Line #70 Music/RevolverBeatlesAlbum


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/revolver_lp_cover_larger_image_6338.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''All the lonely people, where do they all come from?''\
3	''All the lonely people, where do they all belong?'']]
4
5	->''"This almost flawless album can be seen as the peak of the Beatles' creative career. They were later to undertake more ambitious projects which would be crowned with equal critical acclaim, but ''Revolver'' is the kind of achievement which any artist would be more than satisfied to regard as some kind of culmination to his career. Nothing less than that."''
6	-->-- '''Roy Carr & Tony Tyler''', ''The Beatles: An Illustrated Record''
7
8	''Revolver'' is the seventh studio album by Music/TheBeatles, recorded in the spring of 1966 and released that August through Creator/ParlophoneRecords in the UK and Creator/CapitolRecords in the US.
9
10	The album was conceived during an unusually long break in the Fab Four's schedule in early 1966.[[note]]They were supposed to film their third movie, the {{Western}} comedy ''A Talent for Loving'', during this period, but the project was canceled. Walter Shenson, who produced the first two movies, later made it as a non-musical Creator/RichardWidmark vehicle in 1969.[[/note]] Their music had already started to become more sophisticated on their previous album, ''Music/RubberSoul'', and they took advantage of the free time to develop their sound even further. Also, they spent the better part of three months in the studio (something that was unheard-of in TheSixties), which gave them plenty of time to experiment. ''Revolver'' made Music/GeorgeHarrison more prominent than ever by giving him three songs, including the opening track. (The most he'd ever gotten on their previous albums was two.) It was also the group's final regular studio album to have different British and American track listings on its original release.
11
12	Musically, the album marked the point where the band began to feel confident about trying new approaches to music making. In some cases, this meant taking concepts they'd tinkered with in the past and exploring them further. The light string quartet on "Yesterday" gave way to a strident string octet on "Eleanor Rigby". George's sitar part on "Norwegian Wood" was followed up by his writing and singing an entire song based on Indian classical music ("Love You To"). The GenreRoulette wheel was spun like never before, as they tried their hand at straight pop ("Good Day Sunshine"), {{Soul}} ("Got to Get You Into My Life"), children's music ("Yellow Submarine") and romantic balladry ("Here, There and Everywhere"), plus some early stabs at HardRock ("Taxman", "And Your Bird Can Sing") and the first inklings of PsychedelicRock ("She Said She Said", "Tomorrow Never Knows"). Their lyrics suddenly gained a sophisticated edge, with ruminations on failed love ("For No One"), loneliness ("Eleanor Rigby") and philosophy ("Tomorrow Never Knows"). And they began using recording technology in earnest, with backwards guitars and electronic sounds peppering some of the songs. Or, as Music/BobDylan summed it up when they played an advance copy of the album for him, [[DarkerAndEdgier "Oh, I get it: you don't want to be cute anymore."]]
13
14	Like ''[[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Sgt. Pepper]]'', Music/{{the White Album}} and ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', ''Revolver'' has been remixed by Giles Martin from the original tapes; the remixed version was released in October 2022.
15
16	The album is the subject of two books: ''[[http://revolverbook.co.uk/ Abacadabra!: The Complete Story of the Beatles' ''Revolver'']]'' (2006), an e-book by Ray Newman, and ''[[http://revolverbook.com/revolver Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll]]'' (2012) by Robert Rodriguez (the music writer, not [[Creator/RobertRodriguez the filmmaker]]). It also receives a lot of coverage in Steve Turner's ''[[https://www.harpercollins.com/products/beatles-66-steve-turner?variant=32206770962466 Beatles' 66: The Revolutionary Year]]'' (2016).
