REVOLVER

Having to review Revolver always made me a bit nervous - which is why it took me so long to get myself together. The reason is simple: Revolver is one of my all time favourite albums. I would normally try to be objective in my reviews, so the question is if I will be able to keep that objectivity here while still giving the album the praise I think it deserves. I don't know, but the following lines will hopefully answer that question.

The Beatles had shown steps towards more sophisticated and studio-oriented music ever since the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night", most prominently on the Rubber Soul album which contains more deep songs than those on their previous records. But Revolver is a giant leap away from the old Beatles sound. The album contains multiple sounds that are (were) only possible to create in a studio: backwards recording, varispeed recording, sound manipulation and tape loops - the inspiration obviously came from avant-garde and musique concrete. The band experimented with different musical styles that are not usually associated with pop or rock and roll, like classical and Indian music. Plus, many of the lyrics go way beyond the traditional love songs associated with pop. If you listen to the first album, Please Please Me, and then Revolver immediately afterwards, it doesn't even sound like the same band.

Revolver begins symbolically with a count in. The first Beatles album had begun in the same way, with Paul McCartney's energetic "one two three four!" introduction to "I Saw Her Standing There", as if to introduce the music of the Beatles for the first time. The first song on Revolver also begins with "one two three four". But it's a very weird count in this time. It doesn't create a pulse, like the one for "I Saw Her..." did. Instead it is held in a slow tempo that's completely unrelated to the actual song; Harrison's voice sounds kind of grumpy, and it is mixed with studio noise, making it clear that the Beatles's music is now all about studio production rather than live performances.

The song is "Taxman", the first opening track to be credited to Harrison, and his first really great contribution to the Beatles. If the count in sounded unfamiliar to the average Beatles listener at the time, then the actual song is no less unusual. It has an unusual rhythmic pattern - something they had already exercised in "Ticket to Ride" from Help!, and something they would take up later on this album in a rather spectacular fashion. Then there are the distorted guitar chords on the off-beats. They sound angry and agressive, but they also create a hypnotic intensity. Other magical moments include the close vocal harmonies, as well as the extra guitar from verse 3 that follows the bass. Also McCartney's guitar solo deserves a lot of praise.

"Taxman" is followed by one of the most heartbreaking songs I can think of. "Eleanor Rigby" is based on a dualty of on one side its sad mood and the sympathy for tragic human destinies ("All the lonely people, where do they all come from"), and on the other side the brutal depiction of the reality: "Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved". This duality is perfectly expressed by the double string quartet with the long soft notes in the chorus versus the agressive staccato in the violins.

"I'm Only Sleeping" is the first in a series of introspective Lennon compositions about his journey into LSD and psychedelia. It's a rather strange song, with Lennons voice speeded up while the instruments are slowed down. It creates a strange atmosphere that is further stressed by the reversed lead guitar. But despite the introspection, he is still "Keeping an eye on the world going by my window". Harrison's "Love You To" [sic] is the first Beatles song to take Indian music seriously while still keeping a Western type of song structure. More songs would follow that pattern in the next coupe of years. "Here There and Everywhere" is a simple understated ballad written by McCartney, and one of his own favourites. There's a classicist feel to the melody.

"Yellow Submarine" is a song many seem to hate for its childishness. I don't understand it. Sure it's a children's song basically, but so what? Both the melody and the lyrics about the life of a submarine is very charming, and there's a lot of humour in it. Just take the cacophonic orgie of sound effects, and especially the distorted nonsense dialogue before the last verse. And everything is kept together by Ringo's down-to-earth singing. I love every bit of it.

Side 1 ends in a spectacular fashion with "She Said She Said" - another one of Lennon's LSD driven songs on the album. It was inspired by a dialogue he had had with Peter Fonda during one of his first acid trips, in which Fonda talked about a near-death experience ("I know what it's like to be dead"). The melody, like several others on the album, has an Indian touch which is further stressed by the hypnotic chords. Also the electric guitars add to the song's hypnotic feel. There's some excellent drumming too. Only the bass is underwhelming - it was played by Harrison because McCartney walked out of the sessions for this song for some reason - but the other instruments make it up for that. In some ways the song resembles the 90's britpop.

If "She Said She Said" is a dark song, then side 2 begins with the exact opposite. "Good Day Sunshine" is as uplifting and optimistic as can be, and the great thing is, the optimism is real; there is nothing fake or superficial about it. But even then there is also a bit of sadness lying underneath, perhaps best expressed in the deep piano drone that starts the track. The song has some amazing key changes, great vocal harmonies, a rather "spaced out" vocal fade-out, plus some excellent playing from everyone. It's a perfect opener for side 2. The next song, "And Your Bird Can Sing", is another stellar example of Harrison's lead guitar, but also the intense melody and chord changes deserve praise. Lennon, who wrote it, later dismissed it for what he considered nonsensical lyrics.

"For No One" is a slightly overlooked song, but it's another great example of McCartney's sense of melody. The sad mood of the lyrics is perfectly captured by the composition which seems to stress descending movements, especially in the bassline and melody in the verse. Even though the chorus is slightly more uplifting from a musical point of view, there's not much comfort to get there in the lyrics: "And in her eyes you see nothing, no sign of love behind her tears". The composition is quite classicist which is perfectly underlined by the piano-based production, whereas the horn solo is probably more baroque than classicist. "Dr. Robert" (about a doctor in New York who prescribed drugs for his patients for non-medical reasons) is probably the least appreciated song on Revolver, but it is a crucial part of the album as a whole (even though it was shamelessly taken out of the North American version of Revolver along with "I'm Only Sleeping" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" - the less said about the Capitol albums, the better). The song has some very intriguing chord changes that don't really make a clear tonic base. The chord structure also contradicts lyric lines such as "No one can succeed like Dr. Robert", suggesting that Lennon actually had a rather critical view on drug intake despite being soaked in LSD at the time.

"I Want to Tell You" kind of builds up to the last two songs. The best parts are probably the guitar riff and the "Indian" vocal harmonies in the outro. "Got to Get You Into My Life" deserves praise for its jazzy wind section, but for me the best part is actually the lead guitar just before the last chorus. And then, finally, the album ends with the most radical song "Tomorrow Never Knows" which is a tour de force in psychedelic effects and cutting edge studio production. Usually I like psychedelic music the best if it is based on avant-garde techniques, and the many tape loops and manipulated sounds used here are simply mindblowing. The avant-garde sounds are combined with (once again) an Indian influence, as can be heard in the drone (played with an Indian instrument whose name I don't remember) as well as in the Mixolydian melody. After "Ticket to Ride" and "Taxman", it's the third great example of what you can get out of an unusual drum pattern. The lyrical content about turning off your mind leaves me pretty scared, especially knowing in what state LSD left a lot of people. But one can not deny that the drug inspired a lot of great art.

Revolver is the first Beatles album with nothing but great songs on it, and even though the songs are not related to each other as such, they still add up to an artistic whole, making it a truely unified record. The album is also a good example of how far you can get with relatively short songs and traditional song structure. The sophisticated melodies and chord changes go way beyond the early Beatles style, as do the many experiments with different musical styles (classical European and Indian music, jazz, musique concrete etc.) as well as innovative studio recording. Judged on its purely musical merits, it is probably The Beatles' most accomplished work, and it remains a true masterpiece.