Revolver [Original recording remastered]

*** THE 9/9/09 REMASTER VERSION ***

Did you know that the Beatles don't actually play an instrument on "Eleanor Rigby" (it's a six string ensemble with Paul's vocals)? Did you know that George Martin plays the piano on "Good Day Sunshine"? Did you know that George Harrison doesn't play Sitar on "Love You To" (it was a session man) but does on "Tomorrow Never Knows? Did you know that the stereo catalogue number for the original British LP of "Revolver" is Parlophone PCS 7009?

Well you do now... Why do I mention this - because you're not going to learn any of these things from the woefully weak booklet that accompanies this CD...

Let's get this straight from the start - the SOUND ON THIS 2009 REMASTER OF "REVOLVER" IS MAGNIFICENT - it really is - and for many people that will be enough. But for fans that have waited 22 years for EMI to get this right, the description of this CD reissue as being endowed with 'deluxe packaging' is frankly laughable.

I mean only EMI could forget to include the album's original catalogue number! Or how about supplying the lyrics (too much like hard work boys) - or an interview with the Producer George Martin, the engineer Geoff Emerick? Or how about picturing the differing worldwide picture sleeves that accompanied the singles that came off the album (no show either). Or even how about adhering to the original issue of the LP for God's sake! With a playing time of 34:47 minutes and plenty of room, where's the MONO mix as it was originally released? The laughable "historical notes" last 2 whole pages - the recording notes a page and a half - the rest is pointless pictures of the boys that give absolutely no sense of event or any knowledge of the album and its monumental impact. The three-way card digipak is pretty, but it has a matt cover and the second you get it out of the shrink-wrap it starts to mark and pick up grease. Infuriatingly, the BEATLES in MONO box set has the REPRO BRITISH LP SLEEVE in all its laminated hard-card flip-back rear-sleeve glory - a far sturdier and prettier effort - but it's £200 to acquire such a privilege!

I know it's a bit of a cliché to whine on about packaging, but can you imagine what Ace Records of the UK, Bear Family of Germany, Rhino of the USA or Raven of Australia (proper reissue labels) would have done to a catalogue of this importance and stature? They would have shown this extraordinary band and one of its greatest recorded achievements the respect and affection it deserves - instead you get the distinct feeling of a corporate organisation just doing what it can get away with (there's no download variant of it available as yet either). Four years prepping this! Four years doing what? Picking their noses!

But let's get back to the music.

"Revolver" (their 7th album) was originally released 5 August 1966 in the UK on both Parlophone PMC 7009 Mono and PCS 7009 Stereo. The American issue followed 3 days later on Capitol T-2576 Mono and ST-2576 Stereo. The UK issue had 14 tracks, the US had 11 - the three missing from the American issue were "And Your Bird Can Sing", I'm Only Sleeping" and "Dr. Robert" which had appeared on the June 1966 US album "Yesterday And Today". This issue follows the UK release with the full compliment of 14. The CD label also reflects the black and yellow lettering of the original British LP, as does the rear cover artwork, which advertises the use of an "Emitex" record cleaning cloth! The enhanced CD track called "Mini Documentary" (broadcast last weekend on the BBC preceding the worldwide release of their catalogue) is largely black & white in-studio shots featuring the voices of the Fabs and George Martin discussing songs and techniques on the album - it's directed by BOB SMEATON and is nice, but disappears way too fast (and we've already seen it). There's a link to the official website, but naught else of any real worth... So the supposed bonus track turns out to be two and half minutes of video footage we've already seen and something EMI has blatantly used as a sales device!

Sound - hearing this 2009 remaster is a SONIC BLAST from start to finish. Both GUY MASSEY and STEVE ROOKE have remastered the first generation stereo master tapes and to say they've done a good job is like saying the Great Wall of China is an ok building project - their work here is fabulous - it really is. The sound quality is glorious throughout - clear, warm, detailed - every single track a revelation. My only complaint would be that some songs are very loud - "Got To Get You Into My Life" and "Here, and There & Everywhere" in particular, but George Martin produced them that way. The hiss level is barely audible on any of the songs, but what is subtly audible now is the new instrument flourishes you can hear almost everywhere. The brilliant Harrison guitar playing on the New York Drug Pusher song "Dr. Robert" is at last to the fore, the lone horn work of ALAN CIVIL on "For No One" is suddenly so pretty, while Ringo's superlative drumming on "Tomorrow Never Knows" is now absolutely huge to a point where the clarity and sheer whack of the remaster brought me to tears. If you love this record, you're in for a treat.