17
18	Hits from the album include "Taxman", "Eleanor Rigby", "Got to Get You Into My Life", and "Yellow Submarine".
19	----
20	!! Tracklist (* = Not included in the original US version):
21
22	[[AC: Side One]]
23	# "Taxman" (2:39)
24	# "Eleanor Rigby" (2:08)
25	# "I'm Only Sleeping" * (3:02)
26	# "Love You To" (3:01)
27	# "Here, There and Everywhere" (2:26)
28	# "Yellow Submarine" (2:40)
29	# "She Said She Said" (2:37)
30
31	[[AC: Side Two]]
32	[numlist:8]
33	# "Good Day Sunshine" (2:10)
34	# "And Your Bird Can Sing" * (2:02)
35	# "For No One" (2:01)
36	# "Doctor Robert" * (2:15)
37	# "I Want to Tell You" (2:30)
38	# "Got to Get You Into My Life" (2:31)
39	# "Tomorrow Never Knows" (2:57)
40	[/numlist]
41	----
42	!!Principal Members:
43	* Music/GeorgeHarrison - lead and backing vocals, guitar, bass, sitar, tambura, maracas, tambourine, sound effects
44	* Music/JohnLennon - lead and backing vocals, guitar, piano, organ, harmonium, cowbell, tambourine, maracas, sound effects
45	* Music/PaulMcCartney - lead and backing vocals, bass, guitar, piano, clavichord, sound effects
46	* Music/RingoStarr - lead and backing vocals, drums, tambourine, maracas
47
48	----
49	!!"We all live in a yellow tropemarine...":
50	* AgonyOfTheFeet: Paul kinda sorta mentions this in "Good Day Sunshine."
51	-->''We take a walk, the sun is shining down\
52	Burns my feet as they touch the ground''
53	* AndThenISaid: "She Said, She Said"
54	--> ''Who put all those things in your head? Things that make me feel that I'm mad.''
55	--> '''Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born.''
56	* AntiLoveSong: What makes "For No One" heartbreaking is that it's about the true opposite of love. The couple break up due to eventual indifference.
57	* AscendedExtra: "Yellow Submarine". Originally just a really beloved song on ''Revolver'', it would eventually go on to spawn its own [[Music/YellowSubmarine album]] and [[WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine movie]].
58	* BoyMeetsGirl: One could interpret "Eleanor Rigby" in this light as well—although in this particular case, both parties are probably up in years. Still tragic, though...
59	* BreakUpSong: "For No One" is the end of "A love that should have lasted years".
60	* BrilliantButLazy: How John portrays himself in "I'm Only Sleeping".
61	-->''Everybody seems to think I'm lazy\
62	I don't mind, I think they're crazy''
63	* BrokenBird: Mentioned in "And Your Bird Can Sing".
64	-->''When your bird is broken\
65	Will it bring you down?''
66	* BrokenRecord: "Tomorrow Never Knows".
67	-->''Of the beginning, of the beginning, of the beginning, of the beginning, of the beginning, of the beginning.....''
68	* CallAndResponseSong: PlayedWith. The backing vocals in the bridge provide the call and George provides the response in "Taxman".
69	* CannotSpitItOut: The subject of "I Want to Tell You".
70	* CharacterTitle: "Taxman", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Doctor Robert".
71	* CoinsForTheDead: Referenced in "Taxman".
72	-->''Now my advice for those who die\
73	Declare the pennies on your eyes.''
74	* CoolShades: All four Beatles wear RoundHippieShades (for the first time) on the back cover photo.
75	* CreatorCameo: The UsefulNotes/GrammyAward-winning album cover was designed by Klaus Voormann, a German artist and musician[[note]]he'd just joined Music/ManfredMann[[/note]] whom the Beatles befriended in their Hamburg days. If you look closely, you can see Voormann's face and signature in George's hair, just beneath John's lips.
76	* DeadSparks: Paul's "For No One" is all about this.
77	-->''"And yet you don't believe her when she says her love is dead, you think she needs you."''
78	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The album cover.
79	* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover, designed by Klaus Voormann, who would later also design the cover of ''Music/TheBeatlesAnthology''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MulwODsIORg This]] Website/YouTube video shows the original photos that were Voormann's sources for the collage.
80	* DownerEnding:
81	--> ''Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name\
82	Nobody came\
83	Father [=McKenzie=], wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave\
84	No one was saved''
85	* DrFeelgood: "Doctor Robert", apparently based on a real-life medical drug peddler.
86	--> ''When you're down he'll pick you up: Dr. Robert''.
87	* EchoingAcoustics: "Tomorrow Never Knows", as Lennon wanted to sound "like a hundred chanting Tibetan monks".
88	* TheEndOfTheBeginning: The final line of "Tomorrow Never Knows": "So play the game Existence to the end/ Of the beginning/ Of the beginning/ Of the beginning..."
89	* FaceOnTheCover: A cartoon portrait of the band, illustrated with smaller images of themselves interspersed throughout the picture.
