The Story Behind Revolver of The Beatles | In Their Own Words

Following the ground-breaking album, ‘Rubber Soul,’ The Beatles, along with their longtime producer, George Martin, took it to the next level. The band had made the conscious decision to never tour again thus there was no worry about how they’d recreate these songs live, enhancing the studio’s role in their music. So intricate was its recording that The Beatles would spend over 220 hours recording the album (they had only spent about 80 hours recording ‘Rubber Soul.’) The band, and in particular Lennon and Harrison, had been experimenting with LSD at this time, which contributed heavily to the sound of the record. Experimenting with different recording techniques, thanks in large to 19-year-old audio engineer, Geoff Emerick (known as an audio experimentalist), the band encouraged studio staff that each instrument should sound unlike itself. There was major compression and tonal equalisation in place to make this happen. The band also experimented with new instruments such as tambura, table, clavichord, vibraphone and tack piano, amongst others. They also incorporated a horn section for the first time on ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ and sound effects on ‘Yellow Submarine.’

Another innovation was the introduction of automatic double tracking on the vocals, as opposed to the vocalist singing the same bit twice and layed on top of each other. This became a standard effect in pop music going forward. ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ introduced a backwards guitar solo, something that had never been done before (Hendrix would famously use it on ‘Castles Made Of Sand.’ Emerick would enhance the sound of Ringo’s bass drum by inserting an item of clothing inside to dampen the sound. This is another technique that would become common practice. The drum sound achieved on this record, thanks to the close proximity of the microphones, would cause engineers to frantically try and recreate it in their own recordings. The music on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was created solely by a string section, with Lennon and Harrison providing harmony vocals to McCartney’s lead, and was one of the band’s most elaborate songs to date. Harrison was also maturing as a songwriter providing the songs ‘Taxman,’ ‘Love You To’ and ‘I Want To Tell You.’ Starr got his usual time to shine on ‘Yellow Submarine,’ a song that would become popular with children for generations to come (kids in 2021 still love it). But by far, the most ambitious song on the album, and indeed by the band to that time, was the closing track, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’ It was created with a series of tape loops created separately by the band. From a total of 30 recorded, 16 were used on the record, each approximately 6 seconds long (that “seagull” through the song is actually the sound of McCartney laughing but sped up). Besides for Rock, Hip Hop and Electronic Music later on would benefit from these innovations. Lennon’s vocals were recorded through a Lesley Speaker, which was used to Hammond Organ primarily. The structure and recording of this song was ground-breaking and the first of its kind by a mainstream artist. It’s been said that this song is the audio equivalent of an LSD trip. With its release, ‘Revolver’ took the band to a completely new level. They were no longer churning out songs like ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘She Loves You.’ This was the sound of the future and it elevated the band to new levels.

[DarrylRuiz-sw]

As fresh and original as it was 58 years ago...A Masterpiece

[stormhawk]

My personal favourite period of The Beatles musical recording was that late 1965 - mid 1966 period.
Just listen to Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out, Rubber Soul, Paperback Writer/Rain & Revolver in one go.
That’s them at their peak as a working band.

[josuepon]

I’m always stuck between Rubber Soul and Revolver as being my best album. It’s true that they basically are a continuation of each other and quite frankly, no band could ever do something like that but them

[ustheserfs]

one thing is for certain... beyond the inherent talent each member brought to the table, the band had one of the finest supporting casts to bring their ideas to life.

[noahhenson]

The distinction that even George missed seeing/hearing between Rubber Soul and Revolver consists mainly in the lyrical content of the songs. The 1965 album was still concerned mainly with love songs and lovelorn songs; even Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood fit that model. The 1966 album is now, suddenly, stories about other people which may have nothing to do with romantic love. Eleanor Rigby, Doctor Robert, Yellow Submarine, and most other tracks on Revolver are fictive tales involving unique imaginary characters. Those that do have to do with love relationships, Love You To, Here There and Everywhere, and I Want to Tell You offer non-traditional viewpoints on the subject.

[ShyGuyLoveSongs]

Great video. Thanks for posting it. I came to the Beatles later, they were just better than what was popular at the time. Good music doesn’t get old.

[The_whimsickal_artist]

Revolver is probably my favourite record...now..😅 I always felt rubber soul and revolver could have been a double album. Back in the day (90s) I would burn CDs for my mates and as an artist I created a cool Beatles cd cover and made rubber soul and revolver a double album.. for fun. My family and mates loved it. Tomorrow never knows is a masterpiece 👍🏻💯🎸 Love the Beatles.

[MarkKost-mn]

I'm partial to Rubber Soul but Revolver is so damn good, too.

[BobGeogeo]

George's quote after 22:00 about Rubber Soul and Revolver being like volume 1 and volume 2 has stayed with since hearing it a while back -- but in memory it was said by Ringo for some reason.
Edit: I think Ringo did say something similar but more on the cooperation in sessions.

[rodknipping]

Great video and well done for NOT using those annoying subtitles and visual noise that for, some unknown reason, have become so popular.

