Revolver and drugs
The writing and recording of Tomorrow Never Knows was a clear indication of The Beatles' ongoing interest in drugs. While the group had been experimenting with them since their Hamburg days, and had made allusions in earlier songs such as She's A Woman and Day Tripper, Tomorrow Never Knows found them explicitly revealing - albeit to those in the know - their discovery of LSD.
It wasn't the only Revolver song to be inspired by drugs. She Said She Said was influenced by a conversation John Lennon had with actor Peter Fonda in America, while both were on acid. Doctor Robert was about a New York doctor with a reputation for administering amphetamines to patients, and Got To Get You Into My Life was described by Paul McCartney as "an ode to pot".
It's not to a person, it's actually about pot. It's saying, I'm going to do this. This is not a bad idea.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The two best-known songs on Revolver, Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine, also betrayed The Beatles' interest in drugs. The former contained the surreal image of the protagonist "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door", and Yellow Submarine's childlike wonderment was widely interpreted as a nod to the daisy age's nostalgic sensibilities. They were both, however, written before McCartney had taken LSD for the first time.
While John Lennon's songwriting arguably hit a peak on Rubber Soul, Revolver saw Paul McCartney emerging as the dominant writer in The Beatles. Three of his songs in particular - Eleanor Rigby, For No One and Here, There And Everywhere - were among his all-time best, establishing him as a peerless writer of ballads.
Eleanor Rigby was scored by producer George Martin for a string octet. It was inspired by François Truffaut's film scores, and the strings were recorded without reverberation, using a close-microphone technique that gave a distinctive stark quality.
Revolver contained, for the first time, three songs written by George Harrison. Taxman opened the album, and contained perhaps The Beatles' first piece of socio-political commentary. His biggest musical departure, meanwhile, was Love You To, the first of three Beatles songs by Harrison in the style of Indian music.
Chart success
Revolver was an instant hit with the record-buying public. It topped the UK charts for seven weeks from 13 August 1966, and spent a total of 34 on the charts.
In the US the album was the group's 11th release for Capitol Records, and spent six weeks at number one. It was also the last time the label would alter the tracklisting of a Beatles album for the American market. Three songs - I'm Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing and Doctor Robert - had been included on the Yesterday... And Today compilation, which meant Revolver was issued in the US with just 11 songs.
Just one single was released from Revolver. The double a-side Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine was issued in both the United Kingdom and United States on the same day as Revolver.
Cover artwork
Revolver was the second Beatles album, after Rubber Soul, to not feature the group's name on the front cover. The black-and-white artwork was by Klaus Voormann, a musician and artist whom The Beatles befriended in Hamburg. It was made up partly of pen drawings, with collage sections including photographs by Robert Whitaker and Robert Freeman. Whitaker also took the photograph on the rear of the LP.
Klaus had been a great friend since Hamburg days - he'd been one of the 'exis', the existentialists whom we'd got to know then. We knew he drew and he'd been involved in graphic design; I must admit we didn't really know what he did, but he'd been to college. We knew he must be all right and so we said, 'Why don't you come up with something for the album cover?'He did, and we were all very pleased with it. We liked the way there were little things coming out of people's ears, and how he'd collaged things on a small scale while the drawings were on a big scale. He also knew us well enough to capture us rather beautifully in the drawings. We were flattered.
Anthology
John Lennon telephoned Klaus Voormann, inviting him to work on The Beatles' artwork. He visited the group in the studio, where they played him the Revolver recordings for inspiration.
The artist chose black and white in an act of rebellion against the fashion for psychedelic covers. He worked from his studio at 29 Parliament Hill, London, where for two weeks he developed his concepts using pen and ink.
Voormann wanted The Beatles' hair to be the focus, and drew likenesses of the group from memory. He then placed photos in and around the drawings.
John, Paul and I devoted an evening to sifting through an enormous pile of newspapers and magazines for pictures of The Beatles, after which we cut out the faces and glued them all together. Our handiwork was later superimposed onto a line drawing by Klaus Voormann, their old friend in Hamburg.
Friend to The Beatles
The Beatles loved Voormann's "scrapbook collage" artwork, and the group's manager Brian Epstein was so overcome that he cried tears of joy. Voormann's payment for the album cover was just £40. He did, however, win Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts in 1967.
Bizarrely, in Russia the album was issued with a different collage adorning Voorman's drawings.
