Revolver at 50

"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream," John Lennon sang in "Tomorrow Never Knows." Sounds very Zen. But that song detonated like a bomb in the world of pop music when it appeared as the last song on the Beatles' album, Revolver, which was released 50 years ago this week. 

No one had heard anything quite like "Tomorrow Never Knows" before. And no one had encountered an album quite like Revolver before — a funhouse of musical innovation and studio trickery that made it more than a collection of great pop and rock songs. 

What set Revolver apart was its wilful eccentricity and the delight the Beatles took in breaking the rules of what a reliably chart-topping pop and rock band was supposed to do — namely, to faithfully reproduce the formula that had made it reliably chart-topping.

But 1966 was such a revolutionary year for music that Revolver might not have been the best, most exploratory or most interesting album of the year. Some critics and fans would rank Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys or Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde ahead of Revolver. In fact, it's some measure of the creative explosion of 1966 that Pet Sounds and Blonde on Blonde were released on the same day. 

Scott Freiman is the CEO of Qwire — a company that makes software for music, video and film creators — and he's the founder of the popular lecture series Deconstructing the Beatles. He spoke to guest host Kevin Sylvester about Revolver and the music of 1966. 

Click the 'play' button above to hear the interview and a selection of music from 1966.