The Beatles' Revolution 9

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I know various people have attempted to transcribe all the bits of dialogue over the years, but has anyone ever tried to track down all the music samples and work out what they came from? The snatch of piano, for example, or the orchestra crescendos. It's something I imagine somebody must have done at some point, but I don't think I've ever seen a list.

I don't have my copy of Revolution In The Head or the Complete Recording Sessions with me, so I can't check how much detail they give. All I know is the old story that 'Number nine...' was the ninth question from a music exam record, although some people reckon it was an engineer testing equipment.

There's also snatches of Strawberry Fields Forever and When My Guitar Gently Weeps in there, yes?

[Jemble Fred]

I'd have thought Lewisohn would have it covered, really. But I don't have his book to hand either.

Basically, I can't help, and I've never really derived much pleasure from the track at any time – I've always felt it should have gone on one of Lennon and Ono's own albums. But nobody had the balls to say no. It would have been preferable to have had John Ringo and George reading straight poetry for nine minutes, rather than this hotchpotch. In the days before the ability to skip CD tracks with a remote control, it's must have been galling to get to Revolution No 9.

Sorry if this makes me sound like a prole, but it's not a great track IMO.

And anyway, this is a Beatles thread, so I had to get my oar in somewhere.

[trotsky assortment]

By coincidence, 'Revolution 9' popped up in a conversation I had last night.  I've never been a great fan of it either.  For samples and loops manipulated into a confusing hotchpotch, I'll choose Pink Floyd's 'Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict' every time.

Regarding that track, does anybody have any idea what the (fake?) Scottish voice is ranting about at the end?  I know as the track finally grinds to a halt, he mumbles '...And the wind cries Mary', but I've never managed to decipher the rest of it.

Anyway - Beatles, yeah...as you were... *winky*

[alan strang]

Regarding that track, does anybody have any idea what the (fake?) Scottish voice is ranting about at the end?  I know as the track finally grinds to a halt, he mumbles '...And the wind cries Mary', but I've never managed to decipher the rest of it.

I gather it's just mock Scots ranting with no actual words involved. Roger Waters carries the honours there - an early version of the teacher from The Wall!

Re: Revolution 9, I'll dig out Complete Recording Sessions and Revolution In The Head in a bit.

Incidentally, there's an early acetate mix of Revolution 9 doing the rounds in bootleg circles which features extra bits throughout which were trimmed from the released edit.

[TotalNightmare]

lets just ask George Martin to get his note book out from the time of the recording and sort it out, shall we...

this is the moment when someone in the know tells me Mr Martin had fuck all to do with the track as he was out fishing with Barry Took and anyway he wouldnt know anyway as he had an accident last night and lost all his memory.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

It was Lennon wot did Revolution 9 wasn't it? I always forget.

Thing is, he did it at home on a reel-to-reel yes? But then it was mixed at Abbey Road later? So what did they do to it? How could they mix it, if it was just one length of spliced-together tape? Do they mean they just tidied it up a bit?

It used to leave me cold too - especially when I heard what Frank Zappa could do with home-editing at around the same time. But I heard it the other day for the first time in years and loved it. And no, I wasn't stoned. I'd forgotten how frightening it was, to be honest.

Ever played it backwards? The piano bit sounds really pretty, but I've no idea what it's from. And 'Number nine' does indeed become 'Turn me on dead man'.

I really hate John and Yoko's unfinished music bollocks, although I bought all three albums. I couldn't help thinking it would have been better if they'd...um, finished the music. Or made one album featuring a cut-and-paste montage from all of them. Are there any Two Virgins fans on here?

Great Rock Mysteries #84: Why didn't Two Virgins (released at the same time as the chart-topping White Album) get into the album charts? Surely Beatles fans would have been unaware of the content, and most of them would have bought it regardless anyway? Was it really difficult to get hold of?

[Darrell]

I absolutely adore it. The first time I got the White Album I hammered it on repeat for about an hour.

It was also the very first track I played to a friend who I was trying to introduce to the Beatles. He loved it, and now is a big Fabs fan all-round.

I've never heard 'Lumpy Gravy', but I really would love to.

