Revolver [UK]

That being said, REVOLVER gives us the most balanced view of The Beatles that we ever get. Everything that made The Beatles great is here in the right proportions. We have the three tracks of Harrison, including an Indian song of his, we have the ultimate Ringo song (everyone should know what song I'm talking about here), we have Paul's melodious love songs that would overwhelm his solo career, and we have the standard Lennon experimentation. On no other record do we get such a clear picture of what each Beatle brought into the equation. Everyone of them shine for their individual talents. The direct opposite of this is THE WHITE ALBUM, when The Beatles were in the process of breaking up.

In terms of artistic growth (remember, this was released almost a year after Help!, which was released August 6, 1965 and this August 5, 1965) we knew The Beatles were onto something. It foreshadows everything that will happen on SGT PEPPER, and is as important as its successor. And in terms of what made The Beatles great, this is the record to go too, because it gives you the most balanced view of the most important band in rock'n'roll history.

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In terms of Beatle evolution, Revolver catches the Fabs in the midst of their most perfect phase -- more sophisticated than the Mop-Top years of 1963-64, yet more restrained than the experimental Later Years. Lush psychedelic tones flourish throughout, enhancing, yet never overwhelming the colorful song textures. Witness George's painstaking backward guitar solo on "I'm Only Sleeping" for a textbook example of innovation with restraint. Mesmerizing rhythmic structures, which pop-up all over, may well be the most inventive of the band's career. Ringo's percussive tom rolls transform John's single-chord mind-bender "Tomorrow Never Knows" into the most hypnotic three-minutes of acid-drenched pleasure ever recorded. Never have Beatle guitars sounded so bright, trebly and as bitingly distorted as they do on "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "She Said, She Said". On the gentle flipside are the baroque sophistication of "For No One" and the epic neo-classicism of "Eleanor Rigby". Gently washed in the mournful hues of George Martin's perfectly scored string arrangement, "Eleanor" emerges as Paul's most mature and, quite possibly, most beautiful song. Sing-a-long classics "Good Day Sunshine" and "Yellow Submarine" prove that fun was indeed still fashionable in the Swingin' Summer of '66.

Every aspect of Revolver--from the biting social commentary of "Taxman" to the childish joyride of "Yellow Submarine"-- clicks so perfectly. A 1996 Mojo Reader's Poll ranked Revolver as the greatest album ever recorded. But Revolver, like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, is more than merely a great rock album-- it is unquestionably one of the 20th Century's greatest works of art.

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Can you put yourselves in the shoes of a 17 year old kid in 1966? You just walked home from the local record shop and you're sitting down in front of the turntable. You slide your thumbnail along the plastic to open up the album and remove the LP from its paper jacket. You carefully hold the edges of the record with your palms and set it down, pulling the tone arm over to drop the needle into the groove.

The guitar stylings of George Harrison are what you hear first, as "Taxman" plays through your phono speakers, a great new Beatles tune indeed. After listening to more of the record you hear the heady symbolism of "Eleanor Rigby", the Beach Boys-like harmony of "Here, There and Everywhere", the horns-rich McCartney kicker "Got To Get You Into My Life" and the Lennon acid-trip-set-to-music "Tomorrow Never Knows".

Yes, there are many other great tunes on this album...radio favorites like "Good Day Sunshine" and "Yellow Submarine". And other greats like "She Said, She Said", a song based on something Peter Fonda is said to have said to John Lennon, "I know what it's like to be dead". How about "And Your Bird Can Sing" and Lennon's beautiful "I'm Only Sleeping".

And at the age of 17 in 1966, you do not yet know that "Got To Get You Into My Life" would help usher in a genre of music known as the Chicago-sound with bands like The Buckinghams, The Ides of March, The American Breed, Chicago and more using rich brass harmony. In 1966 you do not know that Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was also sitting listening to Revolver, which in no small part spurred him on to create "Pet Sounds". And you don't realize that there are lush string quartets playing on "Eleanor Rigby". String quartets on your local Top-40 radio station!! How can "Eleanor Rigby" with string quartets be played on-air alongside "You Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes or "Hanky Panky" by Tommy James & the Shondells. Those are two great songs, but how do they compare to the orchestration and imagery of "Eleanor Rigby"?

These guys were just the Beatles...a rowdy quartet from Liverpool, England, right? Not much different from Gerry and the Pacemakers or Freddie and the Dreamers??? Not anymore...not after Revolver. After Revolver, rock and roll changed. The music was now becoming Rock music, and bands like the Beatles were evolving into something new. British bands like The Yardbirds, The Who and The Pink Floyd were experimenting with exciting new sounds, and there was a whole new free-form sound in the U.S. coming out of San Francisco with bands like The Charlatans, The Great Society (later Jefferson Airplane), The Grateful Dead and others.

"Pet Sounds" came out in `66, and then "Sgt. Pepper" came out in `67...this sealed the deal. Rock music was born.

How could you not own the CD "Revolver"?

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