Revolution 9: Then and Now

This bizarre and fascinating track on side four of "The Beatles" is probably the most polarizing work in the Beatles catalogue. It seems everyone has an opinion on its merits and it ranges from "a work of sonic art" to "a complete waste of groove space". Which of the above options best represents your view of the track?

I'm definitely in the "Didn't care for it at first but now like it" camp. I can understand why some would find it...a mess, but for me that mess represents everything that is great and bewitching about the White Album.

I'm now of the opinion that one can't really "get" what the White Album is about without accepting "Revolution 9". I think some are just turned off by the fact that it appears to be "noise" rather than music, but I think it is "cleverly-crafted noise". Which, to me, is a big difference. I think it's something that only the Beatles could have successfully pulled off.

But what do I know? Feel free to cast your vote.

 

wasn't around then, like it well enough now

 

It is good for exactly what it is and nothing more.

 

Well said.

 

I like "Revolution 9" , The Beatles' inspired venture in pop sound collage. I've read that their avant garde influences were Cage, Stockhausen and Varese, and were particularly interested in musique concrete. John wanted to paint a picture of a revolution with sound.

It's as if they said, OK, we've done pop, rock, r'n'b, folk, psychedelic rock, ballads, blues, show tunes, country rock, instrumental, heavy rock, let's see...what's this experimental sound called... hmmm?

All those previous musical forays had logical connections...
Paul had an affinity for show tunes, and ballads. So, covering "Til There Was You" from The Music Man is a gentle tribute.

However, in just 5 short years they quantum leap from pleasant family fare to ear shattering cacophony?!? All Eight Minutes and Twenty-Two seconds? Astounding.

To The Beatles immense credit, I've NEVER heard this piece hung over their head as an albatross, as in, "if ONLY they'd never released that rubbish, their music would be perfect!!!". (In actuality, it seems more disappointed wrath is aimed towards the Magical Mystery Tour TV special... As one of their few flubs.)
Revolution 9 did not tarnish their musical reputation one iota.

But, in 20/20 hindsight, for the most popular rock band of the 60's, to have the astonishing audacity and unparalleled confidence to unleash a chaotic Revolution 9 on the world, is truly amazing.

 

I didn't actually like it or dislike it, it was just there. I didn't react in an extreme way to #9 due to the fact that the White Album wasn't a conventional album in the first place, compared to say, Rubber Soul. There were other odd ball tunes on the White Album like Wild Honey Pie so #9 seemed to me to be quirky more than anything else.

Scott

 

Not a huge fan of side 4 or the White Lp in general although there are moments if brilliance. No 9 seems like filler and it's way to long. Don't crucify me! Just being real.

 

Great post!

I second that and it's one of the reasons the White Album as a whole is so...startling. Following the vibrant experimentation of Pepper, then the (US released) Magical Mystery Tour, this album was a complete 180. No color, just a stamped number cataloging its mysterious contents. Then the four photos inside of a reflective and perhaps weary band. While everyone was still basking in psychedelia's glow, the Fab Four were already beyond it, instead crafting a collage of contrasting sounds, genres and emotions. Perhaps only 1968 could have given us an album like this. Indeed, it seemed to represent the clashing and chaotic ideals of an entire year wrapped up in a gatefold.

 

No crucifying here. I can see that. Surely some just don't hear its "appeal".

 

Cool. I have to applaud the ambition though , even if it's not my cup of tea.

 

When I first sat through The White Album in it's entirety in September of 1969, watching the Parlophone label spin round and round (yes, Parlophone) and following the unbanded LP as it spun on my little RCA turntable, i was, in a word, mystified. So far I had owned copies of Sgt. Pepper, Meet The Beatles, The Beatles' Second Album and magical Mystery Tour. I remember these titles specifically because they were the first I had through gift requests and allowance money. It's a very precious memory/time period for me. My Parlophone White Album was bought for me by an aunt while my family and I were vacationing in Greece in the Summer of '69.

Despite having absorbed the sounds from MTB through to the 1967 material (I had also heard but not yet owned Revolver), TWA had an aura like no other Beatle album I had ever experienced. In hindsight, it's like on all those other albums they created music while here they had created "heady atmosphere" that superseded the songs themselves. There was a trippy somnabulance about it couldn't quite put my finger on...the way they (especially John) sang...the almost melodramatic arrangements (the violin fade-out of Glass onion was downright spooky).

Having gotten through most of the album, I was in another place by the time of rev 9. As it played, I neither hated it or loved it...I simply listened, marvelling at what I was hearing...almost joyfully confused.

Today, it's an integral part of my favorite side of the album. It lurks in mysteriously after the ghostly Can You Take Me Back and takes it's leave equally effectively leaving one second space for the nightmarishly beautiful intro of Good Night.

Many would remove Rev 9 from the album and replace it with something like Hey Jude. Wrong. Rev 9 is a part of what make TWA the most enigmatic album The Beatles ever made. As an individual recording, it is-at worst-a very interesting collage of sound characterized by a mixture of emotions and textures. At best, it's a huge part of what makes the album what it IS. Perfect.

 

I am very happy it came out or it would be an obsessive topic on this board as some sort of unreleased holy grail.

 

Waste of time then; annoying waste of time now.

 

Liked/like

 

Wasn't around then, think it's fantastic - albeit it could lose a little bit in the middle where it seems to lose focus for a bit.

 

When you listen to as much Sun Ra as I do, Revolution #9 comes across like a Bobby Darin record.

I like it well enough, but I don't typically seek it out. I do think that it's important to the overall concept of the White Album, because it really shows you where John was at and it explains something about the process of being creative. You needn't work in a box. (Whether one likes the track or not.)

 

Liked it then, like it now.

 

It scared me as a kid. I really like it now, but I definitely need to be in the right mood to hear it.

 

Another great post! Thanks for sharing the experience.

I think you beautifully sum up the pure aura and mystique this album had / has on so many listeners. I've often felt it is the single most addictive album ever made and easily the greatest double. What it may lack in pinpoint greatness or studio wizardry (such as Sgt Pepper), it more than makes up for in moodiness, variety and flow.

 

Agreed - I mean, look at Carnival Of Light, which is most likely far inferior than Rev 9, yet people clamor to hear it as though it's a lost masterpiece.

 

Never liked it. I always thought it was pointless personally.

 

The original Revolution, Take 20. This blew my mind when it surfaced.

 

I like it for its novelty factor. I hate the tragically hip "heh, Revolution 9 is the only good Beatles song, maaan" ironic pseud fraternity around it.

 

I can add ten pages to that...but I won't. Well said, my friend.

 

I had never even heard of that fraternity! Though perhaps it does exist.

Indeed, a novelty song is a fair way to look at it. A bizarre and cleverly-crafted novelty song! In my humble opinion...