Revolver

I read that the Beatles album Revolver was released 40 years ago this month. I took a listen to it again and thought about it. Each of the Beatles albums, especially from Help! on, was a step forward from the more basic rock and roll that made them famous to the unworldly music figures they would become. Help! had songs that had heavy influence from Bob Dylan, while Rubber Soul would introduce their increasing diversity (such as a sitar on Norwegian Wood, and Baroque piano on In My Life). But Revolver really stepped it up. There is really only one song, Good Day Sunshine, that could be classified as pure pop. The others are forays into the myriad directions the Beatles would take to become the preeminent popular music group of all time.

This is also when the Beatles were starting to become less of a cohesive group than a gathering of four individuals, as personalities were clearly defined. We get two sides of Paul McCartney--his resolute sunniness, such as in Good Day, Sunshine, or syrupy romanticism, Here, There and Everywhere, but we also see the cynical and brooding side of Paul, as with For No One and the classic Eleanor Rigby. With John we get the beginning of his pyschedelic period, with Tomorrow Never Knows, and the sardonic She Said, She Said and I'm Only Sleeping. George offers up more of his Indian influence with Love You To and and brutally political Taxman. While Ringo does not compose a song in this album he does take vocals with Yellow Submarine, which furthered his image as the sad-eyed clown of the group, on a song that was geared toward kiddies.

My own history with the Beatles is long and rich. They hit big just as I was turning three. I have two aunts who were teenagers during those heady days, and both were big Beatle fans. I remember my Aunt Michelle playing her 45 of I Want to Hold Your Hand. My dad brought home some Beatle records when I was about eight, particularly the one with Hey, Jude on it. He loved that song, saying you couldn't resist tapping your foot to it. I now have that very album he bought, as I ended up listening to it over and over again.

Eventually I got many more Beatle records, and now have them all on CD. Revolver had two different versions--the UK version is what is now on CD, while the American version had fewer songs (most of which ended up on the cobbled-together Yesterday and Today record released in the U.S.) I've never understood why that was. Maybe U.S. records had to be shorter for some reason?

The article I read about Revolver's anniversary was by a man who first heard the disc when it was released in Europe, at a listening booth in Austria. He tells a nice story, and it must have been something to be a cognizant Beatle fan and hear Eleanor Rigby for the first time, and realize that the Beatles had just pushed through the envelope and were now something for more special than you could have ever imagined.