tracks on LP: Taxman | Eleanor Rigby | I’m Only Sleeping | Love You To | Here, There And Everywhere | Yellow Submarine | She Said She Said | Good Day Sunshine | And Your Bird Can Sing | For No One | Dr Robert | I Want To Tell You | Got To Get You Into My Life | Tomorrow Never Knows
Record label: Parlophone 1A 062-04097 (Netherlands)
Released: 05/08/66
Purchased: 27/10/82
With screaming audiences drowning out the primitive PA systems, the Beatles had atrophied as performers; live sets were reduced to barely half an hour. Their 1966 tours were marred by controversy: an inadvertent snub to first lady Imelda Marcos in Manila sparked a dangerously hostile reaction from the locals, while Lennon’s remarks about the Beatles being ‘bigger than Jesus’ caused a furore in America where, remarkable as it now seems, there were empty seats in many venues.
These fiascos were sufficient to persuade even McCartney, the Beatle most enamoured of live performance, that the touring had to stop, although the decision was never formally announced. The ever-increasing complexity of the music made it virtually impossible to reproduce live, meaning that the Beatles’ stage act was based around old material and was no longer representative of their muse.
‘Revolver’ was their last album to be recorded under time pressure before they were afforded the luxury of almost limitless hours in the studio. As such it benefits from the expediency that urgency brings and remains their most consistently inventive collection. Its reputation has grown over the years to the point where it has been known to outperform ‘Sgt Pepper’ in greatest album polls.
Their status as national icons notwithstanding, the Beatles’ transition from teen idols to serious artists was in fact accompanied by falling album sales. ‘Revolver’ spent a mere seven weeks at Number 1, initially selling in the region of half a million copies, 250,000 less than ‘Rubber Soul’. This trend would be spectacularly reversed with their next offering. Fellow artists, however, clearly approved, mining the album for covers, but only Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers‘ version of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ made any impact.
TAXMAN (Harrison)
Beginning with a muffled count-in, George’s sardonic opener attacks the British Government’s taxation policy for higher earners. McCartney contributes not only the distinctive bass but the guitar solo too.
ELEANOR RIGBY (Lennon-McCartney)
Both Lennon and McCartney later claimed to have written the bulk of the lyrics of this striking voice-plus-strings track. The reality would seem to be that Lennon helped McCartney finish the song.
I’M ONLY SLEEPING (Lennon-McCartney)
John was taking LSD almost constantly during 1966 and the wonderfully somnambulant `I’m Only Sleeping’ gives us some clue as to his state of mind at the time.
LOVE YOU TO (Harrison)
The single sitar on ‘Norwegian Wood’ was hardly sufficient to prepare the audience for the full Indian treatment on George’s sprightly song.
HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE (Lennon-McCartney)
Exquisite three-part harmonies from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison distract the attention from Paul’s sentimental lyric.
YELLOW SUBMARINE (Lennon-McCartney)
Who else but the Beatles could get away with recording a children’s song and releasing it as a single? Adults can marvel at the nautical sound effects and join in on the chorus.
SHE SAID, SHE SAID (Lennon-McCartney)
A song based on an LSD trip of Lennon’s in LA when he was with the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and David Crosby. Actor Peter Fonda provided an unwelcome interruption with his story of a near-death experience. Relief is found is the yearning ‘when I was a boy’ breaks.
GOOD DAY SUNSHINE (Lennon-McCartney)
Written and recorded in the glorious summer of 1966, this is Paul at his most genial.
AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING (Lennon-McCartney)
Lennon asserts his independence against an un-named rival, rumoured to be Mick Jagger (whose ‘bird’ at the time, Marianne Faithfull, could indeed sing).
FOR NO ONE (Lennon-McCartney)
A curiously detached tale of lost love is decorated by the French horn solo played by distinguished British musician Alan Civil.
DOCTOR ROBERT (Lennon-McCartney)
A physician who freely administered amphetamine shots to his patients inspired this key-shifting song.
I WANT TO TELL YOU (Harrison)
Accepted wisdom states that George Harrison matured as a songwriter towards the end of the Beatles’ career but his unprecedented three contributions to ‘Revolver’ would suggest that he was capable of matching Lennon and McCartney much earlier. Dominated by urgent piano, played by McCartney, ‘I Want To Tell You’ has a Hindu-influenced lyric.
GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE (Lennon-McCartney)
Many years later, Paul admitted that the subject of this soul-flavoured song was in fact marijuana and not, as might have been expected, a girl.
TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (Lennon-McCartney) Ringo’s malapropism was used as the title for the Beatles’ most experimental work yet and his drums provide the rhythmic foundation for an astonishing collage of sound effects and tape loops. The lyrics were taken from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead and John was famously disappointed that George Martin failed to make his voice sound like a monk chanting on a hilltop.
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