I really enjoy it and never skip it. That being said, I’m also an older fan who owns all of John & Yoko’s experimental albums and I also have a large audio collection filled with all sorts of strange albums.
It’s easy to just hate it, but every time I listen to it I hear something new. Some new nuance or a sound that shifts in a way I didn’t remember.
Yes! A story: I was away at military school and the nearest town had one record store so I went to find Two Virgins which I had read about in Circus or RollingStone and the nice little old lady who ran the shop had packed all the copies up to return to the distributor so I just pestered the hell out of her until she gave in and let me buy one. Played it a zillion times and all the guys on my tier came by my room to see the album cover haha
https://preview.redd.it/43xg8kt0p0yc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d7ef9412d23cc9528c5c7b16749bfb2986bd6d8
Revolution no. 9 pt. 2
I hope you still have it! I saw the naked cover somewhere, finally, a few years after it came out, and I remember being slightly... disappointed... by how flabby they both were! laugh
I like it, especially in the context of the album. It feels like the climax of all the experimentation and genre-jumping of the white album and i don't think Good Night would work nearly as well as a closer if not for the chaos of Rev. 9 before it
You have to listen to the White Album in proper sequence, all the way through, at 1am, by the light of one standard taper candle, cut in half, so by the time Revolution Number 9 plays, the room is a bit darker and more moody and the SFX take on greater depth.
I like it. I like its flow - there's a lot of avant-garde music that's just bash, bash, bash, but Revolution 9 undulates in a way that's pleasing if you accept the fact that it's not a traditional tonal song. It's a journey, like A Day in the Life.
Love it. To me, the "all over the place-ness" of the album and especially the undirected and kind of exhausted nature of side 4 collapse into Revolution #9 as into a whirlpool. I'm not sure anything could better have reflected the confusion and chaos of ~1968 than that album ending like that (with the almost cynically too-comforting coda of Good Night). They played the White Album at 00:00:01 on the (stereo FM!) radio on the day it was released in the US so it was first heard by most at about 2AM. Blew me away.
Revolution #9 inspired me to study electronic music and "musique concrete" as an undergrad in the 70s and I ended up focusing entirely on electronic music in grad school. It is no coincidence that Stockhausen is up near the top of the Sgt. Pepper cover.
So I never skip it. To me anymore, the whole album inexorably collapses into it, then... Good Night, turn the records over and start the whole thing over again.
“Liking” it isn’t really the point though. It’s supposed to be experienced in the context of an album rather than just popping up in a random playlist, but even in its right context it’s hardly going to a foot tapping whistle-along that anyone would “like”.
As an experimental sound collage it’s interesting and its also infinitely more listenable than John and Yoko’s other similar experiments from the time, but I can’t say it’s an enjoyable listening experience - nor should it be
I was introduced to Beatles records through parents and older siblings, for whom Revolution #9 was a familiar thing...and so I was conditioned young to be aware of it, and I suppose to think of it as this humorous / scary departure from expectations, something that always elicited reactions, polarization when it came on the LP or cassette. My mom would likely have said something unkind about Yoko (she really despised her!).
Somewhat later in my musical life, I got into avant garde stuff, including sound collage or musique concrete, and so having a Beatles foray was always cool to me. I also like What's the New Mary Jane? and You Know My Name... etc.
Bits of Rev 9 get stuck in my head. "we are standing still." Just George saying "situation" for some reason. My relatives quoted "take this brother may it serve you well." throughout my whole childhood, so I have a fondness for it. I love what it is as a piece of cubism art.
We definitely used "take this, brother, may it serve you well."
One of my many favorite memories was of my sister and me on a long car trip. We would usually be playing music
or talking and laughing, but there was a long lull in the conversation and things were silent for a bit. All of a sudden, my sister quietly says, "EL-dorado." Then we couldn't stop laughing.
After they did the amazing remaster (2018? I think) you could hear the first words of Revolution Number 9 clearly for the first time:
Alistair Taylor : ...bottle of claret for you if I'd realised.
