FEATURE:
Love You Too
The Beatles’ Revolver at Fifty-Five: Ranking the Tracks
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FANS of The Beatles…
have debated what their best album is for decades. There was a period when 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was king. Abbey Road (1969) has always been in the top-three. For so many fans, there are no finer albums in their cannon than 1966’s Revolver. The album turns fifty-five on 5th August. It was the album that followed Rubber Soul. There was quite a leap between albums. Pushing the studio like never before and introducing more experimentation and psychedelia into the mix, Revolver was accompanied by the double A-side single, Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine. Revolver marked The Beatles' final recording project before their retirement as live performers. It is regarded as one of the greatest and most innovative albums in history. Because of the approaching fifty-fifth anniversary, I am going to rank the album’s fourteen tracks. I have written features before where I have studied the album and chosen the best songs. This is me purely deciding which are the very best of the best – even the songs in the bottom half are magnificent! I am going to rely heavily on the expertise of the Beatles Bible. They provide a good introduction and dig into, perhaps, The Beatles’ greatest release:
“From the ‘one, two, three, four’ ‘Taxman’ count-in through to the climax of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, Revolver announced to the world that The Beatles of old were no more. Touring was in the past, the loveable moptops had grown up, and they were free to explore, experiment, and push musical boundaries from within the studio.
Revolver paved the way for The Beatles’ extensive experimentation on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘I Am The Walrus’, and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is often considered to be the group’s finest body of work, and showed all four members of The Beatles working together, equally, at their creative peak.
This album has taken longer than the others because, normally, we go into the studios with, say, eight numbers of our own and some old numbers, like ‘Mr Moonlight’ or some numbers we used to know, which we just do up a bit. This time, we had all our own numbers, including three of George’s, and so we had to work them all out. We haven’t had a basis to work on, just one guitar melody and a few chords and so we’ve really had to work on them. I think it’ll be our best album yet. They’ll never be able to copy this!
Paul McCartney, 1966
Revolver, The Beatles’ seventh UK long player, was released on 5 August 1966, and three days later in the United States. It ushered in an era in which the group became increasingly interested in exploring production techniques in the studio.
The album was released just before The Beatles’ final US tour in August 1966. None of its songs, however, were performed live. The group considered many of the songs too complex and unsuitable for live performance, during a time in which they were often unable to even hear themselves play above the screams of audiences.
We were really starting to find ourselves in the studio. We were finding what we could do, just being the four of us and playing our instruments. The overdubbing got better, even though it was always pretty tricky because of the lack of tracks. The songs got more interesting, so with that the effects got more interesting.
I think the drugs were kicking in a little more heavily on this album. I don’t think we were on anything major yet; just the old usual – the grass and the acid. I feel to this day that though we did take certain substances, we never did it to a great extent at the session. We were really hard workers. That’s another thing about The Beatles – we worked like dogs to get it right”.
To celebrate fifty-five years of an all-time classic, I have assorted the fourteen tracks in order of quality - or, more accurately, the absolute genius from the mere wonderful! I may do another feature before 5th August that takes a dive into Revolver and the story behind its creation – in addition to how it was perceived and what critical reaction was. Here are my rankings of the tracks from…
ONE of history’s greatest albums.
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14. Love You To
Writing and Recording:
Written by: George Harrison
Recorded: 11th and 13th April, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
George Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, sitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
Ringo Starr: tambourine
Anil Bhagwat: tabla
Other musicians: sitar, tambura
Background and Quotation:
“Following the sitar motif on ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, ‘Love You To’ was The Beatles’ first full attempt at recording a piece of music in the classical Indian style.
At the time George Harrison was learning the sitar from Ravi Shankar, who inspired him to learn more about Indian music and Eastern religion.
I wrote ‘Love You To’ on the sitar, because the sitar sounded so nice and my interest was getting deeper all the time. I wanted to write a tune that was specifically for the sitar. Also it had a tabla part, and that was the first time we used a tabla player.