90	* FakeOutFadeOut: "I'm Only Sleeping".
91	* GratuitousPanning:
92	** "Taxman" used the "[[Music/{{Cream}} I Feel Free]]" method, bundling everything on the left channel, leaving tambourine and cowbell on the right, and filling the center with vocals.
93	** "Yellow Submarine" throws the vocals on the right channel, and the rest on the left. The sound fx stay on the center.
94	* HeavySleeper: "I'm Only Sleeping" is about this.
95	* IncrediblyLongNote: At the end of "I Want To Tell You" George, John and Paul hold the word "time" well into the fade out.
96	* InTheStyleOf:
97	** "Good Day Sunshine" is done in the style of Music/TheLovinSpoonful, in particular their song "Daydream".
98	** Paul's guitar solo in "Taxman" is partly blues-rock and partly in the style of classical Indian music.
99	* IntimidatingRevenueService: "Taxman", inspired by how the British government wanted to take too much out of George's income; at the time, the Beatles were being taxed at a marginal income tax rate of ''95%'' (a fairly common marginal rate for the top tax bracket in European countries at the time, and not the highest--some Nordics applied ''99%'' income tax brackets). This is noted in the lyrics ("There's one for you/Nineteen for me").
100	* IWantSong: "I Want to Tell You".
101	* LonelyFuneral: "Eleanor Rigby". The lonely title character dreams of someday being married, but ultimately dies, her funeral service attended only by the equally lonely Father [=McKenzie=]. The lyrics specifically state that "nobody came" to her funeral.
102	* {{Malaproper}}: The title "Tomorrow Never Knows" came from one of Ringo's weird sentences, just like ''Film/AHardDaysNight''.
103	* MelismaticVocals: George does this at the end of the verses of "Love You To" (giving his vocal a vaguely Asian chanting vibe) and Paul pulls off an impressive example on the word "time" in his harmony vocal at the very end of "I Want to Tell You".
104	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "Taxman" (about the irritation of paying taxes) and "I'm Only Sleeping" (about sleeping).
105	* NeverTrustATitle: The title for "Love You To" makes it seem like it'll sound similar to their earlier work[[note]]Like "Love Me Do", "She Loves You", "Please Please Me", etc.[[/note]]. Then you actually play the song and BAM! Indian Sitar!
106	* NewSoundAlbum:
107	** Several songs have little or no precedent in The Beatles' previous music. "Eleanor Rigby" was the first Beatles song on which no Beatle played an instrument--going one step further from the string quartet on [[Music/{{Help}} "Yesterday"]], the song features a string octet. They'd used a sitar on [[Music/RubberSoul "Norwegian Wood"]], but "Love You To" was overtly influenced by Indian music and philosophy. "Got to Get You Into My Life", a tribute to Creator/{{Motown}}, Creator/StaxRecords and {{Soul}} Music in general, marked the group's first use of a horn section, mic'ed-up extra close so that the horns dominate the mix. (Music/EarthWindAndFire would later cover the song, bringing things full circle.) Meanwhile, "Tomorrow Never Knows" was the band's first excursion into AvantGardeMusic; it anticipates ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'''s "Revolution #9", as well as John's early collaborations with Music/YokoOno.
108	** It was also the first use of ADT "automatic double tracking" developed by Abbey Road studio engineer Ken Townsend at the behest of John Lennon. Townsend devised a system of creating a double tracking effect without the necessity of recording another vocal by playing back the original vocal slightly out of sync through a tape delay and recording it together with the original.
109	* NonAppearingTitle: The album title does not appear in any of the lyrics. "Love You To"[[note]]although the lyric "I'll make love to you" comes close[[/note]] and "Tomorrow Never Knows" also don't get a mention in the songs themselves.
110	* NonSequitur: "And Your Bird Can Sing" actually makes sense if you ignore the lines that start with "and your bird is..." For example: "You tell me that you've got everything you want ''(And your bird can sing!)'', but you don't get me. You say you've seen seven wonders ''(And your bird is green!)'', but you can't see me."