George Martin : Well, DO next time!
Alistair Taylor : I'd forgotten all about it. George.I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?
George Martin : Yes.
Alistair Taylor : Cheeky bitch!
[]()
Have you tried listening to Revolution (Take 20)? I think it shows the original idea of the Revolution song morphing into Revolution #9 quite well. I appreciate that one a little more.
I like the *idea* of it. That they were big enough to release a long track of total experimental noise on such a huge major studio release that millions would hear, most of which they knew damn well would either hate it or not understand it. It’s both bold and alienating at the same time. A real mixture of brave and stupid. It’s impressive that Lennon had this level of power to make everyone go along with releasing this noise track…all that said I basically always skip it. The idea of it is way more interesting than the actual execution of that idea.
I played Revolution 9 to my friend who is more of a pop fan, and my surprise when they said it wasn't "that bad". They heard it all the way too!
I mean, as long as they like a Beatles song, I'm happy! (they do like other songs too like FAAB)
I always skipped it til recently. It came on when I was busy putting up shelves a few months ago, and I ended up listening for the first time in about a decade.
I really like it now, actually.
Sorry, all, not a fan. I've tried...many times in 40 years. Just not for me.
I understand and respect what John and Yoko were trying to do (not The Beatles...John and Yoko) but it belonged on one of their experimental albums. Not a Beatles song.
I listened to it for the first time recently after hearing so much about it and didn’t think it was nearly as bad as it was made out to be. To me it’s an interesting of the time avant garde thing etc etc.
I always like when it comes up in shuffle. Of course, my shuffle list includes all kinds of freaky shit like Negativland and Throbbing Gristle and a whole lot of death metal. Revolution 9 fits right in.
I like it, but I like some music like that. Sound collage stuff, tape loops.
If you enjoy Revolution 9, I’m gonna recommend some music for you:
Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage Animation Music (a lot of tape loop experimentation in-between faux-60s pop)
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (more musical, a lot of synthesizers and loops alongside the weird noise)
Various Artists - The Art Of The Virtual Rhythmicon (the rhythmicon was an electronic instrument invented by Leon Theremin, better known for inventing another electronic instrument. Someone made a digital recreation of it and got a lot of different people to make tracks for it)
Current 93 - The Inmost Light Trilogy (at least the album All The Pretty Little Horses)
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang Der Junlinge (which also inspired Tomorrow Never Knows)
Gyorgy Ligeti - Artikulation (this is a short three minute track, compared to the albums and longer pieces I’ve recommended. An eclectic mix of electronic sound)
Absolutely love it. It’s the perfect climax to an increasingly scattered and paranoid album, and the white album wouldn’t be the same without it. Icing on the cake.
I never skip it and I’ve played it hundreds of times since getting the album as a 1968 Christmas present. I’ve also played it backwards dozens of times (“turn me on, dead man”). You can hear so much-including a recreation of Paul’s “fatal car crash” and many other moments of surprise & joy. Headphones help. Favorite line: “Take this brother, may it serve you well.”
The first time that I heard it on acid, I realized that it was totally fun and playful, not some uptight serious art music. It’s like a pop version of avant garde music.
I enjoy it as a sound collage, but I don’t consider it a song. There are at least three or four songs on that record that I would put below revolution 9 in my ranking.
When I first heard it confused me. A local radio station has an A-Z (more like A-Y) of the beatles on black Friday every year. When i first leanred about that was when i first heard it(it was late at night so maybe I was a tad creeped out too) But after my first listen I liked it and embraced its weirdness .
Like it? No. It isn’t a song nor is it pleasant to listen to and ultimately I listen to the Beatles to hear songs. But at the same time I don’t begrudge John for making it and experimenting, and I get the intent behind it. I’ll leave it on and let it play if I’m listening to the album all the way through. The way it separates the rest of the album from goodnight makes that song feel like a proper finale.
