The Beatles - Revolver POLL

as octobeard points out a 90s tax rate for people as rich as the beatles seemed perfectly natural before we got all this extra freedom

it's true that kids with guitars didn't have the best heads for paperwork, or for eluding predators, and okay i don't know what george's personal finances were like in 1966. suspect he was doing okay but even if he wasn't i'll be damned if i let that keep me from the pleasure of speaking uncharitably of the beatles

Those are marginal rates anyway, right? I mean somehow poor George managed buying that mansion, etc.

George grew up working class and he earned all those millions so I give him a pass. It's not like he's griping about inheritance taxes or offshore accounts or something, this is money he made through blood sweat and tears.

Blood, Sweat & Tears didn't form until 1967 though, and my understanding is that George cooked the books to make them appear a write-off. Market fluctuations destroyed the value of his holdings in any case, a fact the band mockingly pointed out in their own lyrics once they'd ousted George and regained majority control.

Those are marginal rates anyway, right? I mean somehow poor George managed buying that mansion, etc.

yes and yes. so he wouldn't have to pay 90 percent of everything. just 90 percent of what he made over a certain amount. and i'm guessing he made a lot over that certain amount.

but the important thing is, it's a great song. i disagree with the specific politics of it, but i do not disagree with the presentation, and i especially don't agree with that bass line.

i mean i don't DISagree with that bass line!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o60XmAvwHSY

Love how he goes against the beat for the middle-8 following that 2nd chorus. SO GOOD.

my head is filled with things to saaaaayy

often "I Want to Tell You" is my favorite Beatle George song. I love the offhand discordance.

I've never quite understood the whole "living outside of the UK for a year to avoid paying taxes" thing.

Isn't the NHS reference on the White album?

Remind me what it is?

i was thinking of doctor robert--"my friend works for the national health"--but there might be a ref on the white album, idk. (savoy truffle? nah.)

That's just word play from Lennon.

obviously you have never read the song's unrecorded, surrealistic verses about queuing

everybody otm about the taxman bass obv, paul bass in general is pretty constantly :O

And didn't he play the gtr solo too?

wiki says yes: "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on 'Taxman'. If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me."

Taxman's just a lousy song anyway.

on his tour of Japan in 1991 with Eric Clapton, "Taxman" was on the set list. "It's a song that goes regardless if it's the sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties," Harrison declared. "There's always a taxman." Harrison added more lyrics on that tour, such as "If you're overweight, I'll tax your fat."

oh, I think its national trust on Happiness.

Carry on..

often "I Want to Tell You" is my favorite Beatle George song. I love the offhand discordance.

OTM, I get this song stuck in my head all the time.

It's of a piece with "If I Needed Someone" in my head, both great tunes.

I've never quite understood the whole "living outside of the UK for a year to avoid paying taxes" thing.

― pplains, jeudi 30 avril 2015 04:25 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the stones were in quite a mess !
http://thehistoryofrockmusic.com/1971/04/05/the-rolling-stones-become-tax-exiles/

also : "At the time the tax rate in the UK for higher earners was astronomical. Remember the lyric from The Beatles’ “Tax Man” of “One for you, nineteen for me”? Well the truth was not far from this, the rate was 83% for earned income and 98% for un-earned income!"

I do like Taxman on pure musical terms, for all the reasons that people mention, but it is still a bit weird to press play on Revolver, the soundtrack to a generation, the birth of psychedelia, the best album ever, or whatever the press calls it, and the first lyrics are about how much it sucks to pay taxes...

yeah, same here. It's a batman (or spiderman ?) song with a great bass (and guitar solo) but it's kinda meh for beatles standards, not even talking about Revolver in particular.
they should have put Rain instead ! (I know they didn't put the singles on the albums at the time but still...).

Cool that they start it off with a George song. Hell, Grant Hart never even had that designation.

See also Abbey Road (original cassette)

Cassette listing not canon, but I hear ya.

Love how Paul and the band would play the title below after Dave did a Top 10 OJ list.

http://i.imgur.com/UZ7vUPx.jpg

The thing is it's such a badass recording that all is forgiven... but yeah, wd have been just as killer as a B-side and wow... ''Rain'' as album opener... hard to get used to but could be awesome. Meanwhile the single starts to look a bit wacky, one side mocks hack writersand the other complains about taxes.... ''we're taking barbershop into strange, new places.''

I wonder if some of this album's rep is BECAUSE it has few familiar names for the non-fan. I remember it getting totally brushed over in the Anthology shows, and then when I bought it, my mom struggling to recognize song titles besides YS and GTGYIML. It's like this vault of cool album tracks that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. And the playing and mixing is hot as shit, IMO they never sounded better as a band. They could have done three more albums in the style of Paperback Writer/Taxman and I'd be thrilled, even if it was just, like, re-recordings of their past records or covers of contemporary hits. Instead it's just a couple of cuts on Pepper's as they otherwise ditch the four-piece band format more than ever before. I guess they'd done as much as they could with it, and were in the process of being outflanked on the things beyond their capabilities (that is, Daytripper isn't quite Satisfaction, Ringo is never hoing to be Keith Moon etc.).

