Music 351: The Beatles - Listening Through a Glass Onion
The Summer of Love, Inverted
1968 was one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th century.
spring & summer: erupted with startling violence, complicating the fierce tensions between races, social classes, generations, genders, and ideologies across the globe
two savage assassinations -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & New York senator Robert F. Kennedy -- dashing everybody's best hopes
protests against the Vietnam War moved from radical to mainstream culture in the first months of the year
the North Vietnamese launched the surprise Tet Offensive on January 31, an assault that saw Communists hold Saigon's American embassy for six hours!
Vietcong guerrillas managed to hold the South Vietnamese city of Hué for weeks
both the war's supporters and detractors alike were stunned in March by the My Lai massacre, in which renegade American forces murdered helpless Vietnamese citizens in their homes
Yoko Ono used an image of the resulting carnage from this massacre on her single release "Now or Never" (see image)
As a result of Eugene McCarthy's entry into the Presidential primary (an upstart Minnesota Democratic senator) and then Bobby Kennedy's entry (a very popular candidate who had inherited his brother's (recently assassinated former President John F. Kennedy) mythic status, a battered President Johnson announced he would neither seek nor accept his party's nomination, throwing the race into turmoil. For all of his advances in civil rights and the fight against poverty, Johnson's legacy would forever be tarnished by his support of the Vietnam War.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,'s 1967 address "Beyond Vietnam" had the paradoxical effect of weakening the reverend's civil rights credibility, giving narrow-minded and bigoted opponents pretense to paint him as unpatriotic or worse.
publicity once given to MLK's nonviolent movement was quickly co-opted by threatening splinter groups like Oakland's Black Panther's, which espoused Black Power
while in Memphis to support an anti-poverty campaign pegged to sanitation workers' pay, King was assassinated on a motel balcony by a racist's long-range rifle (April 4, 1968)
following the unrest and riots that resulted after MLK's murder, Boston's newly elected mayor, Kevin White, scrambled to stave off more violence
aides convinced him that the live, public TV broadcast of a scheduled concert by James Brown, the African American "Godfather of Soul," might quell the violence
before moving forward with the plan -- which would, in fact, come off as a success -- they had to inform the mayor just exactly who James Brown was!
just two months later, after scoring a major antiwar victory in the California primary election on June 5th, Robert Kennedy was murdered by an assassins bullet in the kitchen of the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel
two assassinations in as many months made any progress on racial, class, religious, and generational divisions seem forever out of reach
as the Democratic Party gathered for their party convention in Chicago at the end of August, Mayor Richard Daley, paranoid about how the city might be perceived, armed his police with bats and tear gas
TV cameras beamed the brutal scenes nationwide as picketers chanted," The whole world is watching."
"Chicago" became an enduring metaphor for how constitutionally protected dissent continued to meet a repressive police state.
inspired the the American protests, European youth in Paris reacted by protesting against collegiate living conditions and antiquated social codes
11,000 Parisian workers soon joined the students, and, by May, the country came to a two-week standstill as an unlikely million people marched on the Champs-Élysées demanding political change
In one of the most eerie moments where the Beatles suddenly seemed prophetic, it was as if the snatch of "La Marseillaise" at the opening of "All You Need is Love" had suggested what lay ahead!
