Beatles reissue producer Giles Martin said that Paul McCartney was thrilled with the new remix of the “Fab Four's” Revolver album coming next month — and only had one suggestion.
Giles, who's the son of the Beatles' legendary producer, the late-George Martin, spoke to Variety and recalled: “We were in L.A. together and listened to it over here and he had some really good comments — mainly about guitars, actually. It’s always fun listening to it with him, because he wouldn’t listen to it otherwise, because he just moves forward all the time. But listening, he realizes, like, 'Oh, we were a good band, weren’t we?' You go, 'Yep.' And he can now listen to it with admiration, not envy — just going, 'Yeah, we did this stuff,' and he’s incredibly proud of it now. And so he should be.”
He went on to remember the listening session with McCartney: “He was really happy. Funnily enough, he just wanted a bit more energy on the guitars on a couple of tracks. I was like, 'Great. You’re absolutely right.' So 'And Your Bird Can Sing,' that 12-string guitar, that guitar solo, he goes: 'Just make it really loud.' I was being polite about it, do you know what I mean?
Revolver was a musical breakthrough on countless levels — but most importantly for how many different music genres the album contained — including the full-on classical “Eleanor Rigby.”
In the audio book edition of his recent Paul McCartney: The Lyrics – 1956 To The Present book, McCartney shed light on the Revolver standout track: “'Eleanor Rigby' is based on an old lady that I got to know very well. I don't even know how I first met Eleanor Rigby, but I would go 'round to her house — and not just once or twice. I found out that she lived on her own, so I'd go around there and just chat. Later, I would offer to go and get her shopping. She'd give me a list and I'd bring the stuff back and we'd sit in her kitchen. Just hearing her stories enriched my soul and influenced the songs I would later write. She might actually have started with a quite different name — 'Daisy Hawkins.' I can see that 'Hawkins' is quite nice — but it wasn't right.”