111	* TheNotRemix:
112	** While the album's original mono mix doesn't differ a whole lot from the original stereo mix in terms of the song elements, the mono "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a somewhat different listening experience, since, to keep the various tape loops from drowning the mix in cacophony, they're sometimes quickly faded up and back down instead of just playing in the background. It's especially noticeable on the guitar solo, where the "carnival organ" loop gets cut off for the start of the guitar, giving it a SmashCut effect, then the "seagull" and "orchestra" loops pop up abruptly for a split second behind the guitar, giving it more of a {{Montage}} feel than the more fluid stereo mix. An unused alternate mono mix released on the 2022 box set tries to fade the loops in and out more smoothly, but still comes off a bit disjointed compared to the stereo mix.
113	** The Giles Martin stereo mixes on the box set address the GratuitousPanning issues on "Eleanor Rigby" and "Yellow Submarine" by centering the lead vocals and, on "Eleanor Rigby", dividing the strings between both channels ("Yellow Submarine" still keeps the music on the left and backing vocals on the right).
114	* OdeToIntoxication: Despite seeming like a song where the narrator falls head-over-heels in love with with another person, Paul [=McCartney=] says that "Got to Get You Into My Life" is "actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret." (''Beatles '66'' author Steve Turner has an alternate interpretation, suggesting that it's actually about [=McCartney=]'s first LSD experience.)
115	* OnlySaneMan: "I'm Only Sleeping" (See lyric under BrilliantButLazy above).
116	* OneManSong: "Taxman".
117	* OneWordTitle: The album itself and "Taxman".
118	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In common with all the previous Beatles' albums there's a photo of the band on the cover, but for the first time, they aren't looking at the camera, but at each other. (Specifically, the other three are all looking at Ringo, who's looking past the camera and wearing [[OpaqueLenses sunglasses]].)
119	* ProtagonistTitle: "Eleanor Rigby" about a poor woman who dies alone and forgotten.
120	* ProtestSong: "Taxman" was a protest against the 95% taxes on the group's income in Britain. The lines "Let me tell you how it will be, it's one for you, nineteen for me" and "Should five percent appear too small, be glad that I don't take it all" weren't jokes or empty rhetoric — in the mid-1960s, the highest tax band for income tax really was 95%. This was one of the reasons they started earning so much of their income in the United States, so they could be taxed at a lower rate.
121	* PunBasedTitle:
122	** The album's title is a wordplay on the type of handgun and the revolving motion of a record as it spins on the turntable. Nowadays though, [[WhatAreRecords this one might take a second to figure out.]]
123	** Before settling on ''Revolver'', the group went through several other {{Working Title}}s for the album. One (probably facetious) suggestion from Ringo was ''After Geography'', a play on Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' ''Music/AftermathAlbum'' from earlier that year.
124	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Several songs.
125	** "She Said She Said" is based on a famous incident from 1965. The Beatles [[note]]along with their entourage and at least two members of Music/TheByrds[[/note]] were hanging out with Creator/PeterFonda, and all except Paul were tripping on LSD. When a nervous George said "I feel like I'm dying", Fonda tried to reassure him by saying "I know what it's like to be dead"; he went on to tell the band that he'd almost died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound as a child, and death was nothing to worry about. John replied, "Who put all that shit in your head? You're making me feel like I've never been born". He based the song on a {{Gender Flip}}ped, {{Bowdlerize}}d version of this conversation.
126	** "Got to Get You into My Life" and "For No One" by Paul are based on his experience of pot and his failing relationship with his then-girlfriend, Jane Asher, respectively.
127	** "Taxman" by George attacks the progressive tax laws introduced by the [[UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson Wilson Government]], which despite their seemingly best effort failed to stop George from becoming a millionaire. It bears mentioning that 95% was the ''marginal'' tax rate; that is, all of George's income before he reached the 95% threshold was taxed at a lower value. As well as mentioning Harold Wilson himself, the song also mentions his rival UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath.
128	** "I'm Only Sleeping", based on John's laziness.
129	** There actually ''is'' a gravestone on St. Peter's Church in Liverpool with the name Eleanor Rigby (1898-1939) on it! Paul has commented that he might have seen the gravestone during his youth and subconsciously remembered it, for he didn't deliberately name the character in the song after her.
130	* RecordProducer: George Martin, as usual.
131	* RhymingWithItself: In "Got to Get You Into My Life". 'There' is rhymed with 'there', 'you' with 'you' and 'life' with 'life'. From another perspective, it rhymes "find there" with "mind there" and "hold you" with "told you."
