubber Soul which was released in December of 1965) is a transitional album from the pop music The Beatles had with “She Loves You”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, to more artistic albums. You can even argue that it is because of The Beatles that rock n’ roll evolved because of this very studio recording. The innovations this album produces in the studio and on its tracks is revolutionary, and would influence recorded music for generations of musicians and artists.
Beatle fanatics know how amazing this album is, but I’m not sure the casual fan knows enough about this album. You are missing out. Any human being is missing out. This is critically acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of all time, with Rolling Stone magazine actually ranking it #3 all time in its list of the top 500 albums of all time. The album is full of underrated hits, but only 2 tracks hit #1 on the charts, that being Elenor Rigby and Yellow Submarine (Paperback Writer was recorded during the Revolver sessions, but was released as a single and didn’t get added to the album). It’s because of the lack of “hits” that some people might miss this album; even for me personally it was one of the last Beatle albums I ever listened to, but is my absolute favorite of theirs above all else today.
In going over the tracks of this album, I’m going to go out of order, and rather will look at them based on who was the leader writer of the track. Starting off with George Harrison, and starting off the album, is his track Taxman. It shows true growth in his song writing, as George was always 3rd fiddle behind the John Lennon/Paul McCartney duo. It has an awesome rocking guitar riff, and arguably George Harrison’s guitar solo is the introduction to the world of heavy/hard rock, as it’s a sound not really ever heard before at that time in history. Paul’s bass line is absolutely captivating too, and the song essentially is about poking fun of being taxed (as the band was taxed insanely due to such high British taxes).
The next track contributed by Harrison is Love You To, which is George exploring full on Indian music and the influence Ravi Shankar had on him, which all came from a scene while filming Help! where he came into contact with the culture at a much greater level due to a scene in an Indian restaurant. Harrison brings in Indian musicians to help, as they play the tabla and tambura, and George plays the sitar. This track must have shocked the western world when it was released. When I first heard it, I didn’t like it. I mean, it doesn’t sound like a Beatles song at all, it’s totally out of left field. But over time, I’ve gotten to really appreciate the sounds and structure of this track, it’s really neat. The third and final contribution by George is I Want to Tell You on side B, which has another great guitar riff, but is mostly known for its dissonance throughout, provided a rather harsh and unsettling tone for a love song.
Paul McCartney is at the top of his game when it comes to pop tracks on this album. He mentions in the Beatles Anthology documentary how the band was exploring all different kinds of music, and we see that with Paul in classical music and as mentioned before George with Indian music. The second track of the album is his masterpiece Elenor Rigby, that is just an orchestral accompaniment with Paul’s singing. Producer George Martin (notoriously titled the 5th Beatle) wrote the music for the string instruments, and it is truly a beautiful and emotional piece that fuses pop with classical music. Paul then has two beautiful ballads on the album, first being Here, There, and Everywhere, one of the most underrated songs of all time. It is such a pretty, therapeutic, meditative, visual detail of Paul pouring his heart out. The other ballad is on Side 2 called For No One, which brings in fresh different sounds to the album that include harpsichord, french horn, and great piano arpeggios by George Martin once again.
Paul knows how to have fun too, and Yellow Submarine was envisioned as a children's song that just sounds like an LSD trip, paving the way for future tracks like Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and Penny Lane. But it’s so damn catchy of a song - in high school, I couldn’t really play the drums, but dammit I sang like Ringo did in the track and learned to play the drum part too. It’s such a guilty pleasure of a song for me, but it also is so innovate with how it uses the studio for so many of the fake submarine mechanical sounds, and also the brief brass band segment.
The last two tracks that Paul is the major contributor of (John Lennon always helped Paul and vice versa in the earlier years of the band) are feel good tracks Good Day Sunshine and Got To Get You Into My Life. Both of these tracks are so joyous and fun, covered multiple times by all types of bands, and just express the love of life Paul is always able to showcase on his tunes.
Finally we have John Lennon’s penned tracks, starting with I’m Only Sleeping, and John toying with his vocals as he has a high pitched sound, with the music going psychedelic before psychedelic rock even exists. We hear their work on studio sound effects - reversing the tapes, someone yawning on the mono version at the break - it’s all so great and offers something people had never heard before.
She Said, She Said is a great rocker with a great guitar line, a very underrated John Lennon song. Ringo’s drumming on this track is great as well. Ringo does gets picked on as the least talented Beatle, but throughout this album he proves his worth time and time again. And Your Bird Can Sing is another great guitar riff that just blows you away. The guitar lines throughout the short track just dominate what you hear. Dr. Robert is a fun John tune- an easy rocker, with some organ at the bridge.
But the final track, Tomorrow Never Knows - oh my. There have been essays written about this song. “Turn off you mind, relax and float down stream” Lennon says after an insane drum beat is provided by Ringo, along with George playing a tambura and Paul laying down a stiff bass beat. The entire track is one chord, a C chord, that represents how many Indian songs are written. There are overall a ton of different sounds going on - reverse guitar, tape loops, processed vocals, sitar, and orchestra, Paul laughing sped up to sound like seagulls, and a mellotron. It is the sound of an LSD trip, the drug that the band just started experimenting with. But the song sparks a revolution in music: Are there any limits in the studio? How can bands create new sounds? How do they convey what they want? It’s all starting right here.
What makes this album stand out so much to me is that no track is the same. Not even close. You hear a little bit of everything here, and it is executed perfectly. It is possibly the most complete album ever recorded, and it only needs 34 minutes to take you on this musical journey. With this heightened level of creativity, it’s important to note that the use of drugs, especially LSD are seen throughout the album. But man, these songs are hot. McCartney mentioned how the progression out of the pop music and into the artistic, surreal stuff they started working on in this time period was heavily influenced by what Bob Dylan was doing at the time. But the Fab Four made their own sound, one that has been replicated ever since. Here are just a few covers from tracks on this album:
Taxman - Stevie Ray Vaughan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDYArDUgSg
She Said She Said - The Black Keys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaMkh31wppE
Got To Get You Into My Life - Earth, Wind, and Fire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKskYvTGEHE
Tomorrow Never Knows - Phil Collins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7ysx2yh_60
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Sphinx