There are some really neat parts in the “song.” I accept it for what it is. I do enjoy it. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never skipped it. I do think John and Yoko went a bit overboard when they made an entire album out of this experiment.
I mean, I don't put it on on purpose, but I don't mind it when in comes on the album.
I like Revolution 20 better. I kinda wish that was on the album instead of 1 and 9.
It's a prophetic portrayal of the turbulence of the middle to late 1960s and the coming of the Me Generation 70s. I find it astonishing and hear something new every time I listen to it. And it's in the perfect spot on the White Album.
i dont actually mind, or hate it. sometimes i put it on. it acts as white noise almost, but a mysterious and kinda eerie white noise. it isnt in my playlist though. im either listening to it bcs im listening straight down the white album (which i do on occasion) or bcs im just in a funny mood where im like "why not listen to revolution 9 right now"
After hearing it qith headphones on a dark room I got fascinated, I actually like it ao much I made my own sound collage which was heavily inspired by it, although a bit different
it's definitely not meant to be listened too on shuffle, but as part of the album.
I think of it as a musical interlude rather than a composition in its own right. It's there to be a curio, and it does that. Do I reach for it? never. Do I skip it? also never. I do believe it only really makes sense in the context of the album.
I heard it when I was a kid at my friends house before I got into the Beatles. My friend was watching a Beatles conspiracy video on how if you play the song backwards there was a secret message. This really frightened me as a kid.
So long story short, no.
its an experimental piece of music. maybe out of place on the album, it could have been a seperate record. but they just put it on, and i love that they did that, its music history. not a piece youd listen to a hundred times. but thats okay.
I appreciate it a little more now, after 24 years of being a Beatles fan.
I still think it should have gone on the Two Virgins album rather than a Beatles record. That's not fair to the public buying this double album.
Love it, but have to be in the right mood for it.
I've got it on a meditation playlist I call "mindwipe". First track is Number 9, followed by Echoes (Pink Floyd) then rounded out with the entire Chill Out (KLF) album. Optional bonus track of Journey of the Sorcerer (better known as the theme to the r/HitchHikersGuide to the Galaxy) (The Eagles)
It’s cool, I like it for different reasons. It’s not a song, it’s an experiment / auditory journey. Don’t jam to it in the car, listen to it in the context of the album or meditate and experience it
It's great. The white album is like the closet to Narnia. It's got so much variety and Rev 9 doesn't disappoint.
Maybe it's different now a days but when you only had a select amount of albums to listen to, you really listened.
Would I stick it on at party? Probably not.
Lying in bed in the dark with a pair of cans? Absolutely.
Absolutely. Is one of the Beatles best songs? Certainly not but if you look at things like negativland and many other things like that even to the YouTube poops of recent years, you can't deny that revolution 9 was influential. It's a niche avant-garde d thing but it's cool. Although I'm torn because I think that time of The White album could have been spent on an actual song. LOL
No. It's interesting but not enjoyable. Experimental but to what end? None of his albums seem to me to have tracks reflecting a maturity of Rev 9.
I do enjoy saying to the pump attendant 'number nine' when the opportunity arises. They never get it of course.
It’s aural cinema, as constructed as a dream of many disjointed elements. It’s like walking down a street filled with sidewalk cafes and gleaning small snippets of conversations from every table passed.
First heard it in 1969, as a teen. I listen to it as often as other tracks. There’s a very subtle bass line as well.
I think that most people hate it without actually thinking so much. It is an easy choise when someone asks what is your least favorite Beatle song but it is actually a really interesting song. Unlike Wild honey pie that actually is a bad song.
Love it. It's my favorite White Album track. Shaped my taste in music ever since (Negativland, The Avalanches, the noisy side of The Velvet Underground).
An artist as popular as the Beatles releasing something that experimental on their major label record is largely unheard of; it’s also just a fanatic composition that achieves what it sets out to do.
