A Little Help

[shyGirl]

I'm planning on reviewing Revolver for one of my college classes. For people who consider this album either their favorite or one of their favorites, I want to know why it's your favorite and what makes it stick out from the rest. Thanks. http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/smile1.gif

------------------
Song of the moment-Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

[SF4-EVER]

Revolver is my second favorite album after Abbey Road. I like it because it has so many great songs about deep subjects. How many other albums out there have songs with subjects ranging from very high taxes to The Tibetan Book of the Dead?

------------------
Author of "Move Over Ms. L." and the sequel "To Thine Own Self Be True,"
hosted at www.rooftopsessions.com (http://www.rooftopsessions.com)

[joe]

Revolver, was the first transition the Beatles made after the yea, yea, yea era.
later, Sgt. Pepper was the next.
No musical group evolved liked the Beatles and never will.
The Stones,Back Steet Boys, Sinatra, even Beetoveen, never went through a metamorphasis that the Beatles did, showing the world how musical growth is achieved. Understand, this is why we are all here! The world will never know a greater influence!
All of us understand this,everyone else should!

------------------

[kjrocks_1]

You have a great range of expressions from childlike, to romance, to experimentation. It's like a box of M&Ms.... different shades but one great taste! http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/rainbow1.gif

------------------

[bearkat77]

Revolver was the stepping stone for things to come in the music world. The Beatles showed that music had many shapes and expressions, not just something to dance to. Even today, critics praise this album as the best. Though not my favorite LP, it is in the Top Three.

------------------
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/cat.gif
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page (http://bearkat77.www9.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon (http://bearkatjl.50megs.com)
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr (http://bearkatrs.50megs.com)

Gotta love the unique cover too. Voormann did a great job with that one. http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/thumbsup.gif

------------------
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/king2.gif

[darkhorse]

I wrote this review some time ago for Amazon.com. Let me say first that "Revolver" is my absolute favorite Beatle album. http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif

I may lose some objectivty by writing this review, so I'm going to admit now that there may be lots of people who have strong arguments to consider "Sgt.Pepper's", "Abbey Road", the White Album or even "Rubber Soul" superior albums made by the Beatles. But to me, "Revolver" represents the album that changed my life completely. I had heard the *traditional* Beatles music from the "Red" & "Blue" vinyls that my dad had here at home, and received the "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" songs with surprise and curiosity, as they were nice and strongly constructed. Then I thought there might be a whole lot of Beatle music I may have been missing, and God knows why I got obssesed with "Revolver", and finally got it by Christmas when I was sixteen (that was only two years ago!).

And I wasn't wrong at all. I didn't find here the traditional Beatles singalong tunes that everybody knows (OK, maybe "Yellow Submarine", but that's all!), but an unusual experiment of brilliant music, frequently accompanied by excellent lyrics coming from the three most important composers in the history of pop music...

The excellent guitar work on the whole album was something I had never heard before, neither in the music of this generation, nor in any music I've heard... So it immediatly blew my mind. When I first heard "She Said She Said", I thought "that's the Beatles?"... And what about "Tomorrow Never Knows"! That sounds like the weirdest (but at the same time coherent) sound experiment ever made, with surprising results in the vocals and the tape loops that make that song a very rare and acid trip to... nowhere.

That's my global impression of the album: it's a trip (with even more taste than the "Magical Mystery Tour"), a conceptual experience (with even more cohesion than the nearly-perfect "Sgt.Pepper"), a production experiment (as it was the root for everything else done since in the pop music) and a call to change your life: you can "turn off your mind, relax and float downstream", and try to face another reality. with your own mind ("it's all in your mind, you know!"). So you may get out of the world for some time, and ask not to be awake, like John did in his brilliant "I'm Only Sleeping"; go to a walk and find other "kinds of mind" there, by looking at them without the horrible pressure of time, like Paul sang on "Got To Get You Into My Life"; or even transform your worst nightmares (like knowing what it's like to be dead on "She Said She Said" or surrendering to the void on "Tomorrow Never Knows") or your strangest dreams (living a life in a "Yellow Submarine") into something you could share with the world.

