The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Features / Fifty Years Of Revolver

Fifty Years Of Revolver

by 70 Comments

Tiggerlion on The Beatles released Revolver 5th August 1966

A mere week after England won The World Cup, Revolver was released.

Revolver is an album full of curiosity and wonder. Even though the cover is black & white and the mono mix is best, its sound collage explodes with colour. It is a fourteen track kaleidoscope of musical treasures that still sounds thrilling fifty years on. There are five different personalities (the fifth being the studio team led by George Martin) delivering a wide variety of different musical styles, each exploring their own areas of interest. Yet, somehow, it gives the impression of being performed by a single, tight unit. Few of the songs breech the three minute limit but, otherwise, the pop rule book is cast aside.

Most of those rules are broken by the studio boffins. The Beatles explored the possibility of recording in America, like The Rolling Stones, but the owners of those state-of-the-art studios tried to charge extortionate prices. They decided to stay at Abbey Road and rely on good old Heath Robinson British ingenuity; tape loops, backward recordings, varispeeding, distortions, close miking.

An EMI technician, Ken Townsend, invented ADT, automatic double tracking, in early 1966. It links two tape machines. taking the signal from the sync head of one machine and delaying it slightly through the second. On playback, there are small gaps and delays, giving the impression of two separate recordings layered together. The Beatles were delighted with the effect and used Ken’s Flange extensively on Revolver. The EMI maintenance department also devised a new piece of equipment used in the mastering process, referred to as “Automatic Transient Overload Control”, which allowed an increase in volume without distortion. As a result, Revolver and its attendant single, Paperback Writer/ Rain, were cut louder, sounding brighter and sharper, than any other Beatles records up to that time.

Tomorrow Never Knows was the first track to be recorded and is the one that uses most studio trickery. All four Beatles are credited with playing ‘tape loops’ but engineers, Geoff Emerick, aged nineteen, and George Martin should be credited, too (although, Martin’s crazy piano is acknowledged, listen out for it in the fade). There are at least six loops streamed in and out at various points, one of which is McCartney’s guitar solo from Taxman played backwards, another being a drone played by Harrison on tamboura. In the first half, Lennon’s voice was put through Ken’s ADT and for the second, in an attempt to sound like Tibetan Monks, they broke open a Leslie speaker in a Hammond organ and used that. However, the key element of the track is Starr’s drums. His booming drum pattern holds everything together, made awesome by slackening the toms, dampening and compressing, then applying lots of echo. It is a sound that had Americans tearing their hair and their expensively equipped studios apart trying to emulate.

It may be surprising to some, but backwards tapes are only used on one other track. Harrison painstakingly worked out two simultaneous guitar solos for I’m Only Sleeping. George Martin wrote the music backwards, so that, when played and then reversed, there would be added woozy and sucking sounds. Supplemented by Starr’s slowed down cymbals and McCartney’s soft bass, the backwards effect captures the feeling of being semi-awake, expressed in the lyric, perfectly. Backwards guitar has been copied many times but rarely has it been so well deployed. Even though they worked hard on effects to create the sound they wanted, they still kept focus on serving the song itself. Lennon’s thin, weak voice was achieved by varispeeding the vocal track. The harmony vocals are beautiful, McCartney’s high register being especially effective (“keeping an eye on the world going by my window”). Also, in a trademark detail, there is a delightfully timed yawn towards the two minute mark.

The remaining Lennon compositions (She Said, She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing and Dr. Robert) plus Harrison’s Taxman and I Want To Tell You are all more conventionally recorded but no less groundbreaking. These tracks mark a significant step away from Pop music towards Rock. None can be described as love songs. They demonstrate ensemble group playing and Pop guitar at its very best. The Beatles were inspired by Rock & Roll, Soul music, especially Tamla Motown, and Music Hall. They don’t play the blues. Their solos are brief and their purpose within the three minute song is, often, to add musical interest and colour. All these songs are written on guitar and the melody lines or riffs are often like one long lead from beginning to end (especially so on Paperback Writer). The riffs would be multi-tracked. Having three players adds variety and verve. McCartney had been contributing lead since Help! and, on Taxman, his lead steals the show. Throughout Revolver, the interweaving of the guitar textures are outstanding. However, An extra element is Harrison’s burgeoning obsession with Indian music. His playing on these songs, including Tomorrow Never Knows and I’m Only Sleeping, is an elaborate and expressive blend of Pop, Indian and Country. He brings an intricate rolling swing to And Your Bird Can Sing, a snake-like strangling riff to She Said, She Said, a slippery incision to Dr. Robert and, even, a tension to Got To Get You Into My Life.

