REVOLVER “Listen to the colour of your dreams” says John Lennon on Revolver’s psychedelic landmark Tomorrow Never Knows. The Beatles did just that – and they created a masterpiece. Steve Harnell tunes in… 18 John and Paul signing autographs for fans as they arrive at EMI studios, Abbey Road, for a rehearsal during the recording of what would become Revolver, 22 June 1966 Les Lee/Express/Getty Images Lee/Express/Getty Les t may only have been a fleeting In April 1966, The Rolling Stones, album alongside George Martin. It was moment, but for a brief period, driven by the vision of exotic multi- hardly the most auspicious of starts for England’s bustling capital was at instrumentalist Brian Jones, had what has arguably become their the epicentre of the pop cultural mirrored the ‘Swinging London’ ethos crowning achievement. Iuniverse. ‘Swinging London’ has and ideology with Aftermath, but four The difference between their since descended into the realms of months later Revolver captured the previous album Rubber Soul and newsreel montage cliché, but in 1966 zeitgeist to an even greater degree. Revolver is, in essence, that between the thrilling adventurousness and two very different thought processes. diversity of its creative forces in FILLED WITH THINGS TO SAY Even though it stretches its legs music, film, theatre and fashion was Originally, manager Brian Epstein had sonically – in particular its use of the the envy of the entire world. envisaged that 1966 should follow a sitar on Norwegian Wood – Rubber Soul The climate was of experimentalism similar itinerary to the previous two was still constructed under the and freedom, throwing off the shackles years, with The Beatles making a third restrictions that it had to be replicated of post-war austerity. From the rise of movie and an accompanying live – or at least an approximation of it. working class heroes like Michael soundtrack album and undertaking With Revolver all bets were off. The Caine, Terence Stamp and Sean extensive summer touring. But when band were resolute that their touring Connery in the acting world, through the band vetoed the movie idea, an days would soon be over (save for a few the ground-breaking innovations of unprecedented three-month hole contractual obligations), so the only Mary Quant in the fashion industry appeared in their schedule. It was an aim was to make each song the very and the emergence of Twiggy and extraordinary luxury for a band who’d best it could be in isolation. Chrissie Shrimpton, all eyes were on been forced to work at breakneck Remarkably, although Tomorrow London – and England even won the speed ever since their earliest days. Never Knows seems like the perfect World Cup that summer. A typically perverse decision from conclusion to Revolver and a gateway The Beatles were the fulcrum of it the foursome was to shun their usual to the studio sophistication of Pepper, all, of course, the biggest pop cultural home at Abbey Road to record at Stax it was actually the first track to be phenomenon that has ever been. Studio in Memphis, the birthplace of recorded at sessions for the follow-up Although only St John’s Wood- seminal records by the likes of Otis to Rubber Soul. After that came dwelling man-about-town Paul Redding, Booker T & the MGs and Sam chamber music, soulful R&B, world McCartney was a continual presence and Dave. In-house producer Jim on the countercultural scene (John, Stewart would have replaced George George and Ringo had already Martin, but the plan was eventually THE BAND WERE decamped from the bright lights to the abandoned, and reported similar PERFECTLY PLACED more sedate environs of the relocations to either New York’s TO SPEARHEAD stockbroker belt), the band were still Atlantic Studios or Motown’s hit perfectly placed to fully embrace, and factory in Detroit were also dismissed. A RADICAL NEW then spearhead, a radical new Reluctantly, the band reconvened at MOVEMENT OF movement of artistic endeavour. Abbey Road for their seventh studio ARTISTIC ENDEAVOUR 19 REVOLVER accomplishment as a lyricist. There’s a bravery to the bleakness of lines like “Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave/ No one was saved”. The Samuel Beckett-level desolation must have come as a shock to pop fans the world over. And note that final line: Paul’s apparent rejection of Christianity prefaces the eventual “bigger than Jesus” furore created by John that engulfed the band later in the year. The story of the song’s origin has been much debated over the years, with McCartney claiming that both the titular spinster and Father McKenzie were pure figments of his imagination. While wandering the streets of Bristol waiting for girlfriend Jane Asher to finish rehearsals for a play at the John’s rough lyrics for I’m Only Bristol Old