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Reviewing a Beatles album today is like writing a report on the '82 World Cup for the Gazzetta dello Sport. If you write more than 10 words, you are mathematically bound to commit plagiarism, or state the obvious. But I'll try anyway.
Is there anything that hasn't been said about the Beatles?
They are the most talked about, the most plundered, the most hated, the most loved. The covers of their songs are countless, in the thousands, both the punk and irreverent ones and the tributes, performed by the most diverse musicians.
It's hard to "give to the Beatles what is the Beatles'." Turned into a cultural phenomenon, they have found themselves in the midst of something much bigger than them that would have happened anyway. They certainly didn't fuel rebellion, long hair, etcetera, but for many young people of the time, they were an excuse to transgress the precepts of mom and dad and play revolutionaries...
Musically speaking, they are the immense melting pot where all the genres and trends of their era fuse, sometimes successfully, sometimes a bit awkwardly and falling, I'm sorry to say, into the ridiculous: see "Helter Skelter," a pathetic imitation of the Who's "hard" sound and the like... It almost endears you.
They are the most underrated and simultaneously the most overrated band: there are those who say "the Beatles didn't invent a damn thing" and those who say "don't touch them, they made music history".
The fact is, both parties are right: no musician can say they invented something from scratch, not even -or least of all- Mozart. It would be like saying Chuck Berry had an epiphany and invented rock 'n' roll, Jelly Roll Morton invented Jazz, and the Maiden created Metal.
There's simply those who influenced or innovated more (Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground, and the Beatles obviously) and those who less (Mino Reitano...), but music is about influencing each other, emulating and synthesizing, finally reaching one's personal style, an "artistic maturity."
With Rubber Soul, it became clear that the Beatles didn't make music just to pick up girls. With Revolver, they start to get really serious.
More than the overrated Sgt. Pepper, Revolver is the emblem of this work of synthesis that the Beatles accomplished.
It has almost everything: the blues rock riffs ("Taxman"), chamber music ("Eleanor Rigby"), the children's rhyme (guess...), the "sophisticated" pop (the excellent, little-known McCartney piece "For No One"), the psychedelia that exploits the studio effects that were coming into vogue in those years ("Tomorrow Never Knows": it sounds modern even today, a
cross between the Chemical Brothers and the minimalist electronics of Radiohead). There's Harrison's sitar and social satire; McCartney's pop tricks and the song of lost love; the sarcasm and Eastern philosophy of the troubled Lennon. And of course, the inevitable reference to drugs (Got to get you into my life is supposedly a sincere declaration of love from Macca to cocaine).
"Maybe there's too much stuff... There's the risk of just making a big mess," you might think. I don't know, you be the judge...
There is no doubt, however, that in '66 Revolver was a current album at the edge of pioneering, the result of curious and receptive minds exploring the clubs and emerging groups - as well as their own minds - searching for the new and the unexplored.
Not everyone knows, for example, that McCartney, even before the other Beatles, was one of the first fans of Pink Floyd when no one else paid attention to them except the college hippies.
In short, the euphoric atmosphere of swinging London, a human and musical growth, the frenetic changes of the '60s, all of this ended up inside Revolver. And you can feel it. Man, can you feel it...
I close beautifully by listing some particularly successful Beatles covers:
Hey Jude - Wilson Pickett:
it's monumental. the absolute best version, with a 21-year-old Duane Allman on guitar, in top form. it was the recording of this song that earned him the nickname Skyman, coined by Pickett.
"With a Little Help From My Friends" - Joe Cocker:
the one from Woodstock. According to McCartney, the best version ever.
