Beatles "Revolver"

During the early days of the Beatles their sound was mainly dominated by a joyous commercial 1960’s pop rock radio friendly sound. With their success they paved the way for the groundbreaking term "The British Invasion."  With its R&B and Folk styling’s on the Beatles album “Rubber Soul,” we begin to see the attitude in their music change in to a more serious, raw, rebellious and true perspective that connects to the soul searching masses of the young counter culture.

Revolver went further with its Motown, and Classical Indian influences.  The Beatles also explored a touch of a children song influence as well as orchestral instrumentation and elements of electro-acoustic music.  These additions in musical taste were expanded by the Beatles newfound journeys into the mind on their well-documented LSD explorations.  The Beatles even accredited the writing of the song “She Said She Said” to one of the early experiments on LSD with actor Peter Fonda.  This newfound exploration in to the psyche gave way to the Beatles further pursuit of new ideas and thinking most particularly from an Eastern viewpoint most notably with guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

To push the envelope further the Beatles used the studio as an instrument.  The members would record loops at home and bring them back into the studio for insertion into a certain project.  It is said that the seagull sounds heard in “Tomorrow Never Knows” was from a recording of McCartney’s guitars brought in from home.  Furthermore, with the likes of reverse guitar recordings, compression on the drums, vocals and guitars and the newfound technique of artificial double tracking (ADT), the Beatles were able to take the sound on Revolver to new heights.  It is said that Lennon had a difficult time reproducing performances for vocal doubling. On Revolver, Lennon proposed the idea of ADT and use studio techniques of basic rerecording that today we would call copy and paste with a slight delay offset to do so. With the use of ADT and compression the album was able to achieve a deeper and more in your face presence.

Revolver as a whole leaves me in awe of the effects and processing used throughout the album.  Each song on this masterpiece embodies an against the grain, opposition to the norm type of feel musically and lyrically. I love the use of different instruments such as the sitar and the outside the box thinking when it comes to new studio techniques that were employed. Overall the final mix of the album really reaches out of the speakers and grabs you emotionally.  A very enjoyable experience all around as an engineer and music lover.