The Beatles reached here near to perfection. John's reflexive lyrics on "I'm Only Sleeping" are perfectly accompanied by George's excellent backwards guitar solo; he amazed us with the incredible musical and lyrical construction of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and the greatest guitar work ever made by The Beatles, evidenced on songs that are underrated by many, like "She Said She Said", "And Your Bird Can Sing" (now hear THAT solo!) and "Doctor Robert". His vocals and backing vocals are also stunning. Paul also got involved into this other world the Beatles were discovering on "Got To Get You Into My Life", but he didn't lose the opportunity of reaching his peak as a pop composer, writing his most beautiful ballad EVER ("Here, There And Everywhere"), a very special, quite sad but lovely social comment, with delightful orchestral arrangements courtesy of sir George Martin ("Eleanor Rigby"), a lovely ode to the love that's not with him anymore ("For No One", hear the lovely horn solo!) and an up-beat and optimistic song about the happiness of being in love ("Good Day Sunshine"). Ringo gets deep into your subconscious with his spectacular lead vocal on "Yellow Submarine" (probably the most-known track of this album), but he also shines as a drummer, showing us what he's capable of on "She Said She Said" (congratulations, one of his best!) and "Tomorrow Never Knows".

George Harrison gets an apart mention. His contributions to The Beatles records were always underrated, but in this album he comes to the peak of three songs, and the three of them are masterpieces, helping us to value him more as a writer, singer and composer than ever, as his vocals and backing vocals (hear "Good Day Sunshine" or "She Said She Said") are nearly perfect. And what about his own compositions! "Taxman" (the best song of the album, in my opinion) combines that ironic sense of humor George had with a rock'n'roll-guitar-and-drums structure that you can't get out of your head. Paul's stunning "indian" guitar solo and the tambourine and cowbell percussion only help this song to grow bigger and bigger... "Love You To", the first absolutely INDIAN Beatle song ever, was an audacious experiment that turned out pretty well thanks to the excellent guitar and percussion work overdubbed later by George, the intriguing lyrics and the serious double-tracked lead vocal; and "I Want To Tell You" is a nice piece of work, with a crackling and out-of-tune piano (Paul?) and the simplest lyrics, just to say "I'll make you maybe next time around"...

Other short mention: "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" (my favourite song in the entire Beatles' catalogue) were realased weeks after "Revolver" as a single, but were recorded in the same sessions. They absolutely follow the spirit of the album, as they bring beautiful and spectacular guitar work, lots of drug inspiration and "other kinds of mind"... You can find them at "Past Masters Vol.2"

So buy this album and enjoy it. Turn off your mind, relax and... simply enjoy it. It surely will change a part of your life.


------------------
Give me love, give me peace on Earth

So, you want me to show you your grammatical errors, or what?

j/k... that is a really great review. http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/smile.gif

http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/thumbsup.gif

------------------
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/king2.gif

[beatlejes]

I guess what I like best about Revolver is the variety it contains. The tracks are so different from everything The Beatles released before. A lot of people pair it with Rubber Soul (another great album), but Revolver seems to be on another, slightly higher level. Even after being familiar with the album for many years now, it still seems so much 'newer', 'fresher', than the other albums to me, I don't know why.

------------------
peace '_'

I agree. It seems the Beatles tried to reach a 'higher' level (no pun intended http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/images/icons/wink.gif) with each new album, they kept pushing the barriers of music and took it to where it's never been before.

------------------
http://www.beatlelinks.net/ubb/smilies/king2.gif

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Four words: She Said She Said

mmmmmmmmmmm........

------------------
"If not for you my sky would fall, rain would gather too
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all, I'd be lost if not for you"