Revolver (1966)

As I said before, the Beatles documentary, Anthology, skipped over both Rubber Soul and this to move onto Sgt Pepper, odd for two albums that bridge, if you like, their early period, with their latter more experimental one.

Rubber Soul was, by my ears, their best album thus far, and so I venture onto Revolver expecting it to shoot for the stars.

The record has artwork by close friend, Klaus Voormann, known since their time in Hamburg. It contains some of their best known songs, and some of their most inventive.

Let's dive in:

Side 1.

1. "Taxman"
2. "Eleanor Rigby"
3. "I'm Only Sleeping"
4. "Love You To"
5. "Here, There and Everywhere"
6. "Yellow Submarine"
7. "She Said She Said"

Side 2.

1. "Good Day Sunshine"
2. "And Your Bird Can Sing"
3. "For No One"
4. "Doctor Robert"
5. "I Want to Tell You"
6. "Got to Get You into My Life"
7. "Tomorrow Never Knows"

All tracks writtem by Lennon/McCartney except "I Want to Tell Yoy" and "Love to You", which were by Harrsion.

"Taxman" was written after the members of the band were subjected to something like 97% supertax on their earnings. One for you and nineteen for me, references this. It has one of the most iconic guitar riffs, stolen by The Jam decades later on "Start". The song mentions Mr Wilson and Mr Heath, two UK Prime Ministers responsible for the tax on their earnings. It is an incredible piece of work, and with a message too. They'd have to go some to top that, mind.

"Eleanor Rigby" is next, and as a pop song, is remarkable. Back only by a string quarter, Paul mulls over lonliness. It is a truly remarkable song, and one of their very best. Nothing much like it before.

"I'm Only Sleeping" is the longest track on the labum, clocking in at 3:03, and features some backward tape loops which must have sounded astonishing when heard by fans for the first time. John sings, and the song has a false ending, starts again with the backward loops stronger. Nothing like this before either, but a very different kind of song. Three very different tunes to open the album, each one groundbreaking.

Sitar. Sitar on Sitar. Rock beat. Vocals. Double speed to outro. The George penned and playd "Love You To" carries on further the Eastern influence heard on Rubber Soul. A superb vison realised, and only The Beatles at the time could have come up with it. Four very different tracks then open the album!

Innovation takes a breather on "Here, There and Everywhere", with Paul on vocals, with a simple beat keeping time, and harmonised vocals at the end. It's a piece of pop perfection.

I have mixed feelings about "Yellow Submarine". It featured almost weekly on Junior Choice, and so I associate it as a children's song. It features Ringo on vocals, and had a bass drum keeping time, and all over it are various song effects, which make it a riot. On the first hearing. As a piece of work, it is remarkable, though not to everyone's taste. It was recorded intially as a children's song, so in that it succeeded.

"She Said She Said" closes side 1, and is pretty much the 60s wrapped up in a song. But in a good way. Backwards loops, I think sitar too, it features John on vocals and would be the outstanding track on the side, were it not for the six that preceeded it.

Side 2 kicks off with "Good Day Sunshine" which features George Martin on honky tonk piano, and is another well-known song from their canon, and yet delights on this rehearing. A light touch to start and with superb harmies too, last little of two minutes and is gone.

Even shorter by six whole seconds is "And Your Bird Can Sing" with John on lead vocals. It shimmers along and is glorious in that. Words of praise no longer have meaning, this is just the very best work that the very best band ever did. Dazzles with brilliance.

There's a wonderful French Horn playing counterpoint to Pau's vocals on "For No One", while the rest of the band add percussion and strumming. So simple, and yet so effective. Paul's vocal is so warm and pleasing. That he suffered so much from "fans" after the band broke up and he formed Wings with Linda.

"Dr. Robert" is the 11th track, and acts as a bridge, at least to my ears, of their previous pop phase, and this their latter psychedelic one. Again, way ahead of its time, and yet is "just" another track on Revolver. Amazing.

"I Want to Tell You" you expect to be sitar laden, as it is penned and sung by George, but has a guitar instead, through it shimmers with eastern magic. Layered backing vocals, isn't the worse track on the record, though there are no bad tracks on Reveolver to be honest.

Two bangers close out the record: first up is "Got to Get You into My Life", which has 60s op written all over it, but invented here. Then morphs into a shouted vocal with brass backing and lots of dirty guitars. Hearing it again in contex with the previous twelve tracks show how strong and effortless they make it all seem.

