It was bound to happen. I started a blog, primarily about music, I'm a few posts in and haven't yet even mentioned The Beatles, and so now, it would seem, is the time. Many of you who know me know that I'm trying to limit how much I say about music being objectively good, or better than other music, but rather stress my tastes in the matter. For instance, I'll try not to just straight up tell people that OK Computer is easily the best album of the '90s; but rather that it is certainly my favorite, and if you prefer, for example, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, that's your prerogative I suppose.
That said, I will cling to one thing that I consider to be objective musical fact, and that is that The Beatles are better than everyone else. They are the greatest band that has ever existed. No one has had the sheer amount of success they had. No one completely redefined popular music with each successive album they put out. No one had more number one singles. At one point in April of 1964, they had the top five singles on the billboard charts and the top two albums all at once. They were unreasonably innovative, doing countless things for the first time on recordings which later became staples in the industry. I could go on with stats like this that no other band can boast, and then list the things that are just my own personal opinion--for instance how pop music had never had harmonies like that before them, how their songs are just simply more creative than anyone else's, how each member of the band wrote songs and sang lead, and how, to me, they just sound better than anything else anybody's come up with. I'm not saying that you can't like a band better than The Beatles, because people like what they like and that's great; but I am saying that The Beatles are better.
I did a lot of driving this past weekend. I didn't have a lot of cd's in my car and was sick of the radio, so as a result, I listened to Revolver by The Beatles at least 4 times start-to-finish. You may say that this is excessive, but I wasn't bored for an instant. As it wrapped up the first time, I thought about trying out the radio, but then I just let it cycle back to "Taxman", and tried to imagine that I was in 1966 when it came out, hearing for the first time that voice come in "One...Two...Three...Four...One...Two..." with noises and coughs in the background, and then "BAM" exploding guitar chords, and that bass hook that drives and carries the song (something that pretty much never happened pre-McCartney, btw). I guess people older than myself were actually around, and got to experience this sensation, and could probably say some more authoritative things about it, but I can't even imagine hearing this album not knowing about what came after; not knowing what to expect from it. I mean think about it, you've only had 9 months to recover from the shock of Rubber Soul coming on the scene, and now you have to cope with the fact that they've progressed way past that!? No album before Revolver is even on the same plane of existence as Revolver (this could also then be said of Rubber Soul, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road...). I mean you've got bands like The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones catching on by this time, but they were always a few steps behind and a few great songs shy of The Beatles. Nothing sounded close to this album at its release, and you just know this is gonna be an album that changes everything when your mind is first blown with the opening of "Taxman", one of the first hard rock songs ever, which by the way was written by probably the third-best song-writer in the group. Then "Eleanor Rigby" comes in, and I get chills. Every time. And what's that? The only instruments are a string octet? I don't know anybody who's given Eleanor Rigby a solid listen and concluded that it's anything shy of an incredible song, and frankly, I don't care to. Then comes "I'm Only Sleeping", a sort of psychedelic-era precursor by John, with that great jangly guitar, and some of the first backwards guitar ever. Not to get in a rut, "Love You To" comes next, starting out with that favorite of pop-instruments: the sitar. So by this time we've had four incredible songs that could really each be given its own genre. By the sixth track, each member of the band has sung lead on a song. I find it somewhat unfortunate that now it's almost universal to have "the singer" of a band. If one posed the question "Which one of you is the singer?" to The Beatles, they wouldn't know how to respond. (Well, they would probably say something terribly witty and off-the-cuff, but I don't know how to respond) That question doesn't make any sense for them. They all sing. They all sing lead. They all sing harmony. They each have a great voice, perfect for the respective songs on which they sing lead.
Let's see, what else might this album have? Does it have a song with a tight horn section? Yup, "Got to Get You Into My Life". How about a beautiful French Horn solo in the middle of a heart-wrenching ballad? Oh yea, "For No One" has that. What about an incredibly underrated song with wonderful bass parts and harmony guitar that, to me, sounds better than anything any Allman's ever did? Oh right, nobody even talks about "And Your Bird Can Sing", even though it's a better song than the best songs most bands even dream of writing. How about the drums on the album though...wasn't Ringo really a pretty weak drummer? No. And stop listening to that slander. Just listen to "She Said She Said" and tell me that that's not great drumming. You're not going to get the outrageously extravagant wild-man drumming like that of Keith Moon or John Bonham out of Ringo, but you'll also never get boring, second-rate drums that are anything less than exactly what a song needs.
All in all, I just didn't care to stop listening to Revolver while I was driving. I haven't heard anything terribly interesting come out since Helplessness Blues, which you all know I doted, rather thoroughly, on a bit ago (though I hear I should check out the new Bon Iver) and so I didn't have anything new and exciting to be getting acquainted with. I didn't have much else interesting to put in the old cd player, and so I just let Revolver revolve; and this 45 year old album, even four times in a row, still sounded fresher and more pleasant to me than pretty much anything else I could have been listening to. It's one of the greatest albums of all time, certainly better than anything that's come out in my lifetime, and a fine selection from the greatest band of all time.
By the way, I think I'd probably say that it's my third favorite Beatles album...
