Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

When it comes to breaking the mould, the really challenging albums the pinnacle has to Revolver. It seems strange saying it now because Revolver and The Beatles are a part of the fabric of pop music and British culture as a whole, but back in 1966 this was a brave and bold departure. The world must have still been reeling from Rubber Soul one of the richest and most gorgeous albums of all time, that felt light years ahead of it's predecessor Help! but Revolver, this was something else. It's definitely the same Beatles but somethings changed, Rubber Soul was a dark scathing brutal album that through the wondrous pop craftsmanship of the Beatles felt like an atomspheric delight. But at it's heart Rubber Soul was a deep study into emotional detachment and deep dejection. I don't know what happened in the eight months between records but Revolver was a giant leap forward in eight different directions at once. In fact, I do know what happened, I really shouldn't lie to sound dramatic, the Beatles moved on from Marijuana to the hard stuff, the trippy stuff, and they created the consensus choice for the greatest album of all time.

Aside from a hell of alot of drugs, new studio equipment and a new more sunny outlook the Beatles had one other radical shift in their creative process, they gave up touring. The Beatles retreated in Abbey Road studios and worked tirelessly to produce this record. Even on the earliest recordings of the Beatles you could tell that recording and making music was their real passion, this was a band that loved experimenting and loved working in the studio. Revolver really sounds like and album made by a band at peace with themselves, it feels entirely natural and it's the most peaceful and harmonious the Beatles would ever sound. Revolver saw each member of the band reaching out on their own, without the hassle of touring they could grow as musicians and individuals and experiment endlessly. Yet on Revolver there is still a feeling of togetherness, the record never sounds tense, it's calm, it's natural, it's beautiful and it's about time I started delving into the nitty gritty.

For the first time ever a Bealtes album opened not with Lennon or McCartney but Harrison, with his jaunty rocker Taxman. On Rubber Soul we saw Harrison begin to get political and existential but his work was vague and his lyrics open for personal interpretation, on Taxman, there is no confusion, no room for interpretation. This track is aimed at two men "Mr Wilson...Mr Heath" Harrison pulls no punches, today hearing the record it's easy to assume that this is the classic case of the mega rich complaining about needing even more money (see Lily Allen, she's running into this kind of argument with her war on piracy). However, Harrison had just discovered he was elligable for the 95% super tax on high earners brought in by Wilson's government, and of course he's just a little pissed off. The track is really deft in it's creation, McCartney provides a soft and funky guitar line, and Harrison is not brimming with rage, instead he's oozing sarcasm, his laughing at the pomposity of the idea, and the track itself revels not in the minutia of his individual gripe, instead it forms an everyman anthem;

It's Harrison's most immediate and most traditional effort on the LP. Elsewhere Harrison was pushing boundaries and revolutionizing music. Love To Love You took the eastern themes seen on both Rubber Soul and Help! to a new extreme. Previous the instrumentation had been rooted around a traditional western pop song structure, here Harrison was free to experiment and he is credited with creating the first completely non western pop song. The sitar winds gorgeously, it sounds positively otherworldly and starkly contrasts every other track on the album, like a hallucinogenic trip come to life . Harrison also immersed himself in Indian culture and Love To Love You was deeply philosophical and contains some of his most intriguing lyricism to date: "There's People Standing Around, Who'll Screw You In The Ground, They'll Fill You In With All The Sins You Seek". Harrison's final entry on Revolver I Want To Tell You still contains eastern influences, but it's far more subdued, it's instead a gorgeous slice of pop music, with some wonderfully subtle guitar work and a really slick arrangement. The highlight though is Harrison's lyricism that has come on leaps and bounds, the words are conflicted and confused but seem vaguely hopeful. "But If I Seem To Act Unkind, It's Only Me, It's Not My Mind, That's Confusing Things"; Personally I've always found that a powerful sequence, I can't count the number of times I've had just that feeling and those exact thoughts. I Want To Tell You is deep and light at the same time, it's remarkable, and across three very different tracks it's clearly that Harrison has fully evolved into a world class song writer of incredible depth with a great breadth of creativity.

It's impossibly hard to pick a stand out track on an album the quality of Revolver but if I had to choose just one, it'd have to be Eleanor Rigby. I'm astounded by this song each and every time I hear it. The new remasters have George Martin's orchestral arrangement sounding even richer and more powerful. This was the moment when Paul McCartney caught back up with Harrison and Lennon after their creative break through on Rubber Soul. This would become the hallmark of McCartney, as he began to experiment with orchestral arrangement and delved deeply into his anecdotal social detailing. Eleanor Rigby is a record full of such deep sorrow, it feels piercing, like a heavy downfall of rain the strings jab and pound relentlessly, and lyrically Paul conjures this great sense of hopelessness. All these lives lost to the sorrow and nothingness of the daily grind. The most tragic moment of the track comes when Paul creates the image of "Father Mackenzie writing the words to a sermon that no one will hear", while it's not as traditional tragic as the idea of Eleanor Rigby's unattended funeral, or the image of all those souls not being saved, that line has a powerful resonance. McCartney captures the futility of life in that one statement, a man in Father MacKenzie who has all the good intentions in the world, but he knows it's hopeless nothing he says will ever matter, no one really pays attention to a word he says, yet he pursaviers regardless. It's tragic and yet sadly true.