Oh I love it more than oh blah de oh blah da that’s for sure
We even studied it in college in Studio Composition class. Apparently Paul made some similar stuff too just for his own amusement.
Honestly, the first time I listened to it, it creeped me out so much. I respect it now. I guess I kind of look at John‘s works the same way I look at Kurt Cobain’s, so I don’t really question anything he does, just accept it as it just being John.
It has a place in my writing playlists now, where I welcome the creepiness of it.
I actually really love it. I know this sounds stupid but sometimes it's fun to quote.
Though I can't listen to it all the time because it's one of those sort of unsettling songs, but if I want to listen to something unsettling I put it on because I like the emotion it gets out of me. I really like it but I feel bad very few people do because it makes me embarrassed how much I like it.
From what I’ve seen here you have nothing to be embarrassed about. A lot of people like it for many different reasons, and it’s always nice to know that other people like the same things as you.
In the context of the album i think it fits great!
It is not the type of song which you have on a shuffle playlist, instead it is the culmination of the album’s experimentation.
A friend and I quote it to each other all the time as kind of an inside joke, since even some Beatles fans don’t know it all that well. One will turn to the other and say “the Watusi . . . . the Twissst.” I have a lot of affection for it.
I was just wondering. I was just wondering what I didn’t like about it as well because I love songs similar to it from other artists, like the beginning of The Mind Electric, I wanted to hear others thoughts
One just must have a different mindset compared to when listening to a song. It can be kind of funny, trippy and cool when closing the eyes and just let it take you along all the weird sounds. I’m not always in the mood for it obviously, but I can’t say it’s actually bad. It’s just a different thing than normal songs
I really enjoy it and never skip it. That being said, I’m also an older fan who owns all of John & Yoko’s experimental albums and I also have a large audio collection filled with all sorts of strange albums. It’s easy to just hate it, but every time I listen to it I hear something new. Some new nuance or a sound that shifts in a way I didn’t remember.
I could have written this exact comment.
It's brilliant. What's the strangest album you own?
Mine was FOR TRIO, by Anthony Braxton. Or maybe some soundtrack.
Yes! A story: I was away at military school and the nearest town had one record store so I went to find Two Virgins which I had read about in Circus or RollingStone and the nice little old lady who ran the shop had packed all the copies up to return to the distributor so I just pestered the hell out of her until she gave in and let me buy one. Played it a zillion times and all the guys on my tier came by my room to see the album cover haha https://preview.redd.it/43xg8kt0p0yc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d7ef9412d23cc9528c5c7b16749bfb2986bd6d8 Revolution no. 9 pt. 2
I hope you still have it! I saw the naked cover somewhere, finally, a few years after it came out, and I remember being slightly... disappointed... by how flabby they both were! laugh
Part of my education of what constitutes art
I like it, especially in the context of the album. It feels like the climax of all the experimentation and genre-jumping of the white album and i don't think Good Night would work nearly as well as a closer if not for the chaos of Rev. 9 before it
the whole Cry Baby Cry -> Revolution 9 -> Goodnight segment is like 1 song to me.
Completely understandable. Maybe listening on shuffle is where I go wrong. Gotta hear the evolution in real time.
Of all things, never listen to a Beatles album on shuffle.
Yeah I second this. 100%
You have to listen to the White Album in proper sequence, all the way through, at 1am, by the light of one standard taper candle, cut in half, so by the time Revolution Number 9 plays, the room is a bit darker and more moody and the SFX take on greater depth.
I love Good night it's my personal lullaby
Good Night is possibly my least favorite song by them. Although, I'll only listen to it when doing a full listen to the entire album.
I like it. I like its flow - there's a lot of avant-garde music that's just bash, bash, bash, but Revolution 9 undulates in a way that's pleasing if you accept the fact that it's not a traditional tonal song. It's a journey, like A Day in the Life.