although Britain had no troops in Vietnam, antiwar demonstrations protested its support for the war on March 17 as hundreds marched on London's embassy (a scene depicted in two tracks by the Rolling Stones: "Street Fighting Man" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want"
right within the United Kingdom, police storm-trooper brutality against marchers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in October 1968 marked the beginning of "the Troubles," a 30-year period of fighting between Catholics and Protestants that led to 3,200 deaths and 50,000 casualties, with the involvement of British troops beginning in August 1969
young demonstrators' expanding messages of equal treatment of minorities, women, and other victims of bias; world peace; and ecological awareness got drowned out by their lifestyle choices: long hair, flagrant sexuality, loud music, and overblown rhetoric
1968 Beatles releases:
Single: "Lady Madonna" / "The Inner Light" (rel. March 15)
Single: "Hey Jude" / "Revolution" (rel. Aug. 30)
LP: The Beatles (a.k.a., The White Album)
Side 1: "Back in the USSR" / "Dear Prudence" / "Glass Onion" / "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" / "Wild Honey Pie" / "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" / "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" / "Happiness is a Warm Gun"
Side 2: "Martha My Dear" / "I'm So Tired" / "Blackbird" / "Piggies" / "Rocky Raccoon" / "Don't Pass Me By" / "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" / "I Will" / "Julia"
Side 3: "Birthday" / "Yer Blues" / "Mother Nature's Son" / "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" / "Sexy Sadie" / "Helter Skelter" / "Long, Long, Long"
An extended meditation retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi took up most of the opening quarter of 1968. For the group, 1968 began as 1966 had ended, with the Beatles pursuing separate projects, which had become the norm for intervals between their remaining group recordings.
Ringo acted in the film Candy (began shooting in December 1967)
Paul produced Cilla Black's recording of his song "Step Inside Love"
George recorded in India for both his soundtrack to the film Wonderwall (see image) and the instrumental track to the Beatles' next B-side, "The Inner Light"
Harrison felt taken for granted, so he pursued more creative outlets than the others through 1968
produced album sessions for Jackie Lomax in Los Angeles (where he first worked with a Moog synthesizer, later to grace the Beatles' Abbey Road
visited Bob Dylan in the Catskills of New York, where the two wrote "I'd Have You Anytime" (which would appear on George's epic solo triple album of 1970, All Things Must Pass
John laid low for a time (vacationing in northern Africa in January), but he emerged quite noisily in mid-May, when he recorded Mellotron experiments with his new paramour as well as artistic advisor, Yoko Ono, tracks that were released later that year in unedited form as Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins with a defiant nude photograph on the cover.
The image and perception of Sgt. Pepper's continued to grow, while Magical Mystery Tour continued to suffer from the comparisons. As the third of their middle-period ("experimental") albums -- Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's --Sgt. Pepper's made their previous work sound as if pointed toward something larger, more poetic, and sweeping than rock had previously seemed capable of.
to manage the negative response surrounding Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles dropped a single in February: Paul's "Lady Madonna"
the gap between recordings persisted throughout the summer of 1968 as they worked on 30+ tracks for their next release
the Beatles released McCartney's "Hey Jude" at the end of August
a beautiful song and quite innovative musically, despite its complete lack of electronic gadgetry
"Hey Jude" became the Beatles' biggest hit since the days of Beatlemania
Reversing course from 1967 psychedelia, the Beatles returned to earthier rock 'n' roll styles throughout 1968, following "Lady Madonna" with tracks like "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Birthday," both of which appear on the double-album project The Beatles (a.k.a., "The White Album").
