Revolution 9

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Overview

Background

Pattern analysis

Recording

Mix variants & recording techniques

Documented mix variants

• 1968 UK stereo LP The Beatles (“White Album”) (22 November 1968, Apple [Parlophone] PCS 7068, side D track 1) — Released master = 25 June 1968 edit of stereo remix 2 from the 20–21 June master version (Lewisohn p. 139 verbatim: “editing of the stereo master from 9′05″ to 8′12″”). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Richard Lush. The released stereo master carries: the 30 May 1968 take-18 tail-section seed (Lewisohn p. 135); 6–11 June 1968 sound-effects loop preparation (Lewisohn p. 137); 20 June 1968 multi-studio compilation with STEED tape delay across Studios One, Two and Three (Lewisohn p. 138); 21 June 1968 SI onto master + stereo remixes 1 and 2 (Lewisohn p. 138); 25 June 1968 stereo edit (Lewisohn p. 139). Final length 8′12″ (Lewisohn p. 139 verbatim).
• 1968 UK mono LP The Beatles (“White Album”) (22 November 1968, Apple [Parlophone] PMC 7068, side D track 1) — Per §1 source-conflict flag: no dedicated mono mixing session for Revolution 9 appears in Lewisohn pp. 138–139. The mono LP track is most plausibly a fold-down of the 25 June stereo edit master. (Compare Revolution 1, which Lewisohn p. 138 + p. 139 records as receiving both dedicated stereo remixing 21 June and mono mixing in earlier sessions.)
• 1968 US stereo LP The Beatles (25 November 1968, Apple SWBO 101, side D track 1) — Same stereo master forwarded to Capitol for US pressing.
• Mono Masters (9 September 2009, Apple, CD/LP) — The 1968 mono Revolution 9 remastered as part of the 2009 mono-box collection. Allan Rouse / Guy Massey remaster. Post-Lewisohn; the 2009 liner notes document the mono provenance back to the 1968 master tape, but the technical mono-derivation question is not independently resolved in the 2009 documentation. Flagged here for completeness rather than independently characterised.
• The Beatles 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe (9 November 2018, Apple) — Giles Martin / Sam Okell stereo remix from the multitracks. Post-Lewisohn; documented in the 2018 box’s liner notes rather than in the primary-source canon; flagged here for completeness. (The 2018 remix has more flexibility than the 1968 stereo on imaging and balance, but the 1968 master’s STEED-routed source-of-loops chain is the canonical primary-source object.)

