FEATURE:
I Am the Flawless
The Beatles’ Sublime Revolution 9: Taking It Inside No. 9
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THERE are reasons why…
IN THIS PHOTO: Inside No. 9’s creators and stars, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton
I wanted to shine a spotlight on perhaps The Beatles’ most obscure track. Quite divisive, the fantastic and head-spinning Revolution 9 appeared on their eponymous double album. More commonly known as ‘The White Album’, Revolution 9 is one of the band’s tracks not to feature Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Driven by George Harrison but largely compiled and arranged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, it is staggering that The Beatles were producing an Avant-Garde and extra-terrestrial piece of music like this just over five years since their debut album came out! A radical departure from anything they had done before, it is a song that still divides fans and critics. I love it, as it is almost like art rather than music. Kind of an audio immersive experience or installation, the Beatles Bible had further details about this incredible song:
“Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 30 May; 6, 10, 11, 20, 21 June 1968
Producers: George Martin, John Lennon
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 22 November 1968 (UK), 25 November 1968 (US)
Available on:
The Beatles (White Album)
John Lennon: vocals, tape loops, effects, samples
George Harrison: vocals, samples
Yoko Ono: vocals, effects, samples
Dividing audiences since late 1968, John Lennon’s sound collage ‘Revolution 9’ was an exercise in musique concrète influenced heavily by Yoko Ono and the avant-garde art world.
The recording emerged from ‘Revolution 1’, the final six minutes of which formed a lengthy, mostly instrumental jam. Lennon took the recording and added a range of vocals, tape loops and sound effects, creating ‘Revolution 9′, the longest track released during The Beatles’ career.
The slow version of ‘Revolution’ on the album went on and on and on and I took the fade-out part, which is what they sometimes do with disco records now, and just layered all this stuff over it. It was the basic rhythm of the original ‘Revolution’ going on with some 20 loops we put on, things from the archives of EMI.
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Although he made no direct contribution to ‘Revolution 9’, being in New York at the time, Paul McCartney had led work on a similar sound collage, the unreleased 14-minute ‘Carnival Of Light’, 18 months previously.
‘Revolution 9’ was quite similar to some stuff I’d been doing myself for fun. I didn’t think that mine was suitable for release, but John always encouraged me.
Paul McCartney
Anthology
The other Beatles and George Martin are said to have persuaded Lennon not to include ‘Revolution 9’ on the White Album, to no avail. Although McCartney had long been interested in musique concrète, particularly Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Gesang der Jünglinge’, it is likely that he was concerned at the effect ‘Revolution 9’ would have on the group’s public perception.
I don’t know what influence ‘Revolution 9’ had on the teenybopper fans, but most of them didn’t dig it. So what am I supposed to do?
John Lennon, 1969
Anthology
It wasn’t only the group’s teenage fans who were confused by ‘Revolution 9’. Charles Manson found a wealth of symbolism in the track’s loops and effects, and thought that Lennon’s shouts of ‘Right!’ were, in fact, a call to ‘rise’ up in revolt.
Manson drew a parallel between ‘Revolution 9’ and the Bible’s book of Revelation. He thought The Beatles were variously four angels sent to kill a third of mankind, or four locusts mentioned in Revelation 9, which he equated with beetles.
‘Revolution 9’ was an unconscious picture of what I actually think will happen when it happens; just like a drawing of a revolution. All the thing was made with loops. I had about 30 loops going, fed them onto one basic track. I was getting classical tapes, going upstairs and chopping them up, making it backwards and things like that, to get the sound effects. One thing was an engineer’s testing voice saying, ‘This is EMI test series number nine’. I just cut up whatever he said and I’d number nine it. Nine turned out to be my birthday and my lucky number and everything. I didn’t realise it: it was just so funny the voice saying, ‘number nine’; it was like a joke, bringing number nine into it all the time, that’s all it was.
John Lennon
Rolling Stone, 1970
‘Revolution 9’ also featured in the ‘Paul is dead’ myth, after it was discovered that the ‘number nine’ motif, when played backwards, sounded like ‘Turn me on, dead man’. A number of other elements of the recording featured in the myth, including the sound of a car crashing followed by an explosion”.
I have been thinking about Revolution 9, as it was recorded fifty-five years. Spread over a number of days, you wonder how the track started life. I can only imagine what it was like in the studio hearing this come together – and the reaction people had when they first heard it! Before moving onto the incredible T.V. series, Inside No. 9, there is a bit more background to Revolution 9 that we need to know about:
“Album sequencing and release
During compilation and sequencing of the master tape for the album The Beatles, two unrelated segments were included between the previous song ("Cry Baby Cry") and "Revolution 9". The first was a fragment of a song based on the line "Can you take me back", an improvisation sung by McCartney that was recorded between takes of "I Will". The second was a bit of conversation from the studio control room where Alistair Taylor asked Martin for forgiveness for not bringing him a bottle of claret, and then calling him a "cheeky bitch".
