The Beatles - Revolver POLL

Thinking that Her Majesty is an inferior song seems like such a fundamental misunderstanding of the Beatles.

It's easy to pick as a favorite bc it has the most tracks that haven't been played to death, perhaps.

Also it has she said she said and tmrw never knows which both dovetailed nicely with 80s underground noise vibe. I remember the first notice I had that revolver was "important" to know/have was a Bob Mould interview c 1985 where he named it as his favorite record.

It = revolver

is it weird that I have an issue with the drumming on "She Said She Said" and it kills the song for me

probably but w/e

huh, i think the drumming there is some of ringo's best

listening to those bootlegs, what strikes me most about revolver's songs is the overall cohesiveness - the reoccurring drones, themes of death - and the equal amount of participation between the four.

Yeah, that's one of the first songs I'd play to convince the otherwise unconvinced of Ringo's brilliance.

xp

and the equal amount of participation between the four.

iirc, "Eleanor Rigby" even had lyrical contributions from Ringo!

The drumming on 'She Said She Said' is some of his best ever drumming to my ears. In fact, the Revolver period is quite possibly Ringo's best period for drumming... 'She Said She Said', 'Rain', 'Tomorrow Never Knows'...

it seems like some degree of apathy creeps into most of their subsequent recording (at least from a few members). revolver seems like the last document of the beatles believing in being beatles and collectively reaching for something.

and yes, total agreement on Ringo's drumming from this period

xp yeah, i mean, a lot of his drumming there is ... unprecedented? not sure where that style really came from tbh. it's amazing -- tomorrow never knows, she said, rain -- who else was playing like that in 1965?

"Rain" has a few faintly Moon-like moments, mainly in terms of fill placement, but other than that, yeah, no one was doing that shit then.

Ringo used to complain bitterly -- more than the others -- about having to tour when no one could hear them, and they couldn't hear themselves. He used to say that he had to hack away at the bass and snare to hold them together, and doing anything on the toms would just vanish into the gale of screams. So when he got to the studio, he must've felt let off the leash, finally able to dig into all these ideas he'd been storing up.

maybe a bit of Keith Moon influence? xp

this thread hijacked my day and somehow led me to this youtube clip of all the revolver sessions, overdubs, etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMzGZCaHOfU

I've heard most of these bootlegs, but this one is incredibly exhaustive. Hearing the isolated TNK loops is really cool.

― Darin, Tuesday, May 20, 2014 5:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow, this is fascinating! Thanks for posting! Take 8 of GTGYIML is great; you can hear the drums clearer, and it sounds like there's fuzz guitar doing what the horns would later do.

xp yeah moon is sort of the go-to when it comes to the "play a fill for the whole song" kinda drumming. wasn't sure of the chronology there, if ringo would've been aware of him by the time the revolver sessions rolled around. probably?

Yeah, they were definitely drinking buddies by that point.

Glad you liked the link, Tarfumes. There's a similarly cool, unused fuzz bass track on one of the Love You Too tracks.

I'm on that one now! Man, they should put out a legit mix of this; would be totally heavy.

yeah would be totally into a "complete Revolver sessions" box set a la the pet sounds set.

At this rate, they're more likely to release them as an iTunes-only "bootleg recordings" thing, like those 1963 recordings.

(Fuck, it only took them THREE YEARS to get from "From Me To You" to Revolver?!)

(Fuck, it only took them THREE YEARS to get from "From Me To You" to Revolver?!)

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, May 20, 2014 10:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Amazing, isn't it? That's how long Coldplay take between albums, to put that into perspective.

on Revolver being more of a Beatles-together album -- I dunno, Lennon and McCartney seem to be aiming for completely different things there. Compare to Rubber Soul, Pepper (more of a McCartney project but still,) White Album even has a certain general "sound" to it even if the compositions are pretty different

if you listen to the raw tracks of Paperback Writer, Love You Too and TNK, you'll hear more similarities than differences. I hear a hivemind approach to this album that I don't get from Pepper or the others that follow.

it seems like some degree of apathy creeps into most of their subsequent recording (at least from a few members). revolver seems like the last document of the beatles believing in being beatles and collectively reaching for something.

i think they were all pretty into making sgt pepper even though it seems pretty paul-heavy. definitely seems like the all-for-one group mentality disappeared pretty rapidly after that, though. part of why abbey road is the saddest of all their albums -- they're trying to bring that spirit back one last time, and it's sort of there but all the apathy and meanness is there too.

Coldplay's new album is great btw and I don't know what critics are hearing

not to derail thread just someone mentioned 'em lol so I thought I'd sneak it in there. plus I dunno if a thread for 'em exists

I seem to recall Paul complaining that George disappeared in the middle of Pepper to paint his house. Also, Ringo said in the anthology series that he was bored and learned to play chess because of all the overdubs.

part of why abbey road is the saddest of all their albums -- they're trying to bring that spirit back one last time, and it's sort of there but all the apathy and meanness is there too.

i think they actually got that spirit back on the let it be album. i've seen the movie and i've read the books and i realize they kind of totally hated each other at that point, and were more happy working separately than together in a lot of ways, and still i think songs like "two of us," "i've got a feeling" and "one after 909" have this really great group-in-a-garage warmth to them.

yeah, i agree that you can definitely hear it in those performances at least -- they all obv had fun doing the rooftop concert, john is grinning from ear to ear in the footage. the sad thing is they couldn't sustain that camaraderie when they weren't playing.

hmm yeah even though I'd rank Abbey Road up there I'd say there's something a little "professional" about it in a way that isn't there on their other albums

Abbey Road remains my favourite Beatles album.

