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Before I move onto his commentary about songs from "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Magical Mystery Tour" I want to discuss the rest of "Revolver."
I've mentioned Revolver on this blog before - how great the Klaus Voormann cover is - and it's nice to have another reason to post it on this blog - and I've written about Eleanor Rigby several times.
These days many consider Revolver a greater album than Sgt. Pepper's, which was long considered their crowning achievement.
I don't know though, while the cover of "Revolver" is absolutely unbeatable, it's a tough call. I mean, Revolver has three Harrison songs, and I detest all three. At least Pepper only has one, "Within You, Without You." When I had the vinyl album, when I was a teenager, Within You was the first track on side two and I almost always put the record player needle down right after that song.
But back to Revolver.
Taxman - rich guy and not-great songwriter complains about paying taxes. And Harrison doesn't even play the blazing guitar solo, that was McCartney. D-
Eleanor Rigby - amazing song. See above. A++
I'm Only Sleeping - meh, the music is OK but nothing really exciting. Funny description of the song by Peter Doggett: "Half acid dream, half latent Lennon laziness personified." It's a weaker version of "She Said, She Said." B-
Love You Too - a Harrison song, so forgettable that I was surprised to see it listed in the lineup because I had completely forgotten it ever existed, and looking at the lyrics now, I was surprised to see that one of the lines is "Love me while you can - Before I'm a dead old man." I guess the line always sounded garbled, and I never cared enough to track down the lyrics to find out what he's saying. D-
Here, There and Everywhere - I know people love this song but I think it's boring. Slow and musically tiresome. The backing vocals remind me of "Michelle" one of my least-favorite Beatles songs not written by Harrison. I give it a C-
Yellow Submarine - sui generis and one of their masterpieces. A++ (Ooh - Yellow Submarine demo tape on the Internet Archive.)
She Said, She Said - pretty cool, although the music isn't as interesting as the backstory, in that it was inspired by Jane Fonda's brother Peter. B+
Good Day Sunshine - I loved this one as a teenager, and asked my piano teacher to help me learn it, but I could never master the solo after "burns my feet as they touch the ground." But for all I know, George Martin, who played the solo, recorded it in half-time and then sped it up for the record - they were doing that kind of thing all the time. I don't like it as much now - and it's a portent of other songs by McCartney that expresses the rooty-toot side of his personality, which reached its nadir with "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time." B
And Your Bird Can Sing - one of their most underrated songs. I think it's a masterpiece. More about the song here. A++
For No One - Ian Leslie loves this one, and I guess I can appreciated the lyrics, intellectually, but I think the music is boring and dreary. C-
Dr. Robert - a very 1960s commentary song, the music is just OK, but at least a nice brisk change of pace from For No One. B
I Want to Tell You - the third Harrison song. So boring. Completely forgettable. D-
Got to Get You Into My Life - McCartney's ode to marijuana, which I find more interesting than the music which is brassy to the point of cacophony. C-
Tomorrow Never Knows - I didn't like this as a teenager. Now I find it more interesting than enjoyable. But very interesting, so B+
So there you go. Five songs that I consider duds, but three masterpieces. Sgt. Pepper is going to have to work hard to beat that. I will write about Pepper next.