3rd place: The Beatles with “Revolver” (1966)
The Beatles were actually supposed to shoot their third feature film in the first half of 1966: a western comedy based on Richard Condon’s novel “A Talent For Loving.” But manager Brian Epstein rejected the script (which was eventually made into a film in 1969 with Richard Widmark in the lead role), so the Beatles suddenly had an unexpected amount of time to concentrate on producing their next album.
They spent around 220 hours in the studio in the spring of 1966, compared to just 80 hours on its predecessor, “Rubber Soul”, which was released in December 1965. Their musical ideas became more complex, their demands became more demanding, their producer George Martin was no longer the sole authority in the control room, but, like the young sound engineer Geoff Emerick, primarily an assistant.
This time the driving forces were Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Previously in the shadow of bandleader John Lennon, who was now gradually becoming less productive due to depressive moods and the effects of LSD, his junior partners blossomed and developed their musical personalities. Harrison brought his passion for Indian music, McCartney his love of music hall and Motown and his newfound interest in the avant-garde. However, Lennon himself initiated the greatest dissolution of boundaries with “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
Evolving into a psychedelic drone with the help of his friends, this one-chord piece was the first song the Beatles recorded for the new album, and it set the tone. “Revolver” is the Beatles’ most radical album, oscillating between Indian raga, Motown soul, chamber music and acid rock, art and children’s songs, musique concrète and pre-rock ‘n’ roll ballads in just 35 minutes. Everything was possible and everything succeeded.
Nevertheless, well into the 1990s, it was viewed less favorably by critics (and, in terms of sales, by fans) than its successors, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “The Beatles” and “Abbey Road.” One reason may be that a version of the album shortened by three (Lennon) tracks was released in the USA in 1966, which in turn was lost in the tumult surrounding Lennon’s statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
For subsequent generations – especially for the Britpop generation that was hooked on the “Beatles Anthology” in the mid-nineties – this work, which combines the energy of the early Beatles and the joy of experimentation of the late Beatles, is rightly the ultimate in fabness.
Maik Brüggemeyer
2nd place: Marvin Gaye with “What’s Going On” (1971)
In the last 500 ranking by our US colleagues, “What’s Going On” took number 1. In the past decades, that was always reserved for “Pet Sounds”, “Blonde On Blonde” or an album by the Beatles. Well, “What’s Going On” is kind of like the “Sgt. Pepper’s” of soul, charged with a strengthened African-American self-confidence.
It’s a political album, but above all an album that expanded the language and harmony of rhythm and blues, emancipated itself from the uptempo sound of the Motown hit factory, let in jazz and redefined soul. Marvin Gaye’s first self-produced album marked a turning point in pop music in the early 1970s. When he recorded “What’s Going On” in 1970/71, he had overcome a deep creative crisis and the single of the same name became a number one hit in the USA, contrary to the expectations of his boss Berry Gordy.
The song, which reflects the hangover after the euphoria of the civil rights movement and the tragedy of Vietnam, comes on velvet paws, is wrapped in an orchestral flow, led by a soft bass, and unites soul and jazz in a hitherto unheard of way. And above all, Gaye’s passionate falsetto. In the studio he works largely alone with his musicians for the first time; he is an author and producer and is freer than ever before.
The album varies this basic mood, addresses socio-political questions, and lets the music groove elegantly and deeply towards a better tomorrow. And even a song like “Mercy Mercy Me” that denounces environmental destruction sounds like a love song.
Marvin Gaye is one of the first African American artists to use the album format as an art form, and it was through working on it that he truly discovered himself as an artist. “What’s Going On” stands for a freedom that paved the way for generations of musicians. And: It’s an incredibly moving album.
Sebastian Zabel