Revolver was released 50 years ago today.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Aug 5, 2016, 09:02 PM - Edit history (4)

Revolver (Beatles album)



Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group the Beatles. It was released on 5 August 1966 in the United Kingdom and three days later in the United States. The record spent 34 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, for seven of which it held the number one spot. Reduced to eleven songs for the North American market, Revolver was the last Beatles album to be subjected to Capitol Records' policy of altering the band's intended running order and content. In America, the album topped the Billboard Top LPs listings for six weeks.

IMHO, it's a better album than Sgt. Pepper. Sgt Pepper is okay, but it's not the big deal that so many people make it out to be.

Here's 801's cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows," which I consider much better than the original:

ETA, 2:37: I have Japanese pressings of Revolver and Rubber Soul. I bought them about 1978, give or take, at a used record store in Charlottesville, Virginia. The store was run by someone named Ned Stacey. He was from Athens, Georgia. I have no idea where he is now.

[Brickbat]

1. Revolver was my first Beatles album; I got it when I was 12 in the early 1980s.

I've listened to it countless times and I still hear new things when I give it another listen. It's a brilliant album. ETA: And I agree, better than Sgt. Pepper's.

[frazzled]

2. Sadly ...

I got it in 1966, when it first came out. I was 16. Fifty years? I never would have imagined that I'd ever be saying "fifty years ago."

Advice to the millennials. Enjoy it while you can, and live it to the fullest. Because you, too, will some day—and that day will seem to come much faster than you can imagine—remember today as "fifty years ago."

[boomer55]

6. I feel ya. I'm a bit behind you but the years are piling up and at only 47 I grok you. :)

[GulfCoast66]

19. It was released

39 days before I was born. Guess what happens to me next month?

[frazzled]

20. I'd say you're about to turn young!

While I sometimes ponder how so many years have gone by (I'm 66, as you probably guessed from the post), I still think that's relatively young: my dad is about to turn 100! I can't even begin to imagine the kinds of changes he has seen and had to comprehend across his lifetime.

Fifty is still young (though a lot older than 25!). May you have another fifty years, like my dad, to enjoy all the new albums that come out. Happy Birthday in advance!

[GulfCoast66]

21. I am still young at heart

And pretty much physically. Can still spend a week fishing hard everyday on the boat in the gulf. Recreational not commercial. Could not have done commercial even at 25!

I often joke that I would only want to be 25 again if I could have my current wisdom and income!

Have a nice weekend.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Yeah, I was kind of a train wreck at 25.

But I looked good!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

27. You'll schedule your first colonoscopy? NT

[GulfCoast66]

29. You had to bring that up?😳

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. The colonoscopy itself is no problem.

It's all that electrolyte you have to drink in preparation.

Gawd, is that awful.

For the procedure, they shoot you up with, I don't know, fentanyl or something. Then they ask you to start counting backwards from ten.

You won't reach zero.

Cue the Ramones, "I want to be sedated."

[Warren DeMontague]

38. Having had some oral surgery done with fentanyl, I can say with certainty that

with enough of that stuff they could have cut my head off with a rusty saw and I would be, like, "hey, no problem"

I understand why it is a popular- and dangerous- drug of abuse. But if I need to have another root canal, please fuck, hook me up.

[GulfCoast66]

43. Had to drink similar

When I had some kind of scan for a cancer scare. Thankfully just a scare.

[FuzzyRabbit]

28. I was 20 when Revolver came out.

I wish I was 20 again, but knowing what I know now.

And you will turn 50? Well, that didn't take very long, did it?

[Lithos]

33. I bought Revolver and Rubber Soul as my first two CD vinyl backfills

Ie, when I was duplicating what I already had in vinyl.

My first vinyl was the White Album, a great album, though I think like you Revolver and Rubber Soul were better in many respects.

L-

[Glorfindel]

3. "Revolver" is a true masterpiece. I was home on leave after basic training at Fort Benning, GA

I thought no album could ever top "Rubber Soul," but this one did! Thanks for the welcome reminder.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Yes! Tied With Abbey Road For My Favorite Beatles Record.

I.m quite fond of Rubber Soul, too.

[brewens]

7. Revolver and Rubber Soul are the ones I listen to the most. With The Stone's it's

Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. With The Stones For Me. . .

. . .it's none. I don't like them. My wife likes a lot of the early stuff, but not me.

[Chiyo-chichi]

18. The USA Today podcast, Dad Rock, did a great show about Revolver last week.

https://soundcloud.com/dadrockshow/ep-75-revolver#t=0:00

Their guest points out that George Martin said that Rubber Soul and Revolver could have been parts 1 and 2 of the same album.

