The Beatles - Revolver

SONGWRITING

All of the songs on Revolver are originals. It was George Harrison's real "breaking out" as a serious songwriter as he wrote three songs that were included on the album ("Taxman," "Love You To," & "I Want To Tell You.") The other 11 songs were Lennon/McCartney songs. With McCartney being the lead songwriter & singer on "Eleanor Rigby," "Here, There and Everywhere," "Good Day Sunshine," "For No One," and "Got to Get You into My Life." "Yellow Submarine" was also mostly McCartney's song but Ringo Starr sang lead on it. Lennon was lead songwriter & singer on "I'm Only Sleeping," "She Said She Said," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "Doctor Robert," and "Tomorrow Never Knows."

RECORDING

Revolver marked the beginning of The Beatles really experimenting in the recording studio. They were no longer concerned with whether or not a song could be reproduced live. Among the album's experimentations is the backwards guitar on "I'm Only Sleeping." It is of course the album's final track "Tomorrow Never Knows" that makes most use of the "studio as an instrument" experimentation. The song's music includes extensive use of tape loops something which had not been used in a rock music recording previously.

RELEASE

Revolver was released on August 5, 1966. It was the Beatles 7th album, it was released after 1965's Rubber Soul and prior to 1967's Sgt. Pepper. While their previous album Rubber Soul had a folky acoustic vibe, Revolver had a more electric sound and it was also much more varied as far as the styles of the songs on the album. Everything from early acid rock like "She Said She Said" to children's sing alongs ("Yellow Submarine") to beautiful ballads like "For No One" to experimental tracks like the amazing closer "Tomorrow Never Knows."

COVER ART

The album's cover was created by the German born bassist & artist Klaus Voorman who would later play bass on some of John Lennon's solo albums.

LIVE

The Beatles never played any of the songs from the album live.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

The album is considered by many to among the all time greats. In fact in 2000 the British music magazine Q named it the best British album of all time. In 2002 the readers of Rolling Stone named it the greatest album of all time. It's ranked as the second greatest album of all time by users of the RateYourMusic.com website. This is only a small sampling of the incredible acclaim the album has received over the years.

1. TAXMAN - This is probably the first George Harrison song that really drew a lot of attention. It features a killer bass line by McCartney and some Jimi Hendrix inspired lead guitar breaks which were also played by McCartney. As with many of the Beatles records in these early days of stereo the stero panning is somewhat strange. This is particularly noticeable on headphones. While this heavy panning does help with instrument seperation it can be somewhat unsettling.
2. ELEANOR RIGBY - One of the Beatles most famous and most loved songs. It features nothing but a string quartet and Paul McCartney's voice. McCartney wrote the song and the string arrangement (with George Martin's help.)
3. I'M ONLY SLEEPING - John Lennon's hazy ode to staying in bed. (Or LSD depending on who you ask.) The song features a backwards guitar break played by George Harrison who practiced playing the notes backwards so that it would sound melodic when reversed.

4. LOVE YOU TO - We've gone from a heavy rock track to a string quartet to a hazy acoustic song with backwards guitar to this track which features all indian instrumentation with George Harrison's vocal (and Ringo Starr's tambourine.) The breadth of styles showcased in just the first four tracks of this album is true astounding.

5. HERE, THERE, & EVERYWHERE - Continuing to another completely different style. This is an incredibly beautiful ballad by Paul McCartney with gorgeous backing vocals and a lanquid dreamy feeling that isn't quite like any other song I've ever heard.

6. YELLOW SUBMARINE - My least favorite song on the album. It's the one track that keeps it from being a perfect album. Sure it's a cool song on it's own. It'd be a cool b-side track or a song on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack (of course) but on Revolver it just doesn't quite fit for me.
7. SHE SAID SHE SAID - I love the lyrics. I love the guitar. Great song. The song is by Lennon and it's about one of his early LSD trips where he met the actor Peter Fonda who kept telling him that he knew what it's like to be dead.

8. GOOD DAY SUNSHINE - Seriously each track on this album seems to be in a completely different genre. And it all feels so effortless. Not only are they doing all of these songs in different styles, they are mastering these different styles. I've heard it said that every song on Revolver created a new subgenre of rock music. That's probably a slight exageration. But only very slight.

9. AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING - One of the coolest riffs the Beatles ever wrote. Great vocals and very cool lyrics. Later Lennon would say he didn't think much of this song, but I definitely have to disagree with him.
10. FOR NO ONE - One of my favorite Beatles songs. I'm listening to it now and I can't even come with any words worthy of it really. Pure beauty. Again it doesn't really sound like any other song on the album. You know some albums just sound like the same song over and over again. Definitely not the case with Revolver.
11. DOCTOR ROBERT - Another Lennon song heavy with drug references. One of my favorite lyrics is "You'll pay money just to see yourself with Dr. Robert" which sounds like a reference to "seeing yourself" during a psychedelic experience.
12. I WANT TO TELL YOU - This is a very cool unusual song by George Harrison. It has a strange off kilter sort of feel it that's quite hard to describe. I dig it.
13. GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE - McCartney has said he wrote this song as his "love song to marijuana." The song was very much inspired by the Motown sound which makes it very fitting that Earth, Wind, & Fire had an R&B hit with a cover version in 1978.
14. TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS - The lyrics were based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The song is all in one chord and features tape loops and backwards guitar. It's arguably the second most experimental song the Beatles ever put on an album (the first being "Revolution #9" of course.)

DOWNLOAD THE BEATLES MUSIC