Recording techniques

• 30 May 1968 — take-18 tail-section seed, Studio Two (Lewisohn p. 135) — Studio Two, 2.30pm–2.40am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: Revolution (working title of Revolution 1) (takes 1–18). Lewisohn p. 135 verbatim on take 18: “It kept on and on and on, eventually running out at 10′17″ with John’s shout to the others and to the control room ‘OK, I’ve had enough!’. The last six minutes were pure chaos — the sound of a ‘Revolution’, if you like.” Lewisohn p. 135 explicitly: “great chunks of ‘Revolution 9’ were born directly out of the early tapings of ‘Revolution 1’… Before very long the last six minutes would be hived off to form the basis for ‘Revolution 9’.” The 30 May session is therefore the primary-source-attested moment of Revolution 9’s genesis, even though the work would not appear under that title on a session sheet until 6 June 1968.
• 6 June 1968 — sound effects takes 1–12, Studio Two (Lewisohn p. 137) — Studio Two, 2.30pm–2.45am (shared booking with the Don’t Pass Me By overdub session). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: Revolution 9 (sound effects takes 1–12). Lewisohn p. 137 verbatim on the loop-preparation arc: “‘Revolution 9’ began to take shape — credited on the LP to the Beatles, of course, but in reality a John Lennon conception from the outset, assembled (rather than ‘recorded’) almost exclusively by him and Yoko Ono, excepting a little later assistance from George Harrison. John would spend the next few days preparing tapes and loops of sound effects, some of his own making, others culled from his own and the Abbey Road collections. Twelve effects were compiled on this day, five marked ‘Various’ and the others titled ‘Vicars Poems’, ‘Queen’s Mess’, ‘Come Dancing Combo’, ‘Organ Last Will Test’ [sic], ‘Neville Club’, ‘Theatre Outing’ and ‘Applause/TV Jingle’.” Lewisohn p. 137 also notes that not all twelve effects were ultimately used in Revolution 9; some were repurposed for John Lennon’s contemporaneous stage adaptation of In His Own Write at the Old Vic (directed by Victor Spinetti, opened 18 June 1968).
• 10 June 1968 — sound effects takes 1–3, Studio Three (Lewisohn p. 137) — Studio Three, 2.30–5.45pm. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: Revolution 9 (sound effects takes 1–3). Lewisohn p. 137 verbatim: “On this day, 10 June, John compiled more sound effects for ‘Revolution 9’ in a three-hour session.” George Harrison and Ringo Starr had flown to the USA on 7 June 1968 and were absent (returning 18 June per Lewisohn p. 137 verbatim: “Never before had one or more of the Beatles left the country while group recording sessions were in progress”), so this is a John Lennon solo session inside the Beatles’ group bookings.
• 11 June 1968 — unnumbered sound-effects takes, Studio Three (Lewisohn p. 137) — Studio Three, 7.00–10.15pm (concurrent with Paul McCartney’s solo Blackbird session in Studio Two, 6.30pm–12.15am, takes 1–32). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Recording: Revolution 9 (unnumbered takes of sound effects). Lewisohn p. 137 verbatim on the split-studio arrangement: “George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald had to do throughout this evening, in keeping an eye on John Lennon in studio three and Paul McCartney in studio two, both busy on separate ideas for the ‘White Album’… the triumvirate production team would have more or less left John to look after his own unique requirements in his own — similarly unique — way, although Chris Thomas remembers going with John to find sound effects tapes and helping him make up loops.” The session is also the operational template for the multi-studio compilation that would land on 20 June.
• 20 June 1968 — master compilation across Studios One, Two and Three with STEED tape delay (Lewisohn p. 138) — Studios One, Two and Three, 7.00pm–3.30am. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Richard Lush. Recording: Revolution 9 (sound effects takes 1 and 2, compilation of master version, with SI). Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim on the multi-studio routing: “John Lennon commandeering the use of all three studios at Abbey Road for the spinning in and recording of the myriad tape loops. Just like the 7 April 1966 ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ session, there were people all over EMI Studios spooling loops onto tape machines with pencils. But instead of Geoff Emerick sitting at the console fading them in and out in a live mix, it was John Lennon, with Yoko closely by his side.” Per K/R p. 490 verbatim: “Obviously, ‘Revolution 9’ represented the most elaborate use of loops ever on a Beatles track. John Lennon reportedly had men stationed at various tape machines throughout Abbey Road during the creation of this song.” Cross-reference to Tomorrow Never Knows for the 7 April 1966 multi-machine loop methodology that Revolution 9 scaled up to three concurrent studios.
• 20 June 1968 — “Number nine” loop introduced from Royal Academy of Music examination tape (Lewisohn p. 138 + K/R p. 305) — Richard Lush via Lewisohn p. 138 quoted directly: “Lennon was trying to do really different things… we had to get a whole load of tapes out of the library and the ‘number nine’ voice came off an examination tape. John thought that was a real hoot! He made a loop of just that bit and had it playing constantly on one machine, fading it in or out when he wanted it, along with the backwards orchestral stuff and everything else.” Stuart Eltham via Lewisohn p. 138 quoted directly: “Abbey Road used to do taped examinations for the Royal Academy of Music. The tapes aren’t around now.” K/R p. 305 corroborates verbatim: “The most infamous loop ever used on a Beatles recording, was a loop of an unidentified man endlessly repeating the words, ‘Number Nine.’ Culled from an examination tape in the EMI tape library, the loop was but one of countless loops John, George Harrison and Yoko incorporated into his sprawling sound collage, ‘Revolution 9’, from ‘The White Album’.” Per §1, the specific examiner identity remains unresolved; both sources document the Royal Academy of Music examination-tape provenance, neither names the speaker.
