The Beatles Revolver

The Beatles’ material before the Revolver album was very much more traditional and built on the musicality of the songs. It seems that Revolver was created with a much more abstract idea in mind. What made this album such a success was the way that the Beatles used ground breaking effects to innovate new ways to record an album. I think the thing that influenced the content of Revolver is the heavy drug use of the band members during this period of their career. During the making of this album the Beatles were heavily into the use of drugs like acid, like many other artists during this time. However, it worked out in their favor because this allowed the band to think outside of the box and create new ideas. The Beatles used the studio as an instrument by recording instruments in new ways and reassembling studio equipment to fit their needs. A good example of this is when they recorded vocals through a rotating speaker cabinet to get a special effect. Two innovations found in the Revolver album that I felt were very important is backwards tape loops and the instrumentation. These are the two instruments that were the most influential to me because they were unheard of during this time in music history. No engineer in their right mind would dare to record a guitar track to tape then reverse it and in correct time with the song. Also, foreign instruments used in American music were not very common at all. As a listener and industry professional revolver is a great album to listen for new recording ideas. Although, the Revolver has a lot of great songs I would not listen to it for its musicality because that is not what it was created for. However, I do think it is one of the most influential album of all time. 

Dionta Lyle