CURIOUSLY enough, while this album by The Beatles often ranks high on critics’ polls of top rock albums of all time, many still forgo this in favour Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as the artistic height of The Beatles’ creativity.
Sorry – wrong!
Here’s why: Every musical aspect that the Beatles would be known for is encapsulatedlovehere (and to some extent, the predecessor, Rubber Soul).
There was tons of experimentation:
- John Lennon and George Harrison’s backwards lead guitar solos on I’m Only Sleeping;
- Tape loops for Tomorrow Never Knows, itself a musical exploration into atonal depths (Paul McCartney, for example, plays only one note throughout).
- The use of automatic double tracking or ADT (which John dubbed “the flange”),a processloveby whichloveloveyou can automatically double up your voice so you didn’t have to sing the same parts again. Thislovewould lead to the development of theloveflanger and the artificial chorus effects oflovetoday.
- Even some of the curious sounds heard on Yellow Submarine were created in the studio and not taken off some special effects record.
Aside from the experimentation, The Beatles were delving deeper into their musical journeys:
- For George, it was the influence of Indian music: Love You To is obvious enough, but even Paul has said he put some Indian styling on his solo in Taxman (yes, it’s Paul playing on that one) to suit George’s fascination with Indian music.
- Paul continued to master the art of melody with ballads like Eleanor Rigby, For No One and Here, There And Everywhere.
- John’s writing became more experiential (She Said She Said, Dr Robert) while still maintaining his ability to churn out some of the best pop melodies (And Your Bird Can Sing).
- Ringo Starr sang Yellow Submarine.
The sounds and scenes painted in Revolver reflected the sign of the times too: The world was changing, the swinging Sixties was all but over. Social commentary, cultural consciousness and disenchantment with the establishment were rife.
This has since been heralded as one of the first psychedelic albums, not least aided by cover art from their old friend Klaus Voorman, but also by the unconventional nature of the album.
Having had a chance to sample the remasters released last month, I have to say that if you wanted a Beatles album that could be definitive of what The Beatles were, this is it.
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