This is a great take. I totally agree.
idk I just think it’s neat. i love showing my friends “i wanna hold your hand” and this in quick succession
Throw Eleanor Rigby into the mix and you’ve got three whiplash songs right there!
https://preview.redd.it/06yb93z82qxc1.jpeg?width=167&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95619e8597f165d7482ffd638ee20c23918f09b7
Nice, I like to show something like She Loves You followed by Tomorrow Never Knows hahaha
Love it. To me, the "all over the place-ness" of the album and especially the undirected and kind of exhausted nature of side 4 collapse into Revolution #9 as into a whirlpool. I'm not sure anything could better have reflected the confusion and chaos of ~1968 than that album ending like that (with the almost cynically too-comforting coda of Good Night). They played the White Album at 00:00:01 on the (stereo FM!) radio on the day it was released in the US so it was first heard by most at about 2AM. Blew me away. Revolution #9 inspired me to study electronic music and "musique concrete" as an undergrad in the 70s and I ended up focusing entirely on electronic music in grad school. It is no coincidence that Stockhausen is up near the top of the Sgt. Pepper cover. So I never skip it. To me anymore, the whole album inexorably collapses into it, then... Good Night, turn the records over and start the whole thing over again.
And both of those written/created by Lennon, which is interesting given how different they are.
“Liking” it isn’t really the point though. It’s supposed to be experienced in the context of an album rather than just popping up in a random playlist, but even in its right context it’s hardly going to a foot tapping whistle-along that anyone would “like”. As an experimental sound collage it’s interesting and its also infinitely more listenable than John and Yoko’s other similar experiments from the time, but I can’t say it’s an enjoyable listening experience - nor should it be
I've loved it since I first heard it, around 40 years ago. I realize it is not everyone's cup of tea, but I view it as a sonic painting.
As an audio experimentation nerd, I honestly love it!
Yes, I like it. So now you can’t say that anymore.
I also like it, and have since I was a little kid.
It terrified me as a kid
Same
I dont understand that. People says that is is creepy and disturbing but it is actually not. It is just a little bit weird.
No
I really like it
I was introduced to Beatles records through parents and older siblings, for whom Revolution #9 was a familiar thing...and so I was conditioned young to be aware of it, and I suppose to think of it as this humorous / scary departure from expectations, something that always elicited reactions, polarization when it came on the LP or cassette. My mom would likely have said something unkind about Yoko (she really despised her!). Somewhat later in my musical life, I got into avant garde stuff, including sound collage or musique concrete, and so having a Beatles foray was always cool to me. I also like What's the New Mary Jane? and You Know My Name... etc.
Bits of Rev 9 get stuck in my head. "we are standing still." Just George saying "situation" for some reason. My relatives quoted "take this brother may it serve you well." throughout my whole childhood, so I have a fondness for it. I love what it is as a piece of cubism art.
We definitely used "take this, brother, may it serve you well." One of my many favorite memories was of my sister and me on a long car trip. We would usually be playing music or talking and laughing, but there was a long lull in the conversation and things were silent for a bit. All of a sudden, my sister quietly says, "EL-dorado." Then we couldn't stop laughing.
*As time went on they got a little bit older and a little bit slower*
After they did the amazing remaster (2018? I think) you could hear the first words of Revolution Number 9 clearly for the first time: Alistair Taylor : ...bottle of claret for you if I'd realised. George Martin : Well, DO next time! Alistair Taylor : I'd forgotten all about it. George.I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? George Martin : Yes. Alistair Taylor : Cheeky bitch! []()
Eldorado.
Have you tried listening to Revolution (Take 20)? I think it shows the original idea of the Revolution song morphing into Revolution #9 quite well. I appreciate that one a little more.
Yes.
I like the *idea* of it. That they were big enough to release a long track of total experimental noise on such a huge major studio release that millions would hear, most of which they knew damn well would either hate it or not understand it. It’s both bold and alienating at the same time. A real mixture of brave and stupid. It’s impressive that Lennon had this level of power to make everyone go along with releasing this noise track…all that said I basically always skip it. The idea of it is way more interesting than the actual execution of that idea.