[trotsky assortment]

What is that big sploshy noise in 'Revolution 9' which sounds like someone pissing up a wall?  Is it somebody pissing up a wall?

[trotsky assortment]

Great Rock Mysteries #84: Why didn't Two Virgins (released at the same time as the chart-topping White Album) get into the album charts? Surely Beatles fans would have been unaware of the content, and most of them would have bought it regardless anyway? Was it really difficult to get hold of?

Was it not withdrawn for a time while it was decided what should be done about the sleeve?  Not that'll I'll be getting into any huge Lennon debates...as I've always been far more in the McCartney camp.  
(Post-Beatles, I think 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is far superior to anything written by Lennon after 1970, but that's a discussion for another thread...)

[butnut]

This was basically the song that got me into trying to write my own weird shit - aged 8 or 9. I used to play it for hours and hours on end and try and work out how they made this incredible noise. I would then, using a small tape recorder, try and create my own version of this song, using the wonderful technique of recording something, and then playing it back on another stereo, while recording myself making some new noises.

I think I read somewhere that they got in some classical composers to work on this, possibly John Tavener, but I'm not so sure about that from a brief google. It certainly dates from the time when the Beatles wanted to do something with Stockhausen and I doubt that track could have been created without them having heard something like Hymnen (1966-7).

[alan strang]

I've never heard 'Lumpy Gravy', but I really would love to.

You've heard the intro as played by the 1988 band - it was the bit that came after Zappa says "May you never hear surf music again!"

Thing is, he did it at home on a reel-to-reel yes? But then it was mixed at Abbey Road later? So what did they do to it? How could they mix it, if it was just one length of spliced-together tape? Do they mean they just tidied it up a bit?

Just skimming through Lewisohn now - it would appear that most, if not all, of it was actually compiled and edited at Abbey Road. Currently typing up the entry for Thursday 20 June 1968 - it seems to have most of the answers.

[alan strang]

Going by the book it seems that on the 6, 10 and 11 June 1968 Lennon used the Abbey Road session time collecting together sound effects, musical snatches and other bits and pieces from the studio archive. In terms of studio logs his collected dubs were given take numbers ("sound effects takes 1 - 3", etc).

No actual info here on exactly where the material was culled from, but the 6 June session's dubs (takes 1 - 12) were given names - five of them marked 'Various', the others called 'Vicar's Poems', 'Queen's Mess', 'Come Dancing Combo', 'Organ Last Will Test', 'Neville Club', 'Theatre Outing' and 'Applause/TV jingle'. Lewisohn notes that not all of the above were intended for 'Revolution 9' but for the stage production of 'In His Own Write'.

The 'big session', mixing all this stuff together, occured on the 20th. Here's that entry in full.

Thursday 20 June

Studios One, Two and Three: 7.00pm - 3.30am. Recording: 'Revolution 9' (sound effects takes 1 and 2, compilation of master version, with SI). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Richard Lush.

Three sessions - 12 to 14 June - had been cancelled in the absence of George and Ringo. But this session went ahead, even though Paul McCartney flew out of London Airport, bound for five days in the USA, one hour before it began.

But Paul's absence did not unduly affect this day's work, which saw the compilation of the 'Revolution 9' master take, now complete but for one final overdub done on 25 June. It was a busy night for all concerned, John Lennon commandeering the use of all three studios at Abbey Road for the spinning in and recording of the myriad tape loops. Just like the 7 April 1966 'Tomorrow Never Knows' session, there were people all over EMI studios spooling loops onto tape machines with pencils. But instead of Geoff Emerick sitting at the console fading them in and out in a live mix, it was John Lennon, with Yoko closely by his side.

A close study of the four track tape reveals the loops and effects to include:
- George Martin saying "Geoff... put the red light on." heavily echoed and played repeatedly.
- a choir, supplemented by backwards violins.
- A symphonic piece, chopped up and played backwards.
- A brief extract of the 10 February 1967 'A Day In The Life' orchestral overdub, repeated over and over.
- Backwards mellotron (played by John), miscellaneous symphonies and operas.

