This oft derided piece from The Beatles (White Album) seems to fill the hearts and minds of Beatles fans the world over with scorn, even hatred. So why - when The Beatles are regularly championed for their innovations during the sixties - is Revolution 9 treated with such distaste?

This June sees the 40th anniversary of the recording sessions that brought about, what was to become The Beatles longest legally released recorded track. Avant Garde/Experimental music was not a new thing at the time, though most pop music fans were probably unaware of it's existence. The likes of John Cage had been producing this kind of thing since the mid '50's. Paul McCartney had become an unofficial patron of the undergound Avante Garde movement in the mid sixties, extolling the virtues of Cage, Stockhausen, and experimental film. John Lennon was living with an experimental artist, and George Harrison had recorded an album of electronic music (Wonderwall Music), so it should not have come as a massive surprise that something akin to this might one day turn up on a Beatles record.

Far from being derided, should The Beatles not be praised for being the first 'popular' music act to release such a piece?

Discuss.

Alright, credits for the experiment. But unlistenable to my ears.

Oooh, I can't decide. Points for trying something "new" (for a mainstream act) but the fact that a) it sounds awful and b) didn't exactly kick off a new trend puts it firmly in the "George Harrison And The Sitar" mode for me - thanks, but no thanks. Somethings are best left alone.
But then again if people didn't experiment we'd still be doing The Peppermint Twist. And being from a double album, it's not like it was using up valuable space.
Maybe the whole thing was sponsored by the makers of stereo stylus's. (stylisi?) It must have been a goldmine for them after all that backwards dragging.
Praise or Purge?.......Praise!!! Da da.

I'll give them points for having the guts to do Revolution #9, .. or at least
John!  

come on, its a masterpiece!!  

i like revolution 9. and i love John's odd commentary throughout the song

Hearing the song backwards is much more interesting then listening to it forwards.

Quoted from JimmyMcCullochFan

Hearing the song backwards is much more interesting then listening to it forwards.

Sideways helps!

I think it's an interesting piece, and very bold, for the time. I just think that they've never received the credit they should have for it. Had it been made by a major Avante Garde artist at the time, it would have received publicity of a different kind.

I  never skip it when i listen to The White album and i think i would miss it if it was'nt there.

It doesn't hold my attention enough to allow me to sit through the whole thing. I have nothing to compare it to, so whether it's good or not for is a genre I don't know.
Mind, it's in good company. With the exception of the "normal" revolution, for me side 4 of the White Album must be the most uninspired piece of vinyl the band made.

Quoted from Bobber

Alright, credits for the experiment. But unlistenable to my ears.

I agree.

I could throw tomatoes and dog puke at a canvas and it would equal the art of that song.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

This oft derided piece from The Beatles (White Album) seems to fill the hearts and minds of Beatles fans the world over with scorn, even hatred. So why - when The Beatles are regularly championed for their innovations during the sixties - is Revolution 9 treated with such distaste?

This June sees the 40th anniversary of the recording sessions that brought about, what was to become The Beatles longest legally released recorded track. Avant Garde/Experimental music was not a new thing at the time, though most pop music fans were probably unaware of it's existence. The likes of John Cage had been producing this kind of thing since the mid '50's. Paul McCartney had become an unofficial patron of the undergound Avante Garde movement in the mid sixties, extolling the virtues of Cage, Stockhausen, and experimental film. John Lennon was living with an experimental artist, and George Harrison had recorded an album of electronic music (Wonderwall Music), so it should not have come as a massive surprise that something akin to this might one day turn up on a Beatles record.

Far from being derided, should The Beatles not be praised for being the first 'popular' music act to release such a piece?

Discuss.

its tuneless even if youre going to make something like it there must be some thing driving the it along in the background.

if you took the all the vocals out of tomorrow never knows and just replaced it with weird noises and tape tricks it would still be interesting and listenable because of the hypnotic bass and drums.

i think it just lacked somehting to focus on while everything around it was goin off in different directions

and i forgot to mention it was quite unsettling to listen to for me in the same way the Orchestral crescendo in a day in the life was, the only difference being a day in the life comes and goes quickly but revolution 9 keeps on going and is awkward to listen to right through

the first time I heard Rev. 9 I was in the dark and thought someone was talking to me.

