It was the blistering and bewildering summer of \u201966. The Westinghouse air conditioner humming in my bedroom window provided more noise than relief as Emily Moss, Emily Wofford, and Patty Dalme waited impatiently as I carefully removed Revolver from its strange black and white cardboard sleeve. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I placed it on the turntable. Moss ate sliced lemons, dipped liberally into a saucer of fine sugar -\u2013 a dentist\u2019s daydream of potential cavities. Patty and Emily smacked their Double Bubble and lazily thumbed through the latest Datebook. And, gauging my audience, I adjusted the volume on my new Magnavox record player as the count-in to \u201cTaxman\u201d began. That was the blistering part. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The half-hour or so that followed was the bewildering part\u2026as if the summer of 1966 weren\u2019t upsetting enough to four conservative girls from North Louisiana: boys in paisley shirts! Moms in vinyl raincoats and Mary Quant caps! The endless Vietnam War protests\u2026the violent race riots! Our idyllic, happy days, we thought, were all but gone. Life had become bizarre and complex. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As we listened to \u201cFor No One\u201d and \u201cShe Said, She Said\u201d and finally, \u201cTomorrow Never Knows,\u201d Revolver seemed the strangest part of that odd, pogo stick summer. For a few uncomfortable moments, as the needle found the scratchy play-out grooves, we were afraid to say anything. It took all the courage I could muster to even look at my friends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u2026\u201d I had recently taken up swearing as an emblem of adult independence, \u201cwhat the hell has happened to The Beatles?
\n\t\u201cYeah, what was that?\u201d Emily Wofford shook herself the way a cat does when you\u2019ve been holding it closely and set it free.
\n\t\u201cThat reeeeeeked!\u201d Patty always knew her mind and spoke it. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Woffie and I nodded and shook our heads, agreeing but completely disgusted. But there was one in every crowd, or so they said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Emily Moss sprawled out full-length on the bedspread, the way my Mother had told us never to do, \u201cI thought it was pretty damn cool!\u201d That was Moss. Her brother, Donald, was in a real band. He wore fringed, knee-length, moccasin boots, had long hair and colored beads that draped the doorway to his bedroom. If we had a \u201ccutting edge\u201d in our junior high foursome, Moss was definitely the one. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cPffft! Define cool if that\u2019s cool!\u201d Woffie demanded.
\n\t\u201cYeah, well, I hated it,\u201d I cut across the cool issue. \u201cJohn didn\u2019t even sound like John! And he was hardly on the record anyway! What\u2019s the use of the record if John\u2019s not there?\u201d It was, after all, the Capitol version.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And so the discussion went in many bedrooms and family rooms and cars and soda shops and A&W Root Beer Stands and striped-awning Water Ice shops and narrow-laned hamburger joints across America. Was Revolver the most innovative, ground-breaking, breath of fresh air LP that The Beatles had ever created? Or was it junk? Was it art or was it a piece of \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes?\u201d Was it brilliance or pure nonsense?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Over the next few months, I hope you\u2019ll join me as we discuss these things together and share insights into each song on the Revolver LP. Every two weeks, I\u2019ll post established research about Revolver from Beatles music scholars such as Robert Rodriguez, Walter Everett, Bruce Spizer, Anthony Robustelli, Aaron Krerowicz, Tim Riley, and many others. I\u2019ll also propose a few of my own new and original ideas about the tracks. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I hope you\u2019ll join in and share your facts and opinions and help us create The Fest for Beatles Fans Blog Dialogue on Revolver. We need YOU (Yeah, you! You in the paisley shirt!) to supplement what I\u2019ll be sharing with additional and interesting information in our Comments Section.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are so many controversial theories about the meanings of these songs and about the ways in which they were created and performed. So at times, we may disagree. That\u2019s wonderful as long as we all disagree politely. All respectful opinions will be posted for everyone to enjoy. We want you all to be a part of this collaborative project and to jump in with your thoughts and information. Let\u2019s work together to examine Revolver 50 years later and to find out what we\u2019ve learned since the Summer of 1966!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To kick it all off, tell us your story!!! Where were you when you heard Revolver for the first time? And what, pray tell, did you think about it? <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hey, wait a sec\u2026let me grab a cold Fresca and unwrap my Moonpie. Okay, there we go! Now I\u2019m ready. Do tell! <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was the blistering and bewildering summer of \u201966. The Westinghouse air conditioner humming in my bedroom window provided more noise than relief as Emily Moss, Emily Wofford, and Patty Dalme waited impatiently as I carefully removed Revolver from its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[98,111,117,30],"class_list":["post-6593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-revolver","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-fest-for-beatles-fans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6595,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6593\/revisions\/6595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}