The most famous of all the 'Revolution 9' sound effects also made its bow during this evening: the faceless voice uttering "number nine, number nine, number nine". Richard Lush has a detailed memory of the session. "Lennon was trying to do really different things... we had to get a whole load of tapes out of the library and the "number nine" voice came off an examination tape. John thought that was a real hoot! He made a loop of just that bit and had it playing constantly on one machine, fading it in or out when he wanted it, along with the backwards orchestral stuff and everything else."

The identity behind the voice remains unclear to this day. "Abbey Road used to do taped examinations for the Royal Academy of Music," recalls Stuart Eltham. "The tapes aren't around now..."

"John was really the producer of 'Revolution 9'," says Richard Lush. "But George Harrison joined him at Abbey Road on that night and they both had vocal mikes and were saying strange things like 'the Watusi', 'the Twist'..."

The original tape does indeed show that John and George went on the studio floor to read out bizarre lines of prose - in voices sometimes equally bizarre - into a couple of microphones, abetted by Yoko Ono humming at a very high pitch. These ran for the duration of 'Revolution 9', being faded in and out of the master at John's whim. Among John's random pieces were "personality complex", "onion soup", "economically viable", "industrial output", "financial imbalance", "the watusi", "the twist" and "take this brother, may it serve you well". George's contributions included "Eldorado" and, shared with John Lennon and whispered six times over, "There aint no rule for the company freaks!"

At the end of their long overdub, still whispering, John said to George "We'd better listen to it then, hadn't we?" What they listened to was the sound of a hundred sound effects, tape loops and overdubs and more. Even two decades later one can spend hours trying to pick them out and still find new ones.

"In 'Revolution 9' we had the STEED system of tape echo fed via a tape delay system," says Alan Brown. "The track ran for so long that there is one point where the delay runs out and you can hear the tape being re-wound, live. Even that impromptu thing, an accident, contributed to the finished result."

Paul McCartney presumably had little interest in 'Revolution 9', being neither involved in the manufacture of the tape loops nor in the same country when the master was compiled. But it is worth remembering that he had been the first of the beatles to experiment with sound tapes, his 5 january 1967 'Carnival Of Light' collage being in much similar vein to 'Revolution 9'. "Paul was in Ameica when John did 'Revolution 9'," recalls Richard Lush. "I can't recall exactly what happened later but I know it didn't get a fantastic reaction from McCartney when he heard it."

[mayer]

Funilly enough I've had The Beatles on the mp3 player for a couple of days at work now.... it's a far from perfect album, isn't it?

It has some great songs on it, sure (Revolution 1, Revolution 9, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Blackbird and, er... the last six seconds of Wild Honey Pie). And enough that, as the well-worn recieved opinion states, it really would make it a great single album.

But most of the rest, Jesus. It's like a rock and roll pastiche record. It does everything to rock and roll that some people claim modern pop does to The Beatles. It's like facsimiles that add nothing new at all, just detract the spunk you need for that sort of thing.

I think that the earlier albums, covers and all, sound more interesting, fun, energetic and original than things like Back In The USSR, Happy Birthday, Yer Blues, Why Don't We Do It, ... Monkey etc. etc. which are just a bit grating.

[kidsick5000]

The last cello flurish of Piggies is one of the greatest sounds committed to record

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Helter Skelter's a pastiche too, though. I've never been able to get through it without giggling anyway.

Most of it's pastiche, actually, but I still think it's got enough of The Beatles' personalities smeared on it stop it leaving me cold. I often forget just how odd some of those songs are. Like Sgt Pepper, it's greater than the sum of its parts - Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da and Glass Onion would be irritating on their own, but plonked next to one another they somehow work.

You know, there are two things every bloke in the world has done. One is to attempt self-fellatio, and the other is to work out how they would have edited The White Album down to a single disc.

[Phil_A]

It has some great songs on it, sure (Revolution 1, Revolution 9, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, Blackbird and, er... the last six seconds of Wild Honey Pie). And enough that, as the well-worn recieved opinion states, it really would make it a great single album.

Are you saying you have no time for Long Long Long, Julia, I'm So Tired, Dear Prudence or Sexy Sadie? And okay, Birthday is a poor song, but Back In the USSR? What?