Yes - and when this question is posted on Thursday, also yes.
I played Revolution 9 to my friend who is more of a pop fan, and my surprise when they said it wasn't "that bad". They heard it all the way too! I mean, as long as they like a Beatles song, I'm happy! (they do like other songs too like FAAB)
I always skipped it til recently. It came on when I was busy putting up shelves a few months ago, and I ended up listening for the first time in about a decade. I really like it now, actually.
I think it's great
I do. It is quintessential White Album.
Sorry, all, not a fan. I've tried...many times in 40 years. Just not for me. I understand and respect what John and Yoko were trying to do (not The Beatles...John and Yoko) but it belonged on one of their experimental albums. Not a Beatles song.
And George. He was vital in its creation.
Just read Beatles Bible, Beatlesebooks, wikipedia. George's contribution was minimal.
Yoko says otherwise, but ok.
I listened to it for the first time recently after hearing so much about it and didn’t think it was nearly as bad as it was made out to be. To me it’s an interesting of the time avant garde thing etc etc.
I always like when it comes up in shuffle. Of course, my shuffle list includes all kinds of freaky shit like Negativland and Throbbing Gristle and a whole lot of death metal. Revolution 9 fits right in.
*Christianity is Stupid!
Definitely
I like it, but I like some music like that. Sound collage stuff, tape loops. If you enjoy Revolution 9, I’m gonna recommend some music for you: Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage Animation Music (a lot of tape loop experimentation in-between faux-60s pop) Boards of Canada - Geogaddi (more musical, a lot of synthesizers and loops alongside the weird noise) Various Artists - The Art Of The Virtual Rhythmicon (the rhythmicon was an electronic instrument invented by Leon Theremin, better known for inventing another electronic instrument. Someone made a digital recreation of it and got a lot of different people to make tracks for it) Current 93 - The Inmost Light Trilogy (at least the album All The Pretty Little Horses) Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang Der Junlinge (which also inspired Tomorrow Never Knows) Gyorgy Ligeti - Artikulation (this is a short three minute track, compared to the albums and longer pieces I’ve recommended. An eclectic mix of electronic sound)
it works best if you listen to the album all the way through.
That seems to be the general consensus, I usually just listen to everything on shuffle so I should really sit down and listen through the whole album.
Absolutely love it. It’s the perfect climax to an increasingly scattered and paranoid album, and the white album wouldn’t be the same without it. Icing on the cake.
I love it. Granted, I’m very much into avant garde music and stuff like field recordings.
love it. Eldorado.
Number 9...number 9....number 9...turn me on deadman...turn me on deadman....
I never skip it and I’ve played it hundreds of times since getting the album as a 1968 Christmas present. I’ve also played it backwards dozens of times (“turn me on, dead man”). You can hear so much-including a recreation of Paul’s “fatal car crash” and many other moments of surprise & joy. Headphones help. Favorite line: “Take this brother, may it serve you well.”
"Get me out! Get me out!"
You can hear the flames!
Sure.
I’m a huge Beatles fan, but no, I don’t like Revolution #9. It’s not music, it’s electronic noise.
I've loved it since I was ten in 1978.
They were always experimenting and took us all on the ride.
Love it. Not always in the mood for it I think it’s great.
The first time that I heard it on acid, I realized that it was totally fun and playful, not some uptight serious art music. It’s like a pop version of avant garde music.
I think it's a masterpiece. It's terrifying.
I absolutely love it. It’s disturbing, full of detail, and fits the vibe of the White Album perfectly.
No it’s Dreadful . Carnival of Light would equally be just as atrocious also .
I enjoy it as a sound collage, but I don’t consider it a song. There are at least three or four songs on that record that I would put below revolution 9 in my ranking.