132	* {{Sampling}}: Tape loops used in "Tomorrow Never Knows" include:
133	** A "laughing" voice, often assumed to be Paul [=McCartney=] and played at double-speed (the "seagull" sound)
134	** An orchestral chord of B flat major (from a Sibelius symphony)
135	** A fast electric guitar phrase in C major, reversed and played at double-speed
136	** Another guitar phrase with heavy tape echo, with a B flat chord provided either by guitar, organ or possibly a Mellotron Mk II
137	** A sitar-like descending scalar phrase played on an electric guitar, reversed and played at double-speed
138	* SecondPersonNarration: "For No One" uses it.
139	* ShoutOut: "Taxman" provides a shout-out to British politicians UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath and UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson — at the time, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
140	* SillyLoveSongs: The Beatles were turning away from this trope, but Paul provides two straight examples, "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Good Day Sunshine", plus an ostensible one in "Got to Get You Into My Life" (though he's famously claimed that it's actually a disguised ode to marijuana).
141	* SpokenWordInMusic: "Yellow Submarine" has some speech and submarine sounds in it: "''Full speed ahead, Mr. Parker, full speed ahead!''"
142	* StopAndGo: "I'm only sleeping...[Pause]...keeping an eye on the world going by my window..."
143	* StudioChatter:
144	** At the beginning of "Taxman", George slowly counts "one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four" on the right channel against a backdrop of studio background noises, before Paul's much faster "one, two, three, four!" on the left leads into the song itself.
145	** One can hear John saying, "Yawn, Paul" before someone, supposedly Paul, yawns in "I'm Only Sleeping".
146	** John, very quietly, repeats "She feels good" after Paul sings that phrase in "Good Day Sunshine".
147	* TakeThat: "And Your Bird Can Sing" is frequently interpreted as a swipe at Music/MickJagger, whose "bird" at the time was singer Music/MarianneFaithfull.
148	--> ''You can say you've seen seven wonders''\
149	''And your bird is green''\
150	''But you can't see me''\
151	''You can't see me''
152	* TaxmanTakesTheWinnings: "Taxman" is a critique of taxation - in particular, the British government’s then-highest income tax band (95%). ''Slightly'' undercut in that it's a complaint about a level of tax that only the '''very, very''' rich actually paid, so it's more of a rich man's moan about taxes than a reasoned critique of taxation in general.
153	* TruckDriversGearChange: Right at the end of "Good Day Sunshine".
154	* UnbuiltTrope: While it wasn't the intention, "Tomorrow Never Knows" today sounds like an early attempt at {{Industrial}}, with the electronic chaos, the constant machine-like drum beat, and the distorted vocal in the second half of the song (done by running John's voice through a Leslie speaker, a device originally invented for electric organs to give them a "swirling" sound).
155	* UncommonTime: "She Said She Said" switches liberally between 3/4 and 4/4, with Ringo's jittery drumming adding to the song's unsteady feel.
156	* VillainSong: "Taxman" is basically the titular character boasting that he will take 95% of your money - "one for you, nineteen for me" — and there's nothing you can do about it.
157	* WordSaladLyrics: The enigmatic lyrics of "And Your Bird Can Sing" are very open to interpretation. Jonathan Gould (author of ''Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America'') theorizes that John intended them as a TakeThat to Music/FrankSinatra for Ol' Blue Eyes' criticism of The Beatles and rock music in general.[[note]]Sinatra underwent some evolution on this, covering the Beatles' "Something" and striking up a friendship with Music/DavidBowie in the mid '70s.[[/note]] Musicologist Alan Pollack instead suggested they reflect a kind of mid-life crisis John was undergoing at the time, also hinted at in his infamous Maureen Cleave interview. Another theory is that the song is a TakeThat to Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' Music/MickJagger and the "bird"[[note]]"Bird" being English slang for a young woman at the time[[/note]] in the song referred to his then girlfriend, Music/MarianneFaithfull. As noted in NonSequitur above, however, the main source of the Word Salad is in the lines that start with "and your bird...", without which the song would be a pretty straightforward condemnation of {{Pride}} and materialism.
158	* WorldMusic: Music/GeorgeHarrison plays sitar during "Love You To", an instrument he learned to master thanks to Music/RaviShankar. He played it earlier during "Norwegian Wood" on ''Music/RubberSoul'' (1965) and would play it again on "Within You Without You" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' (1967).

Context Music / RevolverBeatlesAlbum