"Help" - Deep Purple:
what can I say.
some others:
"Daytripper" - Jimi Hendrix
"Come Together" - Aerosmith
"Yesterday" - Ray Charles
"Hey Bulldog" - Afterhours
"Blackbird" - Crosby Stills Nash & Young
"Strawberry Fields Forever" - Peter Gabriel
"I Am The Walrus" - Frank Zappa
"She Came In Thru The Bathroom Window" - Joe Cocker
"And I Love Her" - Bob Marley
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Taxman (02:41)
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet
Taxman
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Don't ask me what I want it for (ha ha Mr. Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more (ha ha Mr. Heath)
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die (Taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes (Taxman)
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me (Taxman)
02 Eleanor Rigby (02:10)
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window
Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong
Father McKenzie,
Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby,
Died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie
Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from
All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong
05 Here, There and Everywhere (02:28)
To lead a better life,
I need my love to be here.
Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there's something there.
There, running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but she doesn't know he's there.
I want her everywhere
And if she's beside me I know I need never care.
But to love her is to need her
Everywhere, knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there.
I want her everywhere
And if she's beside me I know I need never care.
But to love her is to need her
Everywhere, knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there.
I will be there, and everywhere.
Here, there and everywhere.
06 Yellow Submarine (02:42)
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Till we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
And our friends are all aboard
Many more of them live next door
And the band begins to play
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
(Full speed ahead Mr. Boatswain, full speed ahead
Full speed ahead it is, Sgt.
Cut the cable, drop the cable
Aye, Sir, aye
Captain, captain)
As we live a life of ease
Every one of us has all we need
Sky of blue and sea of green
In our yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
11 Doctor Robert (02:17)
Ring, my friend I said you'd call
Doctor Robert
Day or night he'll be there any time at all
Doctor Robert
Doctor Robert
You're a new and better man
He helps you to understand
He does everything he can
Doctor Robert
If you're down he'll pick you up
Doctor Robert
Take a drink from his special cup
Doctor Robert
Doctor Robert
He's a man you must believe
Helping anyone in need
No one can succeed like
Doctor Robert
Well, well, well, you're feeling fine
Well, well, well, he'll make you
Doctor Robert
My friend works for the National Health
Doctor Robert
Don't pay money just to see yourself
Doctor Robert
Doctor Robert
You're a new and better man
He helps you to understand
He does everything he can
Doctor Robert
Well, well, well, you're feeling fine
Well, well, well, he'll make you
Doctor Robert
Ring, my friend I said you'd call
Doctor Robert
Doctor Robert
12 I Want to Tell You (02:32)
I want to tell you,
My head is filled with things to say,
When you're here,
All those words,
They seem to slip away.
When I get near you,
The games begin to drag me down,
It's alright,
I'll make you make me next time around.
But if I seem to act unkind,
It's only me,
It's not my mind,
That is the confusing thing.
I want to tell you,
I feel hung up,
But I don't know why,
I don't mind,
I could wait forever,
I've got time.
Sometimes I wish I knew you well,
Then I could speak my mind and tell you,
Maybe you'd understand.
I want to tell you,
I feel hung up,
But I don't know why,
I don't mind,
I could wait forever,
I've got time.
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Other reviews
By DanteCruciani
"The Beatles are the greatest band of all time, it seems obvious to me."
"I could never explicitly say how much I loved the Beatles because it wouldn’t be appropriate for a serious music critic... In the Beatles, there was something mystical, AND I love them."
By sausalito
"Revolver is emblematic ... the weakest record in the band's mature discography."
"A record where the disparity between fame and actual value is evident."
By JohnWinston
"Revolver is tinged with psychedelia, ballads, rhythm & blues, nursery rhymes... everything contributes a bit to the creation of this timeless masterpiece."
"Tomorrow Never Knows is the masterpiece within the masterpiece, a drumbeat that hypnotizes the subconscious and leads the psychedelic explosion of 1967."
By david81
Revolver is a revolutionary LP that anticipates the times to come by a year.
A must-have album for every respectable music collection: a Brunello di Montalcino of music!!
By miraggio2
With Revolver, they really started to get serious.
Tomorrow Never Knows still sounds modern today, a cross between the Chemical Brothers and the minimalist electronics of Radiohead.
