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Revolution 9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Revolution 9" is a recorded composition that appeared on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled LP release.

The recording began as an extended ending to the album version of "Revolution", to which were added vocal and music sound clips, tape loops, reverse sound/music and sound effects influenced by the musique concrète styles of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varèse, Luigi Nono, and John Cage[citation needed], further manipulated with editing and sound modification techniques (stereo panning and fading). At over eight minutes, it is the longest track on the album, as well as the longest Beatles track ever officially released, excluding the unreleased track "Carnival of Light" (which clocks in at 13 minutes, 48 seconds), which is said to carry avant-garde influences as well.

The work is credited to Lennon/McCartney, but Paul McCartney did not actively participate in the track's creation. In actuality, "Revolution 9" was primarily the work of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, although Yoko Ono made small contributions (and, perhaps more importantly, her avant-garde influence on Lennon's compositional style is clear throughout the work.)

Believing the track to be too uncommercial for even the Beatles to get away with, McCartney and producer George Martin fought hard to keep the track off the The Beatles, but Lennon and Ono won out, and the track was included as the penultimate track of the album's fourth (and final) side.

Structure and content

"Revolution 9" starts with a conversation between George Martin and Alistair Taylor:

    Alistair Taylor: ...bottle of Claret for you if I'd realised. I'd forgotten all about it, George, I'm sorry.
    George Martin: Well, do next time.
    Taylor: Will you forgive me?
    Martin: Mmmm...yes....
    Taylor: Cheeky bitch.

(Although this conversation is usually known to be the beginning of "Revolution 9," the time tracking from the CD indicates it as the tail end of the previous track, "Cry Baby Cry," following Paul's short solo song "Can You Take Me Back.")

After a brief piano introduction, a loop of a man repeating the words "number nine" (taken from an EMI examination tape) begins to be heard. This phrase fades in and out throughout the recording as a motif. Then there is chaos: feedback, impromptu screaming, rehearsed overdubs, and more tape loops.

As some portions of "Revolution 9" are recordings of other music (from bits of Sibelius, Schumann's "Carnaval" and Beethoven, to a backward snippet of a tuning orchestra, culled from the session tapes for A Day in the Life), the piece can be seen as an early example of sampling. Other audio elements include various bits of apparently nonsensical dialogue spoken by Lennon and Harrison, various found sounds, reversed sounds and recordings of American football chants ("Hold that line! Block that kick!"). Also heard is the "all right" from the end of Revolution 1 (this piece was supposed to be the coda to Revolution 1 but was pushed back to several tracks after it). Also at 6:48 it can be heard what seems to be the intro to Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" played much faster on piano.

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