George Harrison” - Beatles Bible
13. Doctor Robert
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 17th and 19th April, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonium
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, maracas
Ringo Starr: drums
Background and Quotation:
“Lennon later described ‘Doctor Robert’ as an autobiographical song.
Another of mine. Mainly about drugs and pills. It was about myself. I was the one that carried all the pills on tour. Well, in the early days. Later on the roadies did it. We just kept them in our pockets loose. In case of trouble.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Although many in London thought the titular doctor referred to art dealer Robert Fraser, it was actually written about Dr Robert Freymann, who ran a discreet clinic on Manhattan’s East 78th Street.
Known as Dr Robert or the Great White Father, Freymann had a reputation for giving vitamin B-12 injections containing large doses of amphetamines, mainly to well-heeled New Yorkers.
Word spread of his willingness with prescriptions, eventually finding its way to Lennon and McCartney on one of their American trips.
John and I thought it was a funny idea: the fantasy doctor who would fix you up by giving you drugs, [the song] was a parody on that idea. It’s just a piss-take. As far as I know, neither of us ever went to a doctor for those kinds of things. But there was a fashion for it and there still is. Change your blood and have a vitamin shot and you’ll feel better.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles” – Beatles Bible
12. I Want to Tell You
Writing and Recording:
Written by: George Harrison
Recorded: 2nd and 3rd June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
George Harrison: lead vocals, lead guitar, handclaps
John Lennon: backing vocals, tambourine, handclaps
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass, piano, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, maracas, handclaps
Background and Quotation:
“The Beatles began recording ‘I Want To Tell You’ on 2 June 1966. Mark Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions notes this exchange prior to take one:
Martin: What are you going to call it, George?
Harrison: I don’t know.
Lennon: ‘Granny Smith Part Friggin’ Two’! You’ve never had a title for any of your songs!
‘Laxton’s Superb’ was engineer Geoff Emerick’s idea, a pun on ‘Granny Smith’, the working title of ‘Love You To’.
One really got the impression that George was being given a certain amount of time to do his tracks whereas the others could spend as long as they wanted. One felt under more pressure when doing one of George’s songs.
Geoff Emerick
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn” – Beatles Bible
11. I’m Only Sleeping
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 27th and 29th April; 5th and 6th May, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
John Lennon: vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums
Background and Quotation:
“The Beatles began recording ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ on 27 April 1966, when 11 takes of the rhythm track were put to tape. John Lennon added his lead vocals two days later.
One of the defining features of ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ is the backwards guitar. This was, in fact, two parts, conceived and performed by George Harrison during a five hour late-night session on 5 May 1966. Harrison first wrote down the notation for the solos he wanted, reversed them, and recorded them twice – one with fuzz effects, and the other unadorned.
The idea for the backwards solos came about after a tape operator accidentally threaded a tape into the machine the wrong way.
It played backwards, and, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Those effects! Nobody knew how those sounded then. We said, ‘My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?’… So that was what we did and that was where we discovered backwards guitar. It was a beautiful solo actually. It sounds like something you couldn’t play.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles” – Beatles Bible
10. Got to Get You Into My Life
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 7th, 8th and 11th April; 18th May; 17th June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass
John Lennon: rhythm guitar
George Harrison: lead guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine
George Martin: organ
Eddie Thornton, Ian Hamer, Les Condon: trumpet
Alan Branscombe, Peter Coe: tenor saxophone
Background and Quotation:
“In fact, the song was about marijuana, as McCartney later explained.
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot. I’d been a rather straight working-class lad but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting… I didn’t have a hard time with it and to me it was mind-expanding, literally mind-expanding.
So ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is really a song about that, it’s not to a person, it’s actually about pot. It’s saying, I’m going to do this. This is not a bad idea. So it’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ took some time to get right in the studio – the Anthology 2 album has a version from the first day’s recording, 7 April, played on a harmonium and sounding quite different to the final arrangement heard on Revolver.
