Why Revolver is “the” Beatles album and probably one of the best ever.
Not that this is deeply profound, nor completely on-target
but, by and large I agree with this author (FWIW).
Poor form to quote copyrighted content, but I am not sure how accessible this link will be.
So, quote some, I shall.
"It is said that Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys had a nervous breakdown when he listened to Seargent Pepper’s. I think Revolver was so ahead of its time that he could not realise one year before that “they got there first” as reportedly uttered when he heard Strawberry Field [sic] Forever, pulled over in his car, and broke down in tears. Or maybe that’s when the penny dropped that Beatles made the perfect record..."
(not that Strawberry Fields Forever actually ended to be on Sgt. Pepper's and not that the author got its title right, but point taken
)
...
"There are many Beatles on Revolver. You have the Hamburg touch, but they never before made a song like And Your Bird Can Sing. Only here they have 120 seconds held together by harmonics, the mastery of the minor-major transition, the delusional puppy love, and George Harrison’s guitar which needed a few years of practice to get to play those licks. Another thing is that I usually do not notice McCartney’s bass unless isolated like in Come Together, but once you focus on it you realise how it gives the unsensed but foundational sense to the entire song. And that little diddle at the end… Lennon dismissed it later on as being “fancy paper around an empty box”. Well, great bands had entire albums without a song this good..."
...
"And probably it mattered that it was made on drugs. Bill Hicks said they were so high they even let Ringo sing one after peeling him from the ceiling with a mop, and that is Yellow Submarine of all [of all what? and who is 'Bill Hicks'?]. But then again, what was he on when recording Tomorrow Never Knows when he keeps that tight and syncopatic drum roll like a manic shaman? What substances afforded for those loops, the disjointed screeching, the hypnotic and cinematic collage? How did they get to that perfect synchrony and compatibility between all four of them to make such a perfect album?..."
...
"They never returned to this kind of exploration again, but it still sounds like the music of the future made in 1966...
Revolver is a sort of a concept album, if the concept is “The Beatles”. It packs all their contribution to music in 14 songs over 35 minutes and one second. The longest songs are 3 minutes sharp, there is no flabbiness, all are just bang on..."
So, FWIW, I think that Tomorrow Never Knows is one of the (if not the) most remarkable... umm... pop?... rock??... songs evah.
I would certainly categorize it, at least, as music from the future... in 1966.
Thoughts?
Not that this is deeply profound, nor completely on-target
but, by and large I agree with this author (FWIW).Poor form to quote copyrighted content, but I am not sure how accessible this link will be.
So, quote some, I shall.
"It is said that Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys had a nervous breakdown when he listened to Seargent Pepper’s. I think Revolver was so ahead of its time that he could not realise one year before that “they got there first” as reportedly uttered when he heard Strawberry Field [sic] Forever, pulled over in his car, and broke down in tears. Or maybe that’s when the penny dropped that Beatles made the perfect record..."
(not that Strawberry Fields Forever actually ended to be on Sgt. Pepper's and not that the author got its title right, but point taken
)...
"There are many Beatles on Revolver. You have the Hamburg touch, but they never before made a song like And Your Bird Can Sing. Only here they have 120 seconds held together by harmonics, the mastery of the minor-major transition, the delusional puppy love, and George Harrison’s guitar which needed a few years of practice to get to play those licks. Another thing is that I usually do not notice McCartney’s bass unless isolated like in Come Together, but once you focus on it you realise how it gives the unsensed but foundational sense to the entire song. And that little diddle at the end… Lennon dismissed it later on as being “fancy paper around an empty box”. Well, great bands had entire albums without a song this good..."
...
"And probably it mattered that it was made on drugs. Bill Hicks said they were so high they even let Ringo sing one after peeling him from the ceiling with a mop, and that is Yellow Submarine of all [of all what? and who is 'Bill Hicks'?]. But then again, what was he on when recording Tomorrow Never Knows when he keeps that tight and syncopatic drum roll like a manic shaman? What substances afforded for those loops, the disjointed screeching, the hypnotic and cinematic collage? How did they get to that perfect synchrony and compatibility between all four of them to make such a perfect album?..."
...
"They never returned to this kind of exploration again, but it still sounds like the music of the future made in 1966...
Revolver is a sort of a concept album, if the concept is “The Beatles”. It packs all their contribution to music in 14 songs over 35 minutes and one second. The longest songs are 3 minutes sharp, there is no flabbiness, all are just bang on..."
So, FWIW, I think that Tomorrow Never Knows is one of the (if not the) most remarkable... umm... pop?... rock??... songs evah.
I would certainly categorize it, at least, as music from the future... in 1966.
Thoughts?
