Beatles biographer Nicholas Schaffner cites 1966 as the start of the band's "psychedelic period", as do musicologists Russell Reising and Jim LeBlanc. Schaffner adds: "That adjective [psychedelic] implies not only the influence of certain mind-altering chemicals, but also the freewheeling spectrum of wide-ranging colors that their new music seemed to evoke." Music journalist Carol Clerk describes Revolver as having been "decisively informed by acid", following John Lennon and George Harrison's continued use of the drug LSD since the spring of 1965. Through these experiences, the two musicians developed a fascination for Eastern philosophical concepts, The idea was abandoned after locals began descending on the Stax building, as were alternative plans to use either Atlantic Studios in New York or Motown's Hitsville USA facility in Detroit.
Songs
Overview
Steve Turner writes that Revolver encapsulates not only "the spirit of the times" but the network of progressive social and cultural thinkers in which the Beatles had recently become immersed in London. According to Reising and LeBlanc, along with "Rain", it marks the start of the band's body of work embracing psychedelia, which continued through Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour and the new songs recorded in 1967 for the animated film Yellow Submarine, together with their singles over those two years. The authors view Lennon and Harrison's compositions as the most overtly psychedelic and find the genre's traits evident in the album's instrumentation and soundscapes, and in its lyrical imagery. Music critic Jim DeRogatis views the LP as an early work in the psychedelic rock genre, which accompanied the emergence of counterculture ideology in the 1960s.
Through its individual tracks, Revolver covers a wide range of styles, including acid rock, chamber music, R&B, raga rock, musique concrète, as well as standard contemporary rock and pop. In Rodriguez's view, the influence of Indian music permeates the album. Aside from the sounds and vocal styling used on much of the recording, this influence is evident in the limited chord changes in some of the songs, suggesting an Indian-style drone. According to cultural historian Simon Philo, Revolver contained "[the] most sustained deployment of Indian instruments, musical form and even religious philosophy" heard in popular music up to that time. Writing for Slate, Jack Hamilton calls the album's music "avante-garde R&B", showcasing the musicians' debt to African-American music.
In its lyrical themes, the album marks a radical departure from the Beatles' past work, as a large majority of the songs avoid the subject of love. According to Reising and LeBlanc, the lyrics on this and the band's later psychedelic records capture the psychedelic culture's belief in the truth-revealing qualities of LSD over the illusions of bourgeois thinking; reject materialism in favour of Asian-inspired spirituality; and explore the overlap in meaning between a "trip" and travelling, resulting in narratives in which time and space become blurred. Where the songs do present as love songs, the authors continue, love is often conveyed as a unifying force among many, rather than between two individuals, or as a "way of life".
Critic Kenneth Womack writes of the Beatles exploring "phenomenologies of consciousness" on Revolver, and he cites as examples "I'm Only Sleeping" preoccupation with dreams and the references to death in the lyrics to "Tomorrow Never Knows". In Womack's estimation, the songs represent two important elements of the human life cycle that are "philosophical opposites". Echoing this point, music critic Tim Riley writes that, just as "embracing life means accepting death", the fourteen tracks "link a disillusioned view of the modern world... with a belief in metaphysical transcendence". Philo finds the Beatles' "countercultural engagement" evident on even the songs that present as standard pop. In Reising's view, all the songs on Revolver are linked, in that each line in "Tomorrow Never Knows", the closing track, is alluded to or explored in the lyrics to one or more of the tracks that precede it.
Side one
"Taxman"
Harrison wrote "Taxman" as a protest against the high marginal tax rates paid by top earners like the Beatles, which, under Harold Wilson's Labour government, amounted to 95 per cent of unearned income (i.e. interest on savings and investments) above the top threshold. The song's spoken count-in is out of tempo with the performance that follows, a device that Riley credits with establishing the "new studio aesthetic of Revolver". Harrison's vocals on the track were treated with heavy compression and ADT. In addition to playing a glissandi-inflected bass part reminiscent of Motown James Jamerson, McCartney performed the song's guitar solo. The latter section was also edited onto the end of the original recording, ensuring that the track closed with the solo reprised over a fadeout. Rodriguez recognises "Taxman" as the first Beatles song written about "topical concerns"; he also cites its "abrasive sneer" as a precursor to the 1970s punk rock movement. Completed with input from Lennon, the lyrics refer by name to Wilson, who had just been re-elected as prime minister in the 1966 general election, and Edward Heath, the Conservative Leader of the Opposition.
