The “rubbish” Beatles album that triggered Ray Davies
Like the Wright brothers before them, The Beatles were a force that took fierce risks and changed the world in the process.
We barely give them credit for the fact that as they sat upon a precipice of fame known only to Jesus Christ before them, as John Lennon would infamously assert (and Christ’s was largely posthumous), they were only in their early 20s. Yet, they were more than happy to make a heap of all their winnings and risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss.
With this radical outlook, they liberated their sound not only for their own amusement but also for the greater good of culture. The world was liberated along with it. As the philosopher Mark Fisher once said, “The Beatles basically trained people to expect things to get more and more experimental the more popular they got.”
Perhaps the two facets – their amusement and the greater good – were entwined. The Beatles thrived on pushing society forward and illuminating the future into something far brighter than the drab days they had known in their youth. So, while the majority of people might have been perturbed about the possibility of turning away from the safe hand-holding sound that had launched them to rarified heights, the Fab Four were more fortified in their artistic approach.
This led them to the wild artistic risk of Revolver. In the eyes of Ray Davies, it was a risk that failed. The Kinks frontman felt like it was more akin to a perversion of the cutting-edge rock ‘n’ roll that he had pioneered than the next step forward for music. Fresh off releasing ‘Sunny Afternoon’ himself, Davies was especially triggered by his counterparts’ effort.
When the Kinks frontman assessed the ground-breaking ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, he sarcastically stated: “Listen to all those crazy sounds! It’ll be popular in discotheques. I can imagine they had George Martin tied to a totem pole when they did this.” Essentially, his ire seemed to be that what was deemed innovation by the press was actually pretension.
And that mild takedown of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is about as kind as he got for the most part in his Disc and Music Echo Magazine review of the revolutionary 1966 record. He said that ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is a song that “sounds like they’re out to please music teachers in primary schools”, calling it “very commercial”.
Thereafter, Davies only gets even more merciless. He describes ‘Yellow Submarine’ as “a load of rubbish” and levelled that ‘Taxman’ was “a bit limited”. Interestingly, ‘Sunny Afternoon’ even has a similar theme to the latter. However, while George Harrison was lamenting Harold Wilson’s high tax rate, Ray Davies was looking at it from the perspective of a lazy aristocrat bemoaning a pittance more being drawn from his vast unearned wealth.
So, what really irked Ray?
This wasn’t just a targeted takedown of his foes, either. He actually liked the band. When he called it ”rubbish”, he was being objective. While being interviewed by Legs McNeil and Stacey Asip-Kneitschel in 2009, Davies opened up about his admiration for the Fab Four. “I think they were such good businessman,” Davis explained.
Adding, “And you know the difference between a writer and a businessman. The Beatles were organised about what they did. We did a few shows with them and it was apparent that they knew what they were doing”.
While that might still not be the most complimentary when it comes to their music, he did go on. ”It is apparent just meeting them they are just very organised businessmen and it shows in their writing. In the great stuff that they wrote,” he said. “And they’ve had some ropy songs, iffy songs”.
While he seemingly felt that Revolver was full of iffy tracks as the band got experimental, he claims that one diamond stood out from the rubble. As he says of ‘I’m Only Sleeping’: “It’s a most beautiful song, much prettier than ‘Eleanor Rigby’. A jolly old thing, really, and definitely the best track on the album.” In many ways, it is much more like a Kinks song, a tale of lounging around in old Blighty.
Yet, that recognition clearly did little to save Revolver in Ray’s eyes. For the most part, though, the record has been hailed as a masterpiece. Brian Wilson, for instance, opined, ”What the heck is not to love? It’s some of Paul’s best work. His vocals are amazing.”
And Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi claimed it mapped out the pop landscape perfectly, commenting, ”The Beatles, Revolver. It’s pop. It’s classic. It’s experimental. It’s revolutionary.”
So, was it a stunning step into the future or a step too far? Well, Ray might find himself outvoted 100-1 on this one, but I suppose he made some good points along the way.
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