Why I Love Revolver

We live in an age where the average life span of a newly formed band is about three to four years. So it makes the fact that in the space of three short years the Beatles had evolved from writing cutey pop songs such as 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'Love Me Do' to writing and producing an album so spectacular, so different and mind bending such as Revolver rather remarkable.  If not genius.

With the bands previous album, Rubber Soul the listener does get a sense that their style is evolving, maturing and improving. Even though they were so young at the time, they appeared to have musically matured and grown. But the leap between a album such as With The Beatles to Revolver must of been too staggering to comprehend.

When the Beatle fan put Revolver on their turntable what must they of been expecting? After all it wasn't too long ago that they were dancing along to Help! and A Hard Days Night. Revolver could not of been further away form that if they had tried. Whilst Help! was light and fluffy, Revolver was dark and brooding. And it's mainly or these reasons, that I absolutely adore this album.

I will acknowledge at this point that the boys had already started to indulge in drugs which must of contributed to the change in direction they were taking. But I won't accept that this is the only reason. I also firmly believe at this point that they were sick of producing love songs. They had something to say and they wanted us to listen. Also interesting is the point that this was the first album since they had decided not to tour any longer. So they could be experimental in their sounds - they had no pressure to reproduce those sounds on a tour. The studio was their oyster and they used that fact to the best of their ability.

The album opens with a George song. I often wonder why they chose this song to open with. It's common knowledge that George was allowed only a couple of songs per album so he must of impressed the others with this corker of a song for it to be the opening gem. Taxman was a topical song, in which George comments, sarcastically, on the fact that no matter how much he earned, most of it landed up in the governments pockets via the high level of taxes they Beatles were paying out of their earnings. It's typical of George - direct and straight to the point. He had something to say and said it best in a fine song. As we would later see with many of George's songs there was no holding back. I like Taxman. It's one of my favourite George's songs because I like his take on the tricky subject matter.

From Taxman we move onto one of the boys best known songs. The heartbreakingly sad Eleanor Rigby. The story of loneliness and what it does to the soul who experiences it. How cut off from society people can feel even in a busy and constantly moving world. I think this is a deep and soulful McCartney song. A step away from his usual love based songs. It's effective, it sends shivers up my spine and even the strings only version available on the Anthology can bring tears to my eyes. It's shattering and, at times, when you feel alone in the world, very difficult to listen to because it makes you confront your fears of loneliness. The fact that you could die and no one would attend your funeral is a concept far to sad for us to even contemplate. And all this soul destroying loneliness wrapped up in a beautifully orchestrated bow.  For me, this is one of their finest songs. Ever.

I'm Only Sleeping is one of those songs that, I admit with much guilt, that I often forget about, yet, when I hear it, I love it. It's a simple song about someone who is nothing but utterly lazy. There isn't much to say about this song except it's fun, easy to sing and perhaps a little light to take away the sadness from Eleanor Rigby.

Love You Too is a George song. But it doesn't automatically mean I love it. It's not a bad song, but not my favourite of his, either. I much prefer Taxman. By this period of his musical life George was more then experimenting with Indian music and discoing his love of the sitar. However, I think George was capable of far better songs. The Inner Light, for example is a Indian song of pure beauty. This isn't. It's a sexual song. It's not bad, not overly good either. Oddly enough if I were to skip a song on this album, this, most likely would be it. It doesn't move me. I don't feel anything when I listen to this. And as music is a emotional thing for me it leaves me feel slightly cold.

As much as Love You Too was about physical love, Here, There and Everywhere is about the romantic side of love and I think it's utterly beautiful. A truly beautiful song which maybe does take us back to the early days of Beatlemania where girls listened to love songs and dreamed about marrying a Beatle. I love how charming it is, how innocent it is in a time when everything was changing. A little revisit back to the early sixties I feel. It certainly feels a little out of place with the content of the rest of the album, yet, it sits in comfortably, too. It's a song with tone and texture. A strong love song, but yet, not overly icky or sickly. It strikes the perfect balance of a love song with it being overly sentimental. It's just lovely to listen to.

