So why is The Beatles’ Revolver on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Just as there are endless ways to listen to and think about music, there are endless ways to think about The Beatles.
I realized at some point that I automatically bucket the band’s albums into “early,” “middle,” and “late” career phases, and at the same time I tie those eras to what was going on more broadly in pop culture and the world.
That’s a long-winded way of getting into how much and how quickly things changed during the 1960s. And the time period of 1965-1967 is one I come back to again and again.
Incredible music was being produced, including some of my most favorite albums from the likes of The Doors, The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and Bob Dylan.
It was a time of wild experimentation, but importantly it also was mostly still anchored in more traditional styles and formats. To put it in style terms: the sideburns were getting longer and the overall vibe shaggier, but not too long or too shaggy. Not just yet.
Revolver represents this pocket of time best of all and for that reason – on top of an eclectic and wildly great set of 14 tracks – it swings in as #14 of the best 1,000 albums ever.
Perhaps proving my point in a sense, my favorite song on Revolver is “Eleanor Rigby,” which manages to be an insanely inventive pop/rock song that feels surprisingly traditional at the same time.
But really, most importantly, it’s a powerhouse of a song.
I’ve gone on at some length in other pieces about how extraordinary the Peter Jackson-directed Beatles documentary Get Back is, so I’ll tread lightly here. I simply can never get enough of the pure magic of witnessing songs that we know to be carved-in-stone iconic spring to life in seeming “real time” while we witness these four immensely talented musicians plying their craft.
I was reminded of this while reading about Paul McCartney’s introduction of an early version of “Eleanor Rigby” to his bandmates (as well as Lennon’s childhood friend, Pete Shotton) at John’s house in Kenwood.
Specifically, what stood out to me was the sheer brilliance of Ringo Starr suggesting the line, “writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear.” That line has always struck me as profound, expanding upon the gorgeous and slightly haunting loneliness that “Eleanor Rigby” conveys.
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?
And on a final note on this song, it’s also one of the best uses of strings I’ve ever heard in a rock song.
Whereas “Eleanor Rigby” is glorious pop melancholy, I love how “Taxman,” the George Harrison-written album opener, is instead snappy and staccato rock rhythms, ever so slightly psychedelic – which is usually the precisely right level of psychedelic, really – and overall a scathing satire of 1960s-era sky-high tax rates that hit everyone from the working class to the ultra-wealthy.
For a band that was typically all you need is love and I want to hold your hand vibes up until that point, it’s a rather refreshing and revealing number to throw into the mix. But most importantly, it absolutely rocks.
Each track on Revolver builds (revolves?) into another that is completely different and singularly great.
Doctor Robert, a Lennon ode to a drug dealer, is dreamy and rocking for its first minute, perfectly delightful. But then its swing into an organ-based choir-style harmony never fails to melt my brain.
Well, well, well, you’re feeling fine
Well, well, well, he’ll make you
Doctor Robert
“I’m Only Sleeping” ups the ante on the psychedelic factor, and I completely buy into it. Also: dig the George Harrison backwards guitar solo on this one. The Doors would follow suit here, in a way, with Ray Manzarek’s trippy and wonderful backwards organ arrangement on Strange Days’ “Unhappy Girl.”
“And Your Bird Can Sing” feels like it would fit in seamlessly on any number of Beatles’ albums, but that takes nothing away from how beautiful it is – harmonies and Harrison’s guitar vying with one another spectacularly.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” is a trippy and experimental voyage that also taps into the band’s influence from Indian musical forms (and for even more Indian influence: check out “Love You To”). It will also forever hold a place in my heart as it’s featured in the sixth season of Mad Men, specifically as a means to highlight how out of place Don Draper was starting to feel in a rapidly changing culture.
The Beatles were a fundamental part of pushing pop culture forward during the 1960s, and Revolver captures them at a fascinating moment where everything was possible and every experiment worked on its own and in perfect harmony with the rest of the musical lab.
Some stats & info about The Beatles – Revolver
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? British Bands, Rock Music, Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock, Pop Music, British Invasion
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #11
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Revolver released? 1966
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #14 out of 1,000
The Beatles’ Revolver on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Beatles’ Revolver that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
All the lonely people – where do they all come from?
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.