The Beatles’ Revolver

Leading up to the album Revolver, life for the Beatles was limited in my opinion. The band feels that there is not much different between the album Rubber Soul and Revolver. They feel it could be part one and two. The group was limited in the since because they had to stay in hotels and couldn’t leave their rooms. ‘Beetlemania’ happened and it was just crazy and insane. If the group wanted to go out they simply couldn’t. Life for them was ruff.

For the album the group experienced with an assortment of instruments. My favorite of the many the group has chosen would be the Sitar. The band found new sounds with every instrument they used. I guess it could be compared to how guitar players find new sounds with the assortment of pedals.  When talking about the compositions it seems that LSD played a big role for the album Revolver. Not just musically or lyrically but to also include the interest in Harmonics. When writing John Lennon got ideas for the song TOMORROW NEVER KNOW from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. So you can see that influence can come from a wide arrange of different aspects outside of the musical background.

While in the recording studio, George Martin and Geoff Emerick variously claimed credit for the innovative use of backward guitars and vocals on the Revolver album. Rewinding in the studio. The group would carry around this handheld tape machine. The Mark 5, considered to them as a notebook to jot down ideas to come back to later. Some obvious tricks used in the studio would be the wonderful Leslie speakers, backwards tape speeds and manipulation. However, there was also the behind the scenes stuff like the compressed drums and reverb on the vocals. Lets not forget putting another speaker cabinet in front of the bass amp to record. To take it a bit further. They used expensive microphones 2 foot away from the bass drum and slowed down to get a deeper more lower end sound. I like to think that they had the experimentation moving the right direction. What do you think?

I really enjoyed listening to the album Revolver. Not only do I own a copy but I also own the RPM.  I can honestly say that there is not one song on the album I do not like. In my opinion, it has given producers and writers a new way to think as we still unfold and embark on new ideas.

Thanks, Joshua