The next day The Beatles tried a different arrangement, ending up with the rhythm track they settled on. On 11 April they overdubbed a guitar part, but the song remained untouched again until 18 May.
On that day they added the song’s distinctive brass and woodwind parts, plus two lead vocal parts, tambourine and organ” – Beatles Bible
9. Good Day Sunshine
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 8th and 9th June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano, handclaps
John Lennon: backing vocals, handclaps
George Harrison: backing vocals, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, handclaps
George Martin: piano
Background and Quotation:
“Capturing the mood of the gloriously hot summer of 1966, ‘Good Day Sunshine’ kicked off side two of Revolver.
It was really very much a nod to The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Daydream’, the same traditional, almost trad-jazz feel. That was our favourite record of theirs. ‘Good Day Sunshine’ was me trying to write something similar to ‘Daydream’. John and I wrote it together at Kenwood, but it was basically mine, and he helped me with it.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘Good Day Sunshine’ was recorded over two days in June 1966, under the working title ‘A Good Day’s Sunshine’. On 8 June The Beatles rehearsed the track many times before recording the rhythm track – bass, piano and drums – three times.
The first of these takes was the best, and onto it Paul McCartney overdubbed his lead vocals, along with harmonies from John Lennon and George Harrison.
The next day Ringo Starr added more drums, George Martin played his piano solo, more harmonies were added to the ending, and all four Beatles taped handclaps” – Beatles Bible
8. Taxman
Writing and Recording:
Written by: George Harrison
Recorded: 20th, 21st and 22nd April; 21st June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
John Lennon: backing vocals
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, lead guitar, bass
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, cowbell
Background and Quotation:
“The song which kicked off Revolver, The Beatles’ 1966 masterpiece, was written by George Harrison and was a bitter attack on Britain’s supertax system.
Inspiration for ‘Taxman’ came after Harrison discovered how much of The Beatles’ earnings went straight to the Treasury.
I had discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman. You are so happy that you’ve finally started earning money – and then you find out about tax.
In those days we paid 19 shillings and sixpence out of every pound, and with supertax and surtax and tax-tax it was ridiculous – a heavy penalty to pay for making money. That was a big turn-off for Britain. Anybody who ever made any money moved to America or somewhere else.
George Harrison
Anthology” – Beatles Bible
7. For No One
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 9th, 16th and 19th May, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, piano, clavichord
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, maracas
Alan Civil: horn
Background and Quotation:
“The song was written in March 1966 while McCartney was on holiday with Jane Asher in Switzerland. It was originally called ‘Why Did It Die?’
I was in Switzerland on my first skiing holiday. I’d done a bit of skiing in Help! and quite liked it, so I went back and ended up in a little bathroom in a Swiss chalet writing ‘For No One’. I remember the descending bassline trick that it’s based on, and I remember the character in the song – the girl putting on her make-up.
Occasionally we’d have an idea for some new kind of instrumentation, particularly for solos… On ‘For No One’ I was interested in the French horn, because it was an instrument I’d always loved from when I was a kid. It’s a beautiful sound, so I went to George Martin and said, ‘How can we go about this?’ And he said, ‘Well, let me get the very finest.’
Paul McCartney
Anthology
George Martin wrote down the understated melody that Paul sang to him, and Alan Civil performed it. Always pushing boundaries, Martin and McCartney decided to insert a top note into the score outside the instrument’s normal range.
We came to the session and Alan looked up from his bit of paper: ‘Eh, George? I think there’s a mistake here – you’ve got a high F written down. Then George and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and smiled back at him, and he knew what we were up to and played it. These great players will do it. Even though it’s officially off the end of their instrument, they can do it, and they’re quite into it occasionally. It’s a nice little solo.
