Special Revolver
Classic 1960s Album: Revolver By The Beatles
The Beatles amazing 1966 album Revolver is considered by many music critics to not only be The Beatles best album they ever recorded but to also be the best rock album of all time by any band or artist. For some people that may be a bit of a surprise as other albums by The Beatlessuch as 1967′s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and 1969′s Abbey Road have sold more copies and are more well known among the general public.
Revolver represented another huge step forward for The Beatles artistically in a series of such huge steps. The Beatles went from the more straight forward pop of 1964 to the eclectic psychedelic rock of Revolver just two years later. 1965′s Rubber Soul was the stepping stone between the two.
So why is it exactly that this album is thought to be so great? The answer is: These songs are just that great. It doesn’t have the cohesiveness of Abbey Road‘s second side or the “concept” of Sgt. Pepper but what it does have is a collection of absolutely stunningly great songs in an amazing array of different styles.
From the balladry of “Here, There, & Everywhere” to the acid rock of “She Said She Said” to the Indian sounds of “Love You To” to the childlike “Yellow Submarine” to the sublime “Eleanor Rigby” to the otherwordly “Tomorrow Never Knows” the album never stops surprising the listener with amazing songs. These songs are not just good, they are incredible. These songs have inspired countless musicians and songwriters in the 40+ years since Revolver was first released.
It has been said that each of the album’s 14 songs actually started a new “sub genre” of rock music and while that may be a slight exaggeration it’s awfully close to the truth.
With most rock albums you can just listen to a couple of the songs and have a pretty good idea of what all of the rest of them sound like too. With this album every song is it’s own revelation. In part that’s because they had three extraordinary songwriters each contributing songs with their own unique styles (Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison) but that’s also because each of these great songwriters was not only content to just record the same style song repetitively They were each adventerous and creative in their own way and when you combine the boundless creativity of three amazing songwriters you get something truly special like Revolver.
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