Revolver is the Beatles' most revolutionary album*

I've feel this way about Revolver too. I think it's possible that "Yesterday...and Today" combined with the pared down US Revolver, may have diluted the revolutionary punch the album would've had here in the USA if they had released it with the UK running order and directly after Rubber Soul.

I wonder what the 60s UK Beatles fans thought of Revolver? (since they experienced it that way)

 

As Mai Tem Baht says above, you had to have been there...... and I was. Revolver is a fantastic album, I loved it then and I still love it now. They were releasing albums roughly twice a year at the time and Revolver was a quantum leap from Rubber Soul (another superb album). But, they were still a guitar-based band. Then everything went quiet for a while. Rumours abounded. Weird song titles were suggested. Then along came Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane. Suddenly, seemingly, no longer a guitar-based band. This is pop music like we’ve never heard before. And soon after, Sgt Pepper in all its glory. There was NOTHING in the pop/rock world like it. The guitars and drums were, for the first time (ok, I’ll give you Yesterday. Eleanor Rigby, etc), buried in the glorious sound collage such as we’d never heard before.

Is Pepper a better, more revolutionary, album than Revolver? Looking back, I don’t know but I do know that, at the time, it most certainly was!

 

Pepper can't touch Revolver for pop musical innovation IMO.

 

This, this, this - all day long!

 

Yeh, if you are deaf! Sorry!

 

Revolver consistently gets more praise these days, particularly among non-Baby Boomers. It has better songs on it, for the most part, which is probably the main reason.

 

For this UK fan at least, Revolver felt like the inevitable consequence of Rubber Soul.

 

Revolver was revolutionary compared to Rubber Soul (which I love).

I hear two major American influences on Revolver (among several other influences): the musical experimentation of The Byrds, and the innovative use of the studio by Brian Wilson. The latter is particularly apparent on the mono mix, where the studio plays a major role in the blend of musical sounds. Rubber Soul was a great bunch of songs sequenced onto an LP, but Revolver was The Beatles first album, in the way Pet Sounds was an album.

And kudos to George Martin, for abandoning his highly successful studio approach to help the band achieve the sound they were looking for.

 

Well said....

 

So out of interest I'm most of the way through pepper (the 5.1 ... and i know that irks some folks, but i reckon its great)
Here is what is striking me...
1 - Yes, as the person up there said, there is very little in the way of prominent guitars on this album.
2 - to some degree, and it's not a criticism, there is much more in the way of novelty songs on pepper ... i mean they are some of the most exquisitely put together novelty songs ever put on tape, but novelty songs ...
3 - correct me if I'm wrong as i havent heard or seen the vinyl since the eighties.... but side one ends with the sensational and poignant she's leaving home and side two ends with the quite amazing a day in the life.

Pepper is wonderful candy
Revolver is wonderful steak

It's hard to compare them in the sense that they are polar opposites.
Most innovative ... listening to them now and as someone who only really heard them for the first time in the eighties ... i couldn't say ... too hard

 

Can't say I care in the slightest which is more revolutionary but I prefer Revolver. UK version is almost as awesome as their pinnacle Yesterday & Today, partially because it recycles 3 of the best tracks

 

Pinnacle and two Ringo tracks.
Does not reconcile

 

One of them has some of John's coolest guitar playing ever

 

This is something I've been wondering about for some time. Why DOES Revolver sound so different from Rubber Soul? The only significant change in personnel is Geoff Emerick (if I'm not mistaken) Was it because of him? Would an engineer have that much freedom in making the record sound one way or another?

 

Despite my lack of love for Taxman, I would say that Revolver is mostly amazingly consistent. It is an easy listen. I think Sgt. Pepper has slightly higher highs (A Day in the Life, Lucy..), but I think Revolver is an easier listen. Both are amazing, without a doubt.

 

I will. Side One of Sgt. Pepper ends with Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

 

Please

 

Reading Paul's bio "Many Years From Now", Geoff Emerick really was the vital ingredient in the Revolver sound, not George Martin.

 

cheers mate. it's been a while

 

Remember that in the US Revolver had fewer songs, and so wasn't the complete vision the Beatles had created.

For me, Revolver is their greatest album (but not my favorite).

 

I don't think so.

Not that my experience necessarily stands for everyone else's, but I didn't hear the stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper till at least two years after the fact, possibly longer. I had a lot of friends that were music heads like me, and none of them had the stereo Sgt. Pepper LP.

The phasing out of mono in favor of stereo LPs that would play on a mono record player without damage didn't happen till late '67/early '68, IIRC.

There were still a great number of mono systems in the U.S. when Sgt. Pepper came out, and (at least in the case of The Beatles' primary audience) probably only a very small number of stereo systems that would come anywhere close to audiophile quality. Those who had stereo systems probably mainly had the sort I got by 1969 or so, an all-in-one with a flip down turntable and detachable speakers.

Of course, the mono Sgt. Pepper has sonic innovations of its own that don't depend on stereo, but I really don't think the greater number of listeners first heard the album in stereo. And I'm betting all that I'm saying here was even more strongly the case in the UK. The fact that a mono White Album was released there a year and a half after Sgt. Pepper attests to this.

 

Definitely it hurts Revolver that it was butchered by Capitol Records. The UK Revolver is at least an equal musical statement to Sgt Pepper, if not more so. If you can, please do get Revolver in mono, there are some interesting musical additions there.

 

Revolver sounds like an actual band. By comparison, Pepper sounds like 4 guys were jacking around too long in the studio, with too many extra elements. They lost something when they stopped playing live, which they never recaptured.

 

Thanks manco!
So, does the engineer set up all the mics, and get all the sounds ready for the Producer?