‘Revolver’: The Beatles album that had their career’s greatest three-song runs
Every artist usually has to worry about some sort of momentum carrying through all of their albums. Even though it might be an easy fix for someone to fill out their albums with nothing but one catchy single after another, there are pieces that are bound to get dull if there are one too many high-energy tunes in a row. And while The Beatles usually could have made anything they wanted and still made out like bandits behind the scenes, there are usually specific runs that stand out more than others.
Because going through any one of their albums, the Fab Four knew how to take their audience on a journey every time they played. From Rubber Soul onward, they started to look at their albums as an art form, which meant not necessarily making songs that were destined to be played on stations. Of all of those periods, which three-song run would be considered the greatest out of their glory years?
However, there’s one piece of their catalogue that should be given a dubious mention. The second half of Abbey Road might hold together as one of the finest pieces that the band have ever put together, but it’s hard to judge any three-song run that stands out since it’s meant to be listened to as one continuous piece.
And while the beginning of Abbey Road starts off strong with ‘Come Together’ and ‘Something’, it’s a bit more difficult to take it seriously when the last in the three-song slot is kneecapped by Paul McCartney’s sickening ditty, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. Even on some of their more celebrated albums like Sgt Pepper, there tend to be those few moments that weight down any three-song run, like ‘When I’m 64’ bringing things to a halt or the title track’s reprise seeming like a bit of filler before getting to ‘A Day in the Life’.
What we’re looking for here is something that works as a statement within three tracks, and when listening to the opening three songs on Revolver, the band made sure to draw a line in the sand for where they intended to go next. Fans were already promised something trippy after listening to the single ‘Paperback Writer’ backed with ‘Rain,’ but right from the first moments of the record with the mock count-in of ‘Taxman’, George Harrison had the audience in the palm of his hand.
Harrison had always been more reserved in the songwriting department, but hearing him kick open the door with a song about taxes was already a break away from their traditional love song formula. And right after being in hard rock mode, Paul McCartney snaps us out of everything with ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ one of the band’s biggest departures by featuring no guitars and featuring a dark story of a woman picking up rice in a church.
Compared to his bandmates, John Lennon needed to come through with something strong, and ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ works as the perfect precursor to what would be coming up next on the record. There was still that trademark Bob Dylan influence, but hearing backwards guitar and a slightly hazy atmosphere over everything was preparing us for what was to come on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
Beyond being great songs, the opening of Revolver serves as a great way of showcasing everything that each Beatle was capable of when playing to their strengths. Harrison may have been more biting later, Macca would be more sophisticated, and Lennon would be more experimental, but in terms of everyone’s respective wheelhouse in the band, there is no better set of songs to prove that The Beatles were looking to explore parameters far beyond rock and roll.
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