The Beatles - Revolver

The Beatles, an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 and one of the most commercially and internationally successful acts in the history of popular music. Prior to recording of Revolver The Beatles had a very pop and commercial like sound that was designed to sell records. Similar to the early Beach Boys, majority of The Beatles songs were composed and arranged to deliver a complete story like album, with lyrics consisting of love and relationship filled messages. 

The Beatles album “Revolver” had a substantial amount of non-musical influences such as psychedelic drugs like LSD, Marijuana, and also a large amount of alcohol. Paul McCartney and John Lennon also met and spent an abundant amount of time with many influential people during these times that would also impact their creativity.

Revolver marked the beginning of The Beatles really experimenting in the recording studio. The use of the studio as an instrument during the recording of Revolver is abrupt from the start of the album. The Beatles introduced a variety of studio sounds while a countdown happens. The Beatles are also credited as being the first band to use Direct Input to record their guitars through a recording console. Revolver was also the first record that used compression as a sonic tool by using over compression on the drums to make them sound more mysterious. They also used artificial double tracking to thicken their sound by delaying the vocal track. Aside from literally hearing the studio, Revolver is heavily populated with various effects that could not be reproduced live.

As an industry professional, what intrigues me the most about the Revolver album is the risk that the Beatles were willing to take. With such an experimental composition the lyrics and instruments seemed to mesh well to create an overlapping theme of euphoria that is essential in understanding the Revolver album. I am grateful for all the new innovations and new studio techniques that this album has to offer.


References: 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_(album)


Album Art:


http://thepicturehouse.org/films?field_genere_value_many_to_one%5B%5D=Music+and+Film