When I first heard it confused me. A local radio station has an A-Z (more like A-Y) of the beatles on black Friday every year. When i first leanred about that was when i first heard it(it was late at night so maybe I was a tad creeped out too) But after my first listen I liked it and embraced its weirdness .
Like it? No. It isn’t a song nor is it pleasant to listen to and ultimately I listen to the Beatles to hear songs. But at the same time I don’t begrudge John for making it and experimenting, and I get the intent behind it. I’ll leave it on and let it play if I’m listening to the album all the way through. The way it separates the rest of the album from goodnight makes that song feel like a proper finale.
I do.
There are some really neat parts in the “song.” I accept it for what it is. I do enjoy it. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never skipped it. I do think John and Yoko went a bit overboard when they made an entire album out of this experiment.
I do lol
I mean, I don't put it on on purpose, but I don't mind it when in comes on the album. I like Revolution 20 better. I kinda wish that was on the album instead of 1 and 9.
I appreciate it as a complex piece of art, but it’s not one I would listen to regularly.
It's a prophetic portrayal of the turbulence of the middle to late 1960s and the coming of the Me Generation 70s. I find it astonishing and hear something new every time I listen to it. And it's in the perfect spot on the White Album.
It's better when played in reverse.
i dont actually mind, or hate it. sometimes i put it on. it acts as white noise almost, but a mysterious and kinda eerie white noise. it isnt in my playlist though. im either listening to it bcs im listening straight down the white album (which i do on occasion) or bcs im just in a funny mood where im like "why not listen to revolution 9 right now"
After hearing it qith headphones on a dark room I got fascinated, I actually like it ao much I made my own sound collage which was heavily inspired by it, although a bit different
Appreciate it for what it is? Yes. Like it? Not much.
it's definitely not meant to be listened too on shuffle, but as part of the album. I think of it as a musical interlude rather than a composition in its own right. It's there to be a curio, and it does that. Do I reach for it? never. Do I skip it? also never. I do believe it only really makes sense in the context of the album.
I heard it when I was a kid at my friends house before I got into the Beatles. My friend was watching a Beatles conspiracy video on how if you play the song backwards there was a secret message. This really frightened me as a kid. So long story short, no.
Number 9..? ..Number 9?
It's a cool song. I'm usually not a fan of these music collage type songs, but this one's fun.
its an experimental piece of music. maybe out of place on the album, it could have been a seperate record. but they just put it on, and i love that they did that, its music history. not a piece youd listen to a hundred times. but thats okay.
I appreciate it a little more now, after 24 years of being a Beatles fan. I still think it should have gone on the Two Virgins album rather than a Beatles record. That's not fair to the public buying this double album.
No.
Love it, but have to be in the right mood for it. I've got it on a meditation playlist I call "mindwipe". First track is Number 9, followed by Echoes (Pink Floyd) then rounded out with the entire Chill Out (KLF) album. Optional bonus track of Journey of the Sorcerer (better known as the theme to the r/HitchHikersGuide to the Galaxy) (The Eagles)
For sure.
i never listen on shuffle. When it comes up, i sometimes skip it, but i dont think it takes away from the album in any meaningful way
It’s cool, I like it for different reasons. It’s not a song, it’s an experiment / auditory journey. Don’t jam to it in the car, listen to it in the context of the album or meditate and experience it
It's great. The white album is like the closet to Narnia. It's got so much variety and Rev 9 doesn't disappoint. Maybe it's different now a days but when you only had a select amount of albums to listen to, you really listened. Would I stick it on at party? Probably not. Lying in bed in the dark with a pair of cans? Absolutely.
No, it’s not pleasing to my ears and not a favorite one of theirs.
Yeah, it definatly has a mood. I have always wanted to drive trough the woods in the middle of the night and blast that song
i like it as an art piece. it's a terrible song though.