There is something "professional" about AR, in that IIRC they (and George Martin especially) made a conscious effort to make a "real" album, a la Sgt. Peppers, after the letdown of the Get Back/Let It Be project. However, even at the end, they were trying new things, not least of which were using 16-track recording and Moog synths. Also, AR is arguably the blueprint of all 70s recorded rock. Not until digital production became commonplace in the 80s did albums really start sounding markedly different.

Furthermore, I wouldn't underestimate the difficulty in making a record as good as AR when you are essentially breaking up (perhaps even already over). Pink Floyd made a career out of recording records with each band member coming in one at a time to lay down his parts -- AR was like the blueprint of "corporate" rock, wherein every man was for himself, but somehow in service of the whole.

(tho I guess the white album was the birth of this in Beatles lore)

Abbey Road mainly has that professional quality to it because of the upgrade in studio technology. otm on the blueprint for 70s rock, it really sounds modern in that way.

I think everyone loves Revolver because it's the last album they wrote while touring and barring the drugged out all-night jam sessions of '67, the last album on which they were all regularly playing together. So it's sort of the peak of The Beatles as <b>band</b>. Most of the songs actually would have worked live had they not had to deal with ridiculous screaming drowning everything out. Kinda sucks that their fame robbed them of the chance to play "Rain" or "She Said She Said" live.

Weren't they really playing together as much on Magical Mystery Tour or the White Album as much as they were on this?

I mean, maybe you could say that overdubs were more important on those later records. I still feel like I'm hearing the Beatles as a band on a lot of those tracks, though.

Well they were touring all through the Revolver album sessions in spring '66 and played their last show weeks after it's release in August. So even if they were in the studio just as much, they were also on tour, playing every night, rehearsing, etc.

Nevermind, I guess spring '66 they only played a single show. But still, even if they were in the studio together the same amount, like Ringo said he learned to play chess, it was probably a lot of sitting around waiting for mics to be set up.

good point -- the end of touring really marked the first time in years that they weren't playing together pretty much constantly. you can definitely hear the difference in the post-revolver albums.

It is interesting that they played absolutely nothing from Revolver on their final US tour, even though it coincided to the month with Revolver's release

I mean, maybe you could say that overdubs were more important on those later records. I still feel like I'm hearing the Beatles as a band on a lot of those tracks, though.

I don't really hear the Beatles as a band on MMT at all with the exception of I am the Walrus maybe. There is obviously some group participation on the White Album from a performance standpoint on about 1/3 of the songs, but the thematic/sonic cohesion is gone really. I just don't think they were occupying the same mind space in 1968 at 1966. Sometimes I think the public reaction to that album in '68 was the correct reaction. The white album's transformation into a nightmare mosaic only works from a distance.

I think it's far more than 1/3 of the songs on the White Album. Side One is pretty much the Beatles on everything except "Wild Honey Pie." Paul plays drums on "Back in the USSR" and there's no drums on "Dear Prudence."

I think I know what you mean by Revolver still having sonic cohesion, but I actually don't think it's present anymore on Paul's tracks.

As for MMT, why is "I Am the Walrus" more an example of the Beatles playing as a band than the title track or "Your Mother Should Know?" Paul on bass on Ringo on drums on "Blue Jay Way."

Maybe there's better songs overall on other albums but the guitars sound so good on Revolver. Also yeah Ringo destroys on She Said She Said.

Some of it might be a distinction between guitar and keyboard-based tracks. If you can accept keyboard-based tracks as Beatles-as-rock-band sound, then "Fixing a Hole" fits right in.

Actually, sorry, Paul on drums on "Dear Prudence."

I think I know what you mean by Revolver still having sonic cohesion, but I actually don't think it's present anymore on Paul's tracks.

Paul's doing his own thing with his character driven dioramas (Yellow Submarine, Eleanor Rigby), but he's exploring similar themes of life and death on Revolver (Rigby, GTGYIML, HTAE, For No One), plus melodic/droney stuff (Paperback Rider).

There are drums on "Dear Prudence" and they are AMAZING. Paul played drums on that one.

Oops, already noted.

It is interesting that they played absolutely nothing from Revolver on their final US tour, even though it coincided to the month with Revolver's release

― Josefa, Wednesday, May 21, 2014 12:56 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They did play "Paperback Writer" (I know, not on Revolver, but recorded at the same sessions) on their 1966 tours.

But they knew they'd be playing to audiences that couldn't hear them, and they still couldn't hear themselves; so why waste time whipping the new shit into shape for people who just came to scream at them?