Probably their most consistently great album (every song is great.) I actually prefer The White Album & Sgt. Pepper but I can understand why a lot of people think Revolver is their best.
The album is, for the most part, consistently great. However, Yellow Submarine kinda soils its perfection. Revolver is not their most consistently great. I'd give that title to Abbey Road.
Revolver has "Yellow Submarine", Abbey Road has "Octopus's Garden", both are undersea songs sung by Ringo. YS is a fine song with a catchy chorus. It's actually the best sing-along track on Revolver, a song people can sing together. But it also helped pave the way for the sound effects of Sgt. Pepper. It just adds to the album's diversity and gives Ringo a chance to contribute vocally. It's to the Beatles' great credit that they gave Ringo at least one song on all their albums (except A Hard Day's Night and Let It Be).
Let me also add that "Yellow Submarine" was the only Revolver song I was familiar with as a boy growing up in India in the 60s. I didn't know about the album at all. The song was popular in India, at least in Bombay where I lived. Another song considered a throwaway, "Obladi-Oblada", was also very popular - probably no one knew any other White Album track. The fact is that both "Yellow Sub" and "Obladi" are fun songs. Nothing wrong with that.
Revolver is the best, but not far behind in my opinion is Abbey Road, Rubber Soul and the White Album. Sgt. Pepper is great just because of the impact that it had, but Revolver was an absolute great album. If you want to go to school, listen to Revolver.
My favorite album. Revolver shot me gently when i am hearing it...
Is the perfect album for play it in a sunny day, song by song.. Whit a couple of beers and maybe some weed.
I love it... Thanks Beatles!
Who was George Martin talking to in his first quote on the second page? John, George, or someone else?
I should have made that clearer. That was George M talking about John. I'll clarify the section now.
One of my favorites simply for the Harrison song "Taxman". All the songs are amazing but that one takes the gold medal in my opinion! I've read that Harrison had written "The Art of Dying" from his first solo record during this year of their career. He was obviously coming into his own as a composer at this time. The only fault of The Beatles in my opinion was not including more of Harrison's songs on each album.
For this particular album, the Beatles didn't have any more time for more recording even if there were more songs that were ready. They were back on the road again.
They began their tour of Germany and the Far East almost immediately after Revolver was finished.
Phil Collins called Revolver the album that everyone else is still trying to make.
The same Phil Collins who ruined "Tomorrow Never Knows"?
Yeah, the very same who obviously tried to pay them respect.
It's not his fault nobody else ever was and is capable of pulling off something as insanely cool as TKK.
... boggling that someone is citing Phil Collins in an homage to The Beatles. Or do we next get to find out what Cliff Richard has to say on the subject ;o)
I think the point is that it's a remarkably apt quote, no matter who said it. I'm going to go out on a limb and say robert is not necessarily a raving Phil Collins fan. (Who isn't, though, really?)
No, I'm not a raving Phil Collins fan - nontheless you can't deny his success musically - so I think he has standing to make the statement, regardless of whether one likes his music or not.
Plus Phil did have a role in A Hard Days Night - anybody here know that?
If you want to talk about Phil Collins, please head to the forum. Let's keep this page for discussions about Revolver.
His role in A Hard Day's Night was a 14 year old audiance member nothing more.
yes - he needs to try harder!
Personally I wasn't convinced by that cover either.
But - he DID cover TNK and NOT, say "Lucy in the sky" or "Here, there and everywhere" or "Help" or something as obvious. He tried and covered their most progressive song ever.
Respect, Phil, for that!
maybe he should have done Yesterday
Maybe Phil should have just left the Beatles alone, or cover a Ringo track since he was after all a drummer. I can hear him now singing, 'I'm sorry that I doubted you, I was so unfair. You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair.'
The original U.S. version of this does not have enough Lennon songs. The "Butchers" did him wrong.
It´s a great album, very very good, Eleanor Rigby, For No One, here there and everywhere, i´m only sleeping, she said she said, tomorrow never knows, and your bird can sing, good day sunshine, got to get you into my life, all excelent songs, and similar songs, songs that fit with each other, amazing album
Great album. Includes some of the best pure pop ever recorded (Good day Sunshine etc...) to the psychedelic brilliance of Tomorrow Never Knows.
Macca was right- "they will never be able to copy this"
I think that it was important that they were still touring when this was made; part of secret is that they are a band and not a few song writers treating the other band members like session players.