The core guitar-led songs also have two other striking features. The first is the quality and inventiveness of the backing vocals. In Taxman, the backing vocals effectively take charge (“if you drive a car…if you take a walk…”), McCartney’s sales pitch for Dr. Robert adds a neat counterpoint (“he’s a man you must believe”) and the harmonised “I’ve got time…” on I Want To Tell You gives Harrison hope he might solve his communication difficulties. The second is the rhythm section. McCartney and Starr have never been better. The bass is more prominent than on previous Beatles albums. It is boosted by using a loudspeaker as a microphone, placed directly in front of a second bass speaker. McCartney shines in the spotlight, adding extra melody and bounce to almost every track. Meanwhile, Starr excels. His drum patterns on Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said, She Said and Rain are so pivotal they really deserve a writing credit. He makes a large contribution to the swing of And Your Bird Can Swing and his cymbal work generally is something to marvel, practically glowing within the boffins’ ‘treatments’. Best of all, and back to basics, listen out for the cowbell on Taxman.

If Lennon’s songs are introspective or, as some have said, an LSD fuelled journey of self discovery, McCartney’s are more outward looking. They provide a contrast to the guitar-driven Pop of the rest of the album. Stylistically, he seems to explore the entire history of music over the twentieth century. His songs don’t require much studio trickery but do involve key contributions from outside musicians. In fact, Revolver is the album that cemented his reputation as the lone Beatle, arriving early at the studio, doing his own thing and refusing help from the other three. This is grossly unfair. Eleanor Rigby is effectively a group composition. He had a melody and a verse but the song was completed one afternoon at Lennon’s house. Harrison came up with the “ah, look at the lonely people” hook with Lennon’s voice predominant in the high harmony. Starr chipped in with “darning his socks” and “writing the words of a sermon no-one would hear”. The care taken over the three part backing vocals for Here, There And Everywhere, the only genuine love song on Revolver, add a richness to absorb any hint of sugar. Harrison’s delicate guitar and Starr’s subtle percussion, including a beautiful round cymbal sound at the one minute mark, enhance the romanticism. Good Day Sunshine may simply be rollicking piano, bass and drum but the enthusiastic hand clapping and committed singing of all The Beatles add the brightness. Got To Get You Into My Life is giddy and euphoric, lifted by a committed effort from each of the four, especially Harrison’s spirited lead guitar. Perhaps, those horns would have sounded better if recorded in Muscle Shoals, but, even so, the result is a very British kind of Soul Music. Only the classicism of For No One is Beatle-light, its cold-hearted rejection underscored just by McCartney’s own clavichord, a guest French Horn and Starr’s restraint. However, Love You To features just Harrison and Starr on tambourine, alongside the Indian musicians.

Harrison’s three compositions are often derided by the naysers but, musically, they fit Revolver perfectly. Taxman’s energetic, snarl is a suitably attention-grabbing start, Love You To brings genuine Eastern exoticism to the party and the idiosyncratic dissonance of I Want To Tell You prepares the listener for the big finish. Harrison’s use of Indian music, both in his songs and in his guitar playing on others, is respectful and authentic. He certainly had a lot of help from Lennon when writing Taxman but he returned the compliment on She Said, She Said, proposing the metre change (4/4 to 3/4 and back) and the insertion of a piece of another Lennon song (“when I was a boy…”). At first glance, Harrison’s lyrics seem all over the place. How can a rich man, obsessed with Indian mysticism and its rejection of material goods, object so aggressively to paying tax or is he making a noble stand against The Man? Is Love You To a paean to universal love and making the most of life or is he saying, ‘I’m a busy man, quick, let’s have a shag!’? You might think it’s no wonder he is tongue-tied and confused on I Want To Tell You or is it actually a song about transcendence and surrendering the ego? Taken as a triumvirate, however, they honestly and openly capture the human being, contradictions and all. We learn far more about Harrison as a person in these three songs than we do about Lennon or McCartney in all of theirs.