I'm surprised there's been such a backlash against the White Album in recent years. As far as I'm concerned there's only a few tracks that really stink the place out (I'm looking at you, Rocky Racoon and Don't Pass Me By). I even like those soppy McCartney numbers everyone's supposed to hate, at least until someone tells me what's actually so bad about Martha My Dear or Mother Nature's Son.

[sam and janet evening]

That's odd, I'd been under the impression that the white album was undergoing something of a 'hip' period, the way that 'Revolver' did a few years back and 'Sgt Pepper' did some time before that. There we go, I'm probably mistaken. I think 'With the Beatles' and 'Abbey Road' (and maybe 'Sgt Pepper') probably have the edge over it personally, but it's still pretty great.
I listen to 'Revolution#9' every now and then. I wouldn't say I enjoy it as music, but it's good to expand the old horizons from time to time.
There is absolutely Nothing wrong with 'Martha my Dear', except possibly the lyrics. But they're not that bad.

[trotsky assortment]

The problem I have with 'Martha My Dear' is every time I hear it these days, I'm instantly reminded of that black and white clip of Slade in their skinhead days, happily murdering it.

[mayer]

Helter Skelter's a pastiche too, though. I've never been able to get through it without giggling anyway.

Yeah, but it sounds fun! Too much of the rest sounds studied.

Glass Onion

Horrible innit? It'd be like The Clash writing a song which went "They said, release Remote Control.... Janie Jones didn't want it on the Rudi Can't Fail label... something something Tommy Gun blah we are the Magnificent Seven who are going Straight To Hell"

Like Sgt Pepper, it's greater than the sum of its parts

Like Sgt Pepper, I disagree... It's no Revolver in that way.

You know, there are two things every bloke in the world has done. One is to attempt self-fellatio, and the other is to work out how they would have edited The White Album down to a single disc.

:-)

[Clinton Morgan]

Roger Waters carries the honours there - an early version of the teacher from The Wall!

Are you sure. I thought it was a certain Mr. Geesin. You might be right though, Roger does have a way with Celtic impersonations. Even did Bob Geldof's manager on television once.

ANNOUNCER: And now LIVE at the MOJO festival it's RRRROGER WAAAATERS!

(on comes Mr. Waters in comedy Chinese regalia)

AUDIENCE: Rayyyy!!!!!

ROGER: Oh, who that over there? It's Max Boyce.

[trotsky assortment]

Ron Geesin's not credited anywhere on 'Ummagumma' - that'd definitely be Smiling Rog.  It always amuses me, the way 'The Wind Cries Mary' is thrown in at the end.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

I've never agreed with the whole 'The White album would make a great single album...' thing, I think there is maybe one or two non-brilliant songs on it but other than that it's just the usual Beatles Greatness, and a perfect double album. Glass Onion could have so easily gone totally wrong and been annoying and smug but it just works, I dunno, maybe it's just because they're The Beatles, but I do think it's a great song. But the White Album. You've got I Will, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, Sexy Sady, Rocky Racoon, Cry Baby Cry, Dear Prudence, Mother Nature's Son, Piggies, Bungalow Bill to name just a few. And what have you got that is shit? Don't Pass Me By, Revolution 9 and, well, what else? The 'At twelve o'clock a meeting round the table, For a seance, in the dark. With voices out of nowhere, Put on specially by the children for a lark.' bit of Cry Baby Cry just by itself outweighs any of the shitness of Don't Pass Me By or Revolution 9, and it's only a few seconds long.

[Neil]

Wot, no Surfergbhost with Robyn Hitchcock mp3?  It's cracking that, actually.

[Paaaaul]

You know, there are two things every bloke in the world has done. One is to attempt self-fellatio, and the other is to work out how they would have edited The White Album down to a single disc.

The only thing I would cut from The White Album is Revolution#9.

It's the sound of John Lennon starting to disappear up his arse.

[Darrell]

It's the sound of John Lennon starting to disappear up his arse.

Nah, that's when he can't be bothered to think of different tunes/chords for I'm So Tired and Bungalow Bill.

Revolution #9's a novelty-even-by-that-point case of Lennon actually pulling his weight and putting some effort in.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Like Sgt Pepper, I disagree... It's no Revolver in that way.

