058: The Beatles - Revolver (1966)
“We'd had acid on Revolver. Everyone is under this illusion... even George Martin saying 'Pepper was their acid album,' but we'd had acid, including Paul, by the time Revolver was finished. ... Rubber Soul was our pot album, and Revolver was acid.”
—John Lennon
Surprise! Due to some scheduling conflicts and the fact that we are all humans with lives, we weren’t able to record our scheduled episode in time. But luckily, back in April 2020, we decided it would be a good idea to record an emergency backup episode for just such an event! (Such is our dedication to you, the listener.) So we decided to tackle Revolver, an album that could only have been made by the Beatles, and only in 1966. John, Ben, and Amanda spent a couple of hours chatting about an album that blows our minds, makes us deliriously happy, and changed the course of rock music forever.
Miscellany
The early versions of “She Said She Said” can be found here, starting at about 12:50.
“I’m Only Sleeping, “And Your Bird Can Sing,” and “Doctor Robert” were left off of the American release of Revolver, following Capitol’s practice of chopping off a few songs from each album and lumping them together in another release later on. Those three appeared on Yesterday and Today, the subject of the famous “butcher cover.”
Speaking of the butcher cover, several of the Discord and Rhyme team saw one in person at a record show in Detroit, priced at $1,000. We still regret not buying it.
Other links
Beatles Anthology Revisited (Soundcloud)
“Tomorrow Never Knows” on Mad Men (YouTube)
Tune In by Mark Lewisohn (Amazon affiliate link)
Discord & Rhyme’s Revolver playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Ben Marlin
John McFerrin
Amanda Rodgers
Revolver tracklist
Taxman
Eleanor Rigby
I’m Only Sleeping
Love You To
Here, There and Everywhere
Yellow Submarine
She Said She Said
Good Day Sunshine
And Your Bird Can Sing
For No One
Doctor Robert
I Want to Tell You
Got to Get You Into My Life
Tomorrow Never Knows
Other clips used
The Beatles:
She Loves You
Please Please Me
And Your Bird Can Sing (Anthology version)
Others:
The Kinks - See My Friends
Stevie Wonder - Uptight (Everything’s Alright)
King Crimson - Tomorrow Never Knew Thela
Band/album personnel
John Lennon – lead, harmony and backing vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; Hammond organ, Mellotron, harmonium; tape loops, sound effects; tambourine, handclaps, finger snaps
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and backing vocals; bass, rhythm and lead guitars; piano, clavichord; tape loops, sound effects; handclaps, finger snaps
George Harrison – lead, harmony and backing vocals; lead, acoustic, rhythm and bass guitars; sitar, tambura; tape loops, sound effects; maracas, tambourine, handclaps, finger snaps
Ringo Starr – drums; tambourine, maracas, cowbell, shaker, handclaps, finger snaps; tape loops; lead and backing vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Anil Bhagwat – tabla on "Love You To"
Alan Civil – French horn on "For No One"
George Martin – producer; mixing engineer; piano on "Good Day Sunshine" and "Tomorrow Never Knows"; Hammond organ on "Got to Get You into My Life"; tape loop of the marching band on "Yellow Submarine"
Mal Evans – bass drum and background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Neil Aspinall – background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Brian Jones – sound effects, ocarina and background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Pattie Boyd – background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Marianne Faithfull – background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Alf Bicknell – sound effects and background vocals on "Yellow Submarine"
Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, Jurgen Hess – violins; Stephen Shingles, John Underwood – violas; Derek Simpson, Norman Jones – cellos: string octet on "Eleanor Rigby", orchestrated and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Eddie Thornton, Ian Hamer, Les Condon – trumpet; Peter Coe, Alan Branscombe – tenor saxophone: horn section on "Got to Get You into My Life" arranged and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
The Beatles - Love You To (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Revolver and other albums by the Beatles at the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.