Revolution 9: Classic or Dud?

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Does this track pass muster as a piece of avant-garde art? Or should the boys have left the tape splicing to the professionals?

― Mark, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

...new answers...new answers...new answers...

― Mark, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's good that they did it (like Blondie doing Rapture) but it doesn't at all compare to Reich, Stockhausen, etc. It's something different, it's much more of a pop song.

― A Nairn, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

this is my favorite song on the white album, and one of the only ones I like. so who cares if it passes muster as a-g art?

I like the texture of the noise. I don't listen to any a-g music or popular music or anything like that from that period where the noise and tape sounds and stuff ends up sounding that particular way, so I find it particularly novel.

― Josh, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"It's something different, it's much more of a pop song." - this is precisely what I love about it, that even when they tried to go all avant-garde they still bled popsmith thru and thru.

― J Blount, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I liked the effort on revolver better....

― jayque, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Sophie Ellix-Bextor bettxtorer.

― Sophie #1 Phan, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic.

― Dan I., Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

plus, it's funny. how much "good" avante-garde art is funny? oh ok lots of it but y'know.

does "you know my name (look up the number)" pass muster as a piece of avante-garde art?

― unknown or illegal user, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ian MacDonald claims this track is actually superior as art to anything by Stockhausen, et al. I haven't heard any of that stuff so I'll have to take his word for it. It's certainly superior to any of the Lennon/Ono avant-garde efforts like Two Virgins.

As for me, I used to LOVE Revolution 9. Kind of sick of it now, but I really can't believe that it's somehow become the standard Beatles song to hate. I could name twenty worse songs of theirs without even blinking.

― Justyn Dillingham, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not a huge fan of the track, really, but I never thought of it sounding like a pop song. If anything, it sounded a lot like what Stockhausen was doing about 10 years previously. It is kind of impressive that the Beatles of all people were able to produce something like that. Can you imagine Brian Wilson unloading that on his fans? He'd probably be considered even more of a crazed genius than he already is.

― dleone, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

does "you know my name (look up the number)" pass muster as a piece of avante-garde art?

The similarities between that song and music on Faust's first two records are startling. The Beatles in Hamburg = original krautrock.

― dleone, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not sure of its Avant-Garde cred, but as a youth who used to spin Beatles records backwards (ruining many a stylus in the process), "Revolution #9" used to scare the beJesus outta me.

Turn Me On, Dead Man

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing abt that track is that it sounds throwaway, you know. There's all the POP stuff and then here we'll throw in some a-g cobblers for you. And then we'll go back to pop as if nothing happened. It's pretty good but I prefer the songs like 'Sexy Sadie' from the album.

― Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's hilarious, and the title is brilliant. Revolutions 2 through 8 are left as exercises for the listener.

― o. nate, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This song used to scare the shit out of me when I was 11 years old and obsessed with the Beatles. To the point of nightmares. To the point where I would never even play the White Album for fear that I'd accidentally play that track. To my young mind, there was something horribly spooky about the way the deadpan "number nine" narrating voice mixed with the audio splicing.

I finally listened to "Revolution 9" again in college after I'd been on the radio for a year or so. By then, its power to scare me had almost completely dissipated. To this day, though, I still think it's a little creepy.

― mike, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, Smile would have had "Fire," which would have been his own version of "Revolution 9..."

― mike, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

oops! Referring to the earlier what-if-Brian-Wilson-had-done- something-similar comment above.

― mike, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, Smile would have had "Fire," which would have been his own version of "Revolution 9..."

I played that for one of my hardcore freak music friends, and it completely floored him. "What an idiot I was for not listening to the Beach Boys," was his comment. Of course, then I played "Vegetables", and he was out the door.

― dleone, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

For a song I usually write off as random soundbites, it's strange how much of it sticks in my brain. It's a fun song to listen to in any case.

― Vinnie, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Spot-on, Mike, I felt the same way. Moreover, the creepy little wail at the end of "Long, Long, Long" was pretty disturbing to my active imagination.

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

B-b-but "Vegetables" is their finest work!!

"Revolution 9" is fun, but I don't take it very seriously.

