My thoughts on why 'Revolver' has eclipsed 'Pepper' as the Beatles' masterpiece

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by action pact, Sep 11, 2018.

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  1. davidlg1971

    davidlg1971 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    If the Beatles were only a great rock and roll band, the "greatest album discussion" would be between Revolver, the White Album, and maybe Abbey Road.

    Such as it was, the Beatles were a lot more than a rock band, and Pepper is them at their most innovative and influential. I don't think it's as good as Abbey Road, but Abbey Road didn't define an era in the way Pepper did.
     
    mbleicher1, Hermes and SandAndGlass like this.
  2. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Since they are all good albums, I don't get the point.
     
  3. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    It's called "Talking about The Beatles for the sake of talking about The Beatles"...happens here a lot.
     
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  4. Hermes

    Hermes Past Master

    Location:
    Denmark
    Quoting another debate:

    "Pepper is just so lighthearted and fun and bright and escapist. Revolver has some amazing songs, but it tries way to hard at being profound."​
     
  5. Roger Thornhill

    Roger Thornhill Senior Member

    Location:
    Ilford, Essex, UK
    Pepper = Songs + context of 1967
    Revolver = Songs

    The further we go from 1967 and the fewer the numbers who recall Pepper as "an event" rather than just a record release, the more people just focus on the actual songs.
     
    Hootsmon, ohnothimagen and starduster like this.

  6. I blame Mike Love.
     
    Mark E. Moon. likes this.
  7. Him too!
     
    starduster likes this.
  8. tages

    tages Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I’d like to think Lennon had more depth than that. He knew a good melody when he heard one. Why would he put his name on it otherwise?
     
  9. tages

    tages Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    What? I thought the whole point of the Beatles was that they were much more than just Rock and Roll.

    “Good Day Sunshine” is an expression of pure joy with an infectious original melody to boot.

    The Beatles were many different amazing things!
     
    DocShipe likes this.
  10. dave9199

    dave9199 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Once Yoko came in it seems like Lennon had very little depth for McCartney anymore.
     
  11. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    It's a pure McCartney " granny" moment.
     
  12. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Sure, because at that point Lennon decided he was a SERIOUS ARTIST!!!!!, and as far as he was concerned Paul wasn't, McCartney was just a guy who wrote songs about "boring people doing boring things".
     
    mbleicher1 likes this.
  13. Solace

    Solace Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels, Belgium
    If we’re talking songs and creative zeitgeist, then Rubber Soul should eclipse Revolver in my opinion
     
    pmc7070 likes this.
  14. tages

    tages Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    And I love it!
     
  15. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Interestingly the one granny track I can tolerate is the one that gets slammed the most which is When I'm 64.
    For me it fits the context of the attempt at a concept of Pepper.
     
  16. peteham

    peteham Senior Member

    Location:
    Simcoe County
    That last bit about Revolver is one of the more asinine comments I have read here, and believe me, the competition is tough.
     
    mbleicher1 likes this.
  17. HE1NZ

    HE1NZ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Russia
    I find both Revolver and Pepper so emotionaly anemic. They are fooling around in the studio and not competing with anybody or among themselves. But at least Pepper has some vague concept about it and great sequencing. Revolver is just a bunch of tracks in random order. It's disjoined because each track is very different. The whole album seem very unmusical especially compared to beautiful Rubber Soul. For example I can never get into Eleanor Rigby. It's supposed to sound classical and pretty, but Paul seems like he's faking it. Maybe it's because I'm forced to listen to mono which I can't really enjoy anymore, but it's the only good way to listen to the album as of today. Same goes for the singles, I've no idea why Paperback Writer and Rain are supposed to be good. I didn't own Past Masters as a kid, so I have no nostalgia about them.

    Back to the thread, Rubber Soul is the Beatles masterpiece.
     
    rockerreds likes this.
  18. sekaer

    sekaer Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I'm not quite sure that Revolver has completely replaced Pepper as THE Beatles' album. Pepper's stock has certainly fallen, but I'd like to see a poll if not already done pitting Rubber Soul against Revolver, which as we know George thought of as Part 1 and 2 of the same thing.
     
  19. Bemagnus

    Bemagnus Music is fun

    Don t see any need to compare these-in different ways-brilliant and timeless albums
    What s the point ?
     
    Dan The Man1 and Jupitermadcat like this.
  20. Marc Perman

    Marc Perman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I don’t think Sgt. Pepper’s stock has fallen anywhere except in these endless SHF Beatles threads.
     
  21. Zapruder

    Zapruder Just zis guy, you know?

    Location:
    Ames, IA
    Record store clerk checking in, I can say that, at least with the under 30 crowd, Pepper's stock has fallen a bit and the white album reigns supreme.
     
    Dan The Man1 likes this.
  22. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    So Revolver is “very unmusical,” huh? I learn many new things on this forum every single day.
     
  23. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Ohhhhkay!
     
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  24. lbgarcia

    lbgarcia Senior Member

    Location:
    Fargo, ND
    I think both albums are masterpieces (whatever that brings to mind). I listen to Revolver, though, much like I listen to a
    band's best-of, or greatest hits. When I put on Sgt. Pepper I listen to it as a connected experience. I rarely play the full
    Revolver but I'm very likely to play the entire Sgt. Pepper. Understand that I am not making a case for Pepper's tunes
    as lyrically or thematically (or otherwise) connected but I hear the album as a distinct whole vs. Revolver's individual
    tracks. Perhaps some of that has to do with hearing individual Revolver songs on the radio (and much less Pepper on the radio).
     
  25. NYSPORTSFAN

    NYSPORTSFAN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Howell, Michigan
    I think it's pretty easy why certain people think Revolver is greater than Sgt. Peppers as many view Revolver as a clear stepping point to Sgt. Peppers.

    Sgt. Peppers like Revolver is an extremely eclectic pop rock album of musical styles with various different sounds and recording techniques. Psychedelia was pretty new when The Beatles were creating songs like "I'm Only Sleeping", "Tomorrow Never Never Knows", "Love You To" and "She Said She Said" and all had little precedent. Songs like "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "I'm Only Sleeping" had to invent new sounds from scratch to create the sounds they wanted to make. Hence why The Beatles were worried the album might not be well received.

    Rather than just appropriate guitars the Beatles used backward tapes, created tape looped sound collages and manipulated in all sorts of manner backwards, forward and sped up,and use of Indian instruments to create their brand of Psychedelic Rock.

    I see definite similarities to "Eleanor Rigby" and "She's Leaving Home" as there is no beat instruments it's just vocals and string arrangement,. "Got To Get You Into M Life" is somewhat similar to "Good Morning Good Morning " as well as "Love You To" and Within Without You"
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2018
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