Revolver-Released 50 Years Ago Today

https://goo.gl/E9MnWQ

I WANT TO TELL YOU

My favorite song on the album, didn't used to be, but then...

My mother made me join the temple youth group, it was non-negotiable. And they sponsored an overnight to West Hartford where we'd hear Bo Diddley.

I'd skipped a grade, I looked young to begin with, I arrived at the house I was staying at and my host was visibly crestfallen, who was this shrimp? He wanted nothing to do with me and didn't. And that left me flying solo at the gig, I knew no one, was younger than everyone and had no guide.

Bo Diddley played with his box guitar. But his music was just a bit too old for anybody to care. But the other band, a cover act, won the crowd, and the highlight was their cover of "I Want To Tell You."

A minor cut I'd nearly ignored on the LP, I couldn't wait to get home to play it over and over again.

The music saved me.

It still saves me today.

It's all about the riff. I'd argue "I Want To Tell You" was the start of riff rock, then again, "You Really Got Me" and "Satisfaction" had come before. But the riff in "I Want To Tell You" was more lyrical and equally infectious. Riffs ruled for ten years thereafter, until disco came along and ultimately it became about beats. But the power of one guitar, plugged in and turned loud...you rule!

TAXMAN

Going from one George song to another...

George didn't really get his due until "Something" on "Abbey Road." Then "All Things Must Pass" was seen as the definitive solo package...and now he's dead and his post-Beatles work has been forgotten, except, ironically, for the Traveling Wilburys.

The intro made it sound like the track was cut underwater. It was instantly accessible, but I was too young to pay taxes and couldn't believe George was bitching about overpaying, everybody I knew was a liberal, taxes were good. But not in the U.K., not to George.

ELEANOR RIGBY

"Ah, look at all the lonely people"

It was as if Kanye cut "Respect" or "Sexual Healing." "Eleanor Rigby" sounded nothing like what came before, from the Beatles or anybody else on the radio, and this was when Top Forty ruled, underground FM had not yet been hatched.

This was not only a revelation on the radio, you could sing along to it. What a concept.

YELLOW SUBMARINE

"In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea"

Not only did Ringo sing it, HE WROTE IT!

I was at Boy Scout camp, on the Massachusetts/Connecticut border. In fact, when we went sailing, we crossed states. I spent four weeks there earning fifteen merit badges on my way to Eagle, something for my resume which didn't pay any other dividends, today I see the Boy Scouts as a paramilitary organization, but back then...our troop met at the Rodeph Sholom, it was anything but edgy.

But Boy Scout camp could be.

I was in the provisional unit. That meant you came without your own troop. And we were completely unsupervised and some things happened there that scarred me forever. But "Yellow Submarine" was our anthem, we'd sing it as we marched from one location to another.

HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

It was so warm and beautiful, sung by Paul McCartney. You just wanted to climb inside the record player, the tubes and the music would keep you warm.

For some reason I align this with "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" even though "Here, There And Everywhere" is a Paul song and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" a John song, but...the Beatles broke through on poppiness, yet they cemented their place in the canon via meaning. They touched our hearts, made us feel human.

I'M ONLY SLEEPING

Speaking of John...

"When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I'm still yawning
When I'm in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream"

UP STREAM! Get that? Because in "Tomorrow Never Knows," which closes the album, he's going DOWN stream.

"Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy"

And there's the sixties ethos right there. Everybody today is so busy getting somewhere they have no time to contemplate life, there's no meaning, just a pursuit of cash. But in the sixties, human development was everything. And being self-realized was more important than being rich. And John was emphasizing he was DIFFERENT! We were all so different, our parents were not our best friends, the corporations were the enemy, and despite getting lip-service hatred today, everybody wants to tie up with the company to dig into its deep pockets.

LOVE YOU TO

The precursor of "Within You Without You" on the follow-up record, 1967's "Sgt. Pepper." It was George Harrison who popularized the sitar, who brought eastern music to the west.

And in retrospect, it was Harrison who was the most alienated. Sure, Lennon protested, yet he wanted acceptance, but living in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney George seemed to think he was never entitled to, would never get the spotlight, so he expressed all the angst... George was the art kid in the basement, the older brother the parents pooh-poohed, but the one you really wanted to hang with, he marched to the beat of his own drummer, it was he you looked to for insight, he was the one you wanted to follow.

SHE SAID SHE SAID

"She said
I know what it's like to be dead"

We may not have understood the tax references, but we all caught this lyric. The oldsters freaked out, suicide was not a subject to be discussed, everybody was the best and the brightest with a yellow brick road in front of them to prosperity. But then there were drugs and alternative lifestyles and...

"When I was a boy, everything was right"

Not exactly, but much more right than today.

I've got my freedom, I'm in charge of my own actions, but with all the options I don't know where I want to go. I'm searching for meaning in a meaningless society. I want someone to follow but everybody's sold out. And the younger generation feels the same way as I do, which is why Bernie Sanders got so much traction. Denigrate his policies all you want, but he never lied, he never sold out to the man, despite the commercialization of our society, the arts, it's these true believers we want to believe in.

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE

Talk about a side opener...

That's right, cut one side one had to immediately grab you, just ask the Stones. Cut one side two was the same, but it could have a twist, could be just a little bit different.

The magic is in the piano break, and the way the vocals kind of fall off a cliff at the end of the chorus. Never mind starting with the chorus, the Beatles were always breaking convention.

And "Good Day Sunshine" is only two minutes and eight seconds long. The fourteen track English version of "Revolver" is only thirty four minutes and forty three seconds long. Half a CD was good enough for the Beatles, why do today's acts need to stretch out so much more? The medium definitely affected the art.

AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING

"I'll be round, I'll be round"

That's the part we sang along to.

FOR NO ONE

We learned about life from records. They were not four minute boasts made to browbeat the listener into submission, they were not ditties made solely for bumping asses in the club, there was wisdom contained in the tracks. Why these young artists had so much wisdom, I don't know. Maybe it was all the dues paid, in Hamburg, living life off the radar, collecting experiences instead of credits.

At this point I'd had two summer camp girlfriends. I knew about crushes, I knew about the pitter-patter in one's heart that signified love. But I didn't know about commitment and loss.

"And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years"

You're cruising along and then it's over, when you didn't realize the end was coming.

"She says that long ago she knew someone but now he's gone
She doesn't need him"

Whew! She's moved on, he didn't see it coming.

The clavichord adds meaning.

As for the French horn... Unexpected, like the harp in the Beach Boys' "Catch A Wave." Limits were tested, constructed upon the building blocks of musical history.

DOCTOR ROBERT

Almost unheard back in '66. It wasn't on the Capitol release in the States. Whenever you went to someone's house with the English album you spun it. It was a Dead Sea Scroll, so different from today when everything's at our fingertips.

We knew it was about a doctor prescribing/injecting illicit stuff, we weren't that out of it.

GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE

My warm feelings about this song were eviscerated when Capitol released it as a single ten years after the fact. Come on, the Beatles had been apart longer than they were together, at least in major recording terms. It was a complete dash for cash.

But when this was just an album track... It was a winner, because of George's guitar, not so different from his playing as L'Angelo Misterioso on Cream's "Badge," and Paul's over the top Little Richard vocalizations.

They could write, sing and play...and looked good to boot!

And you wonder why you can't make it.

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS

The piece de resistance.

Only three minutes long, but it plays like six, more like the Doors' "The End" than "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

This is when the band took a left turn, not only used the studio as an instrument, but jetted into the stratosphere intellectually, they'd left the audience behind, they were on their own journey, there was no pandering involved, you were either on the bus or off.

And we were on.

"Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream"

Imagine you told your parents you were gonna drop out of college and hitchhike to San Francisco with twenty dollars in your pocket.

Unimaginable today.

Today you'd get in the car your parents bought you with a credit card they provided to strike it rich in the Bay Area, calling mommy and daddy every day for support.

But the apron strings were loose in the sixties.

And the Beatles helped cut them.

"Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void"

We're not talking about laziness, we're talking about embracing life, being about feeling first and foremost.

"Yet you may see the meaning of within
It is being, it is being"

What is life about? Look inside. You won't find many answers, just an adventure.

"Love is all and love is everyone"

Don't think about romantic love. This is about a cultural coming together. Being good, communicating with like-minded people, in this case everybody under thirty who was questioning society's precepts. It was like today, but it was about expansion as opposed to contraction. Today people bitch about being left out, especially economically. Yesterday you bitched about the reins holding you back from being the real you, you rebelled against the shackles controlling your mind.

The sound of "Tomorrow Never Knows"... It was a veritable Coney Island of the mind. With everything including the kitchen sink thrown in, all held down by Ringo Starr's rock solid drums.


We had few albums. Those we possessed were spun incessantly. I know every lick of "Revolver." Whose reputation has gained in recent years, but back then was just seen as another step on the pathway to the breakthrough, "Sgt. Pepper," which is belittled today.

"Revolver" was more aggressive, more in-your-face than its predecessor, "Rubber Soul." It reflected the turbulent times. War and injustice run amok.

But what kept us together was our music.

We were addicted to the radio.

Some people bought singles.

Even fewer bought albums.

But it was "Revolver" even more than "Rubber Soul" that got the populace to purchase LPs. And when they heard "Tomorrow Never Knows" they were ready to pack their old kit bag, they were done with what they knew before, they wanted to run away and join the circus. Not the Grateful Dead, a sideshow far from the mainstream, but the biggest and baddest band in the land, which was completely uncompromised, which seemed to have unshackled itself from the system. And either you could be left behind or...

Get on board.

Tomorrow never knows.

Did you see Blake Krikorian died? He helped Jason Hirschhorn through his heart surgery and then died when his own heart failed.

John Lennon was coming back to the game after a half decade hejira and he was cut down at forty, an age in the distant rearview mirror of baby boomers.

Ringo's still here. You can see him around town. He's almost normal. But he's seventy six.

Paul's gone on a well-deserved victory lap. He went from inaccessible to available. He's the world's leading rock star, never forget it. And one day he and Ringo will be gone too and all we'll be left with is the records.

They didn't come out of thin air. They'd paid their dues. They were no one for years before they were someone. But how they rode the razor's edge for an entire career, never faltering... It's like winning the Super Bowl every damn year, to the point where you give up playing.

And the band did give up, playing that is. The public adulation was just too much, it was no longer living. Whereas being ensconced in the studio concocting gems was still a turn-on, the way out. And it was with "Revolver" that the band truly started testing limits. Helped, of course, by George Martin, but now he's gone too.

"It is believing
It is believing"

We weren't going anywhere fast. We were fumbling along, in school, with career dreams planted in our heads by our parents. And then along came four lads from Liverpool and our entire world was turned upside down, our consciousness was expanded, music became everything, not only a way to feel good, but a way out.

And in its wake came the major label infrastructure.

And the major touring infrastructure.

The Beatles were testing the limits and the business had to adjust.

And we were all along for the ride.

And what a ride it turned out to be. One that keeps going on. We just put on the music and relax and float down stream, we're set free, we see the possibilities, we have hope, we soldier on.


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