this back-to-the-roots direction culminated in the January 1969 "Get Back" project, through which they made a return to cover material from the Presley era of their youth: Elvis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly
the "Get Back" project has been immortalized in two documentaries: Let It Be (1970; director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg) and Get Back (2021, director, Peter Jackson); at the end of this semester, you will have a chance to watch (and respond to) all three volumes of the Get Back documentary
Yellow Submarine
Another project worked its way into the Beatles' calendar around the time of The White Album and "Let It Be" (which was initially known as the "Get Back" project)
the Yellow Submarine project (an animated feature film) began in 1967, saw continued work in 1968, but was not released until 1969
the Beatles viewed this commitment as a "contractual headache"
the Beatles' only involvement with the film was (a) the scripted live-action cameo appearance of the band tacked onto the ending of the film and (b) the four previously unreleased Beatles songs that were included on the soundtrack: "Only a Northern Song" (a Sgt. Pepper's outtake from 1967), "Hey Bulldog" (composed February 1968) "Nowhere Man" (composed in 1965), and "All You Need is Love" (composed 1967)
the film was released in July 1968, evidencing the highest technical standards for the era and became a monument to two-dimensional pop art
the LP was released in January 1969 as Yellow Submarine included a handful of Beatles songs, packaged alongside George Martin's orchestral score fore the film
In early February 1968, the Beatles produced four tracks:
"Lady Madonna" and "The Inner Light" (the A- and B-sides of a single released March 15)
"Hey, Bulldog" which was dropped as a single and used on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack
"Across the Universe" which got shelved
The Beatles Visit Rishikesh, India
On February 15, the Beatles kept their promise to themselves from the previous fall and traveled to Rishikesh, in the Himalayan foothills of northern India, to learn meditation techniques from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
the trip combined a spiritual quest with their first extended vacation together since the earliest days of Beatlemania
at the ashram, they met up with an international coterie of anti-materialist celebrities: Mike Love (Beach Boys), Donovan (folk-turned-pop-singer), and the Farrow sisters (movie star Mia, who had just left husband Frank Sinatra, and Prudence)
Donovan helped the Beatles with various styles of finger-picking
Mike Love helped them write "Back in the U.S.S.R."
Prudence Farrow became the subject of a Lennon song ("Dear Prudence"), as did the Maharishi himself (the original song title "Maharishi" was changed to "Sexy Sadie")
Ringo and Paul returned home within a month, but John and George stayed until April 12
in addition to their spiritual growth (and the disavowal of recreational drugs), their musical productivity flourished in seclusion, leading to about 30 new songs!
George Harrison, especially, began to blossom as a songwriter
the Beatles' transcendental meditation experience signaled a peak of hippie idealism, shattered when they discovered that the Maharishi was only human
Lennon believed rumors about the guru's acting on his earthly passions and brought the relationship and visit to an abrupt end
after the death of Brian Epstein and the drop in the Maharishi's status, John sought a new companion/life coach in Yoko Ono
the other Beatles reported feeling Lennon had overreacted regarding the Maharishi, who nevertheless sponged off the Beatles' status to win media fame
Apple and Solo Excursions
After returning from their Transcendental Meditation retreat in Rishikesh, the Beatles announced the formation of a new multimedia company, Apple (not the computer company founded by Steve Jobs!), with a publicity tour by Paul and John including a New York press conference and an appearance on The Tonight Show in mid-May. Here was John's explanation of the company on the show:
"We decided to play businessmen for a bit, because we've got to run our own affairs now, so we've got this thing called Apple, which is going to be records, films, and electronics, which all tie up, and to make a sort of an umbrella so's people who want to make films ... don't have to go on their knees in an office begging for a break."
Apple invited unknown, struggling performers and filmmakers to submit projects for funding
they took out ads asking musicians to send them tapes to fast-track the audition process
the company strove to harness all the creative energies already in motion ...
Paul's producing Cilla Black
John's new inspiration from Yoko
George's recording in Bombay
Ringo's fledgling acting career
other successful artists in Apple's early roster:
James Taylor
Mary Hopkin
Badfinger
Billy Preston
Without the steady hand of Brian Epstein, Apple's epic ambitions, mixed success, and competing priorities fed the Beatles' own dissolution.
the filmmaking never got off the ground
the electronics division fueled Lennon's fascination with sci-fi gadgets that led to a disastrous mess of a basement recording studio that required extensive outside expertise to make it usable
The Beatles Release A New Single ... On the Apple label!
At the end of August, the Beatles released "Hey Jude," McCartney's "answer" to Lennon's "Revolution." "Hey Jude" was their first single on their own Apple record label.