[Gabi Hayes]

49. thanks for that!

I have them both, who doesn't, and still can't remember which songs are on which albums,

don't really care, either

listening to a youtube mix as I type this; we can work it out is playing, and I can't remember which album it's from: I know it's from one of them, but that's it......hahaha....it was recorded during the rubber soul sessions, but released as a single, with.....what?...we can look it up, we can look it uh-up

In We Can Work It Out, Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out, we can work it out' - real optimistic, y'know, and me impatient, 'Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend'." (John Lennon)

so typical of how they did many of their songs

[emulatorloo]

4. Brilliant album, one of many

Thanks for the thread and the reminder to LISTEN


As an aside, I've never understood the need to shit on Sgt Pepper in order to praise Revolver. They are quite different in tone/structure and both have some amazing songs.

[immoderate]

8. I was a college student in Paris when Revolver came out.

Up until then I had mostly ignored the Beatles (and most rock and roll.) Reevaluation. The dips into raga most compelling. I had seen Ravi Shankar at Carnegie Hall the year before.

--imm

[boguspotus]

9. If hard pressed....

I'd have to say it's their best album. Although so many others of their albums are pretty close too.

[Iggo]

12. Most Beatles superfans I've known agree Revolver is their best.

...or Rubber Soul.


...or Abbey Road.


...or The White Album.


...or...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. Hey, Both Jesus and the Beatles are from the US and A!

[awoke_in_2003]

14. It is my favorite Beatles album. nt

[napkinz]

15. Mad Men ...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. That's the last song on the album.

Most people start at the beginning.

As I've said at DU earlier, 801 Live is my favorite album, and "TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows)" is my favorite song on that album.

Thanks for sharing that.

[Glassunion]

16. I prefer the White Album.

Just look at my username... Track 3 peeps

[Glorfindel]

22. Indeed: "Here's another clue for you all. The Walrus was Paul."

The White Album is brilliant. I'll never forget the first time I heard "Revolution 9." It scared me silly.

[Glassunion]

23. +a bajillion

[Warren DeMontague]

35. In terms of go-to listening I have to say Magical Mystery Tour is the one I play the most.

[struggle4progress]

24. Eleanor Rigby

[Greybnk48]

55. Eleanor Rigby and late summer of '66

go together for me. The summer I graduated! Also, Good Day Sunshine. Every album the Beatles brought out was like a release of a Harry Potter book without the parties!

[Photographer]

25. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for reminding me how effing old I am. :)

[SeattleVet]

26. Every time I hear a Beatles song on an oldies station...

I have to stop for a second and think, "Wait - what? What do you mean, 'oldies'? It's on my current playlist!"

[Gabi Hayes]

50. I have at least 150 beatles, lennon, harrison songs on my ipod....not so many post-beatles

McCartney....probably none, now that I think of it

just got concert for George from the library


JESUS!!!!!

[Proud Public Servant]

30. My favorite from that album

My god, that French horn...

[Warren DeMontague]

32. And lifes rich pageant was released 30 years ago this week.

Boomers aren't the only ones feeling old, man.

[DonRedwood]

46. Seriously just freaked me out

30? Really? 30.

Sigh.

[Warren DeMontague]

60. Isn't that crazy?

I remember that summer pretty vividly. A lot going on.

I like the Beatles, too, of course, but as some here mark the phases of their youth by Beatles releases, that's how I feel about R.E.M.'s IRS albums.

[skylucy]

34. I love all the Beatles albums and still have my Revolver album. Still cool after all these years.

Thanks for posting this.

[AngryAmish]

37. Our culture has stagnated.

Revolver was a gem....then ??? until hip hop.

I just wish a new form of popular music would come to the fore.

EDM is a contender, but I am too old. Back to In a Sentimental Mood, I guess.

[Warren DeMontague]

40. That's ridiculous. There has been a ton of great music made between then and now.

At least, in my opinion.

[rufus dog]

39. My first thought was NO WAY

I remember my brothers bringing that album home and I stared at the cover for days. Damn if it wasn't 50 years, trippy cover for a 4 year old.


Here is a Warren Haynes/Gov't Mule version of She Said She Said, in to Tomorrow Never Knows

[Gabi Hayes]

51. wow! holy lord!

thanks for that.

seen the Clapton/allman brothers tunes on youtube?

now we're even

[spanone]

41. like it was yesterday....

[Little_Wing]

42. I'm Only Sleeping

Divine... sigh... It could be my desert island selection...

We used to listen to right channel/left channel to suss out the little hidden gems:

Good Day Sunshine-- John grunting "She's looking good" in the background of Paul's sunshiney delivery. Teenage Beatlemaniac chills! And they thought we were all such innocent little girls.

