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THE COMPLETE STORY OF
THE BEATLES' Revolver

ABRACADABRA!

RAY NEWMAN

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FOREWORD & Acknowledgments
I wrote this for fun. I'm not a music journalist, or a
professional writer. The idea emerged from a few nagging
questions I hadabout Revolver, which the band and their
biographers seemed rather too happy to gloss over. Where did
Paul McCartney really get the idea for Eleanor Rigby? Who
taught George Harrison to play the sitar? And who did give John
Lennon LSD for the first time?
Almost every morning for two years, I sat on the tube
ploughing through one interminable Beatles memoir or another
with highlighter andnotebook in hand; I spent my lunch-breaks
visiting libraries to read books on Hinduism; I spent weekends
hammering away at a keyboard, trying to make all the new
information make sense; I lay awake at night worrying about
rumours of a Sunday Times journalist interviewing all of the
same people as I was trying to get hold of.
And it has been fun. If no-one ever reads this, at least I
know I'llnever lose another pub argument about the Beatles. Or,
for that matter, have to listen to Revolver ever again.
***
Thanks for interviews to Daniel and Shankara Angadi,
Tony Aspler, Andre Barreau, Ian Hamer, Barry M. Jones, Klaus
Voorman.
For research materials, to the staff at Westminster City
Archives, Walthamstow Central Library, Bridgwater Library, stall
owners at Walthamstow CollectorsMarket, Dave Beckner,
Chance Lander, “Koeeoaddi There”, Alan Newman and Richard
Slack.
For writing particularly useful books, to Ian McDonald,
George Martin , Geoff Emerick and Barry Miles.
For advice and comments, to Jess Slack, Rowland Stone,
Paul Saffer, and Ronnie “Ear Candy” Dannelley, and lots of
people at the Smile Shop message board.

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In my next edition of this small book, Ilook forward to
thanking Peter Asher, Eric Burdon, Neil Innes, Donovan Leitch
and others who didn't feel able to help me this time round.
Ray Newman, London, July 2006

I

“1… 2… 3… 4…”
Revolver is one of the greatest albums of all time, and I’m
not the only one who thinks so. Revolver has appeared in the top
10 of lists of “the greatest albums of all time” in Rolling Stone
magazine(2003), NME (1975, 2003), The Guardian (1997), The
Times (1993), Channel 4 television (2005) and on many other
occasions1. The company it keeps varies – Tom Waits’
Swordfishtrombones was voted the 5th best album of all time by
NME readers in 1985, but hasn't featured since – and its position
on the list changes: sometimes it's below Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band, but in recent years ithas more often been
above, creeping towards (and occasionally achieving) the top
spot.
What is it that makes Revolver a contender – why are
people drawn to listen to it, and why do they invariably fall in
love with it when they do? That Revolver is a good album has
never really been questioned by critics, but in 1966, they were
still excited about Rubber Soul which had been released only 8months earlier. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys memorably
summed up Rubber Soul as containing “all good stuff”2, and he
credits it with inspiring his own contender for the title “best
album of all time", Pet Sounds. Many of the 14 songs on
Revolver (10 in the USA) were similar in style and
instrumentation to those on Rubber Soul. Even the sound of the
sitar, in a superficial sense at...