CD Odyssey Disc 1188: The Beatles

Yesterday a coworker told me he had just discovered Gillian Welch and Townes Van Zandt. I’d known both for a while, but he’s also a musically deep guy and it got me thinking: just what seminal artists are out there still waiting for me to discover? It’s a comforting thought.

And now a band we all know probably too well.

Disc 1188 is… Revolver

Artist: The Beatles

Year of Release: 1966

What’s up with the Cover? The world’s worst combination of line art and collage. The line art looks like a set of suspects form a local grocery store robbery, as drawn by Scotland Yard’s composite portrait artist. The collage looks like it was taken from the bedroom of some 13 year old girl – likely the daughter of one of the grocery thieves who took one of the posters home as a lark.

How I Came To Know It: I know lots of these songs because…the Beatles. I know the album because Sheila bought a bunch of Beatles albums years ago.

How It Stacks Up:  We have seven Beatles albums. Of those, I rank “Revolver” seventh. That’s right, I put it last, although I probably would like it more than some of those early Beatles albums we don’t even own. This is also (mercifully) my last Beatles review so here’s the full recap:

1. Abbey Road: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 441)
2. The White Album: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 593)
3. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 808)
4. Help:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1134)
5. Rubber Soul:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 71)
6. Magical Mystery Tour:  3 stars (reviewed at Disc 408)
7. Revolver: 3 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 3 stars

Have you ever gone and visited someone’s house warming and thought, ‘It’s a nice house, but I hate what they’ve done with the place.’  That’s what the Beatles’ “Revolver” feels like. Brilliant and often ground breaking melodies meander through songs that are often too clever for their own good.

Paul McCartney knocks melodies out with the ease of a lactose intolerant milk-shake lover – a torrent of music that sounds effortless. And yet, like that milkshake, on “Revolver” I find it can sometimes end up disappointing and a little painful. Even heartfelt and touching love songs like “Here, There and Everywhere” feel schmaltzy, like something from a bad sixties romance movie rather than a critically acclaimed album.

“Revolver” continues the Beatles journey into the land of bells and whistles as well. A lot of the goofy sound effects and production hijinks that bug me on “Magical Mystery Tour” are here in developmental form.

One of the worst examples is “Yellow Submarine,” a song I have always hated. The song has the bones of a drunken bar sing-a-long, but is so saturated with overwrought sound effects and self-absorbed in jokes that it feels more like something you’d hear on a children’s album.

Among the many excesses, we are subjected to: crashing surf; the smattering of a some horn playing oompa-pah-pah music; someone singing through a megaphone; and background vocals that sound like a drunk upper class twit of the year, complete with cackles. I listened with fervent hope for the sound of a depth charge that would sink the fucking thing, but it never came.

This is the Beatles “sitar phase” and they employ it with mixed results. I liked it for the most part, even though it delays the start of “Love You To” with an overlong intro. The Beatles have a good understanding of how to work a non-western instrument into western music in a way that is complimentary, not intrusive.

Also, for all the frustration this album gives me it is a ground-breaking record with some timeless classics. “Eleanor Rigby” is one of the greatest pop songs ever written. The melody is like nothing else, compelling and vaguely disconcerting to match the subject matter of loneliness. The violin flourishes add just the right amount of anxiety to the song. This is a song that shows the Beatles can be as serious as they want to be. Fifty years later this is still a song everyone knows, and this time that’s a good thing.

“For No One” is also a solid track, again delving into the sadness of a love destroyed. The mix of piano, horn and the pure tone of McCartney’s singing all blend beautifully – in part because the band keeps the arrangement simple and lets the song’s beauty shine.

The album’s final two songs sum up what is great and terrible with the record respectively. “Got To Get You Into My Life” has an infectious swing, and a horn section that turns the blues into pop in the prettiest way possible. It is like a fine Italian style pizza – just two or three ingredients, artfully brought together.

“Tomorrow Never Knows” is a drug-fuelled pile of excess with layer upon layer of sound, cleverly structured but so busy and overblown you can’t appreciate the cleverness. I expect music aficionados point to songs like this to show how “before their time” the Beatles are. I hear it and just think about all the bad songs inspired by this cacophony in the years since its release. “Revolver” is only 34 minutes long, but listening to “Tomorrow Never Knows” it felt like it was never going to end.

I admire the Beatles for knowing they could just write hit pop songs forever, but who also wanted to stretch themselves artistically. On “Revolver” this creates some of the world’s greatest music, but also some of the most annoying.

Best tracks: Eleanor Rigby, She Said She Said, For No One, Got To Get You Into My Life