It’s
interesting that the first few Beatles albums basically reflect the Fabs' live sets at
the time. And Beatles For Sale is like a mopping up record of covers and early
tracks before the ground subtly shifts under the band. Help! introduces all
sorts of other instrumentation and styles, a trend which really catches on
during Rubber Soul, which is an album that I probably prefer to Revolver,
mainly because I think the basic songwriting is stronger and more consistent –
for me Revolver errs a little too much on the side of experimentation to be
quite as enjoyable as Rubber Soul.
Having
said that, Revolver is still one hell of an album with some delightful songs
like “I’m Only Sleeping”, some silly songs (yes, I'm talking to you, "Yellow Submarine"), some
bitingly harsh tracks like “Taxman” and the all out insanity of “Tomorrow Never
Knows”. And the band was so confident that they could afford to leave off
the brilliant “Paperback Writer” as a single and dump the stunning “Rain” on a b side!
Perhaps the only
track that doesn’t really cut it for me is Macca’s “Got To Get You Into My
Life” – it’s not the song, which is really excellent, but the Beatles seem to be the wrong band for this tune. It so badly needs an Otis Redding style
soul band, and especially a drummer with more groove than Ringo, who’s usual
splatty style is just plain wrong here. I remember that Earth Wind and Fire
did a cracking version in the seventies, which I think is actually what the song
needed.
Incidentally
all my Beatles albums up to and including Revolver are in mono on the iPod. From
Pepper onwards they are the stereo versions. Except that I've included “Tomorrow Never Knows”
in stereo, with all the tape effects and backwards lunacy coming atcha from every angle. It works brilliantly - we have all of Revolver in glorious mono, powerful, clear and forceful - then the final track, “TNK”,
fires up in headsplittingly mad stereo. It just seemed the right way to
sequence it. And on headphones the sudden change is wonderful, and like, totally mind expanding. Man…
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