Revolution 9: Then and Now

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by If I Can Dream_23, Jul 23, 2016.

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  1. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Have you heard "You Know My Name, Look Up The Number" yet? :)
     
  2. fmfxray373

    fmfxray373 Capitol LPs in the 70s were pretty good.

    Two very important points:
    1. Nothing sends me running quicker to the tonearm than Paul's singing "Mama can you take me back."
    2. Lumpy Gravy is not only much longer but much, much more fun.
     
  3. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    That's a great sentiment regarding the entire White Album! It's almost as if you keep playing it in the hope that you can finally piece its mysteries together yet they continually elude you. In the process, you realize you've listened to the thing about 200 times... :)
     
  4. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Yeah, pretty much.

    It was very much a Beatles solo project of sorts...
     
  5. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Obvious influence on Pink Floyd. When I was a teen in the 80s I'd play it all the way through but didn't really listen to it. Then I pretty much ignored it for 25 years. Then I decided to attempt to listen again and I really dug it.
     
  6. It's worthless pretentious garbage and always has been.
     
  7. spindly

    spindly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    The only way to listen to 'Goodnight' is to have Rev 9 preceed it!
     
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  8. drasil

    drasil Former Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    my boilerplate comments when this topic surfaces every couple months:
    • I like the track a lot, mostly because it's the most accessible piece of musique concrète I've heard. (and the genre actually has some pretty poppy moments.) it's definitely the work of pop musicians making sound collage. it contains 'refrains,' a narrative thread, and other elements of rock songwriting that don't usually show up in classical music. and the notion that it's 'pretentious' seems preposterous to me, given how deliberately bombastic and engaging it is. this was not a piece written to alienate an audience. it's really catchy.
    • it's not groundbreaking, though, not really. tape music first surfaced in the 1930s and was entirely commonplace by the early 60s, when guys like Stockhausen were working with the medium and influencing the beatles to produce 'revolution 9' a couple years later.
    • but it is groundbreaking in that the most popular band in the world decided to stick a ten-minute tape piece into the hands of totally unsuspecting record buyers with no real precedent. that's subversive as hell. it's also the crux of understanding the beatles--mainstreaming the underground and avant-garde was probably the single most important contribution the band made to culture at large, and 'revolution 9' could be seen easily as the apex of this.
    • it's interesting to me how, in the 2010s, the track seems to be the most 'out' piece of music some posters here have ever encountered, apparently. I wonder what would happen if they heard merzbow, or masonna, or half japanese, or non, or Peter Brötzmann, or...
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2016
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  9. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    I like it in the context of the album but it is not a track I would listen to in isolation from the album, unless it was for academic purposes.
     
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  10. Moonbeam Skies

    Moonbeam Skies Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phoenix, Arizona
    The 1st time I played the album (it was 1980 but I knew very little about it), I remember reading ahead on the track listing as I listened, and when I heard Revolution 1, I recognized it as the slow version of the song I was already familiar with from the 1967-1970 album that I'd had for a few years. So I was thinking, this other Revolution might sound more like the fast one. But I noticed there were no lyrics for it on the lyric sheet, so that seemed odd and made me think something more bizarre might be in the works. Well, it scared the s*** out of me pretty much. So it became one of my favorite tracks for that alone. You had to know something like this was coming after the weirdness of Lennon's songs on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. Revolution 9 was where he took that acid influence all the way to its extreme! Looking at the pics on the inside of the gatefold was enough to say they were into some heavy dope and this track proved it beyond a shadow of doubt.
     
  11. The Bishop

    The Bishop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dorset, England.
    I don't listen to it very often, but when I do, it's enthralling.

    Revolution 9, is a psychedelic soundscape...a really disjointed trip.
     
  12. Price.pittsburgh

    Price.pittsburgh Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Since Paul has done some John stuff live lately, he should try this one :)
     
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  13. Voxbox

    Voxbox Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Uk
    its got a catchy beat ....
     
  14. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    But can you dance to it?
     
  15. realkilroy

    realkilroy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
  16. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    I was 13 when I first heard it and I just accepted it as part of the White Album. It's not a randomly selected sound collage - there are changes of mood, pace and (yes!) even tempo in there if you listen properly. All of these things were communicated to me the first time I heard it, although I couldn't analysis them at that point. I've never found it boring and I never skip it when listening to the album: the way it trails off to be followed by Goodnight is a great piece of sequencing.
     
  17. Sergeant Pepper

    Sergeant Pepper Forum Resident

    There's a great essay on "Revolution 9" in Ian MacDonald's book "Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties". Definitely worth reading.

    When I was a kid this song scares me a lot. But nowadays I really love it. It's pure avant-garde art. I'm quite sure Yoko influenced John to produce this great track then.
     
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  18. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Liked it when I first heard it and still do, although I don't listen that often. Creeps me out.
     
  19. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    Beautifully said. I think the perception that it is just "random noise" to some is selling the track vastly short. As you said, it was actually very intentionally constructed. Of course, if one still doesn't like it, then they don't like it...
     
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  20. Beatledust

    Beatledust Forum Resident

    Location:
    Salt Lake City, UT
    Try listening to the backwards version at 2AM with the lights out, and the headphones on. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
     
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  21. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    Perfect as part of side four of the White Album, on its own not so much :D
     
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  22. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    *Didn't like it then, I don't like it now. 46 vote(s) 29.9% (I’m in this camp), and am pleasantly surprise that the:
    *Liked it then, like it now. 82 vote(s) 53.2% is winning!

    Being a Beatles nut, I have tried over and over to like it, but just skip it whenever I hear it. The same goes for the next and final song on the album "Good Night”.

    P.S.
    The White Album is my fab fav!
     
  23. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    Absolutely! It's definitely the pure definition of an "album-only" track.
     
  24. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    That's definitely interesting that it's your favorite despite that! "Good Night" is my favorite song off the whole album! I guess it just shows how vastly different this smorgasbord of an album hits people.
     
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  25. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
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