• 20 June 1968 — STEED tape-delay routing + tape-rewind-on-air incident (Lewisohn p. 138) — Alan Brown via Lewisohn p. 138 quoted directly: “In ‘Revolution 9’ we had the STEED system of tape echo fed via a tape delay system. The track ran for so long that there is one point where the delay runs out and you can hear the tape being re-wound, live. Even that impromptu thing, an accident, contributed to the finished result.” The STEED (Send tape Echo / Echo Delay) system is the same Abbey Road tape-delay infrastructure documented for the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Leslie’d-vocal chain (1967); on Revolution 9 the STEED tail length was outrun by the piece itself, and the audible rewind became a deliberately retained piece of the released master.
• 20 June 1968 — backwards-audio catalogue inside the master tape (Lewisohn p. 138 + K/R p. 304) — Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim catalogue: “A close study of the four-track tape reveals the loops and effects to include: George Martin saying ‘Geoff … put the red light on,’ heavily echoed and played repeatedly. A choir, supplemented by backwards violins. A symphonic piece, chopped up and played backwards. A brief extract of the 10 February 1967 ‘A Day in the Life’ orchestral overdub, repeated over and over. Backwards Mellotron (played by John), miscellaneous symphonies and operas.” K/R p. 304 verbatim: “With the exception of ‘Revolution #9’ from The Beatles, use of backward tape on Beatles’ recordings was virtually non-existent after 1967.” The A Day in the Life orchestral overdub source is recursively re-used here as raw material for a successor track on the same band’s catalogue — a primary-source-attested re-entry of one Beatles track’s recorded material into another Beatles track’s released master.
• 20 June 1968 — John + George floor-mic bizarre-text vocal overdubs (Lewisohn p. 138) — Richard Lush via Lewisohn p. 138 quoted directly: “John was really the producer of ‘Revolution 9’. But George Harrison joined him at Abbey Road on that night and they both had vocal mikes and were saying strange things like ‘the Watusi’, ‘the Twist’…” Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim catalogues the random pieces: “personality complex”, “onion soup”, “economically viable”, “industrial output”, “financial imbalance”, “the watusi”, “the twist”, “take this brother, may it serve you well”. George Harrison’s contributions per Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim: “Eldorado” and (shared with John, whispered six times) “There ain’t no rule for the company freaks!”. The session closes with John saying to George, per Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim: “We’d better listen to it then, hadn’t we?”.
• 21 June 1968 — SI onto master + stereo remixes 1 and 2, Studio Two (Lewisohn p. 138) — Studio Two, 10.00pm–3.30am (shared booking with the Revolution 1 completion session that ran 2.30–9.00pm). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Richard Lush. Recording: Revolution 9 (SI onto master version). Stereo mixing: Revolution 9 (remixes 1 and 2, from master version). Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim: “John Lennon had a marvellous time remixing ‘Revolution 9’ for stereo, pushing different images through on both channels and panning the words ‘number nine’ across the stereo in fractions of a second.” Paul McCartney was in the USA during this session (Lewisohn p. 138 verbatim: “Paul McCartney was still in the USA so he missed this session. Ringo too, was absent, so it was just John, with Yoko, and George holding the fort.”).
• 25 June 1968 — editing of stereo master from 9′05″ to 8′12″, Studio Two control room (Lewisohn p. 139) — Studio Two (control room only), 2.00–8.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Richard Lush. Editing: Revolution 9 (of remix stereo 2). Tape copying: Revolution 9 (of edit of remix stereo 2). Lewisohn p. 139 verbatim: “‘Revolution 1’ and ‘Revolution 9’ were completed during this session (all that needed to be done to ‘Revolution 9’ was editing of the stereo master from 9′05″ to 8′12″), and tape copies were made of the stereo masters for John Lennon and Apple Corps Ltd.” The 53-second reduction from 9′05″ to 8′12″ is the final shape of the released master. Lewisohn p. 139 records Brian Gibson’s post-session anecdote verbatim: “For weeks afterwards everybody was going around the building muttering ‘number nine, number nine, number nine’!”.
• Loop inventory (K/R p. 305) — K/R p. 305 verbatim catalogue (independent of Lewisohn p. 138): “The track featured loops of orchestral passages (also pinched from EMI’s library), football chants, a radio broadcast, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, the sound of children on a playground, several manic Lennon vocal loops, a heavenly choir, and many, many more — all played backward and forwards.” Cross-reference to Tomorrow Never Knows for the 5-loop catalogue that established the Beatles tape-loop technique two years prior; Revolution 9 scales that 5-loop foundation into a hundred-plus loop assemblage.
• No assigned take number — assemblage as primary-source object (Lewisohn p. 138) — Lewisohn p. 138 records the 20 June 1968 master only as “compilation of master version” without a take number. This is unique in the Beatles catalogue: every other released Beatles track on which Lewisohn 1988 reports has a primary-source-attested numbered take at the basic-track stage. Revolution 9’s session-sheet notation is the canonical case of Lewisohn’s recording-session framework adapting to a piece that the conventional take-numbering abstraction does not capture. The page table’s “Estimated takes = 35” in the inherited recording info-box is a legacy-essay chart-data artefact and not a primary-source attestation; Revolution 9’s 6 June sound-effects pass logged takes 1–12, 10 June logged takes 1–3, and 20 June logged sound-effects takes 1 and 2 plus “compilation of master version” — an inventory of sound-effects-takes counts rather than a basic-track take count. Same legacy-essay error class previously flagged across other song pages; deferred per established deferral discipline.

Legacy & release history

Mono & stereo

• Both mono and stereo mixes were prepared; the UK mono White Album (PMC 7067/8) has many distinct edits, mixes and effects vs. the stereo (PCS 7067/8) — collectors prize the mono.

Documented alternate versions

• Mono Masters (2009 box) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey remaster
• White Album 50th Anniversary (2018) — Giles Martin stereo remix

Released on

• The Beatles (White Album) — LP, 22 November 1968

Cross-references

Other songs sharing themes (tape-collage, spoken-word, longest, divisive, musique-concrete)

Other songs led by the same vocalist

Other songs from this era

tape-collagespoken-wordlongestdivisivemusique-concrete

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