Thirty-four minutes that changed the course of music history. Thirty-four revolutionary minutes. Can it really be possible that it happened fifty years ago today?

Rubber Soul is given most of the credit as the Beatles‘ turning point from mop-topped pop stars to 20th century innovators and artists. But Revolver – released eight months later, on Aug. 5, 1966 – is where they abandoned any preconceived notions about the group and all the expectations that came with them.

From the count-in of George Harrison’s Taxman to Paul McCartney’s sublime Eleanor Rigby to She Said She Said – inspired by an LSD-influenced conversation between John Lennon and actor Peter Fonda (a song which featured Harrison on both bass and lead guitar because McCartney, in the midst of a spat with Lennon, refused to play on it) – all the way to the bombastic climax of Tomorrow Never Knows, Revolver announced to the world that The Beatles of old were no more.

Could anyone have guessed that a group that sang I Want To Hold Your Hand just two years earlier would be capable of this masterpiece? There were signs before, on Rubber Soul, and in the Paperback Writer / Rain single recorded during the Revolver sessions and released two months earlier, but those little hints hadn’t prepared us for anything like this. Everything that came out after Revolver was somehow shaped and formed by it. As far as historic records go, it may be the 60s’ most important album.

If Rubber Soul is the album that turned the corner on the group’s career and Sgt. Pepper is the Beatles album that certified pop as art, Revolver is the center on which both classic records (and so many more) spins. Even its celebrated cover – the iconic black-and-white artwork by Klaus Voormann – changed the way album sleeves were perceived.

More so than any of their other albums, Revolver is the one that sounds less like an artifact and more like a benchmark – not just for the rest of the 60s, but, moving forward, rock music in general. The 60s pretty much started here. It was the sound of the future in thirty-four revolutionary minutes.

Play button is on the left … Volume slider is on the right

Play ‘Revolver’

Taxman (Harrison)
Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney)
I’m Only Sleeping (Lennon/McCartney)
Love You To (Harrison)
Here, There And Everywhere (Lennon/McCartney)
Yellow Submarine (Lennon/McCartney)
She Said She Said (Lennon/McCartney)
Good Day Sunshine (Lennon/McCartney)
And Your Bird Can Sing (Lennon/McCartney)
For No One (Lennon/McCartney)
Doctor Robert (Lennon/McCartney)
I Want To Tell You (Harrison)
Got To Get You Into My Life (Lennon/McCartney)
Tomorrow Never Knows (Lennon/McCartney)

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