The astonishing 2022 re-release of Revolver

So, I wrote a piece back in 2021 about my Top 3 Beatles albums, and OK, sure, “Revolver” wasn’t there. If I did a top 5 instead of 3, I’m sure Revolver would have been number 4.

I now have to rethink this Top 3 because of Giles Martin and “Revolver: Special Deluxe Edition,” released on October 28, 2022.

The original mono mix is part of the new release (OK, I like the mono version, but this is more or less the same, just rather polished and… warmer). There’s some material, books, etc., but I’m not focusing on that here.

The primary draw of the Super Deluxe Edition is the stunning remastered audio quality. Giles Martin, the son of original Beatles producer George Martin, has meticulously reworked the original recordings to provide a pristine and dynamic listening experience. Every instrument and vocal line is clear, crisp, and balanced, allowing for a deeper appreciation of the intricate arrangements and innovative production techniques that The Beatles and George Martin employed. OK, I could stop this review here, but will carry on.

So the highlight of the Super Deluxe Edition is the stereo remix by Giles, followed, oh, so very closely by the demo, session recordings, and takes, which occupy two of the five albums.

I want to say that first, you have to listen to this with headphones. I mean, not crappy headphones, but really good headphones.

This is The Beatles.

Try to find somewhere quiet. And, please, God forbid, don’t use compression – use a lossless bitrate version (if you are streaming.)

Listening to every single one of these remixed stereo tracks opened up things I’ve never really heard or at least paid attention to on this album.

Paul’s pumping bass on “Taxman” and “Yellow Submarine.” The clarity of the violins while listening to “Eleanor Rigby” and listening to John’s backing vocal is more pronounced than ever. The horn section of “Got to Get You Into My Life” jumps out at you. I could go on (and… I will).

Giles worked with what was called “de-mixing” the album, using Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films and the mono mixes. “This gave him an extra-blank canvas to create stereo mixes.“

Of the beginning

The band took an incredible five-month break after “Rubber Soul” to record “Revolver.” Yes, five months, from December 3, 1965, to April 6, 1966. Times have changed. Bands will now take five (or many more) years between recording albums now!

On Wednesday, April 6, 1966, The first track they started working on was the last track of the album, “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

As noted in the Rolling Stones’ review: In 1966, when Paul McCartney tried to impress Bob Dylan with an acetate of “Tomorrow Never Knows” — the sprawling, experimental acid freakout that concludes the Beatles’ seventh (and arguably best) LP, Revolver — Dylan quipped, “Oh, I get it: You don’t want to be cute anymore.”

The result was trippy (to say the least.) It took four takes over two days of recording. Ringo’s hypnotic drums feel even more resounding when listening to it again in this 2022 stereo mix. The seagull sounds (a distorted guitar), what feels like Paul’s bass being played constantly throughout the song, the tape loops, and the tambourines flicking throughout the song (again, constantly)… and the organ.

It swirls around and around and around.

Take 1 is here on the demo discs and a rare ‘mono RM 11’ mix. If you listen to the final product, along with Take 1 and RM 11, they sound like a fun extended mix of the song, to be honest.

And John and his vocals… At this point in his Beatles career, this was a massive shift (bear in mind only one year before this, he was recording and singing “You’re Going To Lose That Girl” for the “Help!” album: oh, the progress). And this was… a John song. If there was ever any doubt that The Beatles were fragmenting from Lennon/McCartney to Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, this is it.

Did I Tell You I Need You?

John’s trip into “Tomorrow Never Knows” is pretty much that. A trip because, at that point, LSD played a heavy influence, with him in particular. All of them were experimenting, except Paul and Ringo.

But no matter because John said at one point, Revolver was the band’s “pot album.” (“Rubber Soul” was sort of too.)

It shines no more brightly than in the next song, which The Beatles started recording after “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Paul’s ode to marijuana, “Got To Get You Into My Life.” In the stereo 2022 version, the song is transformed. The horns groove and blast out in such a lovely way. Ringo’s drumming stands out in this 2022 remix more than ever.

And then we have Paul’s vocals. You can tell he is having fun recording it. Listening to its evolution with the demos and his debates with George Martin and John is fascinating… “So, how do we get into it?” “So we start by fading up?”

The initial use of the organ as the intro to the song with John and George, “I need your love,” over the refrain…

“Did I tell you I need you every single day of my life… somehow, someway”.

Later takes were made with a rockier feel (the “Second Version/Unnumbered Mix” could be an entirely different, absolutely brilliant song in its own right… but without the brass, which made it ultimately the iconic song it is now).

