THE BEATLES' REVOLVER ENTRY

The Beatles musical image prior to recording the Revolver album was mostly made of pop love songs. Previous albums the group recorded had to meet deadlines which left the group with not a lot of creative freedom and exploration. Once the band was able to take some time off from recording it really helped with their creative aspect when it was time to work on the Revolver album.

  During the creation of the Revolver album The Beatles had a very unique way of using the studio as though it was its own instrument. They wanted the audience to feel the recording process of the album. For the Revolver album on the song Eleanor Rigby, the fact that only an orchestra was used to supply the instrumental while the band sung was truly remarkable. The group experimented with all types effects such as rotating the speakers for a distinct sound on vocals, also utilizing effects like vari-speed and backward tape recordings on vocals and percussion tracks. Artificial double tracking was another technique the band used on the Revolver album. When double tracking, the second tape would be delayed to give a doubling effect to the recordings. The fact that every member of the group was not on every song whether by playing or singing showed the strength and unselfishness of the group.

 The Revolver album is truly a musical masterpiece. The album was basically an answer to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album. In my opinion Revolver is just as good as Pet Sounds, they both are superior albums. I love the way they completely went against the typical way of recording with the techniques they were using to record vocals and various instruments. It is crazy how much drugs influenced the way they developed a lot of those songs, but that was typical back then as much as it is today. Being an engineer currently I have nothing but the most respect for the engineers and producers on this project. Using tape to create the effects they created is truly extraordinary. Even though this is not my preference of music I can truly appreciate the complete body of work that this album displays also the time and techniques used to create the album.