It’s undeniable that the Beatles’ Revolver is a psychedelic rock landmark, a sonic marvel that marked a sea change in music production and culture. And in 2022 it was revisited for the full deluxe reissue treatment.
In 1966, joined by their new recording engineer Geoff Emerick, The Beatles and producer George Martin set about using the recording studio as their sonic workshop, creating sounds never heard before and introducing classical Indian music into Western pop rock.
But, like most pre-1968 Beatles albums, Revolver was recorded to four-track tape, with the result that the main rhythm instruments – usually guitar, bass and drums – were placed together on one track, making it impossible to separate them for stereo mixes. (Loudersound)
Only Paul and Ringo feature on For No One and it was written in a Swiss Alps ski resort bathroom.
Another indication that The Beatles were working less as a band, For No One features Ringo on percussion and Paul playing bass guitar, piano and clavichord.Alan Civil played the French horn solo. Recording engineer Geoff Emerick regarded Civil as the best horn player in London and the performance was deemed so good it pushed the instrument through barriers previously unexplored.Remarking about the lyrics, Paul said: “I suspect it was about another argument.” The song finishes with the line, “a love that should have lasted years.
Using ground-breaking de-mixing technology, Giles Martin – George Martin’s son, and the producer behind much of the group’s reissues in recent years – was able to separate the instruments, and even the individual pieces of the drum kit, without losing the room ambience or creating ugly artefacts. Here he explains more.
"On Revolver John Lennon never sings in the same voice. It’s different on every song. Same thing with the guitars and drums. Remixing it was like mixing eight different bands."
"But there was a thing with fuzz guitars. They were originally going to play [on guitars] the horn lines on Got to Get You Into My Life, but they decided to go with brass instead."
"Exists in a previous version of the song. But because the recordings were four-track, if they didn’t get something right they’d just record over it. So there are no hidden gems. But you really get a sense of their efficiency.
For example Paperback Writer, there’s just one and a half takes of the basic track, which is guitars and drums. So I’ve just left the tape running for this box set. They play, it breaks down, they immediately play it again, and that’s it! It’s all done but the bass and vocals. It’s very efficient."
You can read the full article and interview on Loudersound