― Keiko, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Very classic, and it's awesome that something so bizarre is on one of the 10 biggest albums of alltime.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, 8 February 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

this song is so classic. it's very musical, so evocative and very horrifying. it's totally linked with Manson in my head for some reason though it obv. predates him by a few years. The echo-ed Lennon "alllllriggght" and moaning bits sound like the last hopes of the 60's being throttled to death. I was sure this was the soundtrack to something disturbing when I was a kid because it sounded like the dialogue was plot-driven (mainly the "a telegram?" part). I suppose I could take a lot of drugs and listen to it on repeat for a day and really fuck myself up.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

Well, Smile would have had "Fire," which would have been his own version of "Revolution 9..."

-- mike

"Is it hot as hell in here, or is it just me? It really is a mystery."

You really think this would have blown as many minds as "Revolution 9"?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

Classic, especially on the jukebox at a bar.

― Trip Maker (Sean Witzman), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

one dollar = four plays = 36 minutes of NUMBER NINE

― (Jon L), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

the palpable sense of bar-wide panic that sets in when the track starts to play for the second time.... mmm

― (Jon L), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

It is really fun to just sit back and watch people's expressions.

― Trip Maker (Sean Witzman), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

"The echo-ed Lennon "alllllriggght" and moaning bits sound like the last hopes of the 60's being throttled to death"
Yeah! And the weird choo-choo train voice thing is really unsettling. It's maybe a leslie speaker thing.
It got played back to back with Sexy Sadie on BBC6music's Freak Zone at Halloween. First time I'd heard it in years, but I really enjoyed it. I'd been to Instal a couple of weeks before where I'd sat and listened to minimalist drone for hours, so this sounded positively baroque.
It's funny and creepy in equal measure. And there's that bit where guitars fade in and you suddenly think a song is going to blossom forth, but of course it fades almost immediately. First time I heard it I was 12 or 13, and it left me pretty bemused. It just seemed endless. That whole album opened a lot up to me. Helter Skelter desensitised me to noise, primed me for Nirvana. Thank you Macca!
It's not the Beatles best album perhaps, but certainly their most interesting.

― stew, Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

"Is it hot as hell in here, or is it just me? It really is a mystery."

You really think this would have blown as many minds as "Revolution 9"?

-- Mark (r-...), February 8th, 2005.

Pretty sure that bit was a new addition to SMiLE.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 8 February 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

I hereby take back my "Fire" comment, having now heard "Smile." "Revolution 9" is much, much creepier.

― mike a, Tuesday, 8 February 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

Other memorable R9 bits:

The dry radio presenter reciting dances: "The watusi"

Yoko: "When you become naked..."

― stew, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

i thought you were talking about john moore's post-jamc/expressway, pre-black box recorder band

― joan vich (joan vich), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

"i thought you were talking about john moore's post-jamc/expressway, pre-black box recorder band"

Me too. Especially as he's launching his latest solo album tonight. http://www.halfawake.co.uk

― Neil, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

The dry radio presenter reciting dances: "The watusi"

'The dry radio presenter' = John Lennon

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

As I remember Ian MacDonald liked it better than Stockhausen etc for the same reason Blount does above

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:23 (twenty years ago)

Must dig out Revolution In The Head to check all the sources. It seems that most of the voices are Lennon doing his sub-Peter Sellers schtick.

― stew, Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Not that much sub, to me. He had a pretty good range of convincingly different speaking voices. Oh and a few of them are George

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Have a look here for what's what.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

(think it's pretty reliable for whose voice was whose, though I don't know about some of the transcriptions - "Thence Pwllheli" = "The hens were henning" as far as I can hear)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

It's nothing like Stockhausen. It's quite like Nurse With Wound.

― Dadrockismus (Dada), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

If it uses tapes it sounds like "Stockhausen" to most people tho

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

o. nate super otm too

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Stockhausen is more about electronic music than tapes, which we've no doubt discussed at length on ILM at some time in the past, knowing us...

― Dadrockismus (Dada), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't McCartney the Stockhausen fan in The Beatles anyway?

― Dadrockismus (Dada), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

did mccartney's tape collage piece ever come out? the "psychedelic reel" or whatever it was called?

― Beta (abeta), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

wasn't it used for Tomorrow Never Knows?

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

xxpost:
I heard Macca was annoyed that he was the first one to be doing all this stuff, but Lennon was the one who put it on the album.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

if for no other reason, it's classic because it's the complicated storm before the beautiful simple quiet of "Goodnight."

