Revolver at 50: The Beatles’ masterpiece still hasn’t outstayed its welcome
In series five of Mad Men, Don Draper’s much-younger second wife Megan hands the advertising exec, who is concerned about losing touch with popular culture, a copy of The Beatles’ new record Revolver. The episode is set in August 1966. The album was released on August 5th. (The 8th in the US).
Megan Draper points to the final track with the advice: “Start with this one.”
Geoff Emerick actually did. Tomorrow Never Knows was the first Revolver track he worked on after being promoted by George Martin to engineer his first full Beatles studio album (and their seventh). Most of us have our first day at work marked by a trip to the HR department, a tour of the kitchen or having a photo taken for a security pass. Emerick worked on the recording of a song Jimi Hendrix and Noel Gallagher performed live, Public Enemy sampled, Van Halen’s David Lee Roth covered and a musical statement The Chemical Brothers claim as “their manifesto”.
It was both the final track and the first recorded. Revolver, 50 years young, itself is a record of firsts and lasts.
It was the first Beatles album with three George songs. It was the last time Capitol Records in the States tinkered with the tracklisting of a Beatles record (11 songs on the US release as opposed to 14 in the UK). It was the first album not to have a recognisable portrait band photo, favouring old Hamburg mucker Klaus Voormann’s collage. It was the first album, arguably, where the band sought to move away from sounding like their live performance. But it was the last album, where they had to worry about performing live. Two days after recording, they went on tour to West Germany and by August at Candlestick Park, they were done on the road for good.
By: John McKie
Source: Reaction