Great album and their best up to that point but I've always found this album a bit overrated amoung Beatles fans who rate it the best Beatles album ever. To me there seems to be a fair amount of "filler" on it. I don't particularly think George's songs are the best. Even Taxman gets a bit monotonous after awhile. The albums that came after Revolver are better in my opinion. Still a great album though.
I prefer Revolver to Sgt. Pepper's. George is my favorite Beatle, and he is extensively involved on Revolver (especially when compared to his seemingly disinterested and limited role on Pepper). However, I have never been a fan of Harrison's Love You To. I wish they had recorded and included Isn't It A Pity (which George later noted was available but rejected by John) as George's third track for Revolver. Love You To could have been held over for Yellow Submarine or some later B-side. George's guitar work on Revolver is fantastic. He also had prominent backing vocals on much of the LP (Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Sub, She Said She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing). Great stuff.
I have to agree - overrated. For me, side 2 drags after the brilliance of side 1. For No One/Doctor Robert/I Want To Tell You are among the most uninspired tracks they ever laid done. Redeemed by Tomorrow Never Knows at the end (although more for the effects than the tune, which is not the strongest... probably better rendered by the Pink Fairies, really).
Well, for me (and not only for me) this is the strongest song collection of ALL Beatles albums.
They never had many fillers at all, in contrast to ALL other Rock groups, but Revolver is strong from start to finish.
The only song that I personally find weak is "I want to tell you", but it still fits in nicely.
All these fantastic guitar sounds - there's no britpop album that doesn't quote the Revolver guitars or John's vocals from She said, she said.
No, there's not a single letdown on this album. Pure brilliance.
Sgt. Peppers had more impact and even more creative and versatile and innovative in the studio and production-wise, but Revolver has the highest and most consistent song quality of all Beatles albums.
The Beatles best album. Period. Many people (critics, publications, etc.) are coming around to this. Pepper, while great, hasn't dated nearly as well as this gem.
I was confused that on the Taxman and Tomorrow Never Knows page you seem to strongly suggest that the guitar in the tape loop of TKK is not the from the exact solo used in Taxman...but on this page for the album you seem to imply or say that it is. Did you mean to edit this or did you post this article first before realizing that you do not believe it is from Taxman?
Yep, the latter. Thanks for pointing it out. I've corrected the article now.
I think this album is quite overrated. Yeah many songs are great but I think all John songs except and your bird can sing are absolutly terrible
GeorgeT - you're just wrong
You can't be serious.
She said, she said and I'm only sleeping are the basic formula practically every brit-pop band tried to follow.
Tomorrow never knows is their most progressive song ever and easily my favourite Beatles song.
Dr. Robert is also great, especially for the guitar sound and the backing vocals, especially in the middle eight.
This album can't be overrated, it's every Beatle at the top of their game.
Strongest song collection on any Beatles album, or ANY album!?
Madness
Interesting comment about the Beatles being without a contract when 'Revolver' was recorded.
EMI milked the Beatles but Brian Epstein was the main culprit...He cost them MILLIONS with bad deals in merchandising and song publishing probably thru ignorance...However, the group maintained a loyalty.
Apparently, Epstein was a repeated blackmail victim because of his sexuality and this led to heavy drug use, gambling and constantly putting himself into compromised positions.
I think "Rain" should have been on this album.
great album. paul was versatile in his songs from here, there and everywhere, eleanor rigby and got to get you into my life. john was into psychedelic like tomorrow never knows and she said she said. george indian music was far superior.
In your description of Eleanor Rigby's recording technique you say that the strings were recorded without reverberation. That perhaps is true, but the notable distinction here is that the musicians were instructed to refrain form playing with vibrato, which is a playing technique the produces a slight rhythmic variation in the pitch of the note by rocking the finger against the string on the fingerboard. Paul had wanted the sound to be as flat as possible to add to the somber tone of the song. I can't quote my source exactly, but it may have come from Wikipedia. And to the comment on the quality of string players in the US in 1966 being inadequate to play for ER, that's laughable. It's not that complex a score and a highly skilled high school (yes, from the US) octet could easily cover it.
Yes, there is no reverb, but there is vibrato and plenty of it in Eleanor Rigby. I cannot believe Sir Paul said that about string players in the US. Of course back then he wasn't Sir Paul. I bet he regrets that comment. Hell, I was in high school then and could have handled the string writing, easily. Plus I was available!
