Every Sound There Is: The Beatles' Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll

by Russell Reising

'Every Sound There Is': The Beatles' Revolver and the Transformation of Rock and Roll assesses and celebrates the Beatles' accomplishment in their 1966 masterpiece. The essays of Every Sound There Is examine Revolver from a large number of complementary starting points that help us to understand both the album's contemporary creation and reception and the ways in which it continues to shape the creation and reception and popular music in the twenty-first century.

Genres: History

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though The Beatles' 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper is often held to be their first masterpiece and arrival in psychedelia, a case can be made that its predecessor Revolver of the previous year was the true breakthrough and perhaps even the superior album. In Every Sound There Is, edited by Russell Reising, fourteen musicologists explore various aspects of this classic rock'n'roll record: music theory, lyrics interpretation, historical context and influence from and on other artists.

There's a lot of material here, not all of which interested me, so I'll simply mention the four papers that impressed me the most. Shaugn O'Donnell contributes a paper about Revolver's influence on Pink Floyd. While there's a great deal of speculation here (post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning), O'Donnell presents a chronology that makes it clear that, contrary to legend, Pink Floyd were not greatly influenced by sharing Abbey Road studios with The Beatles during the recording of Sgt. Pepper, but in fact had turned in a new direction months earlier. Kari McDonald and Sarah Hudson Kaufman describe what producer George Martin and his team brought to Revolver, detailing the whizbang electronic effects that elevated this record to something fresh and innovative. Jim LeBlanc describes the initial American release of Revolver, which lacked several songs from the UK original and severely disrupted the flow, especially in terms of Lennon's contributions. Finally, Russell Reising writes about how Revolver is the birth of the psychedelic sound, and after reading this paper, I see how the record is just as trippy as Sgt. Pepper.

I used to find Revolver hard to get into, but this collection of papers has expanded my appreciation of the album. I recommend this to Beatles' fans of an academic bent.

[Michael Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection, giving numerous insights into the Beatles LP. Small blemishes included formatting issues with some of the music notations.

Surely it is no coincidence that the book has 14 chapters and "Revolver" has 14 tracks...? And that Russ Reising's final chapter - like the final "Revolver" track, 'Tomorrow never knows' - draws together the insights of the rest into a grand summation...