Finally, there is the real test of a Beatles Fan’s mettle, Yellow Submarine. How can a children’s song nestle comfortably in an album inventing Acid Rock, Baroque Pop and Raga Rock? In actual fact, it is extremely difficult to write an ear-worm of a singalong ditty and McCartney is a master at it. He composed the song in wide-eyed wonder, and with a little help from Donovan, who suggested ‘sky of blue, sea of green’. Lennon’s children’s songs tended to be sardonic. The Beatles follow the golden rule that when you are being ridiculous, give it everything you’ve got. Collectively, they lavished as much attention on Yellow Submarine as they did on Tomorrow Never Knows. Swirling buckets of water are closely miked to mimic the ocean, loudhailers are distorted for the captain’s announcements, sung with gusto by Lennon, an oompah band is on a loop and there are thrillingly realistic engine noises. By the closing cast-of-thousands chorus and the boys sail off into the deep blue, they have a created an entirely new world. Yellow Submarine is the most successful song from Revolver, reaching number one everywhere. It begat a film that perpetuated the myth of The Beatles being four young men who live together and travel the universe having exciting adventures and lots of fun. It is a legacy that entrances new generations even today.

Revolver is a thoughtfully sequenced album of fourteen tracks, McCartney and Lennon songs alternating, displayed as a dazzling array of treats. There is something for everyone, with one notable exception. There is nothing here for a screaming teenage girl. All the tracks are packed with surprises and successfully achieve what they set out to do. Despite all its diversity, it bursts with sheer listenability and has hardly dated at all. The Beatles were moving on from Beatlemania. They soon stopped touring and became a studio only band. The back cover confirms them as maturing young men, looking cool in floral print shirts and natty shades. On Revolver, The Beatles forge their own path. They are not following others. They are leading the way, onward to the next phase, Psychedelia and Rock.

Revolver was voted best album of all time by The Afterword. Even God agrees. The official newspaper for The Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, named Revolver as Best Pop Album ever.

65

Comments

  1. Superb read. Thanks for that. Geoff Emerick’s book has some fascinating detail on Revolver. Fancy Tomorrow Never Knows being your first job as an engineer. Mind blowing…

  2. I was Born in 1966. I was at John And Yoko’s marriage in Gibraltar. I was 2 and a half years old. My Father was stationed there on the rock and was commandeered as a witness with me by his side.

  4. Great stuff Tigger. Used to be my fave but these days I lean forwards to “The Beatles” or backwards to “A Hard Days Night”.

    Lose YS and Good Day Sunshine replacing with Paperback Writer and Rain and it is a contender once more.

  8. I’ll listen to it on the walk to work today. I know from experience that it lasts exactly the length of my walk if I follow my rule of missing out Yellow Submarine, a horror however successful, and playing And You Bird Can Sing Twice to make up for it. YS is left on the iPod purely for tpthe pleasure of skipping it.

    It’s a surprisingly short album, Revolver. 14 tracks but the longest of them is exactly three minutes and the whole lot is done in just over half an hour. That is surely part of its genius – so many tracks that leave you wanting more but are followed by something just as good instead.

  9. That reminds me.
    Where is Beatles band? This band who have not been as of late clear of circumstance. Beatles Band! Can we no longer hear there melodious throng? ‘

    John! Paul! All in Beatles Band come forth! What question have we to put? Now? Arguments necessary can begin with whole results expected for any return.

    Ringo! Here in Thailand Beatles band experience is long loved and can be hurt away from John, Paul etc.

    Please give any news to Samuel K. Amphong of address similar to above. yours as in rock!

    Samuel K Amphong, Thailand

  11. A fantastic read tiggs, probably the best review I have ever read of `Revolver`

    Rolling Stone did an interesting piece on “the best album of all time” but it may not be The Beatles best album, no I am not thinking of SPLHCB. Here`s a link to the Rolling Stone article;

    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/beatles-revolver-15-things-you-didnt-know-w432446?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=080516_15

    • You are much too kind.

      Your nome de plume is many people’s favourite track. Its acoustic rhythm pattern has a real spring to it and the bass bounces along. Harrison’s guitar is exhaultant with its intricacy. All four Beatles sound delirious. Then, you pick out the words. They don’t make sense. And Your Bird Can Sing is the first of a number of Lennon songs with nonesense lyrics (I Am The Walrus, Hey Bulldog, I Dig A Pony, Come Together). Unlike those others, which sound irascible and pointed, Lennon seems really happy on this one. It’s a joy to listen to.

  12. I believe that the reason for the more prominent, and adventurous(?), bass was that McCartney had switched allegiance from his Hofner to Rickenbacker.
    I think it was stated in Revolution In My Head that he absolutely loved the tone of the Rick (more trebly?), and was inspired to do more with it.

    • He did indeed use Rickenbacker for most tracks but, nevertheless, the boffins still boosted its prominence in the mix. Having said that, he sounds liberated and his playing is even better than usual.