I think I they should be praised because people weren't used to that kind of thing, and like everything else they did it opened a door for other artists.
a song without set lyrics is what I think of it as.

Quoted from PaulieBear

a song without set lyrics is what I think of it as.

a song?

Quoted from Andy Smith

a song?

well...ok music without lyrics.
well what would you call it, it's on an album so I figured song...

Quoted from DaveRam

I  never skip it when i listen to The White album and i think i would miss it if it was'nt there.

I agree. I like listening to it, not like it's a musical masterpiece in my book, I'm a verse 1/2 -- middle eight - verse 3 - end kind of guy. But it's interesting.

"HoonnTahh"!

Quoted from tkitna

I agree.

I could throw tomatoes and dog puke at a canvas and it would equal the art of that song.

No you could not! It is very difficult to throw dog puke.

I consider it this way:  It's a Picasso in a sea of Renoir and Matisse.  I don't necessarily want to explore the depths and subtleties of Picasso while inhaling Renoir or Matisse, and similarly I will not always sit through Revolution 9 while listening to the rest of The Beatles.

However, when the mood strikes me, I will listen carefully and attentively to Revolution 9, mentally breaking through its very busy pieces to try to de-layer it.  It's a piece that has many people still exploring it and still finding new buried treasures forty years on. And this from an aural art piece made when John was very experimental, more or less flying by the seat of his trousers just to see what it would sound like.

But I can be judgmental about avant garde pieces. To this day I cannot sit through What's The New Mary Jane? because it is so damned repetitive - and yet so many Beatles songs that I love to listen to are just as repetitive! She Loves You, I'll Get You, You're Gonna Lose That Girl, All You Need Is Love, even Yellow Submarine - those and more are built around a single word or phrase repeated ad nauseum.

It's part of a great album-ending sequence of songs:  "Cry Baby Cry, " "Revolution 9," and "Good Night." That's killer; only the Stones' "Salt Of The Earth" at the end of  Beggar's Banquet, released at nearly the same time, comes close. "Revolution 9" is also by far the best of Lennon's avant garde sound collages; the culmination of a sequence which began with the ad hoc "Two Virgins" and that got a little better with "Mary Jane."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: listen to "Revolution 9" at night, in complete darkness, over headphones and at a high volume. That's quite an impressive and eerie listening experience. That's why I like "Revolution 9".

Someone on the Dutch Beatlesforum found the lyrics!

Revolution 9
(John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
Lead Vocals: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and George Harrison

[Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised...

Well, do it next time.

I forgot about it, George, I'm sorry.
Will you forgive me?

Yes.]

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number...

...then there's this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants
...about the shortage of grain in hertfordshire

Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a litter slower but...

It's all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who's always/umpteen ...
Your father's giving it diddly-i-dee/district was leaving...
Intended to die ... Ottoman
...long gone through...
I've got to say, irritably and...
...floors, hard enough to put on ... per day's MD in our district
There was not really enough light to get down
And ultimately ... slumped down
Suddenly...

They may stop the funding...
Place your bets
The original
Afraid she'll die ...
Great colours for the season

Number 9, number 9

Who's to know?
Who was to know?

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9

I sustained nothing worse than ...

Also, for example
Whatever you're doing
A business deal falls through

I informed him on the third night, when fortune gives...

People ride, people ride
Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

Ride! Ride!

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

...I've missed all of that
It makes me a few days late
Compared with, like, wow!
And weird stuff like that...

...taking our sides sometimes
...floral bark

Rouge doctors have brought this specimen

I have nobody's short-cuts, aha...

9, number 9

...with the situation

They are standing still

The plan, the telegram...
Number 9, number...

A man without terrors from beard to false
As the headmaster reported to my son
He really can try, as they do, to find function...
Tell what he was saying, and his voice was low and his hive high
And his eyes were low...

Alright!

It was on fire and his glasses were the same
This thing knows if it was tinted
But you know it isn't
To me it is...