Vic, he stumbled across a Sleeping, scribbled on the back of a phone bill, failed to reach King Street wine merchants, Rigby & their estimate at auction in 2005 Evens. His original heroine was called Lindsey Parnaby/EPA/REX/Shutterstock Lindsey Daisy Hawkins, but after splicing in the music and a phantasmagorical affair and features George’s bitter first name of Help! co-star Eleanor children’s tune so evocative that it complaint at the outrageous 95p-in- Bron and part of the Bristol shop name, inspired a whole animated universe. Is the-pound tax rate for the UK’s highest he came up with a new title. this a reflection of the band’s collective earners at the time. In his In the Anthology book, Paul explains: ADHD, or the ebullient self-confidence autobiography I, Me, Mine Harrison “I thought, I swear, that I made up the in their own ability to write in any style wrote: “Taxman was when I first name like that. I remember distinctly they chose? Perhaps it’s a final realised that even though we had having the name Eleanor, looking for a realisation that the stylistic stabilisers started earning money, we were believable surname and wandering had been kicked to the kerb and they actually giving most of it away in taxes; around the docklands in Bristol and were now freewheeling into a limitless it was and still is typical. Why should seeing the shop there. But it seems that universe of musical possibilities. For this be so? Are we being punished for the vast majority of bands, Tomorrow something we had forgotten to do?” Never Knows would have been a sonic Apart from George’s cynicism, the star REVOLVER eureka moment of seismic proportions. of the show is McCartney’s pumping 1966 • PARLOPHONE But not The Beatles. For them, it was bassline. Paul also supplies the just another room in an endless remarkable crazed guitar solo, too. corridor of possibilities. The ease at which the band pinball Taxman (Harrison) In the end, it’s Taxman that ushers in between styles without any drop-off in the new era of The Beatles on record. quality on the album is staggering. Eleanor Rigby (Lennon & McCartney) The two count-ins that herald the song Eleanor Rigby, McCartney’s bleak, I’m Only Sleeping (Lennon & McCartney) simultaneously look backwards and Pinteresque tale of broken, futile lives Love You To (Harrison) forwards: George Harrison character- is heartbreaking. With Paul the sole Here, There And Everywhere (Lennon & acts the role of a miser totting up his Beatle on the track, it was also a McCartney) pennies (this was dubbed onto the song signpost to his future tendency to Yellow Submarine (Lennon & McCartney) a month after it was originally finished) dispense with his colleagues and drop She Said She Said (Lennon & McCartney) while the vigorous “1-2-3-4!” in the the band dynamic when the need background by Paul is a knowing nod arose. George Martin’s wonderful to the exuberant count-in at the start of orchestral arrangement was inspired Good Day Sunshine (Lennon & McCartney) I Saw Her Standing There, the first song by the film scores of French new wave And Your Bird Can Sing (Lennon & McCartney) from their debut album, Please Please director François Truffaut. The track is For No One (Lennon & McCartney) Me. Taxman itself is a far more cynical arguably McCartney’s great Doctor Robert (Lennon & McCartney) I Want To Tell You (Harrison) FOR THE BEATLES, TOMORROW NEVER Got To Get You Into My Life (Lennon & McCartney) KNOWS WAS JUST ANOTHER ROOM IN AN Tomorrow Never Knows (Lennon & McCartney) ENDLESS CORRIDOR OF POSSIBILITIES 20 The fabled Eleanor Rigby grave in Liverpool: “It was either complete coincidence or in my subconscious,” said Paul Jim Dyson/Getty Images Jim Dyson/Getty up in Woolton Cemetery where I used Lennon’s cynicism at fame shows originally titled Granny Smith; to hang out a lot with John, there’s a through in his ode to lethargy, I’m Only Harrison often completed a song gravestone to an Eleanor Rigby. Sleeping. This was something of a before finalising a name for it. His Apparently, a few yards to the right, perennial songwriting theme of his; he message here may have been one of there’s someone called McKenzie. It returned to it on ‘The White Album’ universal love and peace, but there’s was either complete coincidence or in track I’m So Tired and later in his solo still an element of cynicism that was my subconscious.” It’s also said that career with #9 Dream. Harrison’s often typical of his songwriting: Father McKenzie started life as Father Indian-style backwards guitar solo was “There’s people standing round, who’ll McCartney until Lennon’s friend Pete constructed during a six-hour session, screw you in the ground/ They’ll fill Shotton suggested it could be thus creating another song that was you in with all their sins you’ll see”.