Granny Smith

“Revolver” is a masterpiece, but it also laid down the marker that – while “Rubber Soul”s “Think For Yourself” and “If I Needed Someone” were great – it indeed proved that George Harrison was a supremely gifted musician and singer/songwriter. Two years before “Revolver,” he sang songs written by John and Paul. On Revolver, he added three tracks – a first: “Taxman,” “Love You To,” and “I Want to Tell You.” “Revolver” showed more than any previous album that he didn’t need John, and he didn’t need Paul. He was just George.

“Love You To” started with the title “Granny Smith” (it stayed that way for a while, and then became following that, “I Don’t Know,” because George was pretty useless at choosing song titles). George had already discovered Indian music, bringing it to the forefront even more. George played the sitar, and an outside musician, Anil Bhagwat, was recruited to play the tabla.

It was interesting to hear the demos, a take with just regular instruments, an instrumental with the sitar and tabla, and then a take with everything.

Their recording of “Dr. Robert” came soon after, a John song, a sort of psychedelic ode to a mysterious figure who provided the band with mind-altering substances. Or something. In his remarkable “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, he states it was Charles Roberts, who administered hallucinogenic drugs to friends from his New York 48th Street practice, and that this was The Beatles’ first ever direct musical reference to drugs.

Again, the stereo mix proves crisp, with John’s vocal more prominent and Paul and George’s “Well, well, well, you’re feeling fine…” backup vocals sounding smoother on the 2022 mix. Paul’s backing is solid. Interestingly, the 1966 released version ended up 45 seconds shorter than the Take 7 presented here, which is 3 minutes long – but still fun.

When your bike is broken, will it bring you down?

“And Your Bird Can Sing” is a delight. I’ll put aside the 2022 mix because, yes, it is so much crisper and lovelier to listen to (a given) but instead, focus on the demos.

“ ’And Your Bird Can Sing’ was John’s song,” McCartney relates. “I suspect that I helped with the verses because the songs were nearly always written without second and third verses. I seem to remember working on that middle-eight with him, but it’s John’s song, 80-20 to John.”

Of the three released takes, the first, Take 2, was initially just a very light version – very much so compared to the later Take 5 and then the final product. The most extraordinary attempt was Take 3. It starts with John munching, then Paul cracking up, and the two giggling throughout the track. Mostly Paul, with John – I think – trying to egg him on. It is one of the most enjoyable Beatles tracks to listen to, capturing the camaraderie and lightheartedness that may have often characterized their recording sessions. They were beginning to move apart musically at this stage, which would be demonstrated on their next album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band,” but this was a duo who still knew how to have fun together.

Paul stated in 1995, “You couldn’t have released it at the time, but now you can. Sounds great just hearing us lose it on a take.” George Martin agreed, “You can’t help laughing with them, it’s so funny.”

Take 5 was more of a heavy rocker, starting with John shouting out, “Okay boys, quite brisk, moderato, foxtrot!” before unleashing what was, up to that point, the best version of the song.

That was until they eventually finalized the song, with George punching in his guitar, interlocking with Paul’s bass throughout.

Let me tell you how it will be

George’s finest, strongest song on “Revolver” is “Taxman,” and it sits deservedly as the first track of the album, with its slow “1, 2, 3, 4, hrrhmm” opening to the start. Giles Martin created the new 2022 stereo remix where the squeakiness of Ringo’s drums, Paul’s pumping bass, which drives the song, and his excellent guitar solos figure so prominently.

But this is a Harrison song (albeit giving up the guitar solos to Paul), and it’s a distinctive, cleverly written opener with some of my favorite Beatles lyrics, especially: “(If you get too cold, cold) I’ll tax the heat, (If you take a walk, walk) I’ll tax your feet.” I’ll tax your feet?

“Let me tell you how it will be. There’s one for you, nineteen for me…” Harrison was unhappy with the UK Government taking a significant portion of their earnings. The Super Deluxe Edition of “Revolver” contains Take 11, with the swift and very high “Anybody got a bit of money?” sung three times over by John and Paul in place of the “ah-ah, Mr. Wilson,” “ah-ah, Mr. Heath” final result.

Dreaming my Life Away

“I’m Only Sleeping” is really John’s ode to being… lazy. Fabulously dreamy, “please don’t wake me, no, don’t shake me. Leave me where I am.”… The 2022 Super Deluxe Edition stereo mix shimmers – when I listened to it for the first time, I heard faint backing vocals I’d never heard before. Paul’s yawn (yes, it is Paul) is even more pronounced.

I absolutely love the demo tracks released with this Super Deluxe Edition. There are four. The first is a simple, less than one minute, dreamy vibraphone rehearsal.

The highlight is Take 2: John comes in after the second verse too early, resulting in his exclamation “Sorry, sorry,” and inquiring about the balance between his and George’s guitars. “I’ll just have to vemp it up a bit…now he tells me,” he exclaims, quietly asking Paul, “Are you going to sing or ain’t you??”