So there you have it - a 10-out-of-10 on the sound, but could have done so much better on the rest. But my God - what a band - and what a recorded legacy they left behind. Float downstream indeed folks...

Recommended - despite me wanting to physically threaten the pencil pushers at EMI...

Overshadowed by the massive adulation afforded to "Sgt. Pepper" - which for at least two decades after was considered the Beatles, and even rock music's finest hour - time has shown "Revolver" not only to be a better but much more pivotal work.

Why? Well caught, in early 1966, between a global audience who simply wanted more of their peerlessly tuneful "pop" songs, and a musical mind-set that was a million miles away from where they'd been only a year or so before, the Beatles pulled off the extraordinary feat of pushing rock music's boundaries out to the edge while showing that musical innovation could still be integrated into a satisfying melodic framework. The result? Well at its most extreme "Revolver" has "Tomorrow Never Knows" & "Love to You" (two of the mid-60's best avant-garde tracks) colliding head-on with "Here There and Everywhere" "Eleanor Rigby" & "For No One" (three of the most beautiful MOR ballads ever made) with each sitting, quite comfortably, within what has to be the broadest musical canvas ever committed to disc.

But it's what goes on between these extremes that makes "Revolver" such a brilliant album. In "Taxman", "I'm Only Sleeping", "She Said She Said", "And Your Bird Can Sing", "Doctor Robert" & "I Want to Tell You" the Beatles took the explorations that others (most notably the Yardbirds and the Byrds) had started and then applied their outstanding song-writing skills to them to show just how good this new music could be. And, because it was so good, they catapulted it straight into "the mainstream", laying down a reference point which others were bound to follow. What happened over the following year of huge musical change, culminating in "Sgt. Pepper's" anthemic but far less challenging celebration of it, owed a huge debt to "Revolver" - not only the Beatles best album but the catalyst for a scale shift in rock music.

If you haven't done so recently, play it and be amazed... and if you still don't own it, get it straight away.

In 1966, the Beach Boys released their masterpiece, 'Pet Sounds', after being inspired by the Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' which had been released the previous year. It presented a creative challenge to the Beatles, and the world waited to see whether they could respond with an album worthy of restoring their primacy in the compelling artistic competition between the two bands. With 'Revolver', they did that and more.

Here we have the most important exponents of popular music captured at the peak of their powers. Containing the finest moments of Lennon ('Tomorrow Never Knows'), McCartney ('Eleanor Rigby') and Harrison ('Taxman'), 'Revolver' is not merely the best album by the Beatles, but quite possibly the best album by anyone.

More seamlessly than any of the Beatles' albums, 'Revolver' combines entertainment with innovation. Even its poppiest tracks, such as 'And Your Bird Can Sing' and 'Doctor Robert', feature pioneering qualities - the most notable of which are the aggressively guitar-driven melodies. Indeed, for the prominence of the lead guitar, this is the most Harrisonian of all their albums. Even more original is McCartney's 'Eleanor Rigby' - in my opinion the greatest of all the Beatles' songs. That a normal human being like you or I could produce something so special with a violin, a voice and 120 seconds of recording tape is extraordinary.

The motherlode of imagination, however, is Lennon's 'Tomorrow Never Knows' which, despite being the first track to be recorded in the 'Revolver' sessions, provides the album's finale. Built on a recurring drum loop and backed by psychedelic sound effects, Lennon's vocal soars (reaching a glorious zenith with "love is all and love is everyone") despite being engineered to sound remote and detached. 'Tomorrow Never Knows' achieves the impossible in being both psychedelic and perfectly coherent and convincing. And this, remember, was pretty much their first attempt at psychedlia.

'Revolver' represents the genesis of modern rock. It is integral to the history and development of popular music, and should be passed down from generation to generation as solemnly as a family heirloom. Maybe if the Beatles hadn't recorded it, someone else would have eventually come along and made something of similar quality and importance. We, however, cannot know and must therefore revere this plastic disc as Christians revere the Bible.