  13. Since some posts seem to be lost forever, how to add Paperback Writer and Rain to Revolver.

    There are rules:

    1. Whenever you pimp a Beatles album, always bear in mind that the original sequencing is best.
    2. On Revolver, you must alternate McCartney and Lennon songs.
    3. Taxman must start the album and the two Lennon acid rock numbers must close each side.

    On side one, there is a bit of a lull with three consecutive quiet tracks, I’m Only Sleeping, Love You To, Here, There And Everywhere. Liven things up with insertion of Paperback Writer after I’m Only Sleeping.

    Then, you are left with Rain. The only place it can go without rubbing up against another Lennon track on side two is between I Want To Tell You and Got To Get You Into My Life. Rain is pretty heavy. Placed there it is in close proximity to Tomorrow Never Knows and weighs down the second half of side two.

    My solution is to place it after Paperback Writer and lighten up side two with Yellow Submarine. Bearing in mind Beatles sequencing is best, YS fits next to last.

    Side one
    1. Taxman
    2. Eleanor Rigby
    3. I’m Only Sleeping
    4. Paperback Writer
    5. Rain
    6. Love You To
    7. Here, There And Everywhere
    8. She Said, She Said

    Side two
    1. Good Day Sunshine
    2. And Your Bird Can Sing
    3. For No One
    4. Dr. Robert
    5. I Want To Tell You
    6. Got To Get You Into My Life
    7. Yellow Submarine
    8. Tomorrow Never Knows

    • Unintended consequences…..

      The ultimate film footage of The Beatles, indeed the ultimate film footage of pop music, namely the ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’ promotional films would almost certainly never have been made.

        • And there’s the rub.
          I too would advocate jettisoning Yellow Submarine, but it would no longer be Revolver without it.
          In my mind, it should not be there – it is a throwaway song which really wouldn’t be missed.
          But in my ears, the frivolity (is that the right word?) and the difference in tone/intent just sort of “makes” the album.

          “YS is an essential part of the whole. Like it or not.” – correct

          • YS has to be included house for the satisfaction of going straight to the next track. The pleasure this gives is part of the Revolver experience.

            • It is a track all four Beatles, George Martin and Geoff Emerick threw themselves into in the studio. Remember, Martin recorded The Goons. I think they thoroughly enjoyed making it just as much as Tomorrow Never Knows, And Your Bird Can Sing, I’m Only Sleeping and Taxman. Those five tracks are genuine team efforts and are the core of Revolver.

                • Yellow Submarine when listened to closely without closed ears is a wonderful kaleidoscope of sound. I used to dislike the song but I do not now. As tiggs says the HJH sequencing reigns supreme and Revolver without Yellow Submarine fires blanks.

                    • Absolutely, it’s a moment of utter Fabness – absolute confidence in themselves, cocky indifference to what the world might think of its biggest beat combo recording a kid’s singalong. Yet executed with such warmth and spirit. This is one of the things that separated The Beatles from their contemporaries. The Stones could never had done a track like Yellow Submarine.

                  • With you on Yellow Submarine – listening to it now it sounds great – I listened to it this afternoon after pondering Tiggs excellent review. However my favourite songs on the album are Taxman and Here,there and everywhere.
                    Its great that the writing on this site has the persuasive power to prompt a re-evaluation of an LP perhaps taken for granted due to over-familiarity.

              • George Martin didn’t record The Goons, though he did make records separately with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, including the legendary Best of Sellers (Drop of the Hard Stuff, Balham Gateway to the South etc.) The Goons singles were made (irony alert) by and for Decca records.

                However, the first few Goon Shows to be released on LP were released by Parlaphone and quite possibly prepared for release by the Georgemeister himself (ie doing God’s work in removing Max Geldray and Ray Ellington’s musical spots).

  14. My Friday comment went missing too so with much trepidation amidst all this admiration here’s my best recall of what I wrote then…

    Terrific writing, obviously lovingly researched but (and I’m afraid it’s a big but) all just too worthy in my opinion. For me it’s like back in school where we were forced to minutely examine Shakespeare or Tennyson or whoever and as a result somewhere along the line the beauty gets lost in all that detail.