People from today should not be allowed to comment on or in any way rate the Beatles,.. There is a cut off in time where certain people are banned from even thinking about the Beatles. You 'have' to be born in or before the 1960's to know about the Beatles ,...or the early 70's at the absolute Latest my friend ! Otherwise you would know that 'Beatles For Sale" is one of their BEST ! 'Baby's in Black', "I'm a Loser", "Every little thing" , I don't want to spoil the party, etc,.. it's almost as good as Rubber Soul ,.. 'Real" knowledgeable Beatle Fans know this ,.. and we also know from 1977 when we were 12 that Revolver is WACK ! Atleast compared to their better shit !
The Good :
Eleanor Rigby
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
I want to tell you
She Said She Said
And Your bird can sing
Tomorrow never knows
the bad;
Doctor Robert
GTGYIML
I'm Only sleeping
Love you to
the horrible;
Here, there, and everywhere
For no one
Good Day sunshine
What a pretentious, closed minded thing for someone to say. I was born in 1993, and I ADORE the Beatles. I think everyone should love them, regardless of their age.
Revolver is a fantastic, innovative, ground breaking album and should be treated as such. It's not my favorite by any means, but it is certainly more mature than Beatles for sale. In nearly every way.
If people born in the 1970s or later weren't allowed to comment on The Beatles, this site would not exist. Anyway, if you were born in 1965 ("1977 when we were 12") I'm not sure why you're even commenting on Beatles For Sale. It's before your time.
Then again, if you think For No One and Here, There And Everywhere are horrible, there's probably no hope for you.
One of the more idiotic postings I've seen. "Only people who are my approximate age and arbitrarily rank their albums similarly to myself are 'real' Beatle fans!" Maybe people born before the early 70s shouldn't be allowed to use the internet?
Two remarks:
1. Substitute "yellow Submarine" with "RAIN" and you have the best album EVER. The drumming in Rain is simply amazing.
2. G.e's remarks are incomprehensible. I can understand that some people don't like a song or a voice or part of the lyrics, but saying that "For No One" is horrible and "Got to Get you Into my Life" is bad, is really to ridiculous for words.
G.e's four 'bad' songs are actually some of my favorites on revolver
The fantasy for me has been to cull Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt Pepper of the two least impressive tracks and replace them respectively with the double A-side singles released around the same time (or four months before in the case of Pepper with 'Strawberry Fields' / 'Penny Lane' - which to George Martin's everlasting regret he took out of the Pepper line up to assuage Epstein's need for a single at the time - to keep them in the public's mind).
With regards to Revolver, I have always rationalised that 'Rain' would come in for ''Yellow Submarine' and 'Paperback Writer' would replace 'I Want to Tell You' (though not necesarily in the same positions on the record). By doing so, I think you would have the most perfect collection of pop music distilled into a single album (just hair's breath in front of Sgt Pepper with 'Strawberry Fields' replacing 'She's Leaving Home' and 'Penny Lane' replacing 'When I'm 64').
That aside, Revolver is the best sunny afternoon of your life converted into music (that is the brilliance of it for me, just put it on and it takes you there everytime).
It also contains my two favourite Beatles songs of all time 'She Said, She Said' & 'And Your Bird Can Sing' (John was on an incredible roll at the time no doubt due to wanting to keep one step ahead of both Paul and Dylan - Brian Wilson didn't figure in John's universe from what I understand).
Then to complete things, Klaus Voormann picks up the vibe and illustrates it via the cover and the back contains the coolest photographic representation of the fab four ever. Perfection and to think it is 46 years old!
You must be joking regarding Pepper? Surely? 'She's Leaving Home' and 'When I'm 64' dropped? And 'Good Morning, Good Morning' survives? Don't be daft.
To Rod: I (sort of) agree, 'Rain' and 'Paperback Writer' on Revolver would have been fantastic, but replacing 'Yellow Submarine' and 'I Want To Tell You'? Never. 'Love You To' could go, and maybe 'Dr Robert' at a push. As for Pepper, 'Strawberry Fields' and 'Penny Lane' would certainly have made this pop perfection regarding the collection of songs, but not by replacing 'She's Leaving Home' and 'When I'm 64' - both superb tracks (you've obviously got a Macca problem). No, 'Good Morning, Good Morning' would have to go, I'm afraid. Not crap, but not good either. The Move or The Kinks could have done better on that particular track, methinks.
Take out "Yellow Submarine", sustitute "Rain" for it and one of the greatest albums ever recorded is finished (in my humble opinion of course).