When released in 1966, the Revolver album broke new ground. Rather than just going into the studio to record performances, the Beatles viewed the studio as a canvas with which they could paint musical pictures impossible to make on-stage. They challenged their producer and engineers to create new sounds and find better ways of capturing their work. As it turned out, the Beatles days as a live band were over. Like sponges, they were soaking up musical and cultural influences. Revolver marks the moment when the Beatles transitioned from an exceptional rock band to leaders and ambassadors of culture.
It is fitting then that this remixed version of this album is using technology that makes possible something that was deemed impossible even two years ago. Because Revolver was recorded in four tracks, with several instruments crammed into a single track, remixing this album in the quality manner that Sir Paul, Sir Ringo, Yoko and Olivia would find acceptable was considered not technically possible. That all changed thanks to technology developed here in New Zealand. The previous stereo mixes of revolver are primitive and in some cases pretty hard to listen to, with the vocals in some tracks panned all the way to one side of the stereo spectrum. These new stereo mixes sound like the Beatles just stepped out of the studio in 2022, and will let us all appreciated these masterpieces in a new way.
Speaking of New Zealand, since Friday comes to us before it arrives anywhere else, I’ll be one of the first in the world to have the new Revolver mixes, and it will be my absolute pleasure and honour to play them for you on Mushroom FM. I’ll discuss the meaning and inspiration behind each song, there is a bit of debate about some of them, and also geek out a bit on the way they were recorded. We’ll go deeper too. I will have the super deluxe edition, and I’ll select a few outtakes so we can hear the songs in earlier forms as the Beatles and their production term were working on arrangements and even lyrics.
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It’s super exciting to have nearly arrived at a day that until recently was never going to come.
It would be fab if you could join me live on Thursday at Noon US Eastern time, 5 PM in the UK, and 9 AM Pacific time. That’s bright and early on Friday morning at 5 AM in New Zealand, but that’s OK, I couldn’t sleep knowing that I have the chance to hear these new mixes anyway.
If you are not in any of those time zones, you can visit the Mushroom FM schedule page at http://MushroomFM.com/schedule and you can find out when the show is on where you are.