Who doesn't love Yellow Submarine? That rip roaring fun song that no matter how many times I hear it I never tire of it. It's fun, easy to sing and is the perfect outlet for Ringo's fun personality. When I go and see the Bootleg Beatles it never fails to get everyone on their feet. Although this song could be considered a children's song, it lightens the tone of the album. Then again, it could lead you down a path where you don't expect some of the later songs. Either way I love this song and it adds to the texture of the album. Yet again it's different to what has gone before. There is a nice atmosphere that radiates from this song. As though everyone involved in it's creation were having fun. It's daft, silly and a natural companion to Octopuses Garden which appeared later on on the Abbey Road album.

She Said, She Said is not just one of my favourite songs from Revolver, its one of my favourite Beatles songs full stop. I love the pounding beat of the song, I love the fact that John is teasing the actor Peter Fonda, who, whilst at a party with the boys, and whilst on LSD, kept insisting to the (bored) John that 'I know what it's like to be dead'. During the recording of this song Paul had temporarily left the band, leaving George to record not just his part but Paul's bass line as well. He didn't do a bad job, though he's no Paul, admittedly. I love the lyrics to this song. It's just a song that I play on the way to work to get me going. I never tire of it, I never skip it and it's one song I'm most likely to put on repeat. I just love it full stop.

Side two starts with Good Day Sunshine. A song I don't have much of an opinion on, if I'm being honestly. It's bright, breezy and sums up the very idea of summer (the summer of 1966 being especially warm and sunny). It's good. But it's all I can say about it really. It doesn't really hold my interest long enough to form any sort of opinion.

And Your Bird Can Sing is loud and fabulous and just like She Said, She Said is one of my favourites off the album. It's easy to sing along with and I think the lyrics to it are genius. The opening verse "You tell me that you've got everything you want, and your bird can sing, but you don't get me, you don't get me ...' rather reminds me of a man who wanted to date me and saw me as potential possession.  Happily I walked away from him. But I love the fact that Lennon, who mostly wrote this, was not impressed by someone who claimed to have everything but seemingly lacked the ability to even see him. Or consider his feelings. A quite serious song with a light and uplifting tune. I just love it.

For No One is quite a sad song, written by Paul on which he comments on the break down of his love affair with the British actress, Jane Asher. It's sad and like Eleanor Rigby moves me quite deeply. We've all been there where we have gone through the end of a long relationship. We all know how it feels and Paul masterfully sums it up without being over the top and sickly. It's heartbreaking to hear really and although it doesn't put me on a downer, it makes me think a little bit too much about things I don't want to think about, opening up old wounds and stirring long buried emotions. But, despite it all, it's beautiful.

Doctor Robert is written about a New York Dr well known for providing drugs to patients. And not the sort of drugs that cure illnesses. It's fun and funky and I can't help but sing along to it whenever it comes on. Other then that I have not much to say about Dr Robert!

I Want To Tell You. Ahhhh! The George song on this album that I love. Absolutely love this song in which George is evidently struggling to talk about his feelings or struggling to get off his chest something that is bothering him. In some ways it has quite a droll melody, it's not loud, it's calm and even and balanced. There is no rising and falling of melody. It's stable and solid and very enjoyable. It's George at his best. I love it in the same way I love Think For Yourself from the Rubber Soul album. It's deep and it's meaningful but in no way patronising. A massive thumbs up for George.

Got To Get You Into My Life. Pauls ode to his love of pot. At times I really love this song and have it on repeat. At other times I barely listen to it at all. This is very much a mood song for me. Sometimes I'm in the mood for it, other times I'm not. It's a well constructed song but somehow it seems a bit old fashioned, so different from what else they were recording at the time. It's almost like a bit of a step back. I'm not sure I really "get" this song - I think this is the problem. Its about a subject that is totally foreign to me and therefore I cannot relate to it.

