Revolver: How the Beatles Re-Imagined Rock 'n' Roll

by Robert Rodriguez

Overview

(Book). Acquired wisdom has always put Sgt. Pepper at the head of the class, but it was Revolver that truly signaled The Beatles' sea change from a functional band to a studio-based ensemble. These changes began before Rubber Soul but came to fruition on Revolver , which took an astonishing 300 hours to produce, far more than any rock record before it. The making of Revolver hunkered down in Abbey Road with George Martin is in itself a great Beatles story, but would be nothing if the results weren't so impactful. More than even Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds , Revolver fed directly into the rock 'n' roll zeitgeist, and its influence could be heard everywhere: from the psychedelic San Francisco sound (Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead); to the first wave of post-blues hard rock (Sabbath, Zeppelin); through movie soundtracks and pretty much everything that followed it including every generation of guitar-based pop music and even heavy metal. More than any record before or after, Revolver was the game-changer, and this is, finally, the detailed telling of its storied recording and enormous impact. Winner of the 2013 ARSC Award for Best Research in Recorded Rock Music: Best History.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617130090
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Pages:	282
Sales rank:	857,609
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Pop culture historian Robert Rodriguez (Chicago, IL) is an acknowledged expert on all things Beatle. His most recent Backbeat book is Fab Four FAQ 2.0.

Table of Contents

Let Me Tell You How It Will Be: A Brief Introduction xi

Part I Spinning the Chamber

1 And the Band Begins to Play: Beatles '66 3

2 I Want You to Hear Me: The Beatles and Their Peers 29

3 Just a State of Mind: Chemical Influences 47

Part II Publling the Trigger

4 My Head Is Filled with Things to Say: Where the Songs Came From 63

5 Every Sound Three Is: Creating Revolver 97

Part III Bang!

6 Everything Was Right: Revolver's Reception 155

7 Taking My Time: "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Sgt. Pepper 189

8 There's Something There: Sgt. Pepper and the Legacy of Revolver 223

Timeline 239

Acknowledgments 257

Selected Bibliography 259

Index 263