Revolution 9

November 22, 1968

Revolution 9 ( often called Revolution No. 9 or Revolution # 9) is an experimental piece of Beatles, appeared the so-called White Album on the ninth studio album by the band. Other than officially stated it is not a Lennon / McCartney composition, but a sound collage that produced John Lennon and Yoko Ono in collaboration with George Harrison in June 1968. Paul McCartney, however, was not involved in the development of the piece. With a running time of eight minutes and 22 seconds it is the longest published piece of the Beatles.

Formation

The musical concept of sound collage was created during the 1940s in connection with the musique concrète, when artists such as the French engineer Pierre Schaeffer discovered new technical possibilities such as tape loops and sound change and to combine nature sounds, music samples and other samples to often disturbing sound experiments. Thus emerged relieved of compositional conventions of art, which should have an immense influence on the later electronic music and the shape of the repetitive arrangements Inspired by the artistic concept collage. The Beatles were just as their producer George Martin fascinated by this and stylistics of avant-garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and built appropriate recording techniques from 1966 regularly in their songs one, such as in Tomorrow Never Knows and Strawberry Fields Forever.

Tracks used

  • Number Nine, spoken by a male voice (probably from a tape archive). This sample runs like a red thread through the entire production ( a total of 13 times).
  • Piano sounds ( played by Lennon)
  • Choir
  • Fiddle
  • Orchestra
  • Laughter of a female person
  • Orchestral track from A Day in the Life
  • Sample of a shattering glass
  • Applause
  • Mellotron
  • Various spoken words of John Lennon, George Harrison and Yoko Ono
  • Baby sounds
  • Large drum
  • Various vocal samples from the song Revolution
  • Horse hooves strike the asphalt
  • Sound of a machine (possibly of an airplane )
  • Sound of crumpled paper, reminiscent of sound effects to a crackling fire
  • Sounds of war (possibly from a war film )
  • Distorted piano passages from the recording of While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  • Slamming the car door
  • Female voice (possibly from an airport announcement )
  • Probably some tape tracks from the recording of Tomorrow Never Knows
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