Throw everything that's gone before into a great big pop pot, stir, add some drugs and stunning studio techniques and bingo, the most breathtaking track thus far in their body of work. Much copied, but never bettered, "Tomorrow Never Knows" was their absolute peak. Except for tracks that were better like Penny Lane et al.

I find it hard to believe there is a better album than this, andf yet to come is Sgt. Pepper. We shall see. We leave The Beatles for a couple of months, having retired from playing live, sitting on top of the world they created.

Monday 6th July 2026

Another heatwave is heading our way, apparently.

At night, already, it is warm and humid, and had to get to sleep.

Come Monday morning, I was up and dressed quick, so to check the moth trap I had left out overnight, and was rewarded with the first hawk-moth species of the year, An Elephant hawk-moth, as well as some other photogenic ones, including a Swallow-tailed moth, which was rather handsome.

They all got snapped.

Jools had a busy day planned, starting with an early morning walk, at a time when it was cool, but I was barely capable of stringing two words together. So she went alone.

I'll go later, I lied.

Jools did a tip run, went to Tesco, then took a friend to Canterbury to sort her computer problems out.

So I was home alone for about six hours.

So, I went for a walk.

My back wasn't feeling too good, but good enough to walk over the fields to Fleet House and the top of Norway Grove.

I was hunting butterflies and wild flowers, but the herbicide the famer has used now the lucerne field has wheat means that the wild flowers of the last two years are now gone.

No flowers means no butterflies.

The lucerne, however, has taken over the path, making it quite hard to find the path between the bushes.

I walked to the small grassed area at Fleet house, which is the graveyard of farm equipment, as between the rusting skeletons, wild flowers grow, and butterflies are in abundance.

The farmer has paddocked the field into which he hoped to have a five pitch caravan park, there's an electric fence now behind the hedge, and herbicide has been sprayed to limit natural plant growth. Two sad looking horses and a single sheep munch on the lucerne that's left.

I snap a few, and the flowers before walking back over the fields, as it was now mid-morning and getting very warm indeed.

Also, at ten past eleven, the Tour was to start, so back in time for that and sit down on the sofa with Poppy on the footstool, sleeping the hot day away.

Which was very wise.

For the first proper road stage, it turned into a mad GC race, with the leading breakaway featuring all the favourites, and on the final 500m, Tadej Pogačar broke from the pack to win the stage and take the yellow jersey from Jonas Vingegaard after they both were tied on identical times.

The evening entertainment was the Spain v Portugal last 16 game, and the question was, would Portugal be as bad as feared with Ronaldo playing?

The answer was "yes". A poor game won by Spain in injury time, but Ronaldo hardly touched the ball, and yet played the entire game.

Still, got to laugh.

Sunday 5th July 2026

It is the seventh day of the week, and on that day Jelltex shall rest.

Other than go to the gym to do another session, the 4th this week, and so back to what is considered normal in Chez Jelltex.

There are several games in the World Cup each day, but most are late evening or in the middle of the night. On this day, England were due to play Mexico in the Azteca, where, almost forty years ago, Maradona punched a cross into the goal. Then ran through the whole English defence for his second.

Kick off was due to be 01:00 Monday morning, and I thought long and hard, but decided to go to bed after the early game, Norway v Brasil.

But first, after coffee, there was phys.

I had forty minutes to listen to the PU pod, and did 37 minutes, and when Radio Radio by Elvis Costello came on, I knew I had done enough.

Back home via the Co-Op in Whitfield for some cottage cheese for Jools' breakfast.

And still home for ten past eight, with a whole day to fill.

Thankfully there is Le Tour, which was due to start just after midday, so that was sorted.

Once back home, I saw that there was a wee beastie where I was to leave my towel to dry: a Cricket, so I snapped it with both the phone and big camera, now that the lens is working fine again.

And then a shower, and a fresh change of clothes, all to be ready for the pre-show of Le Tour, and then four hours of GC action in Stage 2 of the Tour in Spain.

I struggle to stay awake, as cyclists battle conditions and geography to see who wins. It all came down to three circuits of the 1992 Olympic Park, and Jonas is triumphant once again.

I was going to watch all of Norway v Brasil, but was 0-0 at half time, half nine, and I thought I would go to bed as although it was tense, not heavy with goalmouth action.

This would also mean missing England play Mexico which was due to kick off at one, but was delayed, as predicted, by over an hour.

Saturday 4th July 2026

Life seems to have slowed down, judging from my photographs taken so far this month.

I expected to take hundreds in the New Forest, but then dropped my camera and lens in the bog, and the lens filled with water.

I could only think about explaining to Jools how we had to spend £800 on a replacement.