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

did mccartney's tape collage piece ever come out?

Are you talking about 'Carnival Of Light'?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

Carnival Of Light.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:49 (twenty years ago)

I think Frank Zappa and sides 3 and 4 of the first Mothers of Invention album have a lot more to do with this than Stockhausen

― Dadrockismus (Dada), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

George doesn't like avant garde music? What's up with Wonderwall and Electronic Sound then??

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 16:00 (twenty years ago)

I like "Revolution 9" OK, but it coulda been tightened up a little, like to maybe six minutes rather than eight-plus. Starts to drag a bit after the gunfire and "you become naked" bit, plus it shoulda segued into "Goodnight" rather than fade. Certainly more enjoyable than "Long Long [too fucking] Long" and the gawdaful "Honey Pie". You just know that if J&Y were American, they'd've spliced in that "The whole world's watching!" chant from the Democratic convention (which Chicago later did); using "Block that kick!" instead is nearly as funny a stunt as recording an apocolyptic ode to a children's playground slide. And personally, I'll never forget hearing those spooky backwards-piano (?) notes on TV, in some car-advert or something, finding them familiar, but being unable to place them for awhile.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

is anything by steve reich actually good? no, like, *actually* good?

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

"Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain" are incredibly good, IMO. As is Music for 18 Musicians.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

as dadaismus noted Stockhausen is not the best reference for "No. 9", Cage was the one doing radio collages and cut-ups. "Credo in US" (1942) being the earliest, but "Variations IV" (1963) & especially "Rozart Mix" (1965) are _very_ close to the aesthetic of "No. 9". Almost positive Yoko was on the scene for those, and exposed John to them later.

online audio here
http://bloggy.com/mt/archives/000421.html (the collage elements step up at the end)
http://www.johncage.info/soundfiles/main.html

If Paul's so annoyed about "Carnival of Light" not getting its due then why isn't it out? I suspect because it's not particularly interesting, but I'd still like to hear it.

― (Jon L), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

See the flyer for the Roundhouse rave on the Delia Derbyshire pages here.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

"It's Gonna Rain" doesn't serve any purpose more than demonstration, IMO.

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

you gotta make it through to part II.

More Reich excellence: Four Organs/Phase Patterns
Macro Farfisa Madness!

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

Sorry - mucked up link.

http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/unitdeltaplus.php

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

"Take this, Brother. May it serve you well. --"

I gained a new appreciation for this song after hearing Les Misérables Brass Band perform it on a Knitting Factory compilation CD.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

That Carnival of Light interview was extremely interesting. Thanks Alba.

Paul McCartney is a nice guy, with good taste. He really should be making better music.

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 9 February 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Mix your own "Revolution 9" here:

http://www.escape.com/~dario/beatles/number9/

― mike a, Thursday, 10 February 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

The Steve Reich Lp on ECM I have (incls "Octet"/"Music for a Large Ensemble"/"Violin Phase") is definitely actually good.

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 February 2005 03:33 (twenty years ago)

Paul McCartney is a nice guy, with good taste. He really should be making better music.

He is, but nobody's listening to it.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 10 February 2005 07:31 (twenty years ago)

Scariest thing song ever, at least when I was 12. Actually made me want my parents to come home.

― The Velvet Overlord (The Velvet Overlord), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

fucking dud....

fuck!

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Thursday, 10 February 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

Just wrote a fairly rambling piece about "Revolution 9" on my blog:

http://djearlybird.blogspot.com/2005/08/may-it-serve-you-well.html

― mike a, Wednesday, 10 August 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

eighteen years pass...

Sure it goes 'number nine, number nine' but why do so, so, so, so, so many people refer to it as Revolution No. 9?

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 1 October 2023 01:13 (one year ago)

It's ahem like "The Wonderstuff", if you will. I've never understood that either

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 1 October 2023 01:14 (one year ago)

TIL. Fwiw, I’ve seen covers that (apparently) get the title wrong.

― Chavez video on MTV, July 1995 (morrisp), Sunday, 1 October 2023 01:54 (one year ago)

its the Mandela effect. alternate dimensions and all that

― frogbs, Sunday, 1 October 2023 02:35 (one year ago)

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