Take 5 is just a sped-up instrumental version of the track, with Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drums at the forefront.

Take 11 finished just before 3 am when sleeping was at the forefront of their minds. It was later used and became the “Mono Mix RM1” found in the Super Deluxe Edition. But this mix used electric guitars, but backward. It was May 5, 1966, and the first backward guitar heard in popular music history was performed on this day. It was George’s idea, and he did all the playing, working out the notation forwards, writing it out backward, and then playing it as the notation says… so it comes out back to front. After some additional reduction mixes and overdubs, you have the final product.

The use of backward guitars, which resulted from their experimentation when recording “I’m Only Sleeping,” became a mainstay of not just The Beatles remaining catalog but also modern rock music.

Your Mind Aches

Paul McCartney bought “Eleanor Rigby” into the studio with the idea that this would be a song with no Beatles instrumentation whatsoever. None.

The 2022 stereo version is alarmingly beautiful. Strikingly, so.

Listening over a fantastic set of headphones, the strings jump into your head, creating an excellent new mix of the song, which I give full credit to Giles Martin for making. The remastered audio is simply stunning. Paul McCartney’s vocals are more resonant than ever, and the haunting string arrangement has been elevated, giving it a new level of depth and presence. It’s one that you need to hear to believe.

You must, of course, know that “Eleanor Rigby” is a haunting, melancholy song that tells the story of two lonely people. I’ll stop there.

Short of the fantastic 2022 stereo mix, there is the chatter that precedes Take 2. George Martin asks, “Paul? Are you there?…. Listen to this… this is without vibrato on the rhythm bit…” So the players played without vibrato. They then tried the same piece with vibrato.

George Martin then called up to Paul, “Can you tell any difference?”

The response from Paul: “Um…not much.” (He basically didn’t.)

Everyone seemed to agree it sounded better without; the musicians could, and they favored playing without.

The “For No One” recording followed after “Eleanor Rigby.”

Paul used a clavichord to record the song – a vintage keyboard – which created the baroque effect. The 2022 mix is beautifully done by Giles Martin, bringing Alan Civil’s French horn to a lovely rise. The track on the demos/tracks is Take 10, a simple backing track minus the French horn.

There are a number of amusing stories which revolve around the recording of “For No One,” but my favorite is probably a result of Paul’s perfectionism (or not really knowing what perfectionism might be when a French horn is played).

George Martin remembers: “Paul didn’t realize how brilliantly Alan Civil was doing. We got the definitive performance, and Paul said, ‘Well, OK, I think you can do it better than that, can’t you, Alan?’ Alan nearly exploded. Of course, he didn’t do it better than that, and the way we’d already heard it was the way you hear it now.”

Paul’s “For No One” was initially called “Why Did it Die?” From Paul’s explanation of the song’s formation in his 2021 book “The Lyrics,” “It’s a song about rejection. The breakup, or marking the end of a relationship that didn’t work, has always been quite a rich area to explore in a song”.

It is McCartney at his finest.

A Life of Ease

“Yellow Submarine” is John and Paul’s contribution to Ringo on “Revolver.”

He always had to have one. I’m not sure any of them realized how massive “Yellow Submarine” would turn out to become, a double A-side single in the UK, along with “Eleanor Rigby.”

Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell created yet another stereo mix of “Yellow Submarine” using AI to separate the elements from the rhythm track for stereo placement, with John’s “life of ease” vocal in the final verse being particularly highlighted.

An early demo by Lennon was made approximately in March of 1966; that contains the familiar verse melody and chords but includes the lyrics, “In the town where I was born / no one cared, no one cared.” (Sean Lennon gave this to Giles Martin for the 2022 Super Deluxe Edition.) A month later, Paul joined to create another demo, also included in the 2022 Super Deluxe Edition (called “Songwriting Work Tapes”), with the usual banter… “Paul: can you read that?” “John: Yeah, I can read that now ok, Paul…? Right! You can play on your track, and I can play on mine.”

The first recording started on May 26, 1966, and the 2022 release includes ‘Take four’ from that day (“before sound effects”) and the final version with highlighted sound effects from June 1, 1966… more or less the final version, minus the spoken introduction… which made no sense anyway (“A yellow submarine and we will march to three the day to see them gathered there, from Land O’ Groats to John O’Green, from Stepney to Utecht, to see a yellow submarine, and we love it!”). And the ending is different. But final enough.

Soon after the beginning recording of “Yellow Submarine” in Abbey Road, The Beatles began working on George Harrison’s third, unprecedented composition, which turned out to be “Love You To.” George didn’t know what to call it again, so it was branded “Laxton’s Superb,” another type of British apple.