Paul conceived "Hey Jude" to console John's son Julian over the messy breakup of his parents' marriage and Yoko's intrusion into his life
before release, the working title of the song ("Hey Jules") was changed to "Hey Jude"
Yoko began accompanying John everywhere, instigating special resentment when she set up camp in the studio for Beatles sessions
The White Album (actual album title: "The Beatles")
On The White Album, the first LP of their late-period releases, patchwork themes of the era -- the band's corporate woes, the universality of the infinite refrain to "Hey Jude," the Beatles' status as youth heroes, and the general chaos of the times -- broaden toward pure noise, genre parody, conflicting stances, and the disregard of their own rock-star status to stretch the band's persona into a collection of individual voices with less and less vocal interaction. The album contained a variety of far-flung musical styles represented across a myriad of 30 new songs on two discs!
The White Album maps the band members' competing sensibilities and turns cohesion into a quaint, nostalgic idea; rock would never again seem as unified and purposeful as when Sgt. Pepper's appeared, despite that album also containing its own plethora of styles
on this album (official title: The Beatles), no more hiding between alter-egos as they had done for Sgt. Pepper's
the front and back of the album cover were pure white, with the small legend "The Beatles" embossed off-center and crookedly on the front, along with a unique stamped serial number on each set
inside, the package contained an overtly formal set of posed individual portraits and a collage poster that traced the Beatles' entire career back to Hamburg
the cover's litotic empty frame cued its overall concept as Sgt. Pepper's negative image ... an album as sweeping, cantankerous, and disheveled as its predecessor was tidy, ornate, and pop!
the work renounced the conceptual frameworks to address both a chaotic culture and a career conundrum: how to follow up the greatest concept album of all time without comparisons to its triumphs
the undertones of The White Albumforetold of continuing splits and specializations, with heavy metal (Paul's "Helter Skelter") sitting next to chaste Animal Farm sarcasm (George's "Piggies") as if introduced from separate careers
the Beatles encountered 8-track tape recording for the first time, leading to improved fidelity with fewer generations of tape required for overdubs
George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is often considered a prototype for Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"
On one level, the Beatles were playing catch-up to Bob Dylan, whose four-sided Blonde on Blonde (1966) album had challenged both rock's conceptual conceits and the very idea of a linear song narrative
Lennon acknowledges Dylan's far-reaching influence when addressing Dylan directly in "Yer Blues" and also manages to get the last word on how their swords had crossed with "Norwegian Wood" and "4th Time Around," the latter in which Dylan had recast Lennon's 12/8 meter and mystical melody as vaguely ambivalent eroticism
the band sounded impossibly tight but also, for many listeners, like soloists with a backing band more than close collaborators ... a distance that would become even greater in 1969, as the Beatles continued to grow further apart and as their creative interests diverged
on this album, vocal duets become almost nonexistent, and where they do appear ("Julia"), they're slight, mechanically double-tracked solos by one individual singer
"I Will" features Paul overdubbing his own voice as the bass line ("dum-dum-dum")
The White Album was released on November 22nd, exactly five years after With the Beatles
The "Revolution" Series
Musically, Lennon veered furthest away from his mates
as with "A Day in the Life," John had found inspiration from papers, which he turned obliquely into a daunting example of cold post-modernity
for the initial recordings for The White Album, news stories flooded his imagery in more direct fashion
the "Revolution series" represents the new album's first set of recordings, begun at the end of May, separating into what became separate tracks: "Revolution" (the B-side of "Hey Jude," released on August 30), "Revolution 1" (the opening track on side 4 of The White Album), and Revolution 9 (an extended track also on side 4 of The White Album; Lennon wanted to close the album with the piece, but got out-voted by the other band members)
Paul and George Martin argued for its exclusion from the album; in fact, George Martin and all other band members voted against including "Revolution 9," but, in the end (as usual), John got his way
though John wanted to close the album with the experimental track, the rest of the band insisted that they cushion side 4's layout with a dreamy closer ... a Lennon lullaby suing by Ringo: "Good Night"
though George Martin had considered the widely misunderstood "I Am the Walrus" to be "organized chaos," this next step seemed too far ... even for him!