But I live in hope that the misting will ease, and that the autofocus still works, despite the mist, maybe I'll get lucky.

In fact, after putting the lens out on the storage box to warm up to evaporate more water vapour, I tried it out, and was delighted to find it mist-free, and able to take shots of the flowers nearby.

It remains to be seen if there will be long term issues, but for now, happy days.

There is supposed to be a heatwave coming next week, but for now temperatures in the low twenties, and with a cooling breeze, and we had to get back into the habit of phys.

So, I set the alarm for six, though that wasn't needed, as I was up and attem at quarter to. We had a coffee, so ready to go at ten to seven.

I did thirty five minutes, which was what I had aimed for, though was pretty sweaty come the last five minutes. But my recovery time is much, much better, so after standing outside for a couple of minutes, I was fine.

We then go to Tesco as we were short of a number of things, but mostly to buy salad stuff, so I don't need to cook. Or cook much.

Back home again, we have a brew and breakfast. I have a shave and shower, then try on the new B-52s and Devo t shirts I bought which arrived Friday. They fit fine. Probably could have done a size smaller, but comfort is everything.

Good news is that Saturday was the first stage of the 2026 Le Tour. Sadly, ITV Sport lost the rights last year after some 30 years, and its presenters became friends for the four weeks of the tour. Now live coverage is on TNT sports, and so for a months subscription of thirty pounds I could watch all stages.

Until we leave for La Belle France in fifteen days!

I made the first stage of Rumtopf: added strawberries and pineapple and some sugar. This will be left to stew in a bottle of cheap rum until Christmas. I may add more fruit as and when.

Eeeek.

So, I set up the channels, but being a Team Time Trial, it began at four and would last for just over two hours, and overrun with the first round of 16 games at six.

Barcelona looks a very fine city, and a place to visit, though perhaps not at the height of summer.

Then the football, Canada v Morocco. Canada dominated the first half, though failed to score. Which would be a huge problem. Morocco score in the second half, after waking up. And as Canada pushed for a leveller, Morocco scored another, then a third in injury time.

here was no way was I going to sit up to watch the France v Paraguay game which kicked off at ten.

Friday 3rd July 2026

We have reached the end of the week again.

And despite going to bed fairly early, there was no way was six hours sleep anyway near enough.

By stupid brain had me awake at ten past four, so I laid in bed until it was time to get up just gone five. Only, I did fall back to sleep, so laid in until ten to six.

Just in time to see Jools leave for yoga, leaving me with a fresh cup of coffee.

No matter what the day's weather was like, I was going to take it easy. Only I had arranged to meet from Fran at lunchtime to go to Sandwich Bay for some orchid and dragonfly action.

But until then I could kick back, drink tea and have breakfast.

Through the morning there was phot editing and writing up Thursday's adventure to the New Forest, though surprised to only have three shots worth posting, mainly due to dunking the lens in bog water.

Sigh.

It did work as normal first thing, so I thought I had got off lightly, but was to discover at Sandwich Bay, the warm sunshine evaporated the water still inside, misting the optics up again, though not as bad. But the lens wasn't usable.

Sigh, again.

I left the house at quarter past eleven to drive into town for my last jab for three months.

In the waiting room was the same sad faces, different people each time, but with the same, sad expressions.

I bounced up the stairs, and in a couple of minutes was called.

Right arm this time, Suzanne jabbed, and I was done.

We say goodbye and I am history, going down the stairs and walking back to the car park to drive to Sandwich station to collect Fran on the twenty past midday train.

The train pulls in, and Fran arrives. From the station its a five minute drive to the observatory.

I check that it is good in the orchid meadow, so we walk over the road to find the meadow had been cut, but the hay yet to be harvested. So we have to take huge strides to get over the seven lines of thatch piled high to get to the gate the other side.

I look through the viewfinder of the big camera and find it misted up again, unlike when I tested it first thing.

Darn it.

So, we walk to the meadow, take phone shots of the Marsh helleborines.

Then round the corner to see the Yellow bartsia, which Fran wanted to see for a year's tick.

It was then a handsome looking fly landed on me, not realising I was its lunch, and it was busy sucking up blood. I asked Fran to take its picture, which she did, I then swept it off, to find a puncture wound and a trail of the red stuff.

That would itch later!

Back across the meadow, then along the road to the ponds for some dragonfly hunting, though I would sit and take in the scene and warm sunshine rather than go hunting.

Fran went hunting, hoping to find the Red-veined darter I snapped earlier in the week.

Sadly, she failed to find it, but saw much else, so was happy.