It's clear that Paul's biggest influence and biggest rival was Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys but you have to feel that he surpassed them, first on this album and then later on Srg. Peppers. Here There And Everywhere was the latest in a long string of gorgeous ballads. This track in particular has a haunting feel, it feels ghostly and ethereal, and it's almost feels like an ironic joke that it drops into Yellow Submarine. For No One feels like a natural successor to Here There And Everywhere another haunting and poignant ballad. It has a powerful and retrospective vibe, and as the song reaches it's emotional peak this gorgeous French horn line comes in. The sound of the horn is so sharp and cutting it kicks the songs emotional appeal of track up to an even higher level. Lyrically it's utter dynamite and it's infinitely quotable, it feels like an early precursor for A Day in The Life in many ways, "Behind Her Eyes You See Nothing" always struck me as a remarkably powerful and affecting line especially combined with "No Sign Of Love Behind The Tears". It's another sign of McCartney, and The Beatles maturity, Revolver and Rubber Soul are utterly incomparable to what preceded them. Paul's final two tracks on the album are gorgeous arranged putting orchestral arrangements to great use with the far more uplifting Good Day Sunshine and the hopeful pop rocker Got To Get You Into My Life, it turns out he hadn't lost his smile or his charm after all, and it's tracks like these that give Revolver a totally different more uplifting feel than Rubber Soul.

So Pop 101 how do you write one of the most timeless and brilliant tracks of all time, that simply refuses to age, that will sound as revolutionary in fifty years time as it did the day you wrote it? The answer: go to your local book store, get some Tibetan philosophy, take huge doses of LSD, and then stand by with your pen and note paper. Yep that's it, that's how John Lennon wrote Tomorrow Never Knows a track doesn't need description, it's one of the Beatles best and most experimental tracks, and hell it's not just one of The Beatles best tracks, it's the Chemical Brother's best track too. Analysing this one would miss the point just "Turn Off Your Mind, Relax And Float Down Stream". Elsewhere we find Lennon floating up stream on I'm Only Sleeping, a truly charming pop song, you can't help but smile when you listen to this track, it's such a mood record, I don't think you could possible be angry when listening to this record. "Please Dont' Spoil My Day, I'm Miles Away" I don't think he could have possibly phrased it any better, it's state of mind that we all know, and the arrangement captures the essence of the lyrics so beautifully. Even on such a charming little ditty the Beatles still managed to pack in the experimentation, to get that trippy bizarre dream like feel, George Harrison guitar solo is record and played backwards as well as forwards.

Lennon themeatical is exploring his own mind more than ever, his tracks seem to question everything and are remarkably reflective, of course their laced from head to toe with acid. She Said She Said is not only one of his finest tracks but it also had the most bizarre of inspirations; something Henry Fonda said while he was tripping. That's along way removed from those songs about love and wanting to hold girls hands. It's easy to forget with all this talk of meaning and musical experiment that at the heart of this album are irresistable pop songs and gorgeous melodies. And Your Bird Can Sing is perhaps the finest example of this, it's driven by a great Harrison riff and a series of irresistible vocal hooks and lyrical couplets. So while Lennon was getting introspective and existential seemingly at the same time, he was still churning out beautiful pop music.

And that is the absolute right note to end on, because Revolver is such a fascinating album, it has incredibly depth, there's so much going on musically, with orchestral arrangements, weird vocal tracks, guitars being played backwards, eastern influences, philosophical debates, political attacks, and everything else under the sun, it's so easy to lose track of the simply notion that this is a pop record. It may not be a conventional pop record, it may just well be the most experimental, revolutionary and important pop record of all time, but it is a pop record and at it's heart are fourteen of the most irresistibly charming and beautiful pop songs ever written. Ultimately this is why Revolver is so well remembered and so deeply loved, because the music is beautiful, timeless and unbelievably accessible. Revolver saw all four of the Beatles hitting on a career defining purple patch (yes even Ringo). With three of musics greatest songwriters stretching out in their own directions with equal brilliance but still able to bring it together to create perfect pop music. Revolver is the moment when the Beatles tore up the rule book and threw it out the window, this is when they decided they would push the boundaries and revolutionize music, redefining western pop music for the next fifty years. It's important to remember that The Beatles never ceased to be a pop act, the boys who wrote I Want To Hold Your Hand maybe long gone but they didn't abandon pop music to become avante guard experimentalists, they instead redefined what it was to be a pop musician, and that ultimately, is both Revolver and The Beatles legacy.

So is it the best album of all time? Not for me personally, but if someone were to tell me I was wrong I wouldn't put up much of a fight, because quite honestly who cares? Revolver is a great record and who wants to argue about whether it's better than OK Computer or What's Going On when we could be listening to the bloody thing.