LordofDaRing wrote:"The White Album note-for-note"
Sterling:
I know Glen is multi-talented, but how will he and his band play Revolution #9....
This was posted today to both the GB board and GB's myspace blog:
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
White Album Chapter 13: Revolution on Exit 9
At this point in my saga, we come to the album's impossible song. A song, which is beyond a doubt, the most skipped over album track in the history of pop music, one which has been described as one of the most infamous achievements of avant grade music, and the most hated Beatles song of all.
Side 4 Track 5: REVOLUTION 9
As I mentioned earlier, as a boy I was hoping for psychedelic music on this album, and this is a very psychedelic song, but not the kind psychedelia I was expecting back in 1968 when the record first came out. This experimental piece was dark, even scary.
"Revolution 9" inspires passionate reactions, and although it is agreed to be difficult to listen to, if not "downright terrifying", I have always been fascinated by this over the top art piece.
Still, to most, it's really just a bunch of noise.
"Revolution 9" was influenced by the styles of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage (during a lecture on music composition, Cage once asked, "Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?"). Cage wrote a piece of music titled "4′33″", in which a pianist sits at the piano and lets four minutes and 33 seconds pass without a note being played.
"Revolution 9" seems to indicate Yoko Ono's avant-garde influence on John Lennon's music.
Paul McCartney had nothing to do with the song. "Revolution 9" is credited as being written by Lennon/McCartney.
The song would not have been included on the white album if Paul had gotten his way.
"Revolution 9" wouldn't have been on the white album if producer George Martin had gotten his way. Perhaps begrudgingly, the song was included as the second from last song at the end of the white album.
"Revolution 9" is historically important because it appeared on a pop music album by one of the most successful pop acts of all time.
As young men, White Album keyboardist Dusty Micale and I once attended an avant garde concert where a guy sat in total blackness moving around in a squeaky chair as a piece of music.
"Revolution 9" has been described as an "apocalyptic epic". It has also been described as a "torturous art piece" and has been accused of showing "effete fatuousness" (which I have to look up).
"Revolution 9" scares my 16 year old daughter Sally.
Keyboardist Drew Hill's 8-year-old daughter Dora said the song sounds "like a recurring nightmare of being stuck in a train station during rush hour".
"Revolution 9" has been described as being akin to "an acid trip". It has also been described as "a big fat Turkey".
This controversial song begins with a recording of a mumbling conversation reportedly between producer George Martin & Alistair Taylor, personal assistant of Beatles mgr Brian Epstein.
Alistair Taylor: "...bottle of Claret for you if I'd realized. 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: "Bitch."
And from there it just gets stranger and stranger. In case anyone reading this doesn't already know, Revolution 9 is a collage of strange elements, tape snippets, sound bytes and vocal overdubs. It follows no perceptible order, nor reaches any climax. It is over 8 minutes of crazy, apparently disconnected audio. Many of the sounds – tape "loops" which repeat over and over and come and go – are played BACKWARDS.
The song posed a technical problem. How can this song be performed "live"? I went through a number of approaches. Someone suggested skipping it, but I couldn't do that – what good is doing the entire album only to skip this one iconoclastic moment?
I decided we would present a combination of "live" along with a prerecording. For months now – longer than when I started writing this blog – I have been chipping away at this piece, emulating the sounds on the Beatles recording of the song, creating loops that sound like those used by John Lennon and company. I have been working with the computer recording program Pro Tools on my Mac I my home studio.
There are many odd moments in the piece I needed to re-enact or imitate.
In order to recreate a backwards sound, I would grab that section of the Beatles record, flip it around – reversing it so as to hear the way it originally sounded before the Beatles made it backwards. I then learned how it went, recorded my own version of it (imitating) and reversed MY version, so it now sounds close to what was on "Revolution 9".
There is the sound of a baby cooing. Luckily, guitarist John Merjave has a newborn baby daughter, who he agreed to record. I laughed when John described rigging a Neumann microphone to the boom stand hanging over his little girl's crib, cables running to a preamp into the computer. Hence, we will be presenting the debut recording of baby Michelle Merjave through the big assed sound system of the State Theatre in New Brunswick on Friday night. Talk about a world premiere.
The sound of ladies laughing appears briefly. I grabbed Sally and her friend Aly, and recorded their laughter.
And although I have spent a good portion of my career studying and attempting to emulate the inflections and phrasing of other singers (McCartney, Sting, Jeff Lynne, Tommy Shaw), I am amused to find myself scripting and dissecting not only John Lennon's "Goon Show" banter, but the annunciation of a certain announcer/narrator's voice repeatedly speaking two words.
"Number Nine…Number Nine…Number Nine…"
Meanwhile, one of the most exciting ingredients of this show I've barely touched on. The production company of Altered Image will present an assortment of original animation and photography throughout the evening, in coordination with, and inspired by, the music. I might point out that for this project I am imitating, whereas these guys are CREATING. They're inventing new ideas, approaches and characters and painting a visual backdrop to this album in a completely original and impressionistic way. These guys are great and the show will have much more depth thanks to their involvement.
The visual I got most involved with is the accompanying video for "Revolution 9". Unlike some of the other imagery, created as a backdrop, we are planning for this to actually distract the audience. It's an annoying piece of music, so my idea was to bombard the audience's eyes during it. Sort of an exercise in over-stimulation prior to the album's gentle closing tune…
Is that answer thorough enough for you, Lord? lol