Paul McCartney
Anthology” – Beatles Bible
6. Here, There and Everywhere
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 14th, 16th and 17th June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, finger clicks
John Lennon: backing vocals, finger clicks
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, finger clicks
Ringo Starr: drums, finger clicks
Background and Quotation:
“Paul McCartney’s favourite among his own compositions, ‘Here, There And Everywhere’ is often cited as his finest love song.
It was written alongside John Lennon’s swimming pool in Weybridge, while McCartney waited for Lennon to wake up.
I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he’d woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Mile
‘Here, There And Everywhere’ was particularly highly regarded by Lennon.
Paul’s song completely, I believe. And one of my favourite songs of The Beatles.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff” – Beatles Bible
5. Yellow Submarine
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 26th May; 1st June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums
John Lennon: backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, tambourine
Mal Evans: backing vocals, bass drum
Neil Aspinall, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Pattie Harrison, Brian Jones, Marianne Faithfull, Alf Bicknell: backing vocals
Background and Quotation:
“Released as a double a-side with ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Yellow Submarine’ has become a divisive song among Beatles fans. To many it’s a charming singalong for all ages; for others, it’s one of the band’s weakest moments, and an unnecessary bout of whimsy on the otherwise flawless Revolver.
I don’t actually know where they got the idea for it; I just felt it was a really interesting track for me to do. I’d been doing a lot of covers. At that time I did either covers or something they wrote specifically for me.
Ringo Starr
Anthology
Written by Paul McCartney, ‘Yellow Submarine’ was always intended to be a children’s song. It chimed perfectly with the carefree, nostalgic and childlike attitudes that dominated the burgeoning psychedelic era.
I remember lying in bed one night, in that moment before you’re falling asleep – that little twilight moment when a silly idea comes into your head – and thinking of ‘Yellow Submarine’: ‘We all live in a yellow submarine…’
I quite like children’s things; I like children’s minds and imagination. So it didn’t seem uncool to me to have a pretty surreal idea that was also a children’s idea. I thought also, with Ringo being so good with children – a knockabout uncle type – it might not be a bad idea for him to have a children’s song, rather than a very serious song. He wasn’t that keen on singing.
Paul McCartney
Anthology” – Beatles Bible
4. She Said She Said
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 21st June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, Hammond organ
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, shaker
Background and Quotation:
“The final track recorded for Revolver, ‘She Said She Said’ was inspired by an LSD-influenced conversation between John Lennon and actor Peter Fonda.
During The Beatles’ US tour in the summer of 1965, they rented a house in Los Angeles’ Mulholland Drive. On 24 August they played host to Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of The Byrds, and the two parties, apart from Paul McCartney, spent the day tripping on LSD.
The actor Peter Fonda arrived at the house, also on acid. He attempted to comfort Harrison, who thought he was dying.
I told him there was nothing to be afraid of and that all he needed to do was relax. I said that I knew what it was like to be dead because when I was 10 years old I’d accidentally shot myself in the stomach and my heart stopped beating three times while I was on the operating table because I’d lost so much blood.
John was passing at the time and heard me saying ‘I know what it’s like to be dead’. He looked at me and said, ‘You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born. Who put all that shit in your head?’
Peter Fonda” – Beatles Bible
3. Tomorrow Never Knows
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 6th, 7th and 22nd April, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
John Lennon: vocals, organ, tape loops
Paul McCartney: lead guitar, bass guitar, tape loops
George Harrison: guitar, sitar, tambura, tape loops
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, tape loops
George Martin: piano
Background and Quotation:
“‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, the monumental closing track on Revolver, was also the first song to be recorded for the album.
While the title, like ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, was a Ringoism particularly liked by John Lennon, the lyrics were largely taken from The Psychedelic Experience, a 1964 book written by Harvard psychologists Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert, which contained an adaptation of the ancient Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Lennon discovered The Psychedelic Experience at the Indica bookshop, co-owned by Barry Miles. On 1 April 1966 Lennon and Paul McCartney visited the bookshop.