John wanted the original "Revolution" released as a single to join a critical global discussion
the band insisted that the track was too slow, so they cut a faster version with angry, heavily distorted guitars and keyboard
the revised version of "Revolution" was slated as their next A-side release, until Paul came in with "Hey Jude," which pierced John's heart as only Paul could
as a result, the single version was released as the B-side to "Hey Jude"
the initial (slower) version is the recording that can be found on the opening of side 4 of The White Album
George Martin and his engineers grew weary of how band members preferred working apart from one another and often sat out one another's tracks completely
though the initial recording sessions held extraordinary promise, work thereafter followed a downward spiral, to the point where engineer Geoff Emerick quit, calling the proceedings "poisonous"
the band even endured a walkout by drummer Ringo Starr (which you will experience as you watch Peter Jackson's "Get Back" documentary), after playing one too many card games through too many disrespectful, self-indulgent recording delays
as if to rub his nose in it, an unfazed Paul sat in on drums for two tracks cut in Starr's absence: "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence"
listen to the last verse of "Dear Prudence" to hear some of Paul's sublimely musical drum flourishes
"Revolution 9" regularly ranks as the least favorite Beatle recording in fan polls.
"Revolution 9" may have delighted few, but it was clear how Lennon's experimental impulse had led him from backward tapes in "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Rain" to formal experiments like "Tomorrow Never Knows," A Day in the Life," and "I Am the Walrus"
John would not hesitate to go out even further artistically, goaded on by his new collaborator, Yoko Ono, who had extensive avant-garde credentials with the Flexus group
George Martin argued strenuously for a single disc (rather than releasing The White Album as a double album), without knowing the band wished to release two largely to fulfill a clause in their EMI record contract
Lennon would have a live-performance epiphany in December 1968, playing "Yer Blues" along with Eric Clapton and Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) for the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, which was pulled from broadcast and rarely seen before 1996. This was the beginning of the Plastic Ono Band, a vehicle that would end up giving John more pleasure than the Beatles could.
"Yer Blues" performed by Dirty Mac for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
[L to R: Eric Clapton, John Lennon ("Winston Leg-Thigh"), Keith Richards (on bass), & Mitch Mitchell (drummer, Jimi Hendrix Experience)],
following a long, rambling intro by John Lennon & Mick Jagger:
The White Album benefits from the surfeit of material -- including some of the Beatles' most epic yet -- that emerged from the unprecedented retreat in Rishikesh, India. If anything, The White Album captures the sound of the Beatles breaking up while clinging together.
”Dear Prudence”
"Dear Prudence" has a well-known backdrop: during the February-March meditational, Prudence Farrow became known as the group's introvert; she kept to her room, trying to "out-meditate" the others.
On this track, the Beatles don't elaborate so much as build on an economy of scale and refine, refine, refine ... creating a slowly ripening intensity. Instead of adding mere backup vocals (easy to imagine on this pastoral theme), they add
in many overdubbed guitars (in the Bridge) and
on the final verse (a repeat of Verse 1) for a satisfying welling up of sound, with tinkling its approval.
"Dear Prudence" presents a new layer of Lennon's persona. This track nestles in an infinitely confident, slow-building desire that emphasizes affection above persuasion. "Prudence" avoids the insecurity, anxiety, and conflict that normally cloud John's ballads, and forms a new "soft male" narrative.
the tenderness harkens back to the Buddy Holly song that Lennon quotes ("The sun is out, the sky is blue"), lifted from "Raining in My Heart," a posthumous B-side to 1959's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"), the simplest lines elevating the most elegant texture
NOTE:McCartney actually plays drums on this track; it's such a good Ringo imitation that many assumed it was Starr until the late 1980s!
Can you hear the SRDC form for this verse?
Can you hear the SRDC form for this verse? Note the lead guitar "commentary." Can you hear the SRDC form for this verse?
