What did you think the first time you heard The Beatles "Revolution 9"???

I know by the time many of us heard "Revolution 9", we had been prepared for it, having heard about it, and having preconceptions of the White Album.

Others picked up the White album with NO preconceptions.

In any case, what were your thoughts when you heard the song for the first time? Did you like it or dislike it? Were you impressed or perplexed?

And these days, when you hear it, do you listen to it, or skip over it?

 

I was 10 when I got the White Album for Christmas '79. I hated "Revolution 9" but I played it anyway, because "Goodnight" didn't sound right without it.

I appreciate and enjoy it much better these days.

 

As a young boy (in early '69) it scared the s#%t out of me; but a month or two later, I would say I liked it and was impressed by it.

A few months ago I played THE BEATLES (mono), I played Revolution 9, and still enjoyed its madness.

 

boring....and I still think the same

 

I was also 10 when I got the White Album — as an Xmas present in 1968. No advance hearings, no advance reports, nothing at all.

Was somewhat perplexed with Rev-9 at the time, although the previous 28 tracks definitely gave me the impression that the times they were a-changing in Beatleville anyway.

I usually skip Rev-9 nowadays, although I do appreciate "Cry Baby Cry/Can You Take Me Back?/Rev-9/Good Night" as a sequence.

 

Interesting question for a thread! It was all part of the Beatles mystique for me so I thought it was pretty cool when I first heard it in the late 60's as a kid. While it's not a track I'll ever put on a compilation, it is Beatles history that I'll listen to - depending on my mood - when I'm listening to the '09 remaster.

 

All sorts of scary thoughts! I was by then (+/- 1971) aware of the Paul-is-dead rumor of '69, and heard all kinds of creepy dramatizations, like someone burnt at the stake, etc. I had never heard collage music before that.

 

Not impressed...thought it was just filler. Today I feel the same way.

 

I could not stand it and didn't understand why Hey Jude wasn't in its place. I later became a little fascinated by it when the Paul is dead hype came out, but still didn't like it.

 

I found it very interesting.

 

Yes...

 

I just didn't understand the point of it. I still don't. To me, it is and always will be the ultimate filler track.

 

I thought it was strange but sort of liked it.

Depends on my mood. Generally I don't play it if I have the choice. The other day I listened to it in the car and my kids thought I had recorded a record that was skipping...classic.

 

It challenges the listener. Fits the era and the album...

 

The first time I heard it I kept waiting for them to go into the up-tempo (single) version of Revolution.

I guess my initial reaction was somewhere between puzzled and interested.

 

Oh Yoko, what have you done to the band.

 

I thought, "No wonder people play this backwards."

When I was younger, I kept thinking that it should have been replaced with actual songs.

Now, I like it and can't imagine listening to the White Album without it.

 

Too young and perplexed and still perplexed. (such a soap opera)

Revolution 9 Backmask (backwards) by The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG0wksBzKSc

 

I was frightened and fascinated. Rarely skip it these days.

 

Loved it right from the first time I heard it, it seems a natural progression from Strawberry Fields for me, but dark like a nightmare instead of a daydream. To all the people that poo poo Rev 9, you ain't got a clue about The Beatles or what they are about, Revelution 9 is the 'real' Beatles not some little ditty produced for a hit single !!

 

I was probably 4 years old the first time I heard it and it scared the crap out of me.

 

I thought it was crap. Still do. I have listened to it backwards though and it makes more sense that way.

 

I was 10 and facinated with the line "And then you become naked". As iI thought it was naughty sounding.

I will admit that 41 years later I have never skipped it, ever.

 

I too found it interesting...number nine, number nine, number nine. Infectious! The watusi! Oh and, they become naked!


Better leave it there, I think...

 

I thought it was pretty cool when I first picked up the white album, as a pair of cassettes when I was a teenager in the early 1990's. I had known about it from the 'Paul is dead' rumor and from reviews of the record, and so I was looking forward to hearing it. I would listen to it whenever I put the album on, because: a) it was a cassette, so you can't skip; b) I believed at the time that the album, not the song, was the unit of art, so I usually made it a point to listen an entire side at a time, if not the whole album; c) I kind of liked it, because it was so different, and because I had a lot of time back then for nine-minute sonic collages.

Now? I never listen to it. Still glad it's there, though.