Ray Newman says: "August marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver. I've spent two years working on a short book about the making of the album which is available as a free PDF download. It's licensed under Creative Commons"
(The ebook is 130 pages long, and I skimmed it just now. It looks fantastic! — Mark)
Revolver wasn't so much released as it leaked out over
the course of some weeks.
Firstly, there was the advance guard – a hot-of-the
presses Revolver sessions single, "Paperback Writer" backed
with "Rain", released in the USA in May and shortly afterwards,
on June 10th, in the UK. Here was Revolver in microcosm – a
kind of trailer for the LP – with compressed bass, backwards
vocals, Indian influences, Beach Boys inspired vocals, LSDinspired
imagery, and heavily treated vocals. Their last single,
released almost six months earlier, had been a double A-side
with the folky, earthy "We Can Work It Out" and straight-up
plastic soul tune "Day Tripper". Whilst it can be hard to see the
dividing line between Rubber Soul and Revolver, it seems fairly
clear cut when you listen to those singles in succession.