It was half two, so we had to make tracks as I was to pick up Jools at three. We stopped for an ice cream, then I drove back into town and dropped Fran at the station before heading back to the bypass and on to Dover.

Jools was waiting on Cherrytree, so she jumps in, and we speed off back home up to the Castle and then along Reach Road with fine views over the Channel to the chalk cliffs of the French coast.

Not much else to report.

We had dinner of bangers and mash, Boston beans and creamed spinach, all eaten and washed up for the music quiz at six.

And that was it, other than the evening game, Australia v Egypt, which was OK, but 1-1 at full time, and with the prospect of extra time and penalties, I bailed and went to bed at nine, and was OK about it.

So it goes.

Thursday 2nd July 2026

Due to a miscalculation on my part, far too dull to explain here, I still have one UK and Ireland orchid species yet to see.

This is the Heath fragrant, which until a few years ago was lumped into the other two fragrant orchid species under one catch all "Fragrant orchid" species.

Genetic sequencing meant that there are different species, and the Heath like acidic soils, of which there is little in Kent, and all our Fragrents are Common or Chalk.

Chalk and Common are the same here.

So, in trying to track down Heath fragrents, there is one site in Sussex that has them, though a friend went at the weekend and reported it to be turning to seed and all bar three flowers now gone brown.

That leaves us with the next nearest: The New Forest.

This is a three and a half hour drive. On a good day, and there are no good days on the M25. Three and a half hours there and back.

But I bit the bullet and arranged a trip out to the site near Sway for Thursday.

Fran would arrive at Dover at half eight, we would drive to Wateringbury to collect Ian, then drive along the M26 and M25 round to the M3, down to Southampton and along the M27 to the New Forest.

But first, and clenching our teeth, we agree to go to the gym, what with it being Thursday and all.

I had planned on doing 35 minutes, but talked myself down to thirty, telling myself I would be walking miles later in the day. Which was true.

Back home for a shower, breakfast and a fresh cuppa, and so ready to collect Fran at half eight, and head up the busy M20 at rush hour.

A cloudy morning with a hint of drizzle, soon gave over to blue skies and periods of warm sunshine. Perfect for butterfly chasing, as the New Forest is one of the locations for a new blue butter species, for me: The Silver-studded Blue.

We turn off and head down the Medway Valley to collect Ian, so the car was loaded well. From his, up to the M26 and head west, and keep going.

Traffic wasn't too bad, until we reached the A3 junction, which after three years or more work and billions of pounds spent on upgrades, you would think there would be no hold ups, but is worse than before.

But we make good time, turn down the M3 down through Basingstoke and Winchester before turning west towards the New Forest.

It was all pleasant enough on the motorway, we made good time at a sensible speed. But once off the motorway and into the Forest itself, there was traffic.

Trucks, cars, motorhomes, caravans and more caravans.

Capital of the New Forest is the town/village of Lyndhurst, which we crawl through to the junction and start of the one way system, then west again into and across the moorland to Sway.

Sway.

Sway through the crowds to an empty place.

Sway is a small village, and to the west is some large mansions behind walls and gates, though on the other side of the road is the heath.

We park.

And walk up the road, past the mansions. A route I took three years ago when shown Bog orchids.

Remember kids: Fens are alkali marshes, and bogs are acid marshes.

How hard could Bog orchids be to find at the site I had seen them recently?

Quite hard as it turned out. As one bog looks very much alike, and anyway if I found the right on, it wouldn't look the same as it was three years ago.

Bog orchids are small and green, but Marsh fragrents are large and showy, but sight of neither did we see.

At leas there was the Silver-studded blues to chase, and Fran found one that had settled, so I walked quickly through the bog, not checking how firm the ground was, as I had done to that point.

One last step and my right foot sunk, my left crumpled, and I feel onto my camera, pushing it into the black boggy water.

Ian helped my up, but the camera and lens was soaked and coated with black mud, which I cleaned off.

I took shots of the butterfly, though auto-focus did not work.

After two hours, we decided to try another site, on the other side of the village of which I had eight historical records for.

I was warned this was very boggy, and that we would not get close to the orchids, so needed a telephoto lens.

On the way back to the car, we came across several Heath spotted orchids hanging on, so they got snapped. And Fran found a few Lesser skullcaps, which also got snapped.

A ten minute drive through the village of Sway brought us to an area of heathland beside the railway. I drive up and down twice looking for a place to park until I spied a place behind ann open barrier, though not an official car park, it would do us for an hour.

I hoped.

We got out, put our boots on and tried to compare the snip of a map with records with Google maps. Not helped by the poor reception.