Funnily enough I've always found Revolver slightly bitty, whereas Sgt Pepper (which arguably has weaker songs) works brilliantly for me as a whole.

I just love the bloodymindedness of The White Album's eclecticism - the fact that you have no idea what's coming next. It's exactly how an album should be. If it's cold pastiche, then at least it's 30 different types of cold pastiche. I like the confidence behind it. The fact that they're doing whatever the fuck they want. That's why I'm always annoyed by recent NME darlings being hyped ridiculously - for me, The White Album remains the benchmark.

I do find it very difficult to analyse Beatles albums in terms of 'That song's great, but that one's not so good'. For me, each album captures a particular period of their creativity - I find the woods mesmerising, so I don't care that some of the trees are made of plastic. (Great analogy, right kids?)

That said, the throwaway stuff always takes me by surprise - the songs I'd dismissed as filler when I first heard them 16 years ago. I'd forgotten how great Savoy Truffle is, for a start. I don't think there's a bad track on it, really - even Don't Pass Me By covers me in joybumps.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Wot, no Surfergbhost with Robyn Hitchcock mp3?  It's cracking that, actually.

Yeah, how did he do Revolution 9?

[mayer]

I don't think there's a bad track on it, really - even Don't Pass Me By covers me in joybumps.

I feel the same way about Definitely Maybe... even Digsys Dinner gets me just a little wet. I'm not even taking the piss here.

I love The Beatles to bits, but why the suspension of your critical faculties (or so it seems), just with them?

I just love the bloodymindedness of The White Album's eclecticism - the fact that you have no idea what's coming next. It's exactly how an album should be. If it's cold pastiche, then at least it's 30 different types of cold pastiche. I like the confidence behind it. The fact that they're doing whatever the fuck they want. That's why I'm always annoyed by recent NME darlings being hyped ridiculously - for me, The White Album remains the benchmark.

I do find it very difficult to analyse Beatles albums in terms of 'That song's great, but that one's not so good'. For me, each album captures a particular period of their creativity - I find the woods mesmerising, so I don't care that some of the trees are made of plastic. (Great analogy, right kids?)

I just love the bloodymindedness of The Velvet Underground & Nico's eclecticism - the fact that you have no idea what's coming next. It's exactly how an album should be. If it's cold pastiche, then at least it's 12 different types of cold pastiche. I like the confidence behind it. The fact that they're doing whatever the fuck they want. That's why I'm always annoyed by recent NME darlings being hyped ridiculously - for me, The Velvet Underground & Nico remains the benchmark.

I do find it very difficult to analyse The Velvet Underground albums in terms of 'That song's great, but that one's not so good'. For me, each album captures a particular period of their creativity - I find the woods mesmerising, so I don't care that some of the trees are made of plastic. (Great analogy, right kids?)

The Velvet Underground & Nico came out over 18 months before The Beatles, is a much better album, does the rock and roll thing in a couple of minutes with There She Goes Again, and actually takes some big strides and interesting influences on board with stuff like Heroin, BADS and European Son.

Again, I love The Beatles more than I love smoked salmon and cream-cheese bagels, but I feel like I'm in some alternate universe when people think that The Beatles is some bloodyminded eclectic masterpeice that sets them aside from their contemporaries, when it patently isn't.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Well, I'm not having a go at TVU&N - I like it myself and often stick it on.

And I don't think The White Album is a masterpiece or anything - I just think it's a hit-and-miss rag-bag of experimental whateverthefuckness, and I like it for that reason.

I'd argue there's less variety on TVU&N than TWA, though.

[mayer]

Really? It's got twice as much space and for me does half as much.

With the exception of Revolution 9, there's nothing "original" (i.e. further than half a pace from the mainstream) on that album.

I think an album that can jump from Femme Fatale to the drone on Heroin to the unintelligableness of BADS to something as gorgeously simple as Sunday Morning to that sound on All Tomorrow's Parties out does The Beatles for variety.


Off/on-topic. When did the record start getting called "The White Album", and why? I mean, yeah, I know, self-titled, white cover, but no-one calls Elvis Presley "Pink & Green Writing"or anything.