"Revolution 9" was released as the penultimate track on side four of the double LP. With no gaps in the sequence from "Cry Baby Cry" to "Revolution 9", the point of track division has varied among different reissues of the album. Some versions place the conversation at the end of "Cry Baby Cry", resulting in a length of 8:13 for "Revolution 9", while others start "Revolution 9" with the conversation, for a track length of 8:22. Later CD and digital releases have the conversation at the beginning of "Revolution 9".
Reception
... compare Lennon's work with Luigi Nono's similar Non Consumiamo Marx (1969) to see how much more aesthetically and politically acute Lennon was than most of the vaunted avant-garde composers of the time ... Nono's piece entirely lacks the pop-bred sense of texture and proportion manifested in "Revolution 9".
– Ian MacDonald
"Revolution 9" is an embarrassment that stands like a black hole at the end of the White Album, sucking up whatever energy and interest remain after the preceding ninety minutes of music. It is a track that neither invites nor rewards close attention ...
– Jonathan Gould
The unusual nature of "Revolution 9" engendered a wide range of opinions. Lewisohn summarised the public reaction upon its release as "most listeners loathing it outright, the dedicated fans trying to understand it". Music critics Robert Christgau and John Piccarella called it "an anti-masterpiece" and commented that, in effect, "for eight minutes of an album officially titled The Beatles, there were no Beatles." In their respective reviews of the White Album, Alan Walsh of Melody Maker called the track "noisy, boring and meaningless", while the NME's Alan Smith derided it as "a pretentious piece of old codswallop ... a piece of idiot immaturity and a blotch on their own unquestioned talent as well as the album". Jann Wenner was more complimentary, writing in Rolling Stone that "Revolution 9" was "beautifully organized" and had more political impact than "Revolution 1". Ian MacDonald remarked that "Revolution 9" evoked the era's revolutionary disruptions and their repercussions, and thus was culturally "one of the most significant acts the Beatles ever perpetrated", as well as "the world's most widely distributed avant-garde artifact".
Among more recent reviews, Rob Sheffield wrote in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide that it was "justly maligned", but "more fun than 'Honey Pie' or 'Yer Blues'". Mark Richardson of Pitchfork commented that "the biggest pop band in the world exposed millions of fans to a really great and certainly frightening piece of avant-garde art." David Quantick, writing in 2002, similarly described it as being "after nearly a quarter of a century, [still] the most radical and innovative track ever to bring a rock record to its climax". He added that, given the Beatles' popularity ensured that an avant-garde recording was found in millions of homes around the world: "No one in the history of recorded music has ever been so successful in introducing such extreme music to so many people, most of whom, admittedly, will try their best never to hear 'Revolution 9.' Those who do listen to it usually find that it not only rewards repeated playing ... but that it also knocks other tracks on the White Album into a cocked hat.
Edward Sharp-Paul of FasterLouder wrote that "'Revolution #9' is the sound of an illusion shattering: Yes, the Beatles are human, and sometimes they drop almighty turds." The track was voted the worst Beatles song in one of the first such polls, conducted in 1971 by WPLJ and The Village Voice. Writing for Mojo in 2003, Mark Paytress said that "Revolution 9" remained "the most unpopular piece of music the Beatles ever made", yet it was also their "most extraordinary [recording]".
Lennon said he was "painting in sound a picture of revolution", but he had mistakenly made it "anti-revolution". In his analysis of the song, MacDonald doubted that Lennon conceptualised the piece as representing a revolution in the usual sense, but rather as "a sensory attack on the citadel of the intellect: a revolution in the head" aimed at each listener. MacDonald also noted that the structure suggests a "half-awake, channel-hopping" mental state, with underlying themes of consciousness and quality of awareness. Others have described the piece as Lennon's attempt at turning "nightmare imagery" into sound, and as "an autobiographical soundscape". The loop of "number nine" featured in the recording fuelled the legend of Paul McCartney's death after it was reported that it sounded like "turn me on, dead man" when played backwards.