    Revolver (of course it’s not the best album ever, that’s Blonde on Blonde and it’s not even the best Beatles album, that’s Sergeant Pepper or The White Album or Rubber Soul) to my mind is a brilliant record made by four artists and a producer nearly at the top of their game, full of youthful joy and revelling in all their new technological toys which they are allowed to play without any interference from Matron. Sure, Ringo’s drumming throughout is terrific, there are stand-out songs galore but, erm, that’s all you need to say except – go play Revolver right now!

    ps back in ’66 we were busy changing the world, overthrowing capitalism and making love not war (well, some of us were making love – I was in my bed, floating upstream ) but even us young warriors knew we needed to pay taxes or who else was going to pay for our University years or our summers on the dole? Harrison’s whingey/whiney lyrics grated then and they still grate today

    pps ianness should now add some bollox about “horrible rates of taxation in the sixties”)

    • To my mind, Revolver came out before the Vietnam War protest and Flower Power/Free Love really got going. Yes, both had their origins in 1965 but the British public only became aware of them in 1967. It kind of exists in a bubble unencumbered by either, just as Pet Sounds does for that matter.

    • Since you asked so kindly, I believe the top rate was 83% plus a further 15% on unearned income, IIRC. Brutal, no?
      More interestingly, I can’t see how YS can precede Tomoorow Never Knows. A song for children preceding a mindblowing number doesn’t work for me. I’d have Paperback before Tomorrow. Angels dancing on oinheads.

          • Wholly in agreement, with regard to rapacious, globalised multinationals.
            FWIW, I believe in high initial thresholds and, at the higher earnings level, a rate that maximises the take.

              • I would take it off but the fact is that Ringo gets a song on every album, exceptions being A Hard Day’s Night when he was sick (he got one on Long Tall Sally instead) and Let it be assembled after the group had split. Magical Mystery Tour doesn’t count as it was an EP not an album.

                • Of course! That’s the other rule when pimping a Beatles album. There has to be a Ringo song. That would have saved us a whole load of trouble.

                  The second side of A Hard Days Night was put together in a hurry. It’s one song short and, as you rightly point out, the song it is short of is a Ringo song.

  15. Great thread no matter what anyone feels about Revolver despite whether YS is a pile of donkey droppings/shite and should or should not be on the album, whether Paperback Writer or Rain should be on, they shouldn`t. Revolver by any other band would be that bands greatest album (I said band Loadstone), whether it is The Beatles greatest album, that`s another
    discussion/argument…

    Paperback Writer/Rain is the greatest 7″ and that is fact.

  16. Stupendous article,Tigger,and I’ll be looking out for the technical effects you describe as soon as I get back from holidays to my beloved stereo. Still a Pepper fancier,that won’t change, still think Revolver has a couple of lulls too many, though not including Yellow Submarine, which is fun and less simple than assumed, those chords moving from the offbeat to the one (in the – town, i was – born, etc.) in a way that’s most unusual in singalong ditties.

    Oh and Dai’s point above about Jagger/ Faithfull is one I heard recounted in the pub in Ireland just a few days ago (so it must be true).

    • Pepper is even more aurally spectacular and contains a *better* (though musically simpler) Ringo song. However, for me, Harrison’s contribution feels separate to, rather than part of the whole and, at times, Paul’s songwriting isn’t quite as sharp. That’s enough to knock it just a notch below Revolver but it remains way above Abbey Road.

  17. The demos are dated 27/5/66, so I wonder if making a promotional film for both ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Rain’ indicates that at the time (20/5/66?) they still didn’t know which one would be the ‘plug’ side?
    Perhaps they asked the assorted photographers/journalists on site which one they preferred.

    Similar to the ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’/’Child of the Moon’ dilemma in ’68.

    Either way, it again (going against received…..aka ‘wrong’…..wisdom) shows how hard both groups were prepared to work.

  18. I don’t get the universal love of Rain at all. Many years ago, when it wasn’t as easily available, I used to think that the only reason people claimed they loved it was for the snob factor of knowing something that most ordinary civilians had no clue about.
    But surely that can’t be the case with Afterworders? 🙂

      • Oh, I’m sure someone will come along soon enough to lecture me on how ground-breaking it was… 😉
        Which, of course, doesn’t necessarily make it good…

    • It is an outstanding B side. I don’t think it towers over all other Lennon songs on Revolver, probably superior to Dr Robert though, maybe on a par with She Said She Said. Paperback Writer is one of the best things they ever did.

      • Rain is a simple song, drone or raga-like in its melody, the theme being that Rain isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The brilliance of the track is in its performance, especially the rhythm section. Both Paul & Ringo are superb. They actually recorded it fast, along with the guitars, and slowed the tape down to give the dense, heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere. There is a sense of foreboding in the sound and a menace in the lead vocal. It’s an aural experience alright, and not a pretty one, that slots into Revolver very nicely.

Leave a Reply