John wanted a book by what sounded like ‘Nitz Ga’. It took Miles a few minutes to realise that he was looking for the German philosopher Nietzsche, long enough for John to become convinced that he was being ridiculed. He launched into an attack on intellectuals and university students and was only mollified when Paul told him that he had not understood what John was asking for either, and that Miles was not a university graduate but had been to art college, just like him. Immediately friendly again, John talked about Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, laughing about his school magazine the Daily Howl: ‘Tell Ginsberg I did it first!’ Miles found him a copy of The Portable Nietzsche and John began to scan the shelves. His eyes soon alighted upon a copy of The Psychedelic Experience, Dr Timothy Leary’s psychedelic version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. John was delighted and settled down on the settee with the book. Right away, on page 14 in Leary’s introduction, he read, ‘Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream.’ He had found the first line of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, one of the Beatles’ most innovative songs.
Many Years From Now
Barry Miles” – Beatles Bible
2. And Your Bird Can Sing
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 20th and 26th April, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, handclaps
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, lead guitar, bass, handclaps
George Harrison: backing vocals, lead guitar, handclaps
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, handclaps
Background and Quotation:
“Like ‘Rain’, ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ hinted at knowledge denied to all but the enlightened, showing the influence of LSD. It is also likely that the oblique lyrics were an attempt at writing something akin to the wordplay of Bob Dylan, whose songs Lennon greatly admired.
Lennon was later dismissive of ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’, describing it as “a horror” and “throwaway”. Paul McCartney claims to have helped Lennon write the song.
‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ was John’s song. I suspect that I helped with the verses because the songs were nearly always written without second and third verses. I seem to remember working on that middle eight with him but it’s John’s song, 80-20 to John.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘And Your Bird Can Sing’ was the theme song for The Beatles’ US cartoon series during its third season.
On 20 April 1966 The Beatles recorded two takes of ‘And Your Bird Can Sing’, beginning with a rhythm track of guitars and drums. They then overdubbed three lead vocal tracks from John Lennon, harmonies from Paul and George, and tambourine and bass.
This version of the song was rejected, but was eventually released – complete with hysterical laughter from John and Paul – on Anthology 2” – Beatles Bible
1. Eleanor Rigby
Writing and Recording:
Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 28th and 29th April; 6th June, 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Personnel:
Paul McCartney: vocals
John Lennon: harmony vocals
George Harrison: harmony vocals
Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, Jurgen Hess: violin
Stephen Shingles, John Underwood: viola
Derek Simpson, Norman Jones: cello
Background and Quotation:
“Eleanor Rigby’, which originally appeared on the Revolver album and on a double a-side single with ‘Yellow Submarine’, is justifiably held as a one of The Beatles’ truly timeless compositions.
I don’t like supposing that somebody like Jesus was alive now and pretending and imagining what he’d do. But if he was Jesus and he held that he was the real Jesus that had the same views as before – well, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ wouldn’t mean that much to him.
John Lennon, Chicago Press Conference, 11 August 1966
Anthology
Paul McCartney came up with the initial idea in the music room in the basement of Jane Asher’s family home in Wimpole Street, London.
I wrote it at the piano, just vamping an E minor chord; letting that stay as a vamp and putting a melody over it, just danced over the top of it. It has almost Asian Indian rhythms.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
As with ‘Yesterday’ before it, McCartney didn’t have lyrics at first, and improvised sounds and words to fill the lines. An early version was heard by musician Donovan at his flat in London’s Maida Vale.
One day I was on my own in the pad running through a few tunes on my Uher tape recorder. The doorbell rang. It was Paul on his own. We jammed a bit. He played me a tune about a strange chap called ‘Ola Na Tungee’.
‘Ola Na Tungee/Blowing his mind in the dark/With a pipe full of clay/No one can say.’
Donovan
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles” – Beatles Bible