What about the album?

more information about the revolutionary album

Revolver is the seventh album by The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous, folk rock inspired Rubber Soul. It reached #1 on the UK chart for seven weeks and #1 on the U.S. chart for six weeks.

It was released before the Beatles' last tour in August 1966, but they did not perform songs from the album live. Their reasoning for this was that many of the tracks on the album, for example "Tomorrow Never Knows", were too complex to perform with live instruments.

Melodic diversity and innovation in the studio

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A key production technique used for the first time on this album was automatic double tracking (ADT), invented by EMI engineer Ken Townsend on 6 April 1966. This technique used two linked tape recorders to automatically create a doubled vocal track. The standard method was to double the vocal by singing the same piece twice onto a multitrack tape, a task Lennon particularly disliked. The Beatles were reportedly delighted with the invention, and used it extensively on Revolver. ADT quickly became a standard pop production technique, and led to related developments, including the artificial chorus effect.

Heralding the psychedelic era

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In many respects, Revolver is one of the very first psychedelic LPs — not only in its numerous shifts in mood and production texture, but in its innovative manipulation of amplification and electronics to produce new sounds on guitars and other instruments. Specific, widely heralded examples would include the backwards riffs of "I'm Only Sleeping," the sound effects of "Yellow Submarine," the sitar of "Love You To," the blurry guitars of "She Said, She Said," and above all the seagull chanting, buzzing drones, megaphone vocals, free-assocation philosophizing, and varispeed tape effects of "Tomorrow Never Knows."

The most light-hearted track on Revolver is the childlike "Yellow Submarine." McCartney said that he wrote "Yellow Submarine" as a children's song for Starr to sing. With the help of their EMI production team, the Beatles overdubbed stock sound effects they found in the Abbey Road studio tape library.

In 1972, Lennon offered some context for the influence of drugs on the Beatles' creativity (quoted in The Beatles Anthology):

"It's like saying, 'Did Dylan Thomas write Under Milk Wood on beer?' What does that have to do with it? The beer is to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you. The drugs are to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you. They don't make you write any better. I never wrote any better stuff because I was on acid or not on acid."

Tracklisting

Side one
• 1. "Taxman" – 2:39
• 2. "Eleanor Rigby" – 2:08
• 3. "I'm Only Sleeping" – 3:02
• 4. "Love You To" – 3:01
• 5. "Here, There and Everywhere" – 2:26
• 6. "Yellow Submarine" – 2:40
• 7. "She Said She Said" – 2:37

Side two
• 1. "Good Day Sunshine – 2:10
• 2. "And Your Bird Can Sing" – 2:02
• 3. "For No One" – 2:02
• 4. "Doctor Robert" – 2:15
• 5. "I Want to Tell You" – 2:30
• 6. "Got to Get You into My Life" – 2:31
• 7. "Tomorrow Never Knows" – 2:57