Revolver should only ever be listened to as the Beatles intended - on vinyl
This week, 50 years ago, the Beach Boys concluded the sessions in Los Angeles that produced Pet Sounds. They wrapped up on April 13, to be precise, by which time Brian Wilson, never the cheeriest soul, was a gibbering wreck. The same day, at Abbey Road, the Beatles recorded Paperback Writer, and rushed it out as a single before Revolver sprang, fully armed from the head of Zeus, in August.
You can argue until you are blue in the face but, by any reasonable standards, Pet Sounds and Revolver must be considered the two finest pop music records ever made. This was also, as we shall be reminded once again this summer, the year that England’s footballers, wearing strawberry jam shirts, won the World Cup. Yes, 1966 was a great time to be young. Half a century later, with a retro movement gaining ground day by day, a younger generation may enjoy the fruits that Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Wilson (in that order) dropped from the tree in the traditional manner. In case you hadn’t heard, vinyl is back, fortissimo.
Yesterday was Record Store Day, the annual event intended to entice a new audience into the joys of vinyl. And it seems to be working. LPs are being eagerly sought – even by those who don’t have a turntable to play them on! You don’t have to go down to Oxfam any longer, hoping to find Rubber Soul or Who’s Next. Record shops can’t stock enough of the old stuff, alongside the new. It’s the sound, you see. That “open” sound that came with the old technology. It’s more “authentic”, in the syringed ears of record collectors. (Though a good copy of Revolver will set you back about sixty quid and play with occasional light crackle.)
By: Michael Henderson
Source: The Telegraph