Tomorrow Never Knows is my absolute favourite song from Revolver without a shadow of a doubt. Firstly, it's the most different song that they had produced up to that point. How must it of sounded to the Beatle fan in 1966 when they were used to listening to I Need You or You've Got To Hide Your Love Away? It's stunning and different, loud and noisy. The song contains screeching seagulls and reversed guitar loops. For me, this is as close as I'll ever get to experiencing a acid trip. John has managed to capture what it is to get high on LSD and it's almost like he takes us along to experience it with him without us having to experience any of the dangers. It's exotic and wild and it's Lennon willing not only to think out of the box but to have a progressive outlook on the group and the music they are producing. It's like his had the foresight to see that they needed to change and was brave enough to make that leap from what they and the fans had always known and take them somewhere completely different. It's a Beatles masterpiece. It was their coming of age song. It was acknowledging that Britain in 1966 was vastly different to Britain in 1963. It was progressive, a forerunner and it makes me proud to be a Beatles fan. For they did not stand still and just keep producing what they knew to be popular. They led the changes in music during that period. They were trailbeaters. And they were the best of the best. I never get bored of this song, it's a song that it's impossible to get bored with. It's weird because songs are emotional to me, but this song makes me think. I think this is fantastic. This was a risky song. There was no going back to the days of Beatlemania.  From that point onwards it marked a change. For not far in the future lay Sgt Peppers and The White Album.

So, why do I love Revolver? Because it was different. It was experimental and it keeps you on your toes. It has the familiar things that make me love the Beatles but it's full of change, of newness. It has freshness about it. A willingness to step out of the safe world and take a leap into something that was certain to bring success.

The success of Revolver also leaned heavily on the ability of their fans to also change and adapt and to make a leap of faith with the boys. I'm sure Revolver lost them fans. But they would of been the sort of fans who wanted the world to stay the same. They were the sort of fans who lived in a With The Beatles world. The sort of fans who would be left behind in the dust. Those of us, both then and now, who can see how incredible this album is, had to accept the Beatles moved with the times and we moved with them, such was our trust and faith in the boys.

I started this blog by saying that the change in the boys between the start of their career and where they were when Revolver was released was staggering. And it honestly was. The change from the cheeky mop top boys to the more mature hippy Beatles was huge but they had to change. They had no choice at all. If they hadn't of changed they would of risked becoming like The Searchers (a good band from the sixties who sadly got stuck in a rut) and that wouldn't of done. The thing that makes the Beatles awesome was they changed and they were million of miles ahead of what other bands were producing. Other bands couldn't copy the Beatles sound because from Revolver on who could possibly guess what they would produce next?

Revolver is one Beatles album that I simply couldn't live without. Each song is different and is beautiful in it's own way.

Revolver is special. Revolver is irreplaceable. And nothing will ever come close to it. Of course the Beatles produced many gems. And many more where to come after this. But Revolver is a bookmark because of how different it was to what went before.

When I first heard it, it was like a bolt of lightening. It was so different. And it made a remarkable first impression. So for the natural fondness I have for A Hard Days Night or Please Please Me, Revolver was when the Beatles got REALLY interesting. They had something to say and we listened.

Revolver is a moment in time. A perfect summery of the year it was made in. And through the tracks on this album we can trace the cultural changes that were happening in Britain at the time. I should imagine that when teenagers and young people listened to Revolver they must of felt anything was possible. They must of felt that they had a future so different to what their parents had. And, as always, the Beatles led the way.

And my god, I'm so proud of what they achieved. I'm still so excited about Revolver, though it makes no changes for me now, in 2018. But putting myself in the listeners place when it was first released, I should imagine that it brought colour into a black and white world. It brought hope and possibility of change. When I think of my late dad, who was fourteen when the album came out, what must he of thought about it?

Revolver is simply awesome.