...
...at the beginning of August 1966 that the Beatles released 'Revolver' upon an expectant world. England had just won the World Cup, the weather in the streets was summery and love was in the air.
Their 7th LP in less than four years, 'Revolver' was an album that perfectly captured the zeitgeist that was stirring from London to San Francisco. To this thirteen-year old it was both the fabbest and the coolest musical statement and for the record I still consider it probably the finest album ever made by anyone, anywhere, anyhow (with Jefferson Airplane's 'After Bathing At Baxter's' a close second.)
Its fourteen tracks are all wonderful compositions in themselves; as a collection, I think they are unsurpassed. Combining an anti-establishment stance ("Taxman") with wry social observation ("And Your Bird Can Sing", "Doctor Robert") and existential questing ("I'm Only Sleeping", "She Said, She Said", "Got To Get You Into My Life", "Tomorrow Never Knows") plus some of the band's most vibrant love songs ("Good Day Sunshine", "Here, There and Everywhere") and moving statements on the human condition ("Eleanor Rigby", "For No One"), the Beatles really nailed the yin and the yang for us proto-hippies.
'Revolver' also took popular music to a new pinnacle of artistic achievement and to my mind was a greater advance of the medium than was made with its more lauded successor, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' For 'Revolver' was the album that changed everything (as the critics are wont to say), that turned pop music into rock music into art, no less. It was also the fanfare which heralded the dawn of a golden age and I still get an echoing sense of that boundless optimism whenever it is played.
The phrase "tomorrow never knows" is a runic Ringoism, a bit of colloquial phraseology in the same Scouse vein as "eight days a week" and "a hard day's night". John Lennon bagged it as the title to the song that closes out the album, a ground-breaking psychedelic raga that tilts at being the musical mimesis of a meditative trance.
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As poetic exercise this week, I've revisited the lyrics of those fourteen songs and fashioned what is effectively a cut and paste precis (not a pastiche) of the Beatles' "message" to the world circa 1966.
Revolver Redux
1-2-3-4
When I was a boy
Everything was right
But all those words they slip away.
I took a ride
I didn't know what I would find there
All the lonely people
Running everywhere at such a speed.
My head is filled with things to say
A lifetime is so short
A new one can't be bought
To lead a better life
Lay down all thought
Surrender to the void.
Well well well you're feeling fine
Stay in bed float upstream
Listen to the colour of your dreams
See the meaning of within
You may be awoken...
Love is all
Love never dies
And love is everyone.
(Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!)
Stay in bed float upstream
Listen to the colour of your dreams
See the meaning of within
You may be awoken...
Love is all
Love never dies
And love is everyone.
(Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!)
Thanks for reading. Have a groovy week, S :-)
18 comments:
Well that ages me. I used to tape their songs and record them ( I still have the 4 track reel to reel Elizabethan in the loft ) then stop and start the recording in order to write down the lyrics...Oh happy days !
Thanks for recalling this, Steve.
REVOLVER was the first recording when I began to notice the huge contribution being made to music we liked by studio technicians.
The prime for me among them being George Martin who showed the eager sponges of Lennon and McCartney what was possible by using tapes and other recording equipment, Tomorrow... being their most obvious bit of trickery and the plainly obverse of Yesterday.
Of course there were others such as Phil Spector, but probably the one most influenced by REVOLVER was Brian Wilson who knew that to "last", The Beach Boys had to produce music for boy racers and Surfer dudes.
Without REVOLVER and Sgt. Pepper..., there would never have been Pet Sounds.
1966 was a great Summer, the one which produced the driving through France poem I read at Silantro on Friday evening.
So irrespective of England's World cup triumph, that Summer was so important to me.
Great blog. I totally agree about Revolver. Always thought Pepper was over-hyped. This was the Beatles at the top of their game. Thanks for the reminder.
I did the way you've made a poem out of exerts from the songs. Sums Lennon up nicely.
Such is the state of my pandemic ageing brain state that I just had to see the word Revolver on the screen and I wanted to cry. Nostalgia, eh? I bought it as I was about to board the plane to take me to Sydney to get on the ship to take me to Piraeus, and I carried it thence to London via Vienna. Best Album Ever. No question. Now I'm thinking about it, I do believe that if I had pennies to spare, and room to put it, I would buy a record player so that I could buy it again and play it. Somehow, the thought of getting Alexa to play it for me just wouldn't be the same.
Thanks Steve, for the memory. Lovely use of the language too. Brill.
It's good to read this again Steve. I remember reading it the first time you posted and it made me revise a long-held view that Pepper was the Beatles' high water mark. As you remarked when we talked about it, even Yellow Submarine proves acceptable within the context of this brilliant record. 'Revolver Redux', while an interesting exercise, is not on a par with your original compositions, but that's a minor quibble. Good day sunshine. 🌞
John was always my favourite Beatle - the cool one.
Good stuff, Steve. I've been gorging on a feast of fabbery in recent weeks - and the music has never lost its allure. I disagree about their early material being 'pop', as I regard Merseybeat as authentic rock; but ultimately that's just semantics, as your term implies no derogation. I do recall thinking that "Doctor Robert" was the weakest track for some time, but now regard it as one of the strongest. '66 was a pretty interesting twelvemonth, all considered.
Great homage to a lovely record. Revolver has such fond memories for me, a really positive vibe which you've captured so well.
Agreed that Revolver is the best Beatles album and you nail the reasons why in your post. As for best ever? Hmmm... Astral Weeks for me.
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. Don’t worry about the tax man.😄
If your blog has taught me one thing, it's what 'redux' means - though I had to look it up (LOL). Beyond that, I always knew Revolver to be the best ever, but it's always a pleasure to have that view endorsed, and so eloquently. 👏
Certainly one of the very best.
Totally agree Steve. It was always my favourite. I'm hoping that Giles Martin will do a remastering job on it (including all the outtakes etc) in the same way he did for the White album.
Yes the best and you put the case well.
I was disappointed at the time, thought my beloved Beatles had 'gone all weird'. If I listen to Revolver nowadays (which isn't often) it's with a mixture of admiration for just how ground-breaking some of it was combined with a deep happiness for how lovely it sounds and how evocative of my early teenage years. You've certainly done it proud here.
Wow, reading that piece about Revolver brought a lump to my throat. (I'm not sure about the Redux poem - much prefer your own originals.) Anyway, Sunday morning, sun shining, I'll give the album a spin. It's only CD these days as I let go the vinyl collection years back.
I watched a BBC documentary about the Beatles the other night and there was a section where they were being interviewed in February 1964 on arriving back from their first US tour and Ringo actually said in the interview "tomorrow never knows".
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