Revolver is the Beatles' most revolutionary album*

I love the alternate photos from the back of Revolver..when I was a kid, the black and white one on the back cover looked like they were hanging in a parking lot.

 

Yeah they do. Love that cover front and back.

 

Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" album came out at the exact same time as "Revolver." There is definitely an argument that can be made that this song, which is very much in the same vein as "Love You To," is every bit as good as it:

 

Revolver is guitar rock music - and have the better songs. Rubber Soul (UK) had even better ones, but the sound of Revolver is so modern..
The sound of Pepper is even better than Revolver's, and the best songs from the sessions are fantastic.
The songs of Pepper are generally not the best though and the album would probably be better if some of them were replaced with Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Octopussys Garden.

 

more on my opinion of Revolver being about death, and therefore more of a concept album than Pepper.
Only 2 of the songs as far as I can see, don't deal directly with the subject but that makes sense as the Beatles were never monolithic and to have death, you also have to have life and childhood.
Taxman-now my advice for those who die
Elenor Rigby - died in the...
I'm Only Sleeping - death of the conscious.
Love You To - love me while you can before I'm a dead old man.
Here There and Everywhere - true love never dies.
Yellow Submarine - to have death you have to have life, so this deals with childhood escapism. death of reality!
She Said She Said - I know what it's like to be dead.

Good Day Sunshine - as with childhood, you need to appreciate love and your surroundings and since the Fabs are not monolithic this firmly celebrates life.
And Your Bird Can Sing - death of materialism. the bird got broken so I guess it died too ..when your prized possessions start to weigh you down...
For No One - when she says her love is dead.
Dr. Robert - death of sobriety.
I Want To Tell You - death of communication.
Got To Get You - more death of sobriety this time from Paul's view:0
Tomorrow Never Knows - do I even need to explain this?

 

Because it was more influential. That simply means that more people heard it and were inspired by it to do something in a similar vein.

Being the first doesn't matter for influence. Influence is about being the particular thing that people are inspired by (or less charitably, are copying). Something very derivative can easily be more influential than something original. And revolutions hinge on being influenced.

 

i don't know? where i came across this, so, really shouldn't put it out... but, swear somewhere i came across Lennon saying at one point he ate tabs like candy to the point he was seeing things in black & white... nothing to do with the Revolver cover, as i would think that excess came later

 

Revolver: How the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock 'n' Roll https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617130095/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZCmoBbCPXPVHK


Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles, and the World in 1967 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623545269/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_sEmoBb2XV02YC


Sgt. Pepper at Fifty: The Mood, the Look, the Sound, the Legacy of the Beatles' Great Masterpiece https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454923784/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MFmoBbV68ABPK

 

When George Harrison called two Beatles albums "volume 1 and 2" I think he meant Revolver & Sgt Pepper NOT Rubber Soul & Revolver.

 

Revolver is a landmark album, and the only Beatles album I can honestly say that I Love.
I never connected with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band except for a few songs ("A Day In The Life", "She's Leaving Home", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Being For The Benefit
Of Mr. Kite").

 

Paul’s reading a text from the future. The Beatles invented everything.

 

She Loves You was more revolutionary than Sgt. Pepper.
I Want To Hold Your Hand also was.

 

I recall him saying this in the Anthology documentary, right? My memory is he specifically names Rubber Soul and Revolver.

 

Ya never know.

 

Rubber Soul was marijuana. Revolver and Sgt. Pepper share the LSD experience but with different faces.

 

No, don't try so hard! The very first line is "In the town where I was born lived a man..." so he 'lived', now means he's dead.

 

i lived in Australia ... i don't now, but i'm not dead .... am i? ..... oh damn, maybe this is an illusion and i am .... help me obi wan, help me obi wan....

 

Correct....... Rubber Soul & Revolver, not Revolver & Sgt Pepper

 

The larger narrative is how they were constantly innovating every few months. They literally forced everyone else to up their game. F.e., I don't think we get Brian Wilson doing "Pet Sounds" and "SMiLE" without Rubber Soul.

 

According to Wikipedia, the US Sunshine Superman album was released on Friday, August 26, 1966. That day was the first of two days off for the Beatles before their final two concerts on Sunday, August 28, and (lump in throat) Monday, August 29. Maybe they heard Donovan’s album at that point.

If not, they may have had to wait until June 1967. Due to contractual disputes between Donovan’s record labels, a Sunshine Superman album wasn’t released in the UK until the following June (!), combining 12 of the 20 tracks from the US Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums (including the excellent Three King Fishers).

 

revolver was released a month prior to the US sunshine anyhow

 

Faul. New member, new sound!

 

a nice try, at least

 

When "Revolver" came out in late summer '66, I was pretty unimpressed.

Cheesy cover that looks like some teenager's bad pencil drawing, and an album with a mixed bag of great, good, average and dreadful tunes. Yes, it was filled with studio trickery that was cutting edge at the time, but if the songs are uneven, studio trickery is unlikely to salvage them.

Give me "Rubber Soul" every day of the week. Or, for that matter, I'll take Sgt. Pepper, which has been slagged far too often by revisionists bent on diminishing its merits...especially by people who weren't there in the summer of '67 to feel and hear what it sounded like.