The chatter at the beginning of Take 4 in the 2022 release is along the lines of Mark Lewisohn’s account in his “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions”:

Geoge Martin: “What are you going to call it, George?”
George: “I don’t know.” John: “Granny Smith Part Friggin’ Two, you’ve never had a title for any of your songs!!”

It goes without saying that Giles Martin’s 2022 new stereo mix of the song using AI technology creates a vibrant new version of the song, which makes me love it even more.

I Feel Good, In a Special Way

Recorded on June 8, 1966, “Good Day Sunshine” was, as Mark Lewisohn described, “one of the quickest recordings on “Revolver” – the version released on the LP was actually Take 1 (with some overdubs). The 2022 Super Deluxe Edition mix is vibrant, like the other remixed songs, and it’s a fun, lighthearted McCartney song. There are no demos, mainly because it was recorded so quickly!

“Here, There, and Everywhere.”

McCartney includes it among his personal favorites of the songs he has written.

John has described it as “one of my favorite songs of The Beatles.”

George Martin has said it was his favorite Paul McCartney song.

In 2000, Mojo ranked it 4th in the magazine’s list of the greatest songs of all time.

So, Giles Martin had a bit of looking up to when remixing it for the 2022 Super Deluxe Edition. Fortunately, it sounds fantastic. I listened to this track when first listening to the entire 2022 album on a walk. And I had to hit the “Repeat button” on my iPhone over and over.

Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell prepared a new stereo mix of the song using AI to separate the rhythm track elements for separation between the left and right channels, thus creating a superior mix for future generations to enjoy.

Paul’s vocals are just lovely, and the dubs (his over-dub, along with John and George) are stunning. The harmonies are unmatchable. Paul’s bass and George’s 12-string guitar are simply beautiful. John and George’s finger snaps towards the end are even more prominent here as well.

The demo discs include Take 6 of the song – just Paul, with no dubs – so a simpler yet still interesting version of the track.

Who Put All Those Things In Your Head?

Hectic. June 21, 1966, and the one-day recording of “She Said, She Said.”

First: the 2022 mix of “She Said, She Said” doesn’t add much to the 2009 remaster release. But it’s still a very fine, interesting, utterly acidic rock tune where apparently John was doing LSD, and tried to get Paul to try it, who then refused and left the recording studio.

So it was a John song from start to finish (apparently). There is a one-minute demo included where John, on a solo guitar, starts singing “He Said…” rather than “She Said…”

Take 15 is primarily interesting because of the banter added by Giles Martin.

The banter among the group: Ringo felt he “came in one (measure) early, and you were saying one more,” to which Paul replied, “Actually, I thought you were out there still having lunch.”

John, realizing the time was getting late on their last day of recording, encourages the others by saying, “C’mon, now. C’mon, C’mon. Last track! Last track! Last track!” Ringo continues to express how he feels he’s “coming in too early,” to which John replies, “You’re doing fine! See, I’ll sing the words!”

It’s a Steady Job

So, they’re not on “Revolver,” but they were recorded during the “Revolver” sessions, and they’re included on the 2022 Super Deluxe Edition: “Paperback Writer” and “Rain.”

Both are featured here with new Stereo and Mono versions and some interesting takes.

I adore “Paperback Writer.” Apparently, it was the only new song in what was to be their final 1966 tour setlist.

But the Rickenbacker… that bass which Paul plays on this song for the first time – oh God, it just jumps out and resonates, even so, so more on this 2022 edition. Paul, apparently, loved the sound.

The 2022 stereo remix jumps out with Paul’s bass and vocals, Ringo’s drumming, and John and George singing harmonies.

Also included is a mix of ‘takes one and two’ of the backing track recorded on April 13, 1966. It is instrumental, but you can hear where the band is heading just one day before the final take.

“Rain” is also included. So often overlooked in The Beatles catalog. John had fun using backward vocals… a lot of fun.

First, there are two outtakes – “actual speed” and “slowed down.” I’m not quite sure I understand here, as the “actual speed” (which is just an instrumental) is far faster than the original, and the “slowed down” version sounds slightly slower, more like the actual version!

The 2022 stereo remix sounds really good, but other than enjoying hearing John’s backward vocal in ever so slightly more clarity, it’s simply that: good.

Overall

Honestly, I had such a great time with this re-release; I just have to give Giles Martin and Sam Okell a huge thumbs up for producing such a fantastic product.

From George’s opening riff of “Taxman” to John’s psychedelic weirdness of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” this album still sounds fresh and exciting over well over half a century after its release. In a world where music is increasingly disposable, “Revolver” absolutely remains a timeless work of art.

And yes, it’s now in my Top 3. I’m so sorry, “A Hard Day’s Night.”

10/10

Chris Garrod, March 23, 2023

(Photo credits, unless otherwise indicated, are all to Apple Corps and the amazing, late Robert Freeman)