Revolver

Cover art for "Revolver".

The Beatles were recognized and adored worldwide before coming out with Revolver. Previous albums already got platinum and gold commemorations like Rubber Soul, Help!, Beatles for Sale, With the Beatles, Please Please Me, and much more (RIAA, n.d.). Also, music and lyric contents was different prior the recording of the Revolver. The Beatles used to write and sing about simple topics like holding hands, driving a car, one-night stands, or anything superficial related to girls. “Revolver all three songwriters have gone “beyond” writing simple love songs.” (Newman, 2006).

The two greater influences (musically and non musically) that helped to shape Revolver were India and LSD (D-lysergic acid diethylamide).

George Harrison was the Beatle that got mostly influenced by India music, culture, and religion. In the song “Love You To” it is noticeable the use Indian instruments like the tabla, tambura, and sitar.

“It is surely significant that Lennon’s enthusiasm for this kind of writing waned after 1965. He first encountered LSD on the night of 27th March the same year.” (Newman, 2006). LSD changed Lennon’s writing style and perspective of life. In my opinion, this substance made Lennon to search new sounds (reverse guitars, different distortions, etc) and investigate his inner feelings to find those unreal hallucinations and make them “real”, resulting with the Revolver album.

The sessions of the recording of Revolver were unique, because the Beatles and George Martin (Producer) used the studio (Abbey Road) as if it was an instrument. Most of Revolver sessions were done in Studio 2 and 3. (Newman, 2006). Each studio had a different personality. Studio 2 is large and echoing, while studio 3 is small and dryer (not much of natural reverb). Also, the Beatles wanted to record an album in a place hard to then recreate in a live situation.

Also, some technological innovations were found and/or used on the Revolver’s sessions. George Martin came with the idea to use a Leslie speaker (Hammond organ speaker) to help create “the sound of a thousand monks chanting” (Newman, 2006) that Lennon wanted on “Tomorrow Never Known”. Also, they used reverse guitars recordings to give a more psychedelic feel to certain songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows”. This technique was never used before on a pop record (Newman, 2006).

Revolver has been one of my favorite albums from the Beatles, because it was done using a different formula than previous Beatles albums. Revolver was a proof that the Beatles had the courage to experiment with music and not only make records that sells well. Also, I am impressed how Revolver was well appreciated by the public when it first came out on August 5th, 1966. It surely was something different from the previous albums, but we the public understood where they were going. If not understood, at least we all enjoyed it.

See "Reference" tab for information about the sources.