BY HASAN MURAT SÜMER (EE/IV)
hasan.sumer@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Jesus was one of the most important figures to have shaped popular culture – second only to The Beatles. Although I can count more than a hundred musicians and bands who did music better than the Fab Four, I have to admit that they were the ones who had the greatest influence on almost everyone who came after them, including my favorites. I used to listen them a lot in high school, and I think it’s worth writing a few words about their 1965-1967 period.
“Rubber Soul” (1965) was the first album where the band stopped simply writing short pop numbers about girls and relationships, and started to think outside the box. The Beatles were already massively popular at the time, and instead of touring, they decided to focus on creating high-quality songs. John Lennon called this “the pot album,” since they were under the influence of the drug while working on it. Their experiences on drugs were in fact starting to become a central theme for their songs, although psychedelia was not heavily involved just yet. Instead, “Rubber Soul” was about the band’s desire to innovate and push their limits. George Harrison, who was influenced by Ravi Shankar, used a sitar for the first time in “Norwegian Wood,” allegedly a song about a lesbian. Not much later, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones 
decided to use the sitar in their famous track “Paint It Black.” Innovation aside, comparing the love ballads on the album, such as the classic “Michelle” or the heartbreaking “Girl,” to The Beatles’ previous works, I would claim that “Rubber Soul” was the first album they made with serious artistic intentions.
“Revolver” (1966) completes the transition which began with “Rubber Soul,” and is often seen as one of The Beatles’ best releases. Lennon called this one “the acid album,” an appropriate label considering its importance for British psychedelic rock. Here, the topics they write about in their songs are much more varied than before: “Taxman” is about a greedy tax collector, the symphonic “Eleanor Rigby” is about lonely people, and “Doctor Robert” is about a doctor who can get you any drug you want. Backward recording was popularized in “Revolver,” and psychedelia is heavily apparent in the songs in which this technique was used (e.g., “I’m Only Sleeping” and “Tomorrow Never Knows”). The most important aspect of this album is that all the innovation and experimentation it includes were done by the most popular musicians in the world, thereby popularizing and normalizing the idea of being experimental in music. Along with the album “Freak Out!”, which was released in the same year by the Mothers of Invention (who rightly deserve their name), “Revolver” was one of the earliest prototypes of progressive rock, and a major influence on the pioneers of the genre.
1967 was the year in which The Beatles contributed “Lucy” to the English language as a slang term for LSD, by means of a song on their most recognized album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” I honestly think this release is a step backward after “Revolver,” but the influence of even its cover is undeniable, considering that Frank Zappa, who (incidentally) was known for his strong disapproval of drug use, decided to parody it the next year on the Mothers’ album “We’re Only in It for the Money.” In my opinion, the reputation of “Sgt. Pepper” is based primarily on the band’s popularity; the album shouldn’t have been considered that significant, given the fact that a lot of other highly influential albums, including the debuts of Pink Floyd, Procol Harum and The Moody Blues, were released in the same year. The Beatles had drastically changed the course of music for the better, and 1967 showed that it was time to leave the stage to others.