I totally agree with the idea that the album as a whole is much more famous than its components (although you forget E. Rigby). But thinking about it, it's the case of Rubber Soul too (besides Michelle and maybe Drive my car).

As for Rain as the opener and Tomorrow as the final... now we're talking !

Yeah "Revolver" is such an awesome record it's easy to see why it's the favorite of many people. There are still lots of experimental/Beatley songs ("Eleanor Rigby", "Love You To", "Yellow Sub", "For No One") but much of it is distorted psych guitar rock that still has the energy of the early years that would be missing in something like "The White Album". If there were a few more "Revolvers" out there it would be insane.

As for why a revolutionary album would start w a song bout taxes, there is some slight historical irony in there, given America's start as an English colony with the protesting of taxes being a big factor in deciding to break off.

Er... I find Rain quite boring, great drumming and bassline aside. Taxman, OTOH, is a prefect album opener. Direct, upbeat, catchy, but still brimming with enough experimentation to hint an what's coming. I share people's distaste with the subject matter.

(xp) What irony?

Rain boring !? It's one of my favourite songs from them and the production, sounds and playing are amazing.
Actually I think it's the most and best song with the Revolver "spirit" (psychedelic, badass guitars, crazy and huge bass, drugged harmonies...). Lennon's voice and delivery is fantastic. The lyrics are bit light... but it's a better message than Taxman's !
Together with Tomorrow they are, by far, the most outthere songs imo (with I'm only sleeping behind).

Irony being the original Tea Party and Stamp Act and "No Taxation Without Representation" unfair taxes being a big factor in the split between the colonies and England. Then in the 60's we had "The British Invasion" named so as a sort of cheeky reference to the Revolutionary War.

I find the melody draggy and Lennon's vox too nasal and sneery on Rain (I know that was increasingly his thing, but it doesn't always work for me). I appreciate its innovations, I just don't particularly dig it.

Also, and I realise this is cock-eyed in all kinds of ways and I may well get shouted at for it, it reminds me of Oasis and I've always hated Oasis.

(xxxp) OK right I hadn't thought about the historical significance of the phrase "British Invasion".

xp
Well it's a very simple song at its core so I can totally understand not being impressed by the songwriting aspect.

Er... I find Rain quite boring, great drumming and bassline aside.

I find the melody draggy and Lennon's vox too nasal and sneery on Rain (I know that was increasingly his thing, but it doesn't always work for me). I appreciate its innovations, I just don't particularly dig it.

Also, and I realise this is cock-eyed in all kinds of ways and I may well get shouted at for it, it reminds me of Oasis and I've always hated Oasis.

Agree with every Chap word here.

If you haven't read Geoff Emerick's book, "Here, There and Everywhere", you should check it out. There's a section where he describes his very first day as an official engineer on Revolver which turned out to be the first Tomorrow Never Knows session. He was only 19 years old and still living with his parents. I can only imagine.

I listened to the audio book a few years ago, it's incredible. My favorite bit is how on one of his first days of work he figures out the best way to record bass guitar is by using giant speakers as microphones.

I always felt "I Want to Tell You" was a mutant psych version of Motown, it has that swing to it.

Er... I find Rain quite boring, great drumming and bassline aside.

I find the melody draggy and Lennon's vox too nasal and sneery on Rain (I know that was increasingly his thing, but it doesn't always work for me). I appreciate its innovations, I just don't particularly dig it.

Also, and I realise this is cock-eyed in all kinds of ways and I may well get shouted at for it, it reminds me of Oasis and I've always hated Oasis.

Agree with every Chap word here.

same. i have been walking around listening to past masters vol 2 a lot recently, and have come to think it's maybe the most overrated beatles song (at least among fans who know about it in the first place). listening to it right now, it's hard to pinpoint why. the bass is amazing, ringo's doing his thing, the production is interesting. maybe it's the vocal? lennon's voice itself sounds good, but the melody is just boring as hell. if you get Rain stuck in your head, you just get this terrible one-note "RAAAAAAAAAAAAIN" moaning thing to deal with. whereas the melodies going on in And Your Bird Can Sing dance circles around the hungover Rain.

I think Rain is groovy and weird and druggy and maybe a huger departure from where they'd come from than "Paperback Writer," and the drum fills rule, but I agree that I've never quite been converted to it being this crucial milestone Beatles song. If anything I'd bring it in to replace "I'm Only Sleeping" and make "She Said She Said" the album opener. But what do I know?

was it written/recorded before tomorrow never knows? i always think of TNK as the link between different eras of the beatles, so if Rain was first then i understand giving it props for that.

recorded after first take of TNK (the "Mark I" version) but maybe not the final one? I'm not sure. Anyway it was released first, so that's something.

If anything I'd bring it in to replace "I'm Only Sleeping"

IOS is fucking fantastic, don't touch it.