| Revolver marked a significant development in the Beatles' sound, as well as the end of an era. After this album, all their music was sculpted in the studio, with little thought as to whether the songs could be reproduced in concert. Under the influence of the hippie movement in America and the avant-garde art scene in Britain, they had also started to write for a different audience. Encounters with the underground scene, along with the effect of psychedelic drugs, were to alter their perceptions of both themselves and their music.
In a March 1966 interview with British teenage magazine Rave, Paul enthused over George's interest in Indian music and his own explorations of theatre, painting, film making and electronic music. "We've all got interested in things that never used to occur to us," he said. "I've got thousands, millions, of new ideas myself". Revolver was an album bursting with new ideas. Although variety has since become the staple of rock'n'roll, it the time it challenged all the conventions of pop. Not only did it introduce musical styles ranging from a children's singalong to a psychedelic melange of backward tape loops, it also presented a strange mix of songs topics - taxation, Tibetan Buddhism, law-braking doctors, lonely spinsters, sleep, submarines and sunshine. Yet, despite its experimentation, Revolver was not inaccessible. "Eleanor Rigby", "For No One" and "Here, There And Everywhere" were three of the most beautiful and popular songs Paul ever wrote. "Taxman" and "I Want To Tell You" were George's best compositions so far and John's dream-like "I'm only Sleeping" and "She Said She Said" perfectly captured the mood of the times. Released during what turned out to be their final tour, none of the 14 songs were to played on stage by the Beatles. They had entered a new phase of being recording artists rather than performers, and were now happy to concentrate on the art of making records rather than having to squeeze their songwriting between touring and frequent appearances on film and television. Revolver was released in August 1966 and made the top spot both in America and Britain. This was the last time that the British and American versions of a Beatles' album were to differ. Three of John's songs - "I'm Only Sleeping", "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Doctor Robert" - had already appeared in the US in the album "Yesterday and Today". |
|
| Go to the lyrics | |