"Eleanor Rigby"
Womack describes McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" as a "narrative about the perils of loneliness". The story involves the title character, who is an ageing spinster, and a lonely priest named Father McKenzie who writes "sermon[s] that no one will hear". He presides over Rigby's funeral and acknowledges that despite his efforts, "no one was saved". The first McCartney composition to depart from the themes of a standard love song, its lyrics were the product of a group effort, with Harrison, Starr, Lennon and the latter's friend Pete Shotton all contributing. While Lennon and Harrison supplied harmonies beside McCartney's lead vocal, no Beatle played on the recording; instead, Martin arranged the track for a string octet, drawing inspiration from Bernard Herrmann's 1960 film score for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In Riley's opinion, "the corruption of 'Taxman' and the utter finality of Eleanor's fate makes the world of Revolver more ominous than any other pair of opening songs could."
"I'm Only Sleeping"
Peter Doggett describes "I'm Only Sleeping" as "Half acid dream, half latent Lennon laziness personified." As with "Rain", the basic track was recorded at a faster tempo before being subjected to varispeeding. The latter treatment, along with ADT, was also applied to Lennon's vocal as he sought to replicate, in MacDonald's description, a "papery old man's voice". For the guitar solo, Harrison recorded two separate lines: the first with a clean sound, while on the second, he played his Gibson SG through a fuzzbox. Beatles biographer Jonathan Gould views the solo as appearing to "suspend the laws of time and motion to simulate the half-coherence of the state between wakefulness and sleep". Musicologist Walter Everett likens the song to a "particularly expressive text painting".
"Love You To"
"Love You To" marked Harrison's first foray into Hindustani classical music as a composer, following his introduction of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" in 1965. He recorded the track with only minimal contributions from Starr and McCartney, and no input from Lennon; Indian musicians from the Asian Music Circle provided instrumentation such as tabla, tambura and sitar. Peter Lavezzoli recognises the song as "the first conscious attempt in pop to emulate a non-Western form of music in structure and instrumentation". Aside from playing sitar on the track, Harrison's contributions included fuzztone-effected electric guitar. Everett identifies the song's change of metre as unprecedented in the Beatles' work and a characteristic that would go on to feature prominently on Sgt. Pepper. Partly influenced by Harrison's use of LSD, the lyrics address the singer's desire for "immediate sexual gratification", according to Womack, and serve as a "rallying call to accept our inner hedonism and release our worldly inhibitions".
"Here, There and Everywhere"
"Here, There and Everywhere" is a ballad that McCartney wrote towards the end of the Revolver sessions. His inspiration for the song was the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds track "God Only Knows", which, in turn, Brian Wilson had been inspired to write after repeatedly listening to Rubber Soul. McCartney's double-tracked vocal was treated with varispeeding, resulting in a higher pitch at playback. The song's opening lines are sung in free time before its time signature is established; according to Everett, "nowhere else does a Beatles introduction so well prepare a listener for the most striking and expressive tonal events that lie ahead." Womack characterises the song as a romantic ballad "about living in the here and now" and "fully experiencing the conscious moment". He notes that, with the preceding track, "Love You To", the album expresses "corresponding examinations of the human experience of physical and romantic love".
"Yellow Submarine"
McCartney and Lennon wrote "Yellow Submarine" as a children's song and for Starr's vocal spot on the album. The lyrics were written with assistance from Scottish singer Donovan and tell of life on a sea voyage accompanied by friends. Gould considers the song's childlike qualities to be "deceptive" and that, once in the studio, it became "a sophisticated sonic pastiche".
On 1 June, the Beatles and some of their friends enhanced the festive nautical atmosphere by adding sounds such as chains, bells, whistles, tubs of water and clinking glasses, all sourced from Studio 2's trap room. To fill the portion after the lyrics refer to a brass band playing, Martin and Emerick used a recording from EMI's library, splicing up the taped copy and rearranging the melody. Lennon shouted part of the mid-song ship's orders in an echo chamber. In the final verse, he repeats Starr's vocal lines in a manner that Gould likens to "an old vaudevillian with the crowd in the palm of his hand". Riley recognises the song as mixing the comedy of The Goon Show with the satire of Spike Jones. Donovan later said that "Yellow Submarine" represented the Beatles' predicament as prisoners of their international fame, to which they reacted by singing an uplifting, communal song.
"She Said She Said"
The light atmosphere of "Yellow Submarine" is broken by what Riley terms "the outwardly harnessed, but inwardly raging guitar" that introduces Lennon's "She Said She Said". The song marks the second time that a Beatles arrangement used a shifting metre, after "Love You To", as the foundation of briefly switches to . Harrison recalled that he helped Lennon finish the composition, which involved joining three separate fragments of song. Having walked out of the session, McCartney may or may not have contributed bass guitar to the recording. In addition to lead guitar and harmony vocals, Harrison possibly performed the bass guitar part.