Revolver’s one of my favourite Beatles records, up there with Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album. Those records have influenced me more than any other music on the planet. Beside the fact it’s my dad and I grew up listening to them, they’re just ingrained in my psyche.
Revolver appeals to me more than Abbey Road or my dad’s solo stuff, which I love in a different way, because psychedelic music seems more magical. It’s like a kid likes reading Lord Of The Rings instead of Bonfire Of The Vanities – it’s exciting, it’s the promise of a supernatural world. A song like Tomorrow Never Knows puts you almost in a trance. Not in the way techno music or monks chanting would; it’s hipper than that. It alters your consciousness. The veil of mundane reality is being peeled back to reveal something glorious and beautiful that you’re a part of. That’s what those Beatles records do for me.
Revolver is the beginning of an era when they were trying to push things beyond the limits of what was expected, or what the paradigms of rock’n’roll were to that point. They’d done that with other records to that point, but within the psychedelic movement it’s especially potent.
A lot of thought and work was put into that music by the band. Revolver is the sound of people raising the bar and working hard to make the most exciting sonic experience. And it really pays off.
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