My always favorite after "Please Please Me," an album that changed my Detroit adolescence forever.

[Gabi Hayes]

54. I still remember hearing that song.....first one of theirs played in the US.....I

was dancing on top of the built-into-the-wall desk-bookcase my dad made (so well crafted that the desk didn't need legs; cantilevered out so I could stand on it, reaching the highest shelves), going cracked to that song. this was before they got 'popular'.....just about a year before Sullivan show mania

thanks, dad! wish you were here.....93 years plus one month, 4 days....love you

[nomorenomore08]

44. It's between that one, 'Abbey Road,' and the White Album for me.

Truly three of the greatest works in modern music history.

[GReedDiamond]

45. "Revolver" is the best Beatles album, IMO...

...I'm listening to it this very moment.

The 801 version of Tomorrow Never Knows is one of the great covers ever done by any band, and, as you say, better than the original.

Anyone who likes the original TNK, but has not heard 801's version should do themselves a favor and give it a listen.

Thanks for the thread, mahatmakanejeeves.

[Gabi Hayes]

47. klaus voormann, who did the cover, and was a seminal figure in their Hamburg years, will be

at some sort of beatle fest in Chicago today and tomorrow, talking about, among other things, a book he wrote about his composition of the cover of that album

http://www.voormann.com/

[Gabi Hayes]

48. oh, yeah...."A day in the life," by mark hertsgaard, is the best book I've read that

had anything to do with the beatles

here, this describes it much better than I could:

https://books.google.com/books/about/A_day_in_the_life.html?id=LUwIAQAAMAAJ

I must have read this work literally dozens of times: it is the most accurate, well-written honest, and fascinating book about the Beatles I've ever read (even better than their authorized biography or the Anthology). It provides numerous and wonderfully enlightening insights about their incredibly innovative musical recording history, as well as faithfully detailing important moments of The Beatles' progression from young lads in Liverpool to becoming the biggest band in the world.

There are also many intriguing stories of all the creative talented people who brought the Beatles' ideas to fruition such as producer/arranger George Martin, recording engineer Geoff Emerick, manager Brian Epstein and many more. Mark Hertsgaard is only one of two "outsiders" that gained access to the infamous Abbey Road Studio Master Tapes, listening to over 50 hours of their recordings and documenting them masterfully. Truly a must-read for any student or fan of the Beatles' music.

those fifty hours are one eighth of the master tapes recorded. I can't remember what the total of released material is, but there's a LOT in there that hasn't seen the light of day. this book has about a hundred pages of notes, used to verify the information/conversations cited in the body of the work. this guy is one of the finest journalists extant (he wrote the seminal "On Bended Knee," about the press's role in creating the Reagan myth, which enabled him to destroy our economy, among other things). that's why they gave him access to the material......can't recommend this book highly enough

my favorite takeaway from the book so far (haven't finished it yet); the B side of Lady Madonna:

"the farther one travels,
the less one knows"

[mahatmakanejeeves]

56. That sounds like something that should be on "Wonderwall Music,"

which is a bit of an acquired taste. Try starting at 16:41, "Ski-ing."

[Freddie]

52. I was 9 when this came out

As a little kid I totally adored the "mop tops" but I was just too young to like their more sophisticated stuff then. Love it now of course and everything they recorded but my favorite Beatles period is still "mid-early"--if pressed, favorite Beatles albums are "With The Beatles" and "A Hard Day's Night". IMO this period seems more timeless, less "stuck in an era" than the later stuff.
Of the millions of Beatle books, if you really want an exhaustively researched and definitive history, get "Tune In" by Mark Lewisohn. This is the first of 3 planned volumes and covers their births through the end of 1962.

[YOHABLO]

53. Oh yeah, one of the best ever. My vinyls are all scratched. Need to replace

[mahatmakanejeeves]

57. "Tomorrow Never Knows" on a Chapman Stick

Chapman Stick

I posted this about a month ago, in the DU Lounge thread Ok...greatest opening guitar riffs..I'll start..:

Are Chapman Sticks allowed?

And, from a year ago:

49 years ago today, The Beatles released "Revolver"

[Dreamer Tatum]

58. Should be banned

glorifies handguns.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

59. They'd use meat cleavers instead.

I don't think anyone here doesn't get the reference, but for the young'uns:

Yesterday and Today

And I'm currently listening to the 50-minute version of "Tomorrow Never Knows," linked here:

Revolver - Tomorrow Never Knows - (50 MINUTE VERSION)

That definitely separates the real fans from the sort-of fans.