U.S. Revolver?

That echoes what I just wrote! Funny: I really only lived with US "Revolver" for 8 years, whereas I've mainly played UK version for nearly 30 years and yet the US track order remains stuck in my head!

I guess initial experiences can be tough to overcome. A more extreme case: the LP and CD versions of Big Country's "The Crossing" swap the placement of 2 songs. I got the LP Christmas 1983 and bought the CD New Year's Eve 1984, so I had exactly 53 weeks in which I listened to the LP - once I bought the CD, it was all I ever played.

So that's one year LP, nearly 32 years CD - and I still expect the original LP sequencing when I play the CD!

 

You're picking a compilation patched together by the record company to sell more albums in the US as their best LP?

 

If you're short on time, play the UK version - just skip the tracks you don't want to hear!

If I'm gonna skip 3 songs, it ain't gonna be the 3 absent from the US version!

 

I wonder what the reaction would've been like if Capitol had issued "Revolver" with the 3 songs they'd already used on "Y&T"...

 

No. It's not a real album. It's a collection of songs that only occurred because of the disparities in UK and US releases.

 

Just because "Y&T" was cobbled together from bits and pieces doesn't make it bad - it's still a really good collection.

"Meet the Beatles" was another Frankenstein job but it's still arguably superior to any other 1963/64 Beatles albums!

 

When I was 4 I went into Strawbridge and Clothier ' record department and spent an hour looking closely at every Beatles record cover and deciding what I was going to purchase as my second LP, already having the Yellow Submarine album my parents got me after taking me to the movie. I picked Yesterday and Today and brought home an album that sounded light years better than Yellow Submarine to me, as it was mostly the sound of a blazing rock group without all those silly overdubs. It opened my ears to music that became a lifelong passion. I listened to that album several times a day for a year or so before getting another album, more concentrated and more total listening than I have ever given any album. I then bought all the albums pictured on its back cover, which contained lots of great stuff but none quite as good.

4.5 decades later I have not found any rock album that I enjoy as much. So to clarify, I am not calling it their best LP, I am calling it the best LP by a rock band (for my jazz selection, see avatar).

When I learned years later that it was sequenced by Dave Dexter rather than George Martin that really made no difference at all to me. And the biggest impression I had when I started getting their UK LPs was that a lot of the tracks sounded worse and they left off the catches songs.

And realistically, the UK Revolver is a compilation that reissued songs originally issued on Y&T.

Y&T also probably has a higher proportion of rocking songs than any other Beatles LP, not that rockingness is a sign of quality (and it also has one of their very best mellow tunes) but it does make it fun. A great flip side to the folking US Rubber Soul.

 

I owned Y and T and I certainly enjoyed listening to it, but even at the time, and I was maybe 10 years old, I had a sense that something weird was going on and I was getting hosed.

 

Yesterday and Today is a great listen, but it doesn't justify chopping three songs from what is arguably the greatest Beatle album. Fortunately it ended after this. Can you imagine if they had removed three songs from Sgt. Pepper?

 

Depends on the songs!

Part of the issue with the truncated "Revolver" is that it removed good songs. "Bird" is arguably one of the band's greatest songs ever, and the other 2 are very good - "Dr. Robert" seems to earn a lot of disparagement, but I like it.

Not sure what the "Pepper's" equivalent of the 3 removed "Revolver" songs would be...

 

Remove She's Leaving Home and Within You Without You and I would have probably liked it better, though I would still want to have those songs available elsewhere. Replace them with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields and there is no doubt of it.

 

I had the same feeling with the Yellow Submarine and Hey Jude albums when I was 10-11-12 years old.

 

Well, they did sort of remove Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever by releasing them as a single to please the record execs and the masses.

 

The 'Hey Jude album' definitely had hosing written all over it.

 

Me too!

 

The thought of having Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields on Pepper is awesome, but we'd never agree on what songs to remove in their place. Within You Without You and She's Leaving Home are two of my favorites. Whether or not Pepper is the best Beatles album (that's an argument for a different thread), it's the most culturally iconic, and chopping it up seems especially sacrilegious.

About Revolver - taking a more charitable view - before Pepper, I don't think there was as much feeling about rock albums being works unto themselves - it was still largely viewed as a song-based genre. Capitol records certainly saw it that way. With later hindsight, we can see how artistically wrong their handling of it was.

 

Bill Miller, actually (he also 'sequenced' the US Revolver - that must have been difficult )

 

Well, they do make the jump to light speed, like twice, on that album.

 

No reason other than faded memories of owning this version ,worthless compared to UK version

 

Well put

 

I think WYAWY is integral to the album.

'She's Leaving Home', not so much (the only thing saving it is the earnest Lennon backing vocals, which sound out of character for him).

If Capitol would have ripped out 'She's Leaving Home' and another song ('Good Morning' maybe), and replaced them with SFF and PL, that would only improve the album, imo.

 

Keep your hands off "Good Morning Good Morning" - that's my favorite song on the whole album!!!

 

Settle for a B-side?

Or a Magical Mystery Tour LP appearance?

 

Hard to make a case, except I myself never heard the UK version until the 1980's--nor had I even known of the differences until imports hit the cut-out bins in the 70's and 80's (no internet to inform us!). Bought Revolver when it was released in 1966, and I find the UK version (that the Beatles intended) to be jarring, if only because ...you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Capital's Rubber Soul is by far the better version (sorry, just my opinion of course)...it is a more serious folk rock album and includes the two tracks that appeared on the UK's HELP! lp. A must-have to my ears. Rubber Soul was assembled quite beautifully by a Capitol guy who has been praised for his insight and taste in compiling the sometimes maligned US album set list. I personally love both USA albums best...and that is only likely because I grew up with them I am sure.

I can definitely understand that those who were introduced to Revolver and Rubber Soul in more recent years (with the "proper" UK set list) would absolutely find those Capital records to be lacking! And of course UK denizens would likely find the Capital records to be appalling!

Of course I own all versions and love them, but will always prefer my mono Capital mixes & set-lists when playing the vinyl.