We walked along a track through ferns and bracken, sending clouds of Silver-studded Blues into the air as we walked.

To our left was, clearly, a low-lying area, and it was there we would have to go. So, we found a path and struck out towards where we hoped the orchids would be.

I was expecting very boggy conditions, but what we found was patchy, but the bed of the stream that fed the bog was so dry we could walk along it.

No matter how hard we looked and walked, of the Heath fragrant there was no sign. If it was there, we would have seen it.

It was gone four, we were hot, thirsty and hungry.

We walked towards the car.

We changed into our shoes, and I set the sat nav for home.

The plan had been to find a pub, but the only ones found were along the high street in Lyndhurst, with no parking. And the motorway was just a few miles further on, so we headed out of the Forest and turned north.

We stopped at a service station for drinks and a snack. I bought some limited edition McDonald's burger: a Sweet Carolina BBQ Stack, which Maccy Dees succeeded again in making the best sounding burger taste exactly the same all all their other burgers.

It was bland.

In the extreme.

As we sat on a bench outside, the first Small tortoiseshell flew by looking glorious, showing even at a service station, nature is there, if we look for it.

Back on the motorway and turning north back up the M3, and traffic was light, so it was easy going.

Until we neared the junction with the M25, and the jams began.

We queued to get onto the junction, inched round that, then inched onto the M25, and joined the jam that wasn't going anywhere quickly.

The sat nav suggested that we would reach Wateringbury at ten past six to drop Ian off. It was nearly an hour out.

That was mainly because of rubberneckers at an accident on the other carriageway, and after that traffic went to 70, and so we were soon bac in Kent, in the warm light of a summer's evening.

We dropped Ian off, turned back down the hill, and along and up at Mereworth, ten miles to the M26, turning for the coast.

I drop Fran off at Faverhsam, once we had gone past the showground at Detling.

And so the last leg past Canterbury to Dover, getting back at ten past eight.

I was shattered.

I had a beer.

And a pizza.

Then watched the second half of the Spain v Austria game, Spain easing to an easy 3-0 win.

I went to bed soon after the final whistle.

Wednesday 1st July 2026

Life is better after more than nine hours sleep. But the truth is, I would probably stay up late that evening and get up at five the next morning after less than six hours sleep, so be back to square one.



So it goes.

Middle of the week again, and my next to last B12 jab at lunchtime, which scuppers most plans which could last all day.

Jools has her fitness class first thing. I say fist thing, she leaves just after half seven. By which time my woolly head was clearing after a coffee, and was thinking about breakfast.

It was a fine morning, breezy again, but fine.

I wait for Jools to return before having breakfast, making sure the kettle was freshly boiled.

And in truth, after breakfast, not much to do until eleven when I have to drive into town for the injection.

Parking is easiest in front of ASDA/Morrisons, then walk through the alleyway at the back.

The surgery is typical on institutions. It has sad-faced people waiting endlessly, and the smell of bleach or some other cleaning fluid. Locked doors, needing the receptionist to press a button to unlock. And despite it being warm and sunny outside, inside it seems that a sadness, or moroseness hangs heavy in the air.

I climb the stairs, once the door is unlocked, and wait two minutes before being called.

Suzzanne greets me, we swap pleasantries, I roll up my sleeve and she prepares the "syrup", and jabs. So the deed is done.

See you on Friday. Have a great rest of the day!

On the way back I pop into ASDA for something for lunch and am back in the car and driving home just before midday.

We have lunch and a brew. And the afternoon stretches out before us like a long stretchy thing. I sat on the patio listening to podcasts with the headphones on, while Scully laid beside me in the shade, purring and snoring.

Cats can multitask too.

Dark clouds gather, but looked far more dramatic than actual storm clouds, and they produce no rain.

England played Congo at five, so dinner and washing up was done by then, so I could sit on the sofa and suffer watching our national team struggle.

And struggle they did, labouring against a well set-up defence, and the Premier League's best players unable to unlock Congo's defence.

Congo always looked dangerous on the counter, and so was no surprise when they found acres of space in the England half and scored after nine minutes.

With fifteen minutes to go, Congo tiring, England brought on Saka and Gordon, and they found space, and set up Kane to score twice to send England through.

After the game ended, players and fans sang "Wonderwall" together, while players hugged and smiled.

Later, Belgium played Senegal. Was a wonderful first half, with Senegal taking the lead on the half hour, but it was half nine, I had to be up at five, so went to bed, and so missed a game which Belgium came from 2-0 down in the last four minutes to level and take it to extra time, before winning it late on.

Football, eh?