THE BEATLES

Prior to the Revolver album, the Beatles had mostly written songs about love. They had always stuck to the mold of catchy pop songs and hadn't diversified much from that image. The Beatles had become influenced by other groups and artists, such as Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys. They were also under the influence of Drugs such as Marijuana and LSD during the creative process of several songs on the album which went hand in hand with the book The Psychedelic Experience which also influenced the album. Certainly, other genres of music were of great inspiration. The song Love you to was influenced by the middle eastern sounds of a sitar which the Beatles were introduced to during a video shoot in a restaurant years before. The Beatles did things in the studio that contributed to the overall sound of the album in ways that had never been done before. One thing they did was use a bass cabinet as a speaker to capture the bass played by Paul McCartney. Certainly, the major difference between the music of the Beatles on this album and other songs on being played at the time was the content. With Paperback Writer, the content was so fresh and incomprehensible to many listeners. Taxman took a stab at people in the world directly by using names. This was unheard of up until this point in the music industry. The Beatles were phenomenal at harmonizing with each other. They would gather around one microphone, so close they could feel each others breath, and sing their harmonies at the same time. It blows my mind that these songs were recorded with such simple equipment. I believe they used a 4 track recorder. The Beatles engineering team came up with a way to replicate Artificial Double Tracking. It did this by re-recording over the head with a very slight delay. This beefed up the sound so beautifully. What an absolute genius Ken Townsend was. It was with advances in the recording process, such as this one, that the studio became an instrument within itself. I have always shied away from the Beatles, for some reason, their ability to evoke such an emotional reaction from me has seemed overwhelming and quite dangerous. Some of their songs can throw me into a depression and others can make me feel like a young kid again. Listening to this album and the narration built even more of a respect for the power of what the Beatles did. They made their music seem so simple yet when analyzed, it's very complex. One of the most incredible moments of the listening's we've done was listening to all the music in the charts when the Beatles released their album. The songs seemed endless, and included songs like California Dreaming, timeless pieces of art. This album is inspiring to the true musician that wants to be creative for the sake of being creative. The artist that enjoys the studio as a chemist enjoys the lab.

reference Page
http://www.prx.org/pieces/15368-everything-was-right-the-beatles-revolver