[MarkSeibold]

Listen to 6:20 on the time bar. Paul McCartney says he used to go to these old rest homes with old people debilitating in disease, and he talked to an old lady that said during World War II she had a Crystal Radio. [ this elder woman was the impetus for McCartney to write the song Eleanor Rigby.] I don't think the younger generations today even know what a Crystal Radio is. I was building Crystal radios in 1964 just after we saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that night in February 1964. My brother and I went to the local record store to buy the new first album Meet The Beatles And I immediately made up cardboard Mach guitars with kite string to pretend like we were lip-syncing the music. I told this story to the famous lady rock artist Aimee Mann on June 4th 2007 on NPR's Talk of the Nation which can be reviewed as they are interviewing her to have her comments that she remembers as an 8 year old discovering the Sergeant Pepper's album.

By 1965 a friend of mine in my 6th grade class during the starting season of September 1965, told me his parents wanted to sell me their antique Zenith Transoceanic Shortwave Table model radio. I bought it for $8, with my berry picking money earnings from that summer. I didnt realize until I started listening, after doing my homework in the beginning of the 6th grade year in about the Autumn of 1965 when the first new TV shows were coming on that season, that I lost all interest in watching television. It was because I accidentally tuned into the BBC one night, live from London, and didn't even realize what it was until I heard them talking about the problems with America and their new hippie generation. I just thought it was the most intellectual journalism I've ever heard as an 11 year old; it made our American news media by comparison to sound banal, or diluted. I realized then that these people in England knew more about us than we do.

I also want to make the distinction here that many seem to confuse, possibly. More so within the younger Generations today, that they may not know that the Beatles release of the Rubber Soul album in 1965 and then the Revolver album in 1966, contained different numbers on each album, depending whether it was released in England or the United States versions.
It was also not until about 1973 that I was attending art college and I was influenced by The Beatles Sergeant Pepper's album cover so I made a mock version of a crowd say sitting in a grandstand with faces transferred from Ink prints out of newspapers and magazines that my father informed me I could accomplish this. I didn't know at the time what he was referring to was something that the famous American pop visual artist, Robert Rauschenberg, invented, and showed the ink transfer process to Andy Warhol. I also later spoke on National Public Radio on the topic of a book they had that day in the author that wrote it, The 16th Minute of Short-lived Fame. The discussion was on the date of March 14th 2005 you can look up this live discussion in Google, and listen to these, as they're all archived at NPR. [*I actually held the record for calling in and speaking live on their program, for the last 7 years it was broadcast to affiliate NPR stations Across the Nation. 2005 ~ 2013. The host of the show, Neal Conan would occasionally have me speak first before his scheduled guests as they knew me as Mark the Artist and Astronomer in Portland Oregon.]

I probably heard rare inside news about the Beatles, that we were not hearing within our American News. It wasn't until a few years later just recently now in these past few years that I discovered the famous Canadian media analyst, Marshall Mcluhan, who was interviewed on the BBC one night, about his latest book the Medium is the Message, discussing of the harmful effects of watching television.
I probably also heard the famous British Astronomer of the Royal Astronomical Society, Patrick Moore.
I soon purchased my first serious astronomy telescope with my summer work earnings of berry picking money, fir $79.95.
Our parents were worried that I would no longer watch television. Our father came to my bedroom door one night and told me he wanted me to come out and watch a new program that was on this autumn in '65, and he knew I would like it because he said it was from England. it was The Avengers, with the famous British actress, Diana Rigg, playimg the part of Emma Peel and her sidekick John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee.
I could not have quantified it then but I realized that the Avengers was like a hip version of a later James Bond movie, that emulated The Beatles somewhat in its pop culture of England. It wasn't until later in the year of '65 or '66 that we saw the Beatles Help movie. I didn't realize until 2000 when I met and married a Hindu woman from India, that the music in the background of The Help movie and the entire theme of the story is All About a Hindu god and the Hindus chasing The Beatles.It was then in the BBC again that they mentioned that original James Bond theme on that guitar plucking the strings, that it was copied from a ancient Hindu folk song, played on a sitar.
So soon becoming an adjunct astronomy professor in a local University by age 50, in 2004, I found that I had gone full circle in my history studies of The Beatles music, marrying a Hindu wife, and all the other related things in the universe. Now at age 70, as of August 15th a couple months ago. I realized my accomplishments in life have culminated into a great new understanding, of life, and I may owe it mostly to the influence of The Beatles and British pop culture starting up my early age of 9 and a half, when I first saw them that night on The Ed Sullivan Show.

[chuckselvage]

It's one of the 3 that i like the most. Revolver, Sgt Pepper, and the White Album.

[macsnafu]

Revolver is an incredible album full of a diverse set of great songs and interesting sounds and lyrics. It's not just a bunch of love songs.

[RobertPizzo]

Arguably the greatest album ever made. And, my all time favorite album cover as well.

[davisbeane]

I love this album, maybe even more then rubber soul now

[ABDOSPIANO]

Cover art is the Mount Rushmore of Album covers 😂😂

[darkwingduck-cvtx]

Very, very interesting! Thanks for doing a great job.
Rgds from Germany

[MrCtsSteve]

I read a comment once ..the guy said if you look at the Beatles first 4-5 albums its basically Buddy Holly but when Rubber Soul and Revolver hit .... It blew the doors wide open.

[kjeldpedersen]

The Beatles’ biggest creative leap forward was “Revolver”. Period!
It kind of started on “Rubber Soul” and since the experiments got even wilder.
But this was the start of the new Beatles, releaved of thinking about whether they would be able to play the music live.
Still my all time favorite Beatles album.

[azloii]

2:41 Oh my god. Paul’s hair…😍😍😍I’m gonna die