1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #60. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

Label – Parlophone
Producer – George Martin
Art Direction – Klaus Voorman
Nationality - UK
Running Time – 34:58

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Taxman
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. I'm only sleeping
4. Love you to
5. Here there and everywhere
6. Yellow submarine
7. She said she said
8. Good day sunshine
9. And your bird can sing
10. For no one
11. Dr Robert
12. I want to tell you
13. Got to get you into my life
14. Tomorrow never knows

Perfection. Plain and simple.
For the Beatles, there is everything that came before ‘Revolver’ and everything that came after. With this album all the rules were thrown out the window and the Beatles began exploring new sonic territory, mature lyrical subjects, and different styles of composition. And it was no longer the Lennon and McCartney show any longer either. George Harrison’s tracks, the cynical rocker "Taxman"; the powerful "I Want to Tell You" and of course "Love You To," (which was George's first and best foray into Indian music) were as good as anything John and Paul were writing.
John’s tracks were trippy kaleidoscopes of sound brought to life. The most straightforward number was "Doctor Robert," an ode to his drugdealer. Then there is "And Your Bird Can Sing" which is all but buried in a maze of multi-tracked guitars. Then there is his series of ‘bad trip’ songs. "She Said She Said"; the crawling "I'm Only Sleeping"; and "Tomorrow Never Knows," which can only be described as a sounds classic. John sings portions of the Tibetan Book of the Dead into a suspended microphone over Ringo's thundering, menacing drumbeats and layers of overdubbed, phased guitars and tape loops. Just light years ahead of it’s time.
McCartney's experiments were more formal when placed alongside Lennon's and Harrison's outright experimentations, but McCartney's songcraft became all the more impressive. “For No One”, “Got To Get You Into My Life” and the beautiful “Eleanor Rigby” are standouts. To top it off - Ringo was giving the charming child classic "Yellow Submarine" to sing.
The biggest achievement of the record is that the Beatles broke so much new stylistic ground on one record! The Beatles toured to support “Revolver” – but did not perform a single track from it as it was too difficult to reproduce live. Thankfully 8 of 14 tracks would be performed live by the solo Beatles over the years. John never did get a chance to tour - but you can be sure at some point he would have pulled out one of two of the tracks from “Revolver” for a set list.
In 1997, it was named the 3rd greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 2006, Q magazine readers placed it at number 4, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 1 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2001 VH1 named it the number 1 greatest album of all time, a position it also achieved in the Virgin All Time Top 1,000 Albums. In 2002, the readers of Rolling Stone ranked the album the greatest of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 3 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was ranked 10th on Guitar World's (Readers Choice) Greatest 100 Guitar Albums Of All Time. In 2006, the album was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.
The Beatles are ahead of their time in every single track here, Revolver is like nothing you've heard before and is HIGHLY recommended.


You can purchase the CD here.