Having literally dissected the Revolver album, what’s your takeaway about The Beatles at that point in their musical evolution? You can hear them like kids in the back of a car saying: “We’re bored! We want to do something different.” That’s what’s going on with Revolver. It’s like a prog record – kind of like: “Look how many ideas we have!” And what I find fascinating is that they went from being this four-headed monster with Beatles suits on to being these four individuals going in different directions – but helping each other. Like, no one’s saying: “Come on, John, change chords on Tomorrow Never Knows.” Or, you know: “Why are we doing Indian songs? We’re from Liverpool!” It’s like that pure confidence of jumping out of the plane without a parachute and knowing you’re going to land safely. Revolver is kind of a fearless record.
“If John were alive, there’s been a lot of time for him to make some bad records, but he also might have made something really great. That’s one thing about dying young: it’s good for the ‘iconic’ status. “The positive thing is that it’s good that The Beatles didn’t play at Live Aid or Live 8, which they probably would have. Eventually they would have been talked into it. This is something that nobody will ever fucking understand any more: for once somebody broke up and meant it. They came in, got their hands dirty, did their task in hand and left.
Upon Hendrix’s arrival in London, whispers soon spread about his mystical abilities on the guitar, and The Beatles soon made it their mission to catch him live. It took them a while to finally see him in action, and it was an event that was more than worth the wait for McCartney. The evening created a memory that continues to live vividly in his mind.Although Hendrix’s arrival on British shores occurred towards the back end of 1966, it wouldn’t be until the following June that McCartney would finally see for himself what all the fuss was about. He rose to the top of the ladder in the blink of an eye and also had a cunning trick up his sleeve, especially for Macca.
It’s hard to ignore, too. Before their meeting, The Beatles’ lyrics were never the forefront of their songs with the melody always being the most essential factor, the group were happy to include “nonsense” lyrics if they sounded correct. The art of storytelling was never their forte until Dylan changed that and John Lennon was especially inspired by the singer-songwriter’s style, a factor which led him to write in more of a storytelling tongue than he previously had done.
The Beatles’ popularity was on a different stratosphere in comparison to Dylan at this time and, considering what he was doing was incredibly original, to have a watered-down version of his sound being lapped up by the masses quite rightly arrived as irritation. That said, whether the annoyance warranted him to write ‘Fourth Time Around’ is still questionable.
There is a degree of pettiness to Dylan’s actions, one which essentially saw him write a more eloquent version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ and showing Lennon how it’s done — which is hard not to admire.
Dylan even left Lennon a not-so-subtle message at the end of the track as he knew that his number one fan would undoubtedly study it. The last two lines see him sing, “I never asked for your crutch, Now don’t ask for mine” — which make his thoughts on Lennon hero-worshipping him evidently clear.
The star of Greenwich Village would change songwriting forever, his influence on advancing music by implementing poetry is immeasurable and would help turn the craft of writing lyrics from an afterthought an into the most integral part of a song. It was this factor alone which made The Beatles initially awestruck by his immense talent and, in truth, who can blame John Lennon for trying to channel his inner-Dylan?
The way sound Engineer Geoff Emerick remembers it, the day before the broadcast, Brian Epstein talked the band into rush-releasing the performance as a single.”John, of course, was keen,” says Emerick, in his book Here, There And Everywhere, “it was his song, after all. It didn’t take much effort to talk Paul into it, either… Only George Harrison was reluctant; presumably he was worried that he might muff his solo, even though it was only four bars long. He was finally persuaded when George Martin assured him that we could stay late afterward and do any necessary repair work.”
“They don’t work all those rules.” ~Paul McCartney
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The Beatles at a garden party fund-raiser for the Hemophilia Society in Brentwood, 1964.
ALAN HAD TO ARRANGE GETTING THE BEATLES THERE, AND CALLED HIS USUAL LIMO SERVICE, FEELING OBLIGED TO TELL THEM WHO THEY WOULD BE TRANSPORTING. THEY TURNED HIM DOWN—THEY DIDN’T WANT TO RISK GETTING THEIR LIMO DAMAGED BY “CRAZY KIDS.” ALAN CALLED EVERY LIMO SERVICE IN TOWN BUT NONE WOULD HANDLE THE BAND. HE CALLED BRINKS ARMORED CARS, TOLD THEM OF HIS PROBLEM, AND ASKED IF THEY WOULD TRANSPORT THE GROUP. THEY HAD TO CALL THEIR HOME OFFICE IN DENVER, AND CAME BACK WITH A NEGATIVE RESPONSE. FINALLY ALAN WENT BACK TO HIS REGULAR LIMO SERVICE AGAIN AND SAID HE WOULD PAY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO THEIR CAR. “IT ISN’T ONLY THAT, MR. LIVINGSTON,” WAS THE ANSWER. “IT’S THE LOSS OF BUSINESS IF THE CAR IS LAID UP IN THE BODY SHOP.” ALAN ASKED, “WHAT’S THE AVERAGE FEE YOU GET PER DAY PER CAR?” THEY TOLD HIM AND HE SENT THEM A LETTER GUARANTEEING NOT ONLY DAMAGES BUT LOSS OF USE OF THE CAR, TOO. THEY FINALLY AGREED AND THE BEATLES WERE DELIVERED TO MY MOTHER’S HOME WITHOUT INCIDENT. THE RIOT SQUAD CAME CLOSE TO BEING CALLED OUT OF THE GARAGE. THE POLICE TOLD US LATER THAT IN ONE AREA THE SECURITY ROPE NEARLY GAVE WAY TO THE SURGING CROWD OF KIDS. MY MOTHER’S NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR CALLED AND SAID HE HAD A GUN AND WARNED US THAT HE WOULD SHOOT ANYONE WHO PUT A FOOT THROUGH THE HEDGE INTO HIS GARDEN. THANK GOD IT ALL STAYED UNDER CONTROL.
Revolver’s commercial impact was immediate, the album topping the UK chart for seven weeks and the US chart for six. Culturally, although there had been earlier instances of psychedelic music, mostly in San Francisco, London and New York, Revolver opened the floodgates, and changed the thinking, and the chemical preferences, of young rock and pop visionaries worldwide.
It’s hard to imagine the careers of Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and many others without the trail blazed by Revolver. Even beyond the music world, The Beatles could now be seen as a socio-economic force.
On August 10, just days after the release of Revolver, the American stock market wobbled because the price of shares in their US label, Capitol Records, dropped sharply. The reason was that Lennon’s observation that The Beatles were now “more popular than Jesus” had triggered bans and burnings of Beatles records.
Of course, before too long their popularity would recover, but the incident made it clear that the music industry, and The Beatles themselves, were now seriously big business.
There was originally going to be an extra passenger on that trip to Illinois – Ringo Starr. On hearing of Louise’s intentions, the legendary drummer ”begged off, saying, ‘If she’s going to make us work, I’m not going.’”Harrison became a slight talking point in the Benton area. He bought a guitar – a Rickenbacker 425 – and played onstage with group The Four Vests. That performance made him the first Beatle to hit the US stage. The lifestyle of America was an eye opener for George Harrison by all accounts.