In an interview held at his home on 2 December 1968, Lennon was asked if "Revolution 9" was about death, because it seemed like that to the interviewer. Lennon answered: "Well then it is, then, when you heard it ... listen to it another day. In the sun. Outside. And see if it's about death then." He went on: "It's not specifically about anything. It's a set of sounds, like walking down the street is a set of sounds. And I just captured a moment of time, and put it on disc, and it's about that ... It was maybe to do with the sounds of a revolution ... so that's the vague story behind it. But apart from that, it's just a set of sounds.”
Based on interviews and testimony, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi asserted that Charles Manson believed that many songs on the album The Beatles contained references confirming his prediction of an impending apocalyptic race war, a scenario dubbed "Helter Skelter". According to Gregg Jakobson, Manson mentioned "Revolution 9" more often than any of the other album tracks, and he interpreted it as a parallel of Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation. Manson viewed the piece as a portrayal in sound of the coming black-white revolution. He misheard Lennon's distorted screams of "Right!" within "Revolution 9" as a command to "Rise!” Speaking to music journalist David Dalton before his trial, Manson drew parallels between the animal noises that close Harrison's White Album track "Piggies" and a similar sound, followed by machine-gun fire, that appears in "Revolution 9".
If you can get hold of a copy of David Quantick’s 2002 book, Revolution: The Making of "The Beatles - White Album then I would recommend you do, as he goes into detail about Revolution 9 (in addition to the whole of The Beatles). He also appeared on I am the EggPod in two-part chat, spending some real time explaining why he loves Revolution 9.
IMAGE CREDIT: The Guardian
I wanted to use the second half of this feature as almost like a speculative treatment for Inside No. 9. The series (written by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith) recently wrapped its memorable eighth series. I think there is a ninth series being written, but I am not sure whether that will be the last. The title of the series come from the fact that each episode comes from somewhere with a ‘9’. Maybe it is a house or mode of transport. Having to come up with something fresh and new every week, it must be a challenge for Pemberton and Shearsmith to do that! The critically acclaimed and celebrated series has provided so many memorable episodes. I was thinking about fifty-five years since Revolution 9 because of the numerical relationship between it and the popular series. I guess all episode ideas are locked for series nine, but there is something about Revolution 9 that lends itself to Inside No. 9 (this article looks at The Beatles and the significance of the number 9). Whether they would go back to 1968 and the recording of that song – building a mystery with a twist around the song. Pemberton and Shearsmith would play studio engineers at EMI (rather than John Lennon and George Harrison). Perhaps there would be something about the song that flips them between two worlds (1968 and the present time). Something in the track that hypnotises them. I like the idea of an Inside No. 9 that travels back to the '60s. I am not sure what the twist of the episode would be but, maybe there is a hidden message or something in the song that messes with time and logic. Maybe an episode title could be Can You Take Me Back Me Back Where I Came From? (as Paul McCartney sings that at the end of Cry Baby Cry, the song that leads into Revolution 9). If it was modern day, maybe the album (The Beatles) would be bought played at a charity shop. The song comes on and would be a catalyst for something huge. There is an eeriness to Revolution 9 that lends itself to Inside No. 9 and its aesthetic. Not that they will, but I think Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith would create something wonderful based around that Beatles song – with one of their best and smartest twists too.
It is fifty-five years old, so I wanted to look inside Revolution 9, as it is one of the most layered and unusual songs The Beatles ever recoded! On a double album where each of the band’s four members were often recording apart, it is amazing that they were in the headspace to create some of the best material of their careers. I love Inside No. 9 so, when thinking about Revolution 9, it instantly got me thinking about the connection. Maybe a 1968-set episode around the recording of the song, or something in the present time where this track plays an important role. Still right at the top of their games, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith have crafted something timeless and genius with Inside No. 9. Let’s hope that there are a few more episodes from them at least. I would hate to think that it ends soon – but I guess every good thing has to come to an end at some point! The Beatles will celebrate its fifty-fifth anniversary in November. It remains this sprawling but wonderful album filled with so many texture and sounds. Originally it was going to be called A Doll’s House (a possible episode title?), as, like a doll’s house, you get all these different rooms and possibilities. Eponymous albums, I think, normally signal that artist or band putting out their most personal or meaningful work. I don’t like eponymous albums, as it seems a bit lazy. In the case of The Beatles, they seemed like less of a unified and cohesive band than ever. That said, there are more than enough moments of genius! Revolution 9 is one such example! A titanic song where John Lennon, Yoko Ono and George Harrison took us somewhere strange and mystical, I could not help but imagine this song coming into the world and mindset of Inside No. 9. I am not sure if it would be too expensive to clear the song, but it would be an intriguing episode! I wanted to celebrate a big anniversary of a wonderful song that still sounds…
LIKE it is from another world.