”While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Some Things to Listen For:
Eric Clapton graces his friends, the Beatles, with one of the most stunning instrumental parts of their career ... the guitar solo for this song! He uses many old blues tropes of B.B. King's guitar soloing style, including wrist vibrato and subtle string bends.
Clapton was brought to the studio as balm when tensions were running high between band members
his performance replaced Harrison's attempt to wail through the song in a backward-recorded part
Playing around with the harmonies in the chord progressions: the minor setting gives the verse's major bVII, IV, and bVI chords a tragic quality, and the bridge's major mode is immediately undercut with its minor iii, vi, and ii chords.
McCartney's sassy Fender Jazz Bass, which includes double-stops (two notes played at the same time) through all verses after the first one, and doubling bass parts at the unison by a Fender Bass VI (named for its 6-string configuration; most basses have only four strings) through the bridges, the bass line of which drips with large wistful leaps, many pitches dragged down by descending slides
guitar solo played by Eric Clapton (Les Paul with ADT)
Clapton on guitar again for fadeout
”Martha My Dear”
Martha was the name of Paul McCartney's pet sheepdog.
Paul composes this tune with numerous metrical booby traps:
an irregular meter (a bar of five beats tripping each verse into quadruple time)
the opening of the transition follows two bars of 6/4 with three of 4/4 and another of 6/4
Can you hear the "phrase 1" & "refrain" sections of the verse form in this instrumental section?
”I'm So Tired”
In this song, Lennon tracks several major story arcs across the Beatles catalog:
dreamscapes, with every increasing layers of experimental intrigue: "Tomorrow Never Knows" > "Strawberry Fields Forever" > "I Am the Walrus" > "Revolution 9"
songs of fatigue: "I'm Only Sleeping" > "A Day in the Life" > "I'm So Tired" > "Watching the Wheels" (one of his very last completed compositions)
When Lennon sings "I'm So Tired," you can really hear the plain weariness in his voice, which springs from the same jaded attitude as "Sexy Sadie." Where that other vocal captures a withering, implacable anger, "I'm So Tired" sounds limp, drained, and dispirited.
the track follows a slightly modified blues form in its aa'b structure
the song's tension emerges from contempt and bitterness and the quirky, show-off melody ... it's a musical paradox, an aria about disaffection that oozes virtuosity
Can you her that "aa'b" form of this verse?
Can you her that "aa'b" form of this verse?
This "mumble" serves as the transition to "Blackbird."
If the "mumble" is played backwards it sounds like this:
Beginning at 0:02, many people hear: "Paul is dead, man ... miss him, miss him, miss him."
”Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”
Listen for the following in "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" ...
combines self-negating wordplay with rhythmic quandaries for overcomplicated elation
mocks pretension and neatly inverts the argument: the lyric may be about nothing or everything, but it's a simple appendage to the music
where lyrics trace scatological abstraction, the music has a prolix glee right from the offbeat guitar chords in the Intro
Can you hear the "abc" + tag form of this chorus?
Can you hear the "abc" + tag form of this chorus?
”Sexy Sadie”
The Beatles' retreat to Rishikesh, India, in Spring 1968 has become a blurry pop metaphor for daft hippies seeking enlightenment from the East. The reality was more complicated:
George seems to have been sincerely interested in meditation and its spiritual context (as well as having an avid interest in Indian music)
the other Beatles found themselves drawn by the promise of peace of mind
Lennon, by this point, had pretty much irritated everybody in his circle with his daily drug intake, which had already harmed his marriage and promised to forestall productivity even further if continued
When he first penned "Sexy Sadie," John used "Maharishi" as the working title lyric ... see how "Sexy Sadie" and "Maharishi" have the same number number of syllables and the same pattern of accents (i.e., emphasis)?
although John obscures his intended target, the lyrical intent for vengeance is clear ... there's no subtext
Lennon simply riffs on what he saw as the Maharishi's snake-oil transcendence
John's resolve takes on a dark hue, poring over his subject's faults obsessively without realizing how this tone circles back against him (knowing the backstory may actually intrude too much on the track's attributes, limiting its possibilities); my apologies for that ... but it is important information to be aware of!