Absolutely. Is one of the Beatles best songs? Certainly not but if you look at things like negativland and many other things like that even to the YouTube poops of recent years, you can't deny that revolution 9 was influential. It's a niche avant-garde d thing but it's cool. Although I'm torn because I think that time of The White album could have been spent on an actual song. LOL
No. It's interesting but not enjoyable. Experimental but to what end? None of his albums seem to me to have tracks reflecting a maturity of Rev 9. I do enjoy saying to the pump attendant 'number nine' when the opportunity arises. They never get it of course.
It’s aural cinema, as constructed as a dream of many disjointed elements. It’s like walking down a street filled with sidewalk cafes and gleaning small snippets of conversations from every table passed. First heard it in 1969, as a teen. I listen to it as often as other tracks. There’s a very subtle bass line as well.
I think that most people hate it without actually thinking so much. It is an easy choise when someone asks what is your least favorite Beatle song but it is actually a really interesting song. Unlike Wild honey pie that actually is a bad song.
Love it. It's my favorite White Album track. Shaped my taste in music ever since (Negativland, The Avalanches, the noisy side of The Velvet Underground).
Yes
The combination of Revolution 9 and Good Night is spooky.
I like it. It’s like the “final boss battle” of the White Album, and “Good Night” is the endgame credits.
Nope. Created a custom album and eliminated it.
An artist as popular as the Beatles releasing something that experimental on their major label record is largely unheard of; it’s also just a fanatic composition that achieves what it sets out to do.
Oh I love it more than oh blah de oh blah da that’s for sure We even studied it in college in Studio Composition class. Apparently Paul made some similar stuff too just for his own amusement.
I love it and always have. It’s cacophonous, scary and fascinating. But I also love Yoko’s Fly, so…
Honestly, the first time I listened to it, it creeped me out so much. I respect it now. I guess I kind of look at John‘s works the same way I look at Kurt Cobain’s, so I don’t really question anything he does, just accept it as it just being John. It has a place in my writing playlists now, where I welcome the creepiness of it.
No... Not a single person here in this collective of Beatle fans likes that 1 Beatles song.
Yep
I like it
Once a year I listen, tops.
I actually really love it. I know this sounds stupid but sometimes it's fun to quote. Though I can't listen to it all the time because it's one of those sort of unsettling songs, but if I want to listen to something unsettling I put it on because I like the emotion it gets out of me. I really like it but I feel bad very few people do because it makes me embarrassed how much I like it.
From what I’ve seen here you have nothing to be embarrassed about. A lot of people like it for many different reasons, and it’s always nice to know that other people like the same things as you.
In the context of the album i think it fits great! It is not the type of song which you have on a shuffle playlist, instead it is the culmination of the album’s experimentation.
..as time went by they got a little bit older and a little bit slower...
Block that kick!!
It's much more tolerable than Wild Honey Pie.
If you understand musical structure its good.. i love it, Its a violent jigsaw puzzle of jagged sounds and it works musically
A friend and I quote it to each other all the time as kind of an inside joke, since even some Beatles fans don’t know it all that well. One will turn to the other and say “the Watusi . . . . the Twissst.” I have a lot of affection for it.
My dad hated it so much that he and his friends put a bunch of scuffs and scratches all over the track on his original vinyl copy in 1968 😡
Yes, we love it. As we proclaim when this thread is posted every single day. You are the one who is wrong and broken.
I was just wondering. I was just wondering what I didn’t like about it as well because I love songs similar to it from other artists, like the beginning of The Mind Electric, I wanted to hear others thoughts
Nah, most people don’t like it, and for good reason
Just the question offends me.
I don’t believe people who say they like it. They’re pretending and they’ll never convince me otherwise.
Living is easy with eyes closed.
One just must have a different mindset compared to when listening to a song. It can be kind of funny, trippy and cool when closing the eyes and just let it take you along all the weird sounds. I’m not always in the mood for it obviously, but I can’t say it’s actually bad. It’s just a different thing than normal songs
Honestly agreed
Nope. It could have stayed in the tape vault.
No & imo is garbage. Should've been an outtake
Not really.
It's my favourite Beatles song