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

So the wife called me and we'd better go to see a surgeon to price it ...
Yellow underclothes
So, any road, we went to see the dentist instead
Who gave her a pair of teeth which wasn't any good at all
So I said I'd marry, join the fucking navy and went to sea

In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair

I'm not in the mood for whirling

How? Dogs for dogging, hands for clapping
Birds for birding and fish for fishing
Them for themming and when for whimming

...only to find the night-watchman unaware of his
presence in the building

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

Industry allows financial imbalance

Thrusting it between his shoulder blades

The Watusi, the twist

Eldorado

Take this, brother, may it serve you well

Maybe it's nothing
What? What? Oh...

Maybe, even then, impervious in London

...could be difficult thing...
It's quick like rush for peace is because it's so much
Like being naked

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright
It's alright

If, you became naked

Well I think the problem that most of us have with it is that isnt "proper" music and perhaps the white album was not the place for it.

its something a bit different but i always thought they created the Zapple label to release wierd and whacky stuff like this and george Electronic Sound album.

i just think its something that you have to listen to once, but once youve heard it, its like ok, done that, move on. It would be a lot more palatable as an experimental piece if it had at least 4 minutes shaved off it. Not only would would have made it bearable but it would also mean that the white album would have fitted onto a C90 cassette, which i always found a mild irritation inthe 70's

The lyrics really roll off the tongue don't they.

Quoted from maccalennon

Well I think the problem that most of us have with it is that isnt "proper" music and perhaps the white album was not the place for it.

its something a bit different but i always thought they created the Zapple label to release wierd and whacky stuff like this and george Electronic Sound album.

i just think its something that you have to listen to once, but once youve heard it, its like ok, done that, move on. It would be a lot more palatable as an experimental piece if it had at least 4 minutes shaved off it. Not only would would have made it bearable but it would also mean that the white album would have fitted onto a C90 cassette, which i always found a mild irritation inthe 70's

It's possible that the recording of Revolution 9 inspired the creation of Zapple.

I suppose whether it should have been on The White Album or not is open to debate. If you're one of those that thinks TWA should have been a single album (like me), then there's no place for it. But if you're of the opinion that TWA is what it is because of it's oft mentioned 'sprawling' nature, then it's perfect for it.

Quoted from Geoff

It's part of a great album-ending sequence of songs:  "Cry Baby Cry, " "Revolution 9," and "Good Night." That's killer;

Actually, I think it's the poorest 'side' of any Beatles record.

No I like the white album as a double. i think the oddities help make it the album that it is, i just dont like every track, that being one of them, ob la di being another, but no its definitely a double for me.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Actually, I think it's the poorest 'side' of any Beatles record.

Ditto. Revolution 1 is the only song worth the price of the vinyl it's carved into.

I like Cry Baby Cry, also, but there's still a lot not to like, in my opinion of course. Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, Goodnight never get played.

worst side of a beatles album surely has to be side 2 of yellow submarine

Quoted from Bobber

Someone on the Dutch Beatlesforum found the lyrics!

Revolution 9
(John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
Lead Vocals: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and George Harrison

[Bottle of Claret for you if I had realised...

Well, do it next time.

I forgot about it, George, I'm sorry.
Will you forgive me?

Yes.]

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number...

...then there's this Welsh Rarebit wearing some brown underpants
...about the shortage of grain in hertfordshire

Everyone of them knew that as time went by they'd get a little bit older and a litter slower but...

It's all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who's always/umpteen ...
Your father's giving it diddly-i-dee/district was leaving...
Intended to die ... Ottoman
...long gone through...
I've got to say, irritably and...
...floors, hard enough to put on ... per day's MD in our district
There was not really enough light to get down
And ultimately ... slumped down
Suddenly...

They may stop the funding...
Place your bets
The original
Afraid she'll die ...
Great colours for the season

Number 9, number 9

Who's to know?
Who was to know?

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9

I sustained nothing worse than ...

Also, for example
Whatever you're doing
A business deal falls through

I informed him on the third night, when fortune gives...

People ride, people ride
Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

Ride! Ride!

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9

...I've missed all of that
It makes me a few days late
Compared with, like, wow!
And weird stuff like that...

...taking our sides sometimes
...floral bark

Rouge doctors have brought this specimen

I have nobody's short-cuts, aha...

