THE BEATLES - Turn off your mind... 50 Years "Revolver"

We know that without the Beatles the topography of popular music would be different. This has a lot to do with the fact that the four Liverpoolers - a quartet as painted for the optimistic and innovative sixties - were in the right place at the right time, namely in London, and were thus able to rise to shining icons of a decade whose achievements have shaped our world to the present day. Much, perhaps even much more, but this had to do with the unique musical talent that was bundled in the Beatles and was supported by a brilliant producer in the form of George Martin, who also had the best recording studio to be found in the kingdom.

In fact, the Beatles have virtually reinvented pop music within a few years with an almost perfect work. The probably decisive years of this work are from 1965 to 1967, marked by the albums "Rubber Soul" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". These were the years in which the Beatles liberated pop songs from their thematic limitations, opened up the whole world of the European musical tradition - from chanson to classical - and the cosmos of Indian music to him, in which they developed the recording studio into their own instrument of creativity and, last but not least, paved the way for the album as a new leading medium of pop music. That's all I can do. And if all this is reflected in a single album, then it is the one being negotiated here - "Revolver".

No. 1 per instruction

April 1966: Almost four years ago the Beatles appeared in London as blank sheets and scene novices and completed their first recording session for EMI there. Since then they have made a fairytale ascent: They have placed nine No. 1 singles in a row in the UK charts, and nine have been in the USA since their breakthrough there in February 1964. In addition, all six albums have conquered the top of the charts while the band has been touring the world and making two full-length feature films. Never before has an act of popular music been more successful. A unique triumph that goes down in the annals as Beatlemania.

It's a tough job being a Beatle. At least since their first top ten hit "Please Please Me" a little more than three years ago, the band has been more or less busy around the clock satisfying the exploding demand for interviews, photo shoots and TV appearances. But above all the constant desire for new music. There have only been breaks for a few days in between, more than two weeks per year are not possible. Your diary is chronically overcrowded. Recordings have so far mostly only been possible in the short gaps between other commitments. The eight weeks that have now been earmarked for writing and producing the new album are a princely amount of time. Strictly speaking, they are a novelty in pop music, so far something like this had to go much faster. But if anyone can afford that luxury, it's the Beatles. However: All the world is waiting for a new single, which - what else?! - to shoot back at number one. "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper" was already released at Christmas 1965 and is therefore a thing of the past. The EMI management has already sent a corresponding instruction to George Martin. On June 24th everything, album and new No.-1 hit, should be in the box, because then the summer world tour of the Beatles will start with two concerts in Munich.

So the pressure is enormous, also or perhaps especially for the astonishingly young Beatles: When the sessions for "Revolver" start on April 6th in No. 3 Abbey Road, John Lennon 25, just like Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney 23 and George Harrison as the youngest of the quartet just turned 23. If the Beatles want to keep their status as the biggest band in the world, they have to add to the dizzyingly high level of their last year album "Rubber Soul". After all, the competition doesn't sleep, established groups like the Rolling Stones and The Who reliably deliver hit singles, new names like Small Faces and Spencer Davis Group bring a breath of fresh air to the charts.

Lesen Sie mehr im eclipsed Nr. 181 (Juni 2016).