Released in the summer of 1966, Revolver came out at the high point of pop/rock music. Within just a few months, Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Revolver were released.
The Beatles’ first album where the vast majority of tracks could not be reproduced on stage, Revolver is an album that shimmers with creative brilliance. Everything from its striking black and white cover to its groundbreaking sound was a huge departure from their previous releases, even the classic Rubber Soul.
Revolver - the songs
The album begins with George Harrison’s "Taxman", a biting attack on the then current British government's tax system which saw the Beatles in a 95% tax band. The jagged guitar playing spits angrily at the listener while the sardonic lyric is the most political to date in the band’s catalogue.
"Eleanor Rigby" remains as breathtaking today as it was on its initial release. Contained within a song that is only two minutes long is a tale of loneliness and social comment that even Dylan could not equal. Its use of a hypnotic string quartet helps give the song a melancholic and foreboding feel that wraps itself around the lyric like a cold fog in a graveyard. One of pop’s greatest moments.
Lennon’s languorous "I’m Only Sleeping" and Harrison’s Indian saturated "Love You To" leave the listener in no doubt that virgin territory is being explored by a group who have now well and truly left their loveable Mop Top image behind.
"Here, There and Everywhere" is simply one of the most delectable and lovely tracks in pop music. Romantic without the cloying overtone that affects much of McCartney’s later work, the track is deceptively simple. The harmonies which are soft, shimmering and heart-achingly beautiful give the song a melodious blanket on which to lie.
The first side ends with Lennon’s wonderful "She Said, She Said". Any pretence that the band’s musical output was not being stimulated by mind-expanding drugs was now gone. The track’s mesmeric drumming confirms the coming of age of Starr from a beat drummer to a real contributor to the band’s sound. Here and on the classic B-side "Rain", the drums become an integral part of the band’s sound. Lennon’s vocal is haunting and detached to superb effect.
McCartney’s "Good Day Sunshine" gets side two off to a strong start. A song that was everywhere during the second half of the summer of 1966, the track features the kind of joyous delivery that would occur less and less in the second half of the band’s career. While not simplistic, the song features a straight ahead optimism that stands out in stark contrast to much else on the album.
"For No One" is in many ways a counterpoint to "Here There and Everywhere". Much darker in tone, it shares the former song’s beauty but here it is reflected through a cracked and misted mirror. As despairingly sad as it is stunningly beautiful, the track reaches into the soul of the listener. Once heard, never forgotten.
If "Doctor Robert" and Harrison’s third Revolver composition, "I Want to Tell You" don’t quite match the other high points on the album, that’s only because the bar had been set so high. On their own terms, the tracks offer enough melodic invention to be standout tracks on almost any other album.
Following the glorious Motown inspired "Got to Get You into My Life", the album concludes with the peerless "Tomorrow Never Knows". Sounding like nothing else in the whole of pop/rock music, the track signals both the death of the old Beatles and the glorious birth of a band who would define rock music for the next forty years and counting.
The Indian drone, Starr’s utterly compelling drumming and Lennon’s startling vocal delivery don’t so much tread new ground as rip up the past and declare Revolver Day One in rock’s history. The track still manages to shock almost half a century later and leaves the listener in no doubt that something new and wonderful was happening. For those with the will to take the journey, the future had been mapped out.
Summary
Revolver’s reputation continues to grow. It is the first album to show what rock music was capable of and it remains a dizzying collection of melodic beauty, musical invention and spellbinding strange magic.
Revolver is as close to perfect as an album will probably ever get.
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