9, number 9

...with the situation

They are standing still

The plan, the telegram...
Number 9, number...

A man without terrors from beard to false
As the headmaster reported to my son
He really can try, as they do, to find function...
Tell what he was saying, and his voice was low and his hive high
And his eyes were low...

Alright!

It was on fire and his glasses were the same
This thing knows if it was tinted
But you know it isn't
To me it is...

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

So the wife called me and we'd better go to see a surgeon to price it ...
Yellow underclothes
So, any road, we went to see the dentist instead
Who gave her a pair of teeth which wasn't any good at all
So I said I'd marry, join the fucking navy and went to sea

In my broken chair, my wings are broken and so is my hair

I'm not in the mood for whirling

How? Dogs for dogging, hands for clapping
Birds for birding and fish for fishing
Them for themming and when for whimming

...only to find the night-watchman unaware of his
presence in the building

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9

Industry allows financial imbalance

Thrusting it between his shoulder blades

The Watusi, the twist

Eldorado

Take this, brother, may it serve you well

Maybe it's nothing
What? What? Oh...

Maybe, even then, impervious in London

...could be difficult thing...
It's quick like rush for peace is because it's so much
Like being naked

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright

It's alright, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright
It's alright

If, you became naked

What the hell was he on the day he came up with that?? Good Lord. Maybe in the year 2085 it will be considered mainstream. He was either way ahead of his time with this or temporarily insane. It could go either way.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

The lyrics really roll off the tongue don't they.



It's possible that the recording of Revolution 9 inspired the creation of Zapple.

I suppose whether it should have been on The White Album or not is open to debate. If you're one of those that thinks TWA should have been a single album (like me), then there's no place for it. But if you're of the opinion that TWA is what it is because of it's oft mentioned 'sprawling' nature, then it's perfect for it.



Actually, I think it's the poorest 'side' of any Beatles record.

If those songs were not on The White Album then you'd be tracking down the bootlegs just to hear them! I love TWA as it is. I think it shows how versatile and creative they were. And even the "worst" songs have something interesting in them.

I'm going to get the tomatoes for this, but I like Honey Pie.

Quoted from Sandra

If those songs were not on The White Album then you'd be tracking down the bootlegs just to hear them!

Good point. Absolutely true.

Quoted from Geoff

I'm going to get the tomatoes for this, but I like Honey Pie.

Me too! Great song to listen to, and play (piano). Bring on the tomahtoes!

Quoted from maccalennon

worst side of a beatles album surely has to be side 2 of yellow submarine

True. But I don't really count that - it gives the others an unfair advantage, being all George Martin and all. YS should have been an EP.

Quoted from Kevin

True. But I don't really count that - it gives the others an unfair advantage, being all George Martin and all. YS should have been an EP.

Yep. Very true, but doesn't really count as it's not The Beatles. It could though, have the worst A Side of any Beatles album.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

This oft derided piece from The Beatles (White Album) seems to fill the hearts and minds of Beatles fans the world over with scorn, even hatred. So why - when The Beatles are regularly championed for their innovations during the sixties - is Revolution 9 treated with such distaste?

This June sees the 40th anniversary of the recording sessions that brought about, what was to become The Beatles longest legally released recorded track. Avant Garde/Experimental music was not a new thing at the time, though most pop music fans were probably unaware of it's existence. The likes of John Cage had been producing this kind of thing since the mid '50's. Paul McCartney had become an unofficial patron of the undergound Avante Garde movement in the mid sixties, extolling the virtues of Cage, Stockhausen, and experimental film. John Lennon was living with an experimental artist, and George Harrison had recorded an album of electronic music (Wonderwall Music), so it should not have come as a massive surprise that something akin to this might one day turn up on a Beatles record.

Far from being derided, should The Beatles not be praised for being the first 'popular' music act to release such a piece?

Discuss.

I don't think they should be praised for releasing it. I think (like always) they should be praised simply on the substance of the work. #9 is very interesting and also very fun. Do I listen to it every time I listen to the White Album? of course not. but I very much enjoy it when I do listen to it. and I have always cried foul at those who think it shouldn't be on the album....though I'll entertain arguments from people who think that What's the New Mary Jane should have made it instead.