"woh-woh"
"see-see-see-see"
Revolution 9
I realize that, like many listeners, you are likely to hear "Revolution 9" as disorganized and chaotic. I assure you that it truly is "anything but" that! In fact, a few words from your textbook provide a clear clue about how best to listen to this track:
"... listen closely and often enough, and the contours emerge, anticipations build to uncertain release, and, paradoxically, seemingly random gestures begin to acquire preordained certainty, like a dance into the unconscious joining chance with fate.""
See if you can grab onto ideas that are repeated (e.g., "number nine," "alr-i-i-i-i-ght," etc.) and see if you can begin to perceive some sense of organization. You may find this two-page resource helpful as you listen to this "sound collage" created by John Lennon & Yoko Ono with assistance from George Harrison: https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/revolution-9/
Experimentation Leading to "Revolution 9"
when Lennon toyed with backward tapes on "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Rain," he chased the hallucinogenic effects straight into some silent tunnel, as if a black hole had sucked the song into nothingness
by the time the Beatles reached "Strawberry Fields Forever," a mere fadeout couldn't tame the song's emotional furies ... so a fade back-in returned the chaos, as if the void disgorged the song back in triumph, melted and distended beyond recognition, with "lyrics" curdled into gibberish ("Cranberry sauce") and instruments melting like time itself
the Beatles actually placed sound on the inner groove of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, so that when side 2 came to a close, the looped recording would repeat over-and-over until the user lifted the needle from the vinyl LP (not all record players of the era had the ability to automatically lift the needle at the end of playback).
could a randomized quilt of noise (including an inaudible dog whistle!) and "found sound" suggest the underside of the Beatles' Utopian melodies?
As Lennon moved from mid-period development to late-period compression, his songwriting follows two threads typified by the recording of "Revolution":
"Revolution 9" began with "Revolution," another Lennon lyric derived from a newspaper narrative, which addressed shifting realities.
originally a medium-tempo Chuck Berry-like boogie, "Revolution" morphed into a long, wild-eyed sound collage by the end of the 10'47" master (take 20)
Lennon broke it into two separate tracks:
the first remained a straight, medium-tempo rock 'n' roll number (that served as the opening for side 4 of The White Album)
the second became the most experimental musical gesture of his career ("Revolution 9," the penultimate track on side 4 of The White Album
"Revolution 9" makes more sense when considered as part of a continuum extending from the overt tape manipulation of "I'm Only Sleeping," "Rain," and "Tomorrow Never Knows" to "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," and "I Am the Walrus."
Throughout Summer 1968, each day brought new disruptions. Lennon drafted the lyrics in May, as Paris and the heart of Europe erupted in a sweeping class revolt.
Lennon famously recorded two versions of "Revolution," but not before writing two answers within the song:
if "revolution" in the political sense meant "destruction" or violence, he sang "Count me out ... in," with obvious ambivalence
the first version of "Revolution 9" (recorded May 30) clocked in at over 10 minutes, with a fadeout that trumped everything that came before
the last 6 minutes of "Revolution 9" (take 20) simulated a reflecting pool of the era's clashing ideologies, the noise of the streets caught and metamorphosed in sound
the result captured a slow-burn psychedelia seared by roaming guitar feedback and repeated shouts of "aaaaaall right" and "riiiiiiight!" that drifted off into a dreamscape, an extended sound collage that could never be mistaken for a mere fadeout
that fadeout itself became the bed for a new song
an excerpt from "A Day in the Life" orchestra rehearsals is sampled in "Revolution 9"
Bringing "Revolution 9" to Completion
the collaboration on this experimental work was primarily by John Lennon and his uncredited co-composer Yoko Ono, with some help from George Harrison
the musical undulations stem from Lennon's spontaneous responses to sounds as they floated in and out of earshot, playing the recording console like an electronic instrument
the piece survives as a surprisingly adroit example of musique concrète (a type of composition that uses recorded sounds as raw materials), which McCartney enjoyed dabbling in like his "Carnival of Light" (January 1967), which was never released even as a bootleg!
with its impudence and length (which tests pop attention spans), the 8-minute track, the group's longest, prompts more debates about its merits than any other Beatles song!
regarding the inclusion of "Revolution 9" on The White Album, Lennon held his ground
on a double-album, he sensed, people would forgive a touch of excess
if it upset fans, all the better ... the Beatles had exposed a mainstream audience of music lovers to the most experimental electronic ideas in academia, evidenced by the work of composers like Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse, and Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen was one of the celebrity faces on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's)
if it didn't enchant the curious, it might just signal how far the Beatles meant to stretch form, and how artists sometimes chase new ideas beyond what their audiences can comprehend
all 10 minutes of "Revolution 9" became unwieldy, even for John, so he cut it in two:
the first segment became "Revolution 1," which we now know as the opening track of side 4 of The White Album
when this track got vetoed for the new single, Lennon picked up the tempo to create "Revolution" for the B-side of "Hey Jude"
the remainder of this tape got much more treatment, extension, and manipulation to become "Revolution 9"
opens with Yoko Ono's plaintive piano waltz draping a sound engineer's test script ("number nine, number nine") for a recurring loop
the anonymous engineer's voice long got mistaken for Lennon's own even though he deliberately chose the speech of a random engineer to ricochet across the stereo channels
listen for these sounds in "Revolution 9" (click on the buttons to hear the sound described): this
("number nine") is the only narrative thread among a tableau of noises: street sounds, private conversations,
a from Schumann,
from the "A Day in the Life" session, with brass & cymbals, forwards and backwards, from Vaughn Williams, a from Sibelius, a
of Farid El Atrache's "Awal Hamsa", and much, much more!! ... at least 45 difference sources, many found in EMI's tape libraries.
"Revolution 9"
Listen closely and often enough to "Revolution 9" and contours emerge,
anticipations build to uncertain release, and, paradoxically, seemingly random gestures begin to acquire preordained certainty,
like a dance into the unconscious joining chance with fate.
It's also impossible to separate "Revolution 9" from its successor, "Good Night,"a lullaby awash in strings that brings the four sides of The White Album to a close, sung tenderly by Ringo with unflinching sincerity.
The same month that The White Album was released, John and Yoko released their first "solo" album, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, with the couple posing nude on the cover.
The Summer of Love, Inverted
as the Democratic Party gathered for their party convention in Chicago at the end of August, Mayor Richard Daley, paranoid about how the city might be perceived, armed his police with bats and tear gas
An extended meditation retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi took up most of the opening quarter of 1968. For the group, 1968 began as 1966 had ended, with the Beatles pursuing separate projects, which had become the norm for intervals between their remaining group recordings.
Another project worked its way into the Beatles' calendar around the time of The White Album and "Let It Be" (which was initially known as the "Get Back" project)
On February 15, the Beatles kept their promise to themselves from the previous fall and traveled to Rishikesh, in the Himalayan foothills of northern India, to learn meditation techniques from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Apple invited unknown, struggling performers and filmmakers to submit projects for funding
On The White Album, the first LP of their late-period releases, patchwork themes of the era -- the band's corporate woes, the universality of the infinite refrain to "Hey Jude," the Beatles' status as youth heroes, and the general chaos of the times -- broaden toward pure noise, genre parody, conflicting stances, and the disregard of their own rock-star status to stretch the band's persona into a collection of individual voices with less and less vocal interaction. The album contained a variety of far-flung musical styles represented across a myriad of 30 new songs on two discs!
"Dear Prudence" has a well-known backdrop: during the February-March meditational, Prudence Farrow became known as the group's introvert; she kept to her room, trying to "out-meditate" the others.