Revolver...

The irrepressible Naseeruddin Shah talks about censorship and the decline of quality films in this article in the Rolling Stone magazine. This guys is gutsy. Worth the read.
I made a music purchase today. I brought Revolver by the Beatles. A really good buy, IMO. The all music site entry on this album reads as follows:

"All the rules fell by the wayside with Revolver, as the Beatles began exploring new sonic territory, lyrical subjects, and styles of composition"

and,

"The biggest miracle of Revolver may be that the Beatles covered so much new stylistic ground and executed it perfectly on one record, or it may be that all of it holds together perfectly. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve. Even after Sgt. Pepper, Revolver stands as the ultimate modern pop album and it's still as emulated as it was upon its original release"

And I truly agree with all that is said there. A casual listening of this ablum reveals how much varied this entire album is, how much ground it covers, from the opening track, the caustic 'Taxman', to the child-like simplicity of 'Yellow Submarine', to the dark and pessimistic opratic style of 'Eleanor Rigby', to the Indian experimentation in 'Love To You' (great sitar there by Pt. Ravi Shankar). This page has a write up on Eleanor Rigby, which is again a good read.
I had purchased the Sgt. Peppers album, but I gave it to Bunny. Now that was another great album. Plenty of experimentation in that too. The range on both these albums is really mindblowing. Owning them both would have been sweet.
Revolver was named as one of 500 best albums by the Rolling Stone magazine, and that's really saying a lot. The entry for the album read something like:
"One fine day, the Beatles decided to take on the rock bands, and blew the competetion away with this album". Sheer experimentation here. The album was ranked 3rd, and Sgt. Peppers was the best album of all times. Here is the list. Bob Dylan comes fourth on the list.
Here is another list, this time the 100 greatest pop songs of all time. It's topped by the Beatles once again. 'Yesterday' is the best pop song. Interestingly, '(I can't get no) Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones is second, and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana is third.... These are Pop songs??!!?? Also, the 10th in the list is 'I Want It That Way' by the Back Street Boys!!! What were the Rolling Stone guys thinking when they composed this list???
This brings me to the entire Pop/Rock controversy. I have been searching and searching for an explanation, but no one can yet explain as to where Pop ends, and Rock begins. Sure, there are the pure Pop and pure Rock songs like 'Stayin' Alive' and 'Smoke Over The Water' respectively to name